Page 41

Zhen Liu had been thinking about this question too.

But before finding the answer, Zhen Liu had a question for Lucien in front of everyone. "Are you really that serial killer?"

Back then, they had only heard Basketball Qiao's one-sided account, believing he knew the answer.

Lucien admitted it quickly, and his formidable presence did make him seem like a convincing psychopath. But after reading Professor Lu's character profile, Zhen Liu did not think the inherently insecure Professor Lu had what it took.

Lucien let out a long sigh and wanted to request a one-on-one Black Room session with Zhen Liu.

But Zhen Liu shook his head. He had already guessed the answer, yet he still chose to ask face-to-face, because this was truly not the time to create any more unnecessary doubts.

They all wanted to survive. That meant that, at this moment, they were one whole.

There was nothing they could not talk about.

"My core personality is the serial killer, but you figured that out, didn't you?" If Doctor Zhen, who had been bullied back then, had not been saved by Professor Lu, and if he had been leaving messages to encourage himself all along, then the one driven beyond endurance and into revenge could only have been himself.

No one was anyone else's savior. The only person we could rely on was ourselves.

He had been the one to force Brother Hao to drop out of school. He had also found a way to put a stop to the bullying born of jealousy. And he... had resolutely returned to his hometown when he could have stayed in the capital and left the past behind.

Why?

Because Doctor Zhen's core personality had never escaped the suffering of the past. He was the one who had turned twisted in silence. He had come back to take revenge on every person who had humiliated him. Those who had participated in bullying Doctor Zhen had indeed died one after another. The second-in-command had not died, but he had been reported to the police and thrown in jail...

Doctor Zhen's core personality was ruthless too.

And Professor Lu's idea of "doing something for love" was not as simple as killing Ying De. He wanted to take on all of Doctor Zhen's past murders, so that after Doctor Zhen truly escaped the shadows, he could have a chance to start over. After all, Professor Lu had terminal cancer and would die soon.

What made Zhen Liu realize this was that Professor Lu had been diagnosed with terminal cancer after the serial murder case had already begun. The greatest shift in Professor Lu's personality had occurred after he realized he did not have long to live. If he had been the killer, there was no reason murders would have happened before that.

The other three: "!!!" Their expressions were basically those of people whose entire families had been shocked for a year.

Basketball Qiao was the most shocked. He had thought he knew the truth of that year and had not even bothered to look for evidence. Yet what he believed was not the truth at all.

Lucien admitted it as well. "The hypnotic drug was actually mine."

After Professor Lu discovered Doctor Zhen's secret, he had initially refused to believe it. He had found a way into Doctor Zhen's home, wanting to find proof that Doctor Zhen was not the serial killer. But the more he searched, the more it proved how terrifying Doctor Zhen was. It was then that Professor Lu, as if possessed, took the hypnotic drug from Doctor Zhen's house.

Then, after discovering once again that Doctor Zhen intended to kill Ying De, Professor Lu brought the hypnotic drug with him. He had planned to strike before Doctor Zhen did, but he had never killed anyone before and was afraid he could not beat Ying De, who looked like bad news. So he could only think of drugging him.

"Then how did the hypnotic drug get into our bodies?" Basketball Qiao asked.

Lucien shook his head. "I don't know either. I only know that I was actually the first one to arrive at the villa. I talked with the victim upstairs and sprinkled the drug into his cup. But he kept rambling on about random things and dragged things out until someone arrived, so he never drank it."

Naturally, the one who arrived was Doctor Zhen, who had gotten there early. Lawyer Jin, always punctual, arrived right afterward.

Professor Lu had completely lost his chance to make a move, but he remembered an escape-room advertisement he had seen in a short video before. He tried looking around the villa for a secret room and discovered that there really was one, so he hid inside. Then he reappeared openly.

Zhen Liu suddenly remembered something and asked Lucien, "Do you still have the drug?"

Lucien nodded. "It's been on me the whole time. If you'd searched me, you would have found it long ago." He looked at Zhen Liu. "What a pity."

He looked very much as though he wanted to be searched.

Lawyer Jin rolled his eyes so hard they nearly reached the ceiling. At a time like this, could he please rein in that bizarre lovesick brain of his? He understood what Zhen Liu meant and said, "We don't need to hand over anyone. We just need to lure Brother Hao here, drug him, and use his phone to call the police."

Simple, fast, and effective.

"But what if he brings his men?" Second-generation Zhao asked. Brother Hao would not possibly come without his men. In fact, theoretically speaking, Brother Hao's men were outside the guesthouse where they currently were.

"That depends on my performance." Lawyer Jin flexed his crackling shins and felt that he had finally figured out the meaning of his role. "After all, I'm Brother Hao's legal adviser. I'll tell him that I already know what he planned to use Ying De for, and that I want to speak with him privately in person."

As for what Brother Hao and Ying De had actually planned to do...

That was not important.

"No, Brother Hao won't believe you." Zhen Liu shook his head, rejecting Lawyer Jin's suggestion. Brother Hao's trust in Lawyer Jin would not run that deep, and temptation was never more useful than threats. "Why not ask him whether he wants to know who reported the second-in-command, and who killed his former good brother? If he wants to live, he can come talk alone."

"Why don't we just poison him?" Basketball Qiao raised his hand, stunning everyone with his words.

When it came to finishing someone off, no one present lacked tactical awareness. The hypnotic drug just did not seem reliable enough.

"Because I didn't bring any poison." The clothes Doctor Zhen had used for poisoning had already been mailed to Ying De, the victim. Naturally, he would not bring poison to a crime scene himself. He could only say he was unable to help.