Chapter 1 A Bunch of Nutcases

The old Taoist was an optimist,
A suicidal maniac,
A mine sweeper,
An explorer,
An egg tart,
A seventy-one-year-old who had experienced countless ups and downs in his life. Even if he had never seen a ghost or been baptized by the supernatural,
At this time,
He shouldn't be like this.

His expression was dull,
His eyes were muddy,
His hair and beard were disheveled,
He looked like he had lost his soul.

Zhou Ze looked at Zhang Yanfeng.

Boss Zhou needed an explanation. He could let the old Taoist sit in the wheelchair that sang children's songs and take him for a spin, but he wouldn't allow anyone to do anything to him.

"You've misunderstood. When we found him at the scene, he was sitting at the door with a knife in his hand, looking exactly like this.
There will be no abuse or forced confessions at the police station. You can rest assured of that."

Zhou Ze nodded.

"Here's the previous statement. Take a look."

Old Zhang handed the statement to Zhou Ze and continued:

"During the interrogation, he answered the police's questions well and cooperated, basically explaining the case clearly.
The deceased was an old man who lived there, 65 years old this year. His body was found in the freezer, and a lot of skin and flesh had been cut off.
We also found leftover food in the kitchen trash can. After testing, it was determined to be human flesh, and it was the flesh from the deceased."

Zhou Ze flipped through the statement.

In the statement,

The old Taoist narrated the entire process of his crime, including how he killed the person, how he disposed of the body, how he cooked the dishes, and so on. He gave a very detailed account, including what kind of wine he drank while eating.

"He said this himself?" Zhou Ze asked, holding the statement.

Old Zhang nodded.

Zhou Ze threw the statement on the table, leaned forward slightly, looked at the old Taoist, and whispered:

"Old Taoist, do you remember who I am?"

The old Taoist raised his head,

Looked left,

Looked right,

Looked up again,

Looked down again,

Finally, he grinned,

And smiled:

"You are the boss."

When he spoke, saliva even dripped from the corner of his mouth.

"He has mental problems," Zhou Ze said.

"The higher-ups think he's trying to get away with it this way."

"If he wanted to get away with it, why would he explain the crime in such detail?" Zhou Ze retorted.

"I don't know." Old Zhang took a deep breath and said, "That's why I rushed back to find you. I feel that something is unusual about the old Taoist."

Hearing this,

Zhou Ze closed his eyes,

His fingers tapped lightly on the table.

"Can you turn off the camera?" Zhou Ze opened his eyes and looked at the camera above.

"No, I'm not in charge of this case now, so I don't have much room to maneuver. If I turn off the camera, someone from the special task force will be here immediately."

The old Taoist continued to sit there in a daze.

At this moment,

He really looked like an old man in his seventies,

An old man in his seventies with Alzheimer's disease.

"Old Taoist, what exactly happened? Who did you meet? Tell me," Zhou Ze said again.

At the same time,

Under the table,

Zhou Ze's fingers were already clenched,

Which bastard,

Turned the old Taoist into this!

"Huh?" The old Taoist raised his head in confusion, smiled, and said very sincerely: "I killed someone, I ate someone, I broke the law,

I want to eat peanuts,

I like to eat peanuts the most,

Peanuts are so delicious."

Zhou Ze stared carefully into the old Taoist's eyes, but couldn't see anything in them.

One thing was certain,

The old Taoist didn't kill anyone.

If he had killed someone, he wouldn't dare to play crazy in front of him, because the old Taoist knew that even if he ate peanuts (bullet in the head), he would still have to report back to him in the end!

Zhou Ze immediately made a decision,

And said:

"Arrange for Lao An to meet the old Taoist."

Regarding spiritual things, such as hypnosis and illusions, Zhou Ze was only good at resisting, but not good at using and understanding them.

In the current situation of the old Taoist,

He could only let Lawyer An come forward.

"It's a bit difficult," Old Zhang said.

"Old Zhang," Zhou Ze called out.

"Yeah."

"He is a living person." Zhou Ze pointed to the old Taoist, "There are many non-human and non-ghost guys in the bookstore, but the old Taoist is a living person."

"I know."

"He's a citizen in your eyes."

"I also know."

"I won't talk about identity issues anymore. Just think of yourself as you used to be. When you know that a good person is going to be wronged, as a policeman with a sense of justice and responsibility, what would you do?"

"Boss, you don't have to say these things to me." Old Zhang smiled bitterly, "I know what I should do. I'm hesitating because bringing you here is already a violation of discipline. This can still be explained by the fact that you are a consultant, so that the people in the special team won't say anything.

But if I bring Lao An over, I may be quarantined by the special team. At that time, my identity won't be able to help you."

"Bringing Lao An to see him is no longer within the scope of what your police can handle."

"Okay."

Since the boss had decided, Old Zhang didn't waste any more words.

………………

A quarter of an hour later, Lawyer An walked into the interrogation room.

Zhang Yanfeng stood at the door of the interrogation room, helping to keep watch. The higher-ups would find out soon, and the time inside wouldn't be too long.

Lawyer An glanced at the old Taoist when he came in. At first, he was smiling, but slowly, the smile on his face began to fade, replaced by a solemn expression.

He sat down,

Lawyer An waved his hand in front of the old Taoist,

"Do you recognize me?"

The old Taoist nodded and said, "Pervert lawyer."

Lawyer An frowned.

"Is he hypnotized, or has he fallen into an illusion?" Zhou Ze asked.

"He's been hypnotized," Lawyer An replied.

"Can you undo it now?" Zhou Ze pointed to the photocopy of the statement on the table and said, "If you don't undo it, he's going to turn this case into an ironclad one."

Lawyer An put his hands on the desk, crossing them constantly. "He recognizes you too, right?"

Zhou Ze nodded.

"Generally speaking, hypnosis is used to change a person's judgment by changing their subconscious. This is an advanced technique. The lower-level technique is to use a covering method, covering the original personality and thinking, and replacing it with a new personality and thinking.

For example,

Hypnotizing a person into a chicken.

But now his thinking is very clear, he can recognize me and you, and yet, he is still confessing the case..."

Lawyer An opened the statement and glanced at it.

"This proves that the person who hypnotized him is very powerful."

"Is it a person or a ghost?" Zhou Ze was eager to know this.

"It's hard to say. It's very likely not a person, but it could also be a person. Some powerful people's hypnosis methods are really miraculous.

It's hard to judge now.

I'll try first and see if I can help him break the hypnosis."

Lawyer An, who always liked to show off,

Was actually so humble this time,

And even used the words "try and see,"

Which was enough to show the seriousness of the situation,

Even exceeding Zhou Ze's original expectations.

Lawyer An put his arm down and hid his left hand in his sleeve. After all, this was a police station, and there were cameras, so he had to be careful in everything he did.

The flesh on his left hand began to slowly degenerate, revealing the white bone within.

Traces of pink smoke, invisible to the naked eye, began to permeate out,

Slowly enveloping the old Taoist, drilling into his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.

The old Taoist, who had been in a daze, suddenly froze,

Then, he sat up straight,

With his mouth open,

And his eyes closed.

Lawyer An also slowly closed his eyes,

And shouted:

"Old Taoist, open your eyes..."

………………

"Old Taoist, open your eyes!"

Lawyer An also opened his eyes,

He was in the darkness,

But soon, everything around him began to slowly appear.

In the narrow corridor,

The walls around were mottled.

Lawyer An frowned. Generally speaking, when he hypnotized people, he liked to design the scene in a club's private room, because it could make people feel comfortable and at ease. Of course, some hypnotists liked to design it on a beach, but it could only be said that everyone had different preferences.

But this time,

The scene was not designed by himself,

Which meant that,

The person who put the spell on the old Taoist was very capable, so capable that Lawyer An couldn't even pull out the old Taoist's consciousness.

In front of him was a door.

Lawyer An pushed open the door,

He saw the old Taoist curled up in the corner,

His body was trembling non-stop.

His face was pale,

His mouth was constantly exhaling white air, shivering.

"Old Taoist, Old Taoist!"

Lawyer An shouted.

But the old Taoist simply ignored him, just continuing to curl up there.

Next,

Lawyer An saw an old Taoist sitting at the dining table in the living room, drinking wine and eating dishes, chatting happily with someone who didn't exist across from him.

And in the kitchen,

The old Taoist was wearing an apron,

Cooking dishes,

The aroma of meat was overflowing.

Lawyer An walked inside and pushed open a room door.

Inside,

He saw the old Taoist standing next to the freezer, holding a knife in his hand, cutting something while muttering to himself:

"This piece is too lean, this piece is too fat, this piece is okay..."

Lawyer An continued to walk inside, to the freezer,

Looked down,

And found that the person lying in the freezer was also the old Taoist.

"Old Taoist, can you wake up?"

Lawyer An shouted.

Honestly,

Lawyer An was a little panicked now,

He had never seen this kind of hypnosis technique before.

The old Taoist standing next to the freezer with a knife heard this, and suddenly looked at Lawyer An beside him, while making a "hush" gesture to Lawyer An,

And said nervously:

"Shhh, be quiet, it's watching."

"Who's watching?" Lawyer An asked.

The old Taoist pointed to the top of his head,

Lawyer An looked up,

And saw that the ceiling of the room,

Was densely packed with eyes,

This was a scene that could make people with trypophobia collapse,

Most of the eyes were closed, as if they were dozing off;

Only a few eyes,

Were half-open...