Jian Jing instinctively felt that Guo Yifang's case was a little unusual.

Yes, the crime scene was clean, the murder method was neat, and the whereabouts were covert. But was it necessary to pretend to be the target of pursuit just to get close to Guo Yifang's family?

"For him, the more inconspicuous his identity is, the more hidden it is." She analyzed, "It is definitely not a good choice to date someone. No woman would keep it a secret."

Ji Feng: "Really?" "

Of course, if he doesn't tell his family about his relationship, he will definitely tell his friends." Jian Jing was determined, "He took a risk, there must be a special reason."

Ji Feng picked up Guo Yifang's photo, compared it with the person in front of him, and said carefully: "But Teacher Jian, you are completely different from Ms. Guo. In two years, your aesthetics have changed so quickly?"

In the photo, Guo Yifang is 30 years old, with a beautiful face, mature and generous, gentle but resolute, a female image that is quite appreciated by traditional people.

On the other hand, Jian Jing, at the age of 14, she is at most a beautiful girl, a million miles away from being a woman.

"In fact, I have always suspected that he is impotent and cannot interact with women normally." Ji Feng said frankly, "Otherwise it is difficult to explain his feelings for you."

Jian Jing was 14 years old when she disappeared, and she was no longer a child. It seems untenable to identify the scarred man as a pedophile. Especially before her, in the case of the Cai family of three during the Mid-Autumn Festival, their daughter was 10 years old, which is more in line with the choice of this type of person.

But the scarred man did not hurt the little girl.

"He may not be a real pedophile, but a choice made out of desperation." He said, "If you can't date a normal adult woman, you have to settle for a weaker partner."

Jian Jing asked back: "If so, why would he want to find me now? I am no longer a child."

"Yes, but he thinks he still has control over you." Ji Feng looked at her and said slowly, "Absolute mental influence."

Jian Jing was silent for a moment.

The cases engraved in my mind spread out page by page and turned into black clouds, coming from all directions and weighing heavily on my heart.

His emotions sank uncontrollably, and a suffocating feeling appeared in his chest.

She couldn't help but take a deep breath and exhale slowly. Then she felt better and said seriously: "Is it possible that he doesn't like women like Guo Yifang, but likes... mothers?"

Not a woman, but a mother?

Ji Feng thought thoughtfully: "You mean, Guo Yifang's persistence in her eldest son is the root cause of his feelings?"

The families chosen by the scarred man all have a child, and that "child" is most likely the object of his substitution. And the "happiness" he desires must be closely related to his life experience.

"His mother didn't fulfill her motherly responsibilities and abandoned him, or at least didn't protect him well." He tried to guess, "He was disappointed with his mother, and Guo Yifang was the type of mother he recognized. Even though she was weak by nature, she was strong as a mother, so he pursued her in an unusual way - what did he want?"

Jian Jing said, "He saw his own shadow in Guo Yifang's eldest son. He tried to compensate for his past self and get some kind of satisfaction."

After a pause, he asked again, "Could it be that every case before had something he wanted?"

Ji Feng thought for a while, shook his head and said, "Not really. I have an idea now. You tell me, his philosophy of life is that living is painful, and death is a kind of relief in the illusory moment of happiness, right?"

"Yes."

"This should be the standard for him to select victims." He said, "Every family is harmonious, but in the eyes of outsiders, they have certain defects."

"The Zeng family lost their son and daughter-in-law, the Guo family has no father, and the child is mentally retarded. What about the Cai family?" Jian Jing asked.

Ji Feng knew the details of several cases very well, and immediately said, "The Cai family husband and wife are both disabled. The husband is deaf and the wife is mute. Only the child is normal."

She sighed, "Each has his own misfortune."

"So, this is completely in line with his theory: you may be happy now, but you may fall into misfortune in the future. Stopping at this moment is the most perfect." Ji Feng touched his chin, and excitement flashed in his eyes, "But the Guo family's case is indeed very special. Their happiness was accomplished by him personally."

He immediately decided: "We'd better investigate Guo Yifang's case carefully. Maybe there will be unexpected surprises."

At night, in the hotel.

Jian Jing received a call from Kang Mucheng: "It's been a week. Did you encounter any trouble?"

Even though she couldn't see him, she could imagine that he was frowning. Jian Jing quickly said: "No, the case is quite complicated, so I went to several places."

"Didn't you encounter any danger?" Kang Mucheng still had doubts.

She didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Boss Kang, I just went to the victim's family to ask about the situation, what danger can there be?"

"You still have to be careful." Kang Mucheng was surprised to hear that, "Come back as soon as you are done." Jian

Jing was surprised: "What's the matter?"

"Good news." Kang Mucheng said, "This year's Dream Pen Award nominations have begun, and "Rose Gold" has been selected. In my opinion, it will definitely win an award. You'd better quickly solve the things at hand, you will be busy in the future."

This surprised Jian Jing.

At present, there are more than ten literary awards of various sizes in China, but there are only three with high gold content, and the Dream Pen Award is one of them. There are six major category awards: romance, history, martial arts, science fiction, suspense, and reality, as well as the annual best author award.

Undoubtedly, the six books that won awards are all outstanding in this year's genre novels. Needless

to say, the best author may not have a lot of sales, but the author must be well-known in the literary world, and most of them are great writers of history or reality.

Occasionally, martial arts or science fiction works win, and their works are all blockbuster works that are popular in the Chinese community.

Each genre award has five nominations, and "Rose, Killer and Gold" and four other novels were selected for the best suspense novel.

Jian Jing asked: "When will the awards be announced?"

"At the awards ceremony in November." Kang Mucheng said.

Although it is an annual award, it is impossible to delay the award until the end of this year or the beginning of next year. Therefore, the collection period of the Dream Pen Award is from October last year to September this year, with the evaluation period in October and the award in November. By December, the publisher will have to promote the works at the beginning of the year.

Jian Jing calculated that it was still early: "I will definitely be able to come back."

She was thinking too beautifully. Kang Mucheng issued an ultimatum: "You have to go with me to the Paris Fashion Week in October."

"I have no interest in fashion." Jian Jing declined.

Kang Mucheng said calmly, "You want to buy clothes."

Haute couture dresses are all hand-sewn and take hundreds of hours to make. They are not ready-made clothes that you can buy whenever you want. You have to give people time from customizing to getting the clothes.

Jian Jing: "...not really." A dress worth tens of thousands of yuan is already very good. Haute couture dresses cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of yuan a set. It's a bit of a luxury to wear them for one night.

"I'm not negotiating with you." As a boss, Kang Mucheng is ruthless when he needs to be. "Come back to work within 10 days."

Jian Jing had to agree, "I'll try my best." After

getting the guarantee, Kang Mucheng hung up the phone with satisfaction.

Jian Jing sighed and fell on the big bed in the hotel. The joy of the nomination circled in her heart, and was soon eliminated by the sword hanging over her head.

Guo Yifang, a child with intellectual disabilities, a man with a scar.

Roses, diaries, and death worship.

The chaotic thoughts were like a merry-go-round, turning back and forth in her mind, and the flickering light and shadow stretched into colorful and blurred lines, turning into the five-line score of a lullaby.

After several days of running around, her waist ached from riding in the car, and she fell asleep in a daze. She

also had a dream.

——The

opening was a strange light, the brightness was not high or low, not cold light nor warm light, close to the beige color of natural light, and a big halo of light was cast.

The rest of the field of vision was very dark, not pure darkness, but the darkness of shadows. She could vaguely see some shadows, but could not see anything clearly.

She blinked in her dream, trying to see clearly where this place was and what was hiding in the shadows.

"Are you awake?" At this time, she heard someone say, "It's time to eat."

Then, she slowly sat up and saw a loaf of bread and a box of milk on the bedside.

Picking up the milk, the handwriting on the box finally became clear.

It turned out that it was not because of dizziness that she couldn't see clearly, but because she didn't wear myopic glasses, so she couldn't see the other person clearly.

She squinted her eyes, but the light was brighter, just shining across her eyes. Her eyes were stimulated, and she couldn't help but secrete tears, blurring her vision.

"Hurry up." His voice was soft, but he didn't allow for argument, "You still have a heavy task today."

She ate the food quickly.

Of course, because she was in a dream, she didn't feel hungry or full.

Then the screen jumped, and a large whiteboard suddenly appeared in front of me, just like the whiteboards that university teachers often use, with many photos pasted on it with magnets.

The photos were gray and mosaic.

There were a few lines of outline written next to them:

The nature of death worship?

Death is the starting point?

"In ancient times, people were ignorant and had too many imaginations about the world after death, so they made up a series of descriptions of the afterlife." He spoke slowly, like an old professor teaching a class, "But this kind of 'death' is essentially another kind of 'life', and there are still good and evil, high and low, right and wrong, rewards and punishments, which completely distorts the meaning of 'death'."

He looked at her: "If death is the same as life, then both death and life have lost their value."

She asked: "Do you think that living is also valuable?"

"Of course, although living is painful, it also has its value, which is to make us realize the value of death." He said, "The value of death lies in equality. This is a very obvious truth, you should understand."

She said: "Because when people are alive, there are rich and poor, happiness and unhappiness, but everyone will die, and they are all the same."

"Yes." He said admiringly, "So, if someone thinks that death is another starting point, the beginning of a new journey, then they have completely misinterpreted the meaning of death. Death is death, neither going to heaven nor going to hell."

She said, "Are you an atheist?"

"The so-called gods are nothing but human fantasies." He said, "Death exists by itself. It will not disappear because of human fear, nor will it change because of worship."

She asked, "Since everyone is going to die, why do you want to kill people?"

"Dear, I'm a doctor."

He said kindly, "People want to see a doctor when they are sick, even if many illnesses do not endanger their lives. In the same way, I am reducing their pain. Pain has no meaning. People give meaning to pain, but it is actually just a lie."

"Lie?"

"Yes, for example, mother. We all have a mother. Mothers endure hardships and work hard, and feed their children with their blood. People praise their greatness so that they are willing to give everything. But is it really like this?"

He asked himself and answered, "No, enduring pain can't make anyone great. Does it make one immune to all diseases, or invulnerable to knives and guns, or invulnerable to water and fire? None of them. There is no point in suffering. It's a complete scam."

In the dream, she was very sharp, but she was too cautious, and she blurted out, "Then has your mother ever paid for you?"

His expression suddenly became gloomy, his eyes were like ice knives, and his five fingers were like iron clamps, tightly grasping her face.

"You don't understand anything."

"You don't understand."

"Are you going to kill me?" She said with difficulty, "If death is a blessing, you punish me with death, which violates your rules. If I am right, then you are wrong."

Click, the dream is broken.

Jian Jing sat up suddenly, and her mobile phone kept ringing. There was an unread message.

"Get up, I have to go to the crime scene today."