Chapter 56 Illusions, All Illusions
Zhou Xiaoming probably felt that he was sick.
Moreover, the illness is quite serious.
He was in a daze throughout the morning classes, with strange voices constantly echoing in his mind, sometimes loud, sometimes soft, sometimes near, sometimes far, making him feel uneasy and to the point that he felt an urge to destroy anything he saw.
In this state where he was on the verge of exploding at any moment, Zhou Xiaoming had to take another dose of medicine before he could barely recover.
All the students in the classroom had gone to the cafeteria for lunch, leaving him alone in the large classroom.
Zhou Xiaoming tidied up his desk briefly, stood up, walked out of the classroom, and headed straight for the cafeteria.
The cafeteria was noisier than the classroom; the sound of the metal plates clattering together was like a pot of boiling oil, waking him up from all the noise in his head.
The girl in front of him kept turning around to talk, and Zhou Xiaoming stared at her coldly. He suddenly wanted to grab her by the neck and silence her forever.
The cafeteria lady asked him what he wanted. He opened his mouth, but suddenly a pair of hands grabbed his shoulders and pulled him out of the crowd. Then a familiar voice rang in his ear: "Xiaoming, where have you been these past few days? Do you know how worried we were about you?"
Zhou Xiaoming turned his head and saw Fan Yang with a big smile on his face, along with several of his underlings beside him. He subconsciously shuddered and said, "Brother Yang, I've been sick these past few days."
"What illness? Is it serious? Don't scare Brother Yang." Fan Yang quickly asked.
"Brother Yang, please let me go, I beg you..." Zhou Xiaoming pleaded, reaching out to push away the hand that was holding his arm.
But Fan Yang held him tightly in his arms and pushed him toward the restroom: "Xiao Ming, this is wrong of you. How can you appear in public when you're sick? It would be bad if you infected your classmates. Come on, let's find somewhere else to talk."
A hint of panic flashed in Zhou Xiaoming's eyes. He struggled for a moment, but couldn't break free at all. In the end, he could only let Fan Yang drag him into the toilet.
When Zhou Xiaoming's head was pressed against the wall, the slogan "Civilized Toilet Use" was stuck to his face.
"Did you bring cigarettes?" Fan Yang's voice instantly turned cold.
Zhou Xiaoming's throat went dry, and he managed to squeeze out, "No...no..."
Before he could finish speaking, he was punched hard in the stomach, which made him curl up like a shrimp in pain.
"You little brat, you think you can just ignore what I said? You really think I can't deal with you?" Fan Yang sneered.
Zhou Xiaoming felt his stomach churning, his face deathly pale: "Brother Yang, I really have no money left, please let me go."
"Brother Yang knows you're broke." Fan Yang gently patted Zhou Xiaoming's cheek and said softly, "Isn't your dad rich? Do I need to teach you this kind of thing?"
"No...no, if he finds out, he'll kill me." Zhou Xiaoming quickly shook his head.
After hearing this, Fan Yang felt betrayed by his brother, and his expression revealed disappointment: "Xiao Ming, it seems we can't be brothers today."
"How about this, let's play a game? I saw online that people say a person can be saved from suffocation within two minutes, why don't we give it a try?"
"No, I won't try." Zhou Xiaoming shook his head desperately.
"Don't worry, Brother Yang knows what's important and won't cause any deaths."
After saying that, Fan Yang suddenly grabbed Zhou Xiaoming by the neck.
Zhou Xiaoming's head slammed against the wall with a "bang," and his eardrums were filled with a buzzing sound.
His face turned bright red, and he thrashed about with his hands.
“He looks like a dog right now. Why don’t we take a picture of him and post it online?”
"Sigh, just as I thought."
Fan Yang's hand gripped Zhou Xiaoming's neck like an iron clamp.
The younger brother next to him held up his phone, the camera almost touching his face.
Zhou Xiaoming's vision began to darken, and he heard a "hoarse" sound, like an old bellows, coming out of his throat.
"Brother Yang, he rolled his eyes!" the underling quickly reminded him.
Fan Yang suddenly let go, and Zhou Xiaoming slid to the ground like a lump of mud.
Fan Yang shook his numb hand and turned to ask, "Did you record everything?"
"Don't worry, bro, it's a brand new phone with great camera quality."
Fan Yang looked down at Zhou Xiaoming and threatened, "If you don't want to be famous, bring a pack of cigarettes tomorrow, or I'll upload this video online, you hear me?"
The group laughed and joked as their footsteps faded into the distance.
Zhou Xiaoming was curled up on the ground, panting heavily, his body reeking of urine.
A voice kept echoing in my mind: Kill him, kill him...
The voice occupied his entire brain, reaching a point where it was impossible to suppress.
Zhou Xiaoming suddenly raised his head, his eyes filled with madness.
Inside the cafeteria, Fan Yang and his friends ate their meal while watching the video they had just filmed.
Zhou Xiaoming walked straight to the food counter, picked up a stainless steel fork, and headed towards the group.
Fan Yang had just taken a bite of meat when the hairs on the back of his neck suddenly stood on end.
The next second, the fork pierced his nape with a whooshing sound, and blood splattered, staining the entire bowl of rice red.
Screams echoed throughout the cafeteria, and people eating nearby fled in terror.
Fan Yang clutched his neck and collapsed to the ground, blood slowly dripping from between his fingers.
Zhou Xiaoming's hand holding the fork trembled, and he turned to look at his underling beside him.
"No...don't kill me!"
The younger brother was so scared that he practically scrambled away and disappeared outside the cafeteria in the blink of an eye.
Fan Yang had already fallen to the ground and was no longer moving.
His unfocused pupils were filled with fear and regret.
He never dreamed that the honest and law-abiding Zhou Xiaoming would actually try to kill him.
Soon, several teachers, accompanied by security guards, rushed to the cafeteria and took Zhou Xiaoming into custody.
Zhou Xiaoming stared at the blood-stained fork in his hand, his body trembling uncontrollably. He muttered to himself, "Hallucination...it's all an illusion...you can't fool me..."
Yu Qing stood in the crowd, watching Zhou Xiaoming, who was acting like a madman.
His expression was a mixture of emotions.
He didn't understand.
On the night of his birthday party, he sat and chatted with Zhou Xiaoming.
At that time, he still looked like a normal person.
How did things turn out like this in just a few days?
At that moment, Yu Qing suddenly felt the capriciousness of fate.
...
Half an hour later.
Bai Xiao arrived at the crime scene.
He first saw Fan Yang lying face up among overturned tables and chairs, his school uniform around his neck soaked in blood. A woman was lying on his body, and he could hear heart-wrenching cries from afar.
Xu Zhi ran down from the teaching building with a notebook in his hand and came to Bai Xiao's side, saying, "Master, the matter has been investigated. The deceased was named Fan Yang, seventeen years old. He died on the spot due to severe blood loss from his carotid artery. The suspect is named Zhou Xiaoming. He killed Fan Yang because he could not tolerate his long-term bullying. The murder weapon was a stainless steel fork from the cafeteria."
Bai Xiao nodded and looked at the woman who was still wailing: "Family members?"
"His mother," Xu Zhi said in a low voice, "is from a single-parent family. She sells fish at the market during the day. She just arrived. She only has one son. She used to be busy with her business and neglected to discipline him. Now she probably regrets it to death."
There is no going back in life; people will eventually have to pay the price for their actions.
Bai Xiao said calmly, "Let's go see the suspect."
In this world, we all fear the devil.
Yet, they are unwilling to admit that everyone harbors a demon within them, and it will not disappear just because you ignore it.
It has been waiting to erupt.
Bai Xiao pushed open the car that was temporarily holding Zhou Xiaoming, who was curled up in the back seat, his eyes constantly scanning his surroundings as if there was something terrifying around him.
Hearing the noise, he jerked his head up, his pupils shrinking to pinpoints, his voice shrill and distorted: "Don't come any closer! You're all fake, you're all hallucinations..."
After saying that, he was suddenly startled and mumbled the same thing over and over again.
Qin Ruowei was writing a report on the side.
Bai Xiao asked, "What's his condition now?"
"His condition is very unstable; it's likely acute stress disorder. He's already showing signs of dissociative stupor. We just gave him a sedative injection, but the effect wasn't ideal," Qin Ruowei replied.
"Does he have a medical history?" Bai Xiao asked again.
Qin Ruowei walked up to Bai Xiao and opened her palm to reveal three white pills: "We found these in his backpack. This should be the cause of his mental breakdown."
Upon seeing the pill, Bai Xiao's expression darkened: "Haloperidol."
"Master, what is this?" Xu Zhi asked curiously from the side.
"High doses of psychotropic drugs can block dopamine and induce acute stress disorder. Combined with long-term bullying, this can lead to hallucinations. If he continues to take them, he might develop a split personality."
"Find out which hospital prescribed the medication for him, and who his attending physician was."
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