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“Don’t ignore the people around you who you feel ‘it matters’.” Yu Zou untied Bao Xingxing, broke the disposable chopsticks in half, used one half himself, and handed the other half to him.

Bao Xingxing rubbed her wrist, looked at the chopsticks, then at Yu Zou, and asked, "Are you this nice to everyone?"

"I just wanted to make sure you really kept your promise and didn't really want to hurt me." Yu Zou held the lunchbox lid, picked out half a rice block with his chopsticks, added some vegetables on it, and then pushed the rest of the lunchbox toward Bao Xingxing.

"Just because of a phone call?" Bao Xingxing wasn't hungry, nor did she want to admit it. She picked up a grain of rice with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth. "I think I understand the boss a little better now."

Yu Zou paused, chopsticks in his hand: "Understand what?"

"Why did you arrest your friend? It's too much of a hindrance to your judgment. I would have done the same. Perhaps you're the kind of person who values ​​friends more than lovers?"

"Absolutely not." Yu Zou almost blurted out, but couldn't help but reflect on whether it was really true. In the end, he still concluded: "Absolutely not. I just trust them."

He once trusted Du Pianjian completely, believing every word he said. But Du was two-faced and treacherous; every time Yu Zou tried to believe him again, a new lie would immediately emerge.

"That's wonderful," Bao Xingxing said. "It's so good to have friends. Oh! By the way! I carved your tombstone, do you like it?"

"……subtle."

"Haha, I'm a gravedigger here, and I run a funeral business, providing a one-stop service. Any business involving death can come to me."

"Were you trying to bury me alive?"

"Of course not~ I'm just hiding you here. It's the boss's order."

"Why?"

“I don’t know, he never gives a reason. He’s that kind of person, terrifying, dictatorial, autocratic.” Bao Xingxing’s arms flailed in the air, her sleeves fluttering, her eyes shifting. “But he’s also resolute, strong, and dares to rebel. Being a boss makes you both love and hate him, but I don’t know what he’d be like as a wife.”

Yu Zou didn't reply. About five minutes later, Mu Hanjiao called. Bao Xingxing bit her chopsticks and listened intently. Mu Hanjiao complained loudly on the other end, saying that she must call the police.

Yu Zou calmly said, "Don't report it."

"You expect me to swallow my anger? Whose boyfriend are you? Whose Alpha are you?!"

"This is the second thing I want to tell you: let's break up."

After a moment of stunned silence, Mu Hanjiao immediately launched into a tirade, accusing Yu Zou of irresponsibly breaking up with him after causing him such pain and humiliation. Yu Zou listened quietly, but after about a minute, he suddenly stopped talking, his anger abruptly halted, as if he had been forced to shut up.

Yu Zou continued, "They have pictures of your infidelity. If you don't want them to leak out, then swallow your anger."

"You teamed up with them to bully me?"

"Whose fault is it that we were caught on camera in the hotel's emergency exit?"

"At least I got hurt because of you, so you have to compensate me for emotional distress."

Is this how you intend to calculate the accounts?

When the other end showed no intention of replying, Yu Zou hung up the phone. Bao Xingxing, who had turned 45 degrees away from the other end, tried to cover up her mistake by eating a couple of bites of rice.

"That's so unprofessional," Bao Xingxing commented. "This gold digger even dares to work part-time for another company."

Before he finished speaking, Xu Bo reappeared in the hall and breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the two of them: "I did everything you said."

Yu Zou stood up: "Where is Du Pianjian?"

"Shoushu City Huihulang Prison".

The large prison, which mainly houses mentally unstable prisoners, was so famous that even Yu Zou had heard of it. As he walked out, he passed Xu Bo and said, "I want to see him."

Xu Bo nodded without hesitation and followed. Bao Xingxing called out to Xu Bo, "What about me?"

"Stay put."

"Are you wondering why you were suddenly called back?"

He shuddered, the pain in his foot traveling upwards. The words on the paper gradually became clearer, and the bracelet was turning red. He was indeed too curious.

From curiosity to anger, Yu Zou's whereabouts had just been discovered, and he was about to be arrested when he was forcibly called back to interrogate the man who looked like an unemployed vagrant.

Unlike Sang Pingqiu's absolute obedience, He Can immediately called back to ask for the reason. But the walkie-talkie rang a second before he pressed the button: "He Can, Sang Pingqiu, the returning vehicle is expected to arrive at your location in five minutes. Please remain where you are and wait for further instructions. Received."

“Reason!” He Can spoke into the walkie-talkie, his voice low and hoarse, his teeth chattering like sandpaper—this was the limit of his self-control.

"Order from superiors."

The command's countdown only went faster, never slower. He Can, trapped in his own little world, stared at the lights on the building for a full four minutes and thirteen seconds before being immediately summoned to the interrogation room upon returning to his unit.

He Can put down the paper and looked at the person opposite him; the person opposite him was also looking at him.

"Are you observing me?" He asked in an unfriendly tone.

"My occupational hazard has kicked in."

"Okay, tell me why."

"I have no idea."

"I don't know what you're talking about!"

"I'm just saying what I saw. Isn't the point of coming to this place to be lenient for those who confess and severe for those who resist?"

He Can picked up the paper again. It contained some basic personal information. He read the first three words: "He Honghan. Now there are some questions I need you to answer. First, is Yu Zou your patient?"

"Yes."

“According to the medical records, he suffers from…” He Can pulled the paper closer, squinting as he read more and more slowly, “the ‘rescue’ subtype of narcissistic personality disorder?”

"His situation is actually more complex than a single professional term. He maintains a 'good' image through a great deal of effort, but not to gain admiration; on the contrary, he uses..."

"That's enough." He Can raised his hand to interrupt him. "No need for technical jargon. Just tell me simply how he behaves in real life."

"It's narcissism. They lack an objective understanding of their own abilities and believe they can save those around them. They don't harm society, but it's just a less-than-ideal interpersonal relationship pattern. They tend to over-give and ignore what the other person really needs."

Is it a mental illness?

“If it’s not a high level, then it doesn’t count. Nowadays, who doesn’t have a lot of mental stress? Take you, officer, for example. Your mental state isn’t very good either. You should rest.” He Honghan added the reason when she saw He Can staring at her with the look of someone scrutinizing a prisoner: “Your wristband is on a red light.”

He glanced at it subconsciously, then waved his hand dismissively, warning, "Don't look at me like that. According to the records, his number of consultations surged four years ago in November. Why?"

"According to the patient, he did not want to get married but had no choice but to. After the marriage, he experienced great mental stress, and subsequently began to experience hallucinations and auditory hallucinations, suspecting his wife of infidelity."

He frowned slightly and asked again, "Has he taken any medicine?"

He Honghan suddenly sighed: "No, he resists taking his medicine."

"Why?"

"He suspected his wife was giving him sleeping pills in an attempt to poison him. So he was suspicious of any pills, and at that time I made an initial diagnosis that his condition had deteriorated into paranoia."

He Can and Sang Pingqiu exchanged a glance. If Yu Zou also suffered from mental illness, then his testimony would be unreliable, and the list of spies he mentioned earlier might have been entirely his own imagination.

"Then how do you control his condition? After all, he always appears perfectly normal on the outside," Sang Pingqiu asked.

“During his lucid moments, I arranged a medical check-up for him, and the results were beyond my expectations; he did indeed test positive for sleeping pills.”

"Are you implying that Du Pianjian is suspected of murdering Yu Zou?"

“I don’t deny it.” After a minute of silence, He Honghan said, “But it’s also possible that he ate it himself. In any case, I suggest he stay away from the source of the disease, divorce Du Pianjian, and then slowly seek treatment.”

Have you ever seen Du Pianjian (杜片笺)?

"I've met you."

Do you believe that Du Pianjian suffers from mental illness?

“I don’t know, I haven’t treated him,” He Honghan said, shrugging.

If Yu Zou's testimony is unreliable, then they have wasted a lot of police resources by doubting their own comrades, and the worse consequence is that it has damaged the trust between them, and there is no guarantee that they will be as trusting as before.

He Can and Sang Pingqiu walked out of the interrogation room. The young policeman was already waiting outside. He walked up to the two of them and said, "Brother Xin, get distracted. If you two don't come out in three minutes, I'm going to knock on the door! The chief wants you and the psychiatrist to go to the third floor for a meeting."

"who?"

"He Honghan."

"he?"

"Yes," the young policeman said uncertainly. "He's the doctor at the Sixth Hospital with the highest predictive accuracy for criminal tendencies in mentally ill inmates. He was seconded here as soon as he started working. Where is he?"

When He Can pushed open the conference room door and saw the director, he couldn't help but complain: "Director Feng! The second or third team could have done the interrogation, why did you have to call me back?"

Feng Chuiheng sat at the end of the long conference table, with the captains of Team Two and Team Three and their partners sitting on either side of him. The captain of Team Two, a female Omega in impeccable police uniform, was the first to express her dissatisfaction, retorting: "Your first reaction is to shirk your duties. You should step down as soon as possible."

He Can found a seat and sat down, not giving an inch: "You still can't find out about the case from two weeks ago. You should hurry up and find someone to marry."

"Huh? You're so upset about not being able to get married?"

"Yes, I wish you a good marriage and many marriages."

Before the second team captain could say anything more, her beta partner next to her covered her mouth and warned in her ear, "The meeting is about to start, so behave yourself!"

The next moment, Feng Chuiheng tapped the table, and the meeting room immediately fell silent. She said, "He Honghan has been tentatively chosen as the backup psychiatrist for the operation. Time is of the essence, so this is to allow you to meet and get to know each other in advance."

He Can composed himself, then the door opened, and He Honghan walked in, greeting everyone.

Feng Chuiheng tidied up the pens and notebooks on the table and instructed: "The Heavy Artillery Operation meeting will begin in ten minutes. We will conduct a joint operation with the local police on Xiangluo Island to eradicate the addiction in one fell swoop."

The car sped along the highway, and the roadside trees rushed past.

"parking."

Yu Zou gripped the car door handle tightly, closed his eyes, and his long eyelashes trembled slightly from discomfort.

Before the car had come to a complete stop, Yu Zou immediately pushed open the door and got out. He staggered and leaned against a tree, retching incessantly, as the food he had just eaten had not yet been fully digested.

Xu Bo followed him out, patted his back to help him catch his breath, handed him a tissue, and hurriedly explained, "I didn't poison him."

"I know."

Yu Zou felt a tightness and pain in the back of his neck, his head was throbbing, and he was so carsick that the world was spinning. He had never had such symptoms before, so the only explanation was that something had happened to Du Pianjian.

Yu Zou looked at the vertical plaque with white background and black characters. This huge, low-lying concentric ring building, like a closed Möbius strip, completely separated the people on both sides.

Fifteen minutes had passed since the meeting was requested, and the two sat silently on a bench next to the guard post.

Finally, the staff member who had been receiving them reappeared in their field of vision, and the two of them stood up together.

The staff member politely replied, "I'm sorry, the prisoner refuses to be seen."

The unexpected result left Xu Bo at a loss, and he looked at Yu Zou.

Yu Zou's eyebrows furrowed slightly, and his voice was almost a murmur: "Du Pianjian is not here."