The car left the ring road and headed onto the provincial highway leading to Lu County.
"Tell me about the case," Qingmu said.
"Oh, you want to hear about the case? I thought you already had it all figured out," Hu Xing teased. "Lu County reported this case, and our bureau has it on file. But the Lu County criminal investigation team has already closed it. They're just waiting for the municipal intermediate court's verdict."
"They caught the killer?"
"Yes, but I checked the case file, and there are plenty of questionable points. With your reminder on top of that, I spoke to Captain Shi, and he agreed to let me go down there to investigate."
"What questionable points?" Qingmu asked.
"The case happened two months ago. A headless female corpse was found in an abandoned fishpond in Lu County, with the same distinguishing feature you told me about: a mole on her left breast. There were semen stains on the body, and the killer was quickly caught through a DNA match. The case was ultimately closed without a confession. The suspect has refused to admit he killed her."
"He still denied it with DNA evidence?"
"Yes, and that's the biggest question in this case. Normally, when there's conclusive evidence, suspects confess to seek leniency. Otherwise, if the case goes through without a confession, the judge will only impose a heavier sentence. Also, apart from the semen stains, no other traces were found at the scene. With the suspect refusing to talk, naturally, neither the murder weapon nor the victim's head has been found."
"Has the victim been identified?"
"No. There haven't been any matching missing-person reports in the entire Wuzhong area over the past two months. Without the head, it's hard to establish her identity. We've also expanded the search through the provincial department, but there's been no news so far."
Qingmu sank into thought. He was no criminal investigation expert, but even the simplest logic suggested that this killer had either been wrongly accused or was involved in an even bigger case, perhaps even one involving a gang. Otherwise, he had no reason to say nothing at all.
"Does this killer know Ma Fuqing?" Qingmu asked.
Hu Xing shook her head. "The suspect's name is Yang Baoguo. He's from Lu County. I checked Ma Fuqing, and he's from Tong County. There haven't been any dealings between them. As for whether they know each other, I don't know."
"Then what are we going there to do today?"
"The first-instance trial at the municipal intermediate court has already ended, but no verdict was delivered in court. Probably because there are still questionable points. DNA may be hard evidence, but it's an isolated piece of evidence, not a complete chain. Still, since the suspect has a criminal record, the judge is very likely to find him guilty. I want to check for other leads before the written verdict comes out. Since you could learn the female corpse's distinguishing feature through Ma Fuqing, I imagine you can find out her identity too. Besides..."
Hu Xing gave Qingmu a meaningful look as she spoke. "With your methods, even the most cunning criminal would have no choice but to surrender."
"Are you trying to get me to interrogate a prisoner at the detention center?" Qingmu asked warily.
"Very clever! I just want you to pull the same trick again. No problem, right?"
Qingmu sighed. "I actually wanted to ask you for a favor, but you've put me to work first instead. I'll give it a try, but let me make this clear beforehand: this little trick of mine doesn't work every time."
"What favor did you want?" Hu Xing asked.
"Forget it. We'll talk about it later," Qingmu said.
Hu Xing found that a little odd, but did not dwell on it.
"Oh, right. How's that organ-trafficking case going?" Qingmu thought of Zhao Pengcheng, that hateful yet pitiable doctor.
He kept feeling there was some hidden circumstance or another story behind the removal of a vegetative patient's brain. But he did not want to make wild guesses. Once the case was over, everything would come to light anyway.
"The hospital security guard, Yu Jianguo, has been arrested. Following his trail netted us several big fish at once. Our whole team has been run off its feet. Otherwise, do you think they'd let me go to Lu County on this case all by myself?" Hu Xing grew animated as she spoke. "Do you know what the people on our team say about you?"
"What do they say?"
"Hehe, someone called you Sherlock Conan-ski. Captain Shi is even more full of praise. He told me to spare no expense..."
Hu Xing abruptly stopped there, her face reddening for no apparent reason. She stole a glance at Qingmu and found him taking cigarettes out of his pocket, his expression perfectly normal as he asked casually, "Spare no expense doing what?"
Hu Xing breathed a sigh of relief, coughed twice, and cleared her throat. "Spare no expense solving this case, of course!"
Qingmu lit his cigarette and took a drag. "That doesn't sound like what he said."
The flush that had just faded from Hu Xing's face instantly returned. Does this guy know something? Hard to say. He even knows what happens in other people's dreams!
She hurriedly changed the subject. "I thought it over carefully after I went back, and I think I've more or less figured out your interrogation technique. When you entered the interrogation room, you wouldn't let us turn on the lights because you wanted Zhao Pengcheng to relax. Zhao had been kept tense through continuous questioning. That was our strategy, but you did the opposite and let him suddenly relax. That's unfavorable for conventional interrogation, but for you, it was exactly what you needed."
"Because you wanted to hypnotize him. The core of hypnosis is getting the subject to relax completely, physically and mentally, and abandon conscious resistance. That lets the hypnotist communicate with the subject's subconscious. Your method was similar, but clearly much more sophisticated. Zhao Pengcheng is a very clever man. After suddenly relaxing, he immediately tried to resist, but you still hypnotized him."
"You spoke to Zhao's subconscious after hypnotizing him. Unfortunately, the phone call I made to Captain Shi interrupted you. Luckily, your conversation was already nearing its end. Otherwise, Captain Shi would've torn me apart!"
"But there's still something I don't quite understand. Why did you ask me to turn down the air conditioning and buy ice pops? Also, before you questioned him, you kept watching Zhao until his eyes began moving rapidly. I know most dreams happen during rapid eye movement sleep. Were you really waiting for Zhao to dream? Then talking to him inside his dream? Wouldn't everything he said have been sleep talk?"
Qingmu had not expected Hu Xing to work out so much, and he could not help seeing this policewoman, who could casually give away an S.T. Dupont lighter, in a new light.
"You're right," he said. "I was indeed waiting for him to dream. Only in dreams is a person completely governed by their subconscious, allowing a genuine subconscious conversation. Ordinary hypnosis requires the subject's absolute cooperation. With even the slightest psychological resistance, hypnosis cannot succeed. In fact, any hypnosis that can't put someone into a dream doesn't count as hypnosis. At most, it's guided relaxation. Yoga, tai chi, and Zen meditation can all do that."
"True hypnosis doesn't care whether the subject is consciously willing to cooperate. The practitioner can force it on them regardless. It comes down to whose Mental Power is stronger, and the skillful use of the forces in the surrounding environment at the time."
"I asked you to lower the air-conditioning temperature to simulate a cold environment, because kidney removal has to be performed in cold conditions. The bathtub at the crime scene was also filled with ice. While he was dreaming, I put an ice pop against his lower back to stimulate his kidney and make him particularly aware of the cold around his waist."
"Freud said dreams amplify perception. The slightest stimulus during sleep can be magnified millions of times in a dream, and people's fears are especially easy to amplify. So..."
"So you hypnotized Zhao Pengcheng, then gave him a little stimulus and an environment that matched the dream," Hu Xing picked up. "Then Zhao had a dream in which he was lying in an icy bathtub, and his kidney was gone."
The scenes from the interrogation surfaced before Hu Xing's eyes again, and every detail fell into place. So this was what this peculiar man could do? Put that way, it didn't seem like much!
Was it worth sparing no expense?
Hu Xing wondered why she kept thinking about such strange questions. She softly chided herself, yet her face involuntarily reddened again.