CH 171

Hearing this, Jiang Chao became very nervous. “Isn’t that a mentally ill person? He said he had a bug in his head, but he was just putting on a show?”

“Yes. When I first heard he went to the neurosurgery department to ask the doctors to remove the bug from his brain, I also thought it was typical delusional schizophrenia, but in fact, I ignored one of the most critical details.”

“What?”

“Why would he agree to exchange hostages?” Lin Chen asked rhetorically.

Mrs. Jiang seemed to agree with what he said and nodded accordingly.

Lin Chen looked at the other party. “Mrs. Jiang, how did you persuade him to exchange hostages?”

Mrs. Jiang replied, “I said I was the director here and I would be more valuable as a hostage.”

“Is there something wrong with that, honey?”

“This is a conclusion based on statistics. The vast majority of the crimes committed by the mentally ill have no prior plans and little preparation. They usually happen suddenly and are crazy in nature, such as randomly killing people on the street. Of course, there are also a number of mentally ill people who can commit premeditated and planned crimes effectively, but the number is extremely low and generally only happens to paranoid or delusional mental patients. However, often the target of the delusional mental patient is their ‘enemies’.” Lin Chen propped his head to one side, held the paper cup between his fingers, and turned it gently for half a circle. “He showed ‘craziness’ when he raised his knife and slashed wildly, but whether he hid the watermelon knife and entered the hospital to commit murder, or allowed the exchange of hostages, or even asked to take the bug out, they all showed meticulous ‘premeditation’. There’s a certain contradiction between ‘madness’ and ‘premeditation’. He even revealed that the police were the ones he believes implanted the bug, so the target of his revenge should be us, right? Why is he looking for a doctor? What’s more, he went to a doctor specializing in neurosurgery and didn’t ask for treatment. He simply held the doctor at knifepoint, which meant his preparation wasn’t thorough.” Lin Chen showed a cold smile on his lips. “To summarize, I think the assailant who took Director Li hostage was pretending to be mentally ill to commit a crime in order to escape legal sanctions.”

After Jiang Chao listened to him, he didn’t speak for a long time. In the end, Mrs. Jiang patted the back of her husband’s hand. Vice Captain Jiang shivered. “Fortunately, you were there, Consultant Lin!” After he finished speaking, he hurriedly looked to his side. “Honey, have you offended anyone recently?”

Mrs. Jiang was calm. “We’re doctors, so there’s always someone that will be offended.

Jiang Chao opened his mouth as if he didn’t understand, so Mrs. Jiang pinched her husband’s earlobes and said softly, “We see many patients begging us to save them, but we’re not miracle workers. We’ll always offend some patients and their families.”

“But do you know the deceased, honey? Is it a family member of a patient you once treated?”

Mrs. Jiang shook her head. “Even if it is, I can’t remember.”

“Then you have to be careful. Do you want to take a few days off?”

“Are you going to protect me at home if I ask for leave?”

“I will, honey. Trust me!”

Lin Chen listened to their meaningless but happy conversation. The sunlight from the window fell on the couple, who had almost experienced life and death. He finally took a sip of the warm water in the cup he was holding.

“Jiang Chao.” He spoke suddenly.

Jiang Chao was taken aback. “Consultant Lin, yes?”

“Protect Mrs. Jiang well.”

“I know Consultant Lin. You also think that those who want to target my wife won’t give up, right?”

“It’s better to investigate the identity of the deceased first. This will allow us to clarify his motives.” Suddenly, Lin Chen felt a stabbing pain in his head, as if someone had picked up a hammer and smashed it into his temple. After a while, he reluctantly said to Jiang Chao, “Sorry, my condition isn’t very good. I’m afraid I can’t follow this case.”

Jiang Chao said nervously, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’ll send someone to stitch up the wound.”

“No need.”

Lin Chen stood up, supported himself on the wall, and walked out of the office.

Mrs. Jiang grabbed him and said, “You’re injured badly. I’ll sew up your wound immediately. Where are you going?”

Lin Chen turned his head and replied calmly, “I want to go home.”

……

Xing Conglian was sitting in an open-top Jeep when he suddenly looked forward. They were driving on the vast loess at the moment, heading southwest to the rainforest.

There were sporadic huge advertisements standing on the loess. At the top of the huge advertisements was the gray-blue sky. In the distance, there were light gray clouds on the top of the Xazi Mountains, as if a torrential rain was brewing, ready to sweep over the world.

The humid and hot monsoon at the edge of the rainforest hit his face, but the wind couldn’t blow away the irritability in his heart. He felt something bad was happening, but he couldn’t explain why. As if by telepathy, Wang Chao also looked over at him. They looked at each other and instantly understood each other’s concerns.

Wang Chao spoke in a serious tone. “Boss, don’t you feel it too?”

Xing Conglian pressed his hand on his phone, almost impulsively making a call, but he also knew very well that this wasn’t the best choice.

“Wang Chao…” he said lightly. “There’s surveillance at home, so bring up the real-time monitoring.”

Wang Chao was holding his laptop with a sad face and didn’t respond to this request for a while. Soon, the teenager understood what he meant and abruptly slapped his thigh. “Boss, although it’s a bit perverted, that’s a really good idea!”

While speaking, Wang Chao quickly brought up the surveillance video at their residence, Unit 6 on Yanjia Lane. If Lin Chen was present, he would be surprised at the kind of surveillance that had no blind spots.

The rags in the kitchen, the fruit tray in the living room, the fish swimming in the courtyard, and the bedding in the room; everything in the house was intact, but no matter how time kept changing, the scene in the surveillance was completely fixed.

Xing Conglian glanced at Wang Chao. Wang Chao was desperately changing feeds at different angles as his frown became tighter.

At this moment, Kang An also leaned over and asked, “Boss, what are you looking at?”

Xing Conglian got annoyed hearing Kang An. “Get away,” he said to his former subordinate.

However, Kang An seemed to have filtered his words and moved even closer, even blocking his sight. “Hey Captain, is this your house? The flowers on the balcony are almost dying in the sun. How long has no one lived there?”

Wang Chao froze the picture on the coffee table in the living room and then zoomed in. The water glass on the coffee table was still the one that Lin Chen drank before they set off to Yongchuan that night. The table was dusty, and the flowers and plants were withered. It was obvious that Lin Chen had never returned home.

“Damn that Jiang Chao! Did that bastard leave my A’Chen Gege in Yongchuan to investigate the case?!” Wang Chao turned to Xing Conglian and asked.

Although he knew that this was of course the only possibility and that, with Lin Chen’s personality, it was difficult for him to give up clues and continue to track them down, when he thought of Lin Chen’s mental state when he left, Xing Conglian became angry.

Are you kidding me? What Lin Chen needed most was rest and complete psychological treatment. If he continued tracking down Song Shengsheng’s case, Lin Chen would collapse, even if he had an iron will.

“Verify your guess,” he said to Wang Chao.

“Yongchuan Second Bureau, right?” Wang Chao immediately began invading the surveillance system of Yongchuan Second Bureau. They were abroad, so there was no psychological burden, so Wang Chao was even quicker than before. When he pressed enter, the image lit up.

Wang Chao quickly dragged and dropped the timeline, and as expected, Lin Chen’s figure appeared in the big office of Yongchuan Second Bureau. The light outside the window turned from dark to bright and then dark again. Xing Conglian counted the time. Lin Chen hadn’t slept for over 48 hours.

Xing Conglian stared at Lin Chen, seeing him sitting quietly in front of a computer checking information. He would raise his glass of tea from time to time and then put it down. Xing Conglian wished he could put some sleeping pills in the glass so Lin Chen could quickly go to sleep.

“Boss, who are you looking at?” Kang An’s voice sounded again.

Xing Conglian had the urge to kick this guy out of the Jeep. “Get your head away from my sights,” he said aggravatingly.

Kang An hurriedly moved his head away. The moment the annoying head was cleared, Xing Conglian saw Lin Chen get up.

Lin Chen seemed to be checking something. He stood up with a determined expression, holding a water cup, and walked to another office.

Wang Chao immediately switched the monitoring angle. He watched as Lin Chen walked into the Network Surveillance Department and talked to the police inside. The police officer suddenly became energetic and started tapping on the keyboard. After a while, Lin Chen seemed to have thought of something as he shook his head suddenly, causing the porcelain cup to smash into the ground. The video only had images and no sound. Although they didn’t know what happened, he could guess from Lin Chen’s painful expression that their new discovery must be related to Song Shengsheng’s case.

Lin Chen squatted down, trying to pick up the broken porcelain pieces on the ground, but suddenly he gripped one of them tightly in his palm. He watched as the blood dripped from Lin Chen’s hand, watched as Jiang Chao nervously brought the medical kit, and watched as Lin Chen unconsciously poured disinfectant on his hand.

Lin Chen’s face showed a calmer expression after the pain became numb. Xing Conglian calmed down and said to Wang Chao, “Can you find the file records of that computer? What exactly did they find?”

“Give me a minute!” Wang Chao snapped his fingers and quickly opened one of the documents. The results were horrifying. He finally knew the reason for Lin Chen’s gaffe. The murder motives of Xiang Ye and Meijing turned out to be related to MSC Doctors Without Borders and AIH Insurance.

Xing Conglian raised his head. They were sitting in a Jeep at this moment, and they happened to pass by a huge roadside billboard for AIH Insurance.

When he looked back, Lin Chen was no longer in the video.

“Boss, do you want to keep watching?” Wang Chao tentatively asked.

“Continue,” Xing Conglian said.

“But what are we looking at?”

Xing Conglian recalled the last scene. “Did Jiang Chao take him out?”

“Yes.”

“Switch the monitoring to Yongchuan Second People’s Hospital.”

“Eh?”

“Jiang Chao’s wife is a doctor there. He most likely took Lin Chen there to suture his wound.”

Although Wang Chao was doubtful, he still pulled up surveillance of the hospital. The number of people in the emergency hall was large, which made it difficult to distinguish Lin Chen’s figure in the vast sea of people.

“Boss, do you know what department Lieutenant Jiang’s wife belongs to? Will he directly take A’Chen Gege there for treatment?” Wang Chao asked.

“Neurosurgery,” Xing Conglian replied.

Wang Chao nodded, and the screen switched to a shocking scene.

The corridors of the neurosurgery ward were a mess, and there were security guards surrounding the door of an office. The doctors and patients looked panicked, and Lin Chen…

Lin Chen stood in the corner of the corridor. He took a gun handed over by Jiang Chao and loaded it without hesitation. He walked out of the picture and walked into the office, surrounded by security guards.

“Fuck me, why did that idiot Jiang Chao give A’Chen Gege a gun? Can’t he do this himself!” Wang Chao was so enraged that he couldn’t help but raise his voice. “I’ll try to adjust the camera on the opposite floor to see if I can see this office clearly…”

“Negotiation,” Xing Conglian replied.

Before his voice fell, the screen switched. Sure enough, someone in the office was holding a female doctor hostage with a blade in his hand, and Lin Chen was holding a gun as he slowly walked step by step towards the hostage.

Because of the distance, Xing Conglian couldn’t see Lin Chen’s face clearly, but he only felt that his heart was about to stop beating. In the blink of an eye, Lin Chen decisively drew his gun and shot. Blood splattered everywhere. Wang Chao couldn’t help but yell and cover his eyes.

Xing Conglian couldn’t look away. He kept his eyes open and watched as Lin Chen lowered his hand, as if nothing had happened. He turned around and walked out of the office.

The picture cut back to the corridor again. Lin Chen’s expression was numb, like an old man who was dying. There were many people around him. Whether it was the police who came to deal with the incident or the doctors, nurses, and patients in the hospital, it created a noisy scene. At the moment, Xing Conglian clearly felt that Lin Chen couldn’t perceive what was happening around him. His consciousness had been completely separated from his body, as if he were dead.

He just watched Lin Chen pass through the horrified crowd and be taken into an office.

Because of the reflection of the glass in the other office, they couldn’t see what was going on inside.

Time passed minute by minute. Wang Chao wanted to fast forward, but Xing Conglian stopped him.

There was silence all around, as if he were experiencing a long silent movie. The picture was then fast-forwarded. A group of medical staff rushed from the end of the corridor to the office. When the office door opened, Lin Chen was being carried out on a stretcher.