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“Is that why you police officers captured me, a good citizen who always obeyed the law, at 9 o’clock at night and placed shackles on me?” Bai Liu raised his hand. The heavy silver shackles swayed before he lightly dismissed the question. “This surveillance video isn’t conclusive evidence at all.”
“Aren’t you too arbitrary when arresting people?”
Su Yang coughed awkwardly.
Indeed, this video was just intended to trick Bai Liu. It wasn’t core evidence that could be used to arrest people.
“I’m just a laid-off worker living in a cheap rental house.” Bai Liu said casually. “If I have something that could cure all diseases like you say, why would I feed these children for free? You have investigated me. You should know that I am short of money, right?”
Bai Liu’s financial situation really wasn’t good. If he got the blood ganoderma lucidum, why would he feed it to the children for no reason without taking credit? After all, normal people knew how much money they could make with this type of thing. Few people could resist this temptation, let alone Bai Liu who had been laid off for nearly a month.
An ordinary laid-off worker? Then why did Miao, who killed his son and committed suicide not long ago, shout you name in horror before cutting his throat?” Su Yang quickly regained his composure and continued pressing the remote control.
A new video appeared on the screen.
The screen showed Miao Gaojiang’s tired, crazy face. His eyeballs were sunken and his cheekbones were towering. He pointed a knife at his throat and there were messy blood stains at his feet. Miao Feichi’s corpse was lying not far away.
Someone called out, “Miao Gaojiang! Calm down first! Put the knife down!”
“Suicide won’t solve any problems! Control yourself first. If you have any problems that can’t be solved then talk to us police officers!”
Miao Gaojiang shook his head in horror. His hands and feet shook and he roared hoarsely and sharply, “I am dead! I was killed by Bai Liu!”
“This isn’t suicide. It is homicide.” Miao Gaojiang seemed very resistant to the knife in his hand. His forehead was taut and he kept trying to move the knife away, but his hand seemed to be out of his control. It plunged fiercely into the blood vessels of his neck and he collapsed with a scream, “It was him who killed me!”
“Bai Liu! Bai Liu! Bai Liu and that statue are my killers!”
Blood sprayed out from the artery onto the ceiling. Miao Gaojiang stared with red eyes as fell in a pool of blood, the knife stuck in his neck.
The video froze on the image of Miao Gaojiang on the ground. Su Yang  turned to Bai Liu. “Do you have anything to say?”
“I have nothing to say.” Bai Liu’s expression didn’t change and his heart didn’t jump. His eyes were filled with realistic confusion. “Policeman comrade, I don’t know this person. Wasn’t this person on the news? Didn’t he commit suicide? You filmed the whole process of his suicide. What does it have to do with me?”
“He yelled your name before he died.” Su Yang looked at Bai Liu and emphasized. “He said it is a homicide and that you killed him. This is probably the death message that Comrade Miao left us.”
“So Comrade Miao’s death became a homicide due to his words?”  Bai Liu smiled at Su Yang. “Vice-captain Su, you forced me like this and my psychological state is very fragile. If I can’t bear the pressure you put on me and commit suicide while calling you name, doesn’t this mean that you are the murderer who killed me?”
Su Yang slowly let out a breath. He didn’t pick up on Bai Liu’s words or else he would be following Bai Liu’s rhythm.
Bai Liu was more cunning and adaptable than he thought. He really seemed like an ordinary person like his resume.
“Of course, I don’t mean that but you indeed look suspicious, Comrade Bai Liu.” Su Yang shifted the topic back.
“Don’t you police officers have to give evidence?” Bai Liu looked leisurely at Su Yang. “Apart from looking suspicious, is there any evidence that I killed this Miao?”
Bai Liu returned the word ‘look.’
Su Yang was silent again.
Bai Liu and Miao Gaojiang had no communication. They had never met and there was no overlap in their life experiences. They were completely unrelated. This made Miao Gaojiang shouting Bai Liu’s name before he died even stranger. Due to this, the case was moved to the Dangerous Heretics Bureau.
Yet apart from Miao Gaojiang’s dying message, there was really no evidence in this case.
Bai Liu asked calmly, “So there really is no evidence. Then I don’t understand. In the absence of any evidence, how can you use such means like capturing me here for questioning? This isn’t in line with my common sense of the law.”
Su Yang and Bai Liu were tired. After looking at each other like they hadn’t woken up, Su Yang sighed helplessly like his conscience was finally found. He took out another small bottle from his chest pocket and put it on the table in front of Bai Liu.
There was a pink gas floating in the small bottle like a universe formed by broken stars. It glistened in the small bottle and looked very beautiful.
Bai Liu’s eyes moved slightly. This was very similar to the pink smoke he had seen in his dream when Tawil had broken apart.
“This is the gas perfume that is sold on the Internet and has been very hot recently.” Su Yang looked at this pink bottle filled with a girly and dreamy air. “There is a type of refreshing substance in it. It is said that as long as this is sprayed on your body, you can maintain a high level of work throughout the day. Thus, this perfume is used by many companies as air freshener in the company. It has other nicknames such as ‘gas coffee’ and ‘love work’.”
“Then recently, we found that if companies that use the perfume on a large scale decide to stop using it or replace it, the employees will show certain symptoms of madness.” Su Yang paused for a moment before continuing. “The strange thing is that the perfume was tested with all known instruments and no harmful ingredients could be detected. It is completely in line with the perfume manufacturing and sales standards. We found it was wrong so we took over the case and transferred some of the employees here for treatment and research.”
“After repeated testing, it was found that the symptoms of these employees are very similar to withdrawal symptoms.”
Bai Liu’s eyes fell on the little bottle and he understood what Su Yang meant.
“We defined this perfume as a new type of gas opium and prepared to force these employees to go through mandatory withdrawal.” Su Yang took a deep breath. “Then something went wrong with the withdrawal.”
Su Yang pressed the remote control, changing it a few times before finally bringing up a video.
In the video, a middle-aged man with bulging eyeballs kept attacking and howling. His face was the same pink as the gas in the small bottle. The veins on his forehead bulged as he hit his head against the wall. Someone came in to tie him to a chair but he quickly tore himself free again.
Soon, the man let out a shrill scream and strange changes took place. A withering rose clearly appeared in the man’s pupil. Then his flesh and blood started to dry and blacken, peeling from him like withered rose petals. Finally, there was only a pile of clothes and an incredible white skeleton sitting on the chair. Then it scattered.
A noisy background sound was heard in the video.
“...A CEDT-0756 contaminated object tried to quit for 6 days, 17 hours and 56 minutes but failed...”
The video ended.
Su Yang didn’t look at the screen and his voice was slightly dry. “We used many methods and found there was no way to keep these employees alive except to let them keep using the perfume called Rose Dry Leaf Gas...”
“Otherwise, they will wither.”
Su Yang was quiet for a while.
“The production and sales chain of this type of thing must not exist but it was too late by the time we discovered it...” Su Yang smiled bitterly and picked up the rose colored bottle. “Do you know how many times this thing has been sold on the Internet in a month? It is hundreds of thousands and it will double every month. So many people are using this thing. If it is suspended...”
“So what?” Bai Liu was unmoved. “Vice-captain Su, this thing you mentioned has nothing to do with me? You can’t solve this even if you catch me.”
Su Yang stared straight at Bai Liu. “No, you have a way to solve it.”
He stood up and leaned forward to stare into Bai Liu’s eyes. “Our captain said that you are a monster who can solve all evil things in the world. As long as you are caught, these crazy things will stop pouring into our world.”
At this sentence, Bai Liu slightly raised an eyebrow with surprise.