When Fu Hao arrived, he saw Lin Chen drinking tea. He was covered with a thin blanket, and his hair wasn’t dry yet.

As soon as Professor Fu stepped into the cold dormitory and saw the surrounding white walls and the lonely wooden table, he couldn’t stop himself from running to the bedside and said to Lin Chen, “Brother, this isn’t a place you should stay.”

Lin Chen just looked at him and said nothing.

“Move in with me!”

This time, the one who looked at him was Captain Xing.

Although Fu Hao didn’t understand why Cong Lian was looking at him, he clearly felt impatience in his gaze.

To put it simply: What the hell are you talking about!

Fu Hao thought Cong Lian was scolding him for disrupting Lin Chen’s thinking, so he immediately shut up and sat down, paying no mind to the cold ground.

Lin Chen didn’t speak. Fu Hao contemplated for a long while then tentatively opened his mouth.

“Maybe it wasn’t a serial killer after all?”

Lin Chen nodded, “There’s no evidence that these people died of homicide.”

Cautiously weighing his words, Cong Lian sat beside him and said, “This morning, the Forensic Department reported the rings in the park were damaged manually.”

Fu Hao looked at Cong Lian, silently asking, and why didn’t you say so earlier, while the captain feigned innocent, “I didn’t have time to mention it.”

“Homicide and non-homicide were mixed together. It complicates things, do you understand?” Professor Fu was angry. “Was there any of the sand detected near the park? And if there was, these cases could be jointly investigated.”

“That’s not necessary.” Lin Chen suddenly interrupted their argument.

“Why not?”

“There’s no need to go to such great lengths to find something small in the larger concept.”

“You mean the sand?”

Lin Chen nodded. “It’s the only thing linking the cases together, isn’t it? Let’s say they are connected, then we have a problem…” Lin Chen’s head tilted down, and he asked: “Why sand?”

Lin Chen asked why use sand.

And Fu Hao thought, if he or his mother knew, the case would’ve been solved already!

But of course, he wouldn’t be rude to Lin Chen so he could only look for possible answers, “The sand, there’s a special meaning to it?”

“Good.” Lin Chen nodded, encouraging him to continue.

“In Buddhism, there are words like ‘Ganges Sand’ or ‘One sand, one world, one leaf, one Bodhi.’ But like you said, the sand used is special. It’s the sand used in therapy so…”

“So it’s hard to figure out what exactly the sand represents?” Lin Chen, seemingly able to read Fu Hao’s thoughts, interrupted.

“Well, Teacher explained sand therapy simply before. We let the patient play freely with the sand to reflect their subconscious… This is hard, is the criminal playing a game?”, Fu Hao said.

Lin Chen looked at Fu Hao with a touch of approval. He then got up and pushed open a closed door.

As the door slowly opened, a huge sky-blue sand table was revealed.

The sea of sand was vast as if there was a whole new world in the room. That delicate, snow-white sand was piled up. It made people find it boundless.

On the other side of the wooden panel, there were pocket-sized toys along one entire wall.

There were all kinds of dolls, miniature everyday items, bright and shiny models, and even architectural models…

Fu Hao and Cong Lian stood next to each other, feeling insignificant.

“Do you remember the sand the criminal placed at the body’s side?” Lin Chen asked.

Cong Lian squeezed in front of Fu Hao, so naturally, the question was directed at him.

“Of course I do.”

“We speculated on the motive, and why the criminal placed the sand there, but on the contrary, we can already guess their mental state from their actions.”

Lin Chen took a small male doll from the wooden panel and placed it on the table, “Imagine, if he regarded the whole city as a game of sand table and was placing his toys in it, then by using sand therapy theory, we can reverse the process and guess his psychological state.”

“So, the more they do, the more exposed they are?”

Instead of answering, Lin Chen pushed away the sand with his hands.

In the vast sea of sand, there was a huge void of blue. “First of all, the distance between the crime scenes, regardless of time, were far apart, and there was no pre-set condition to this. The information they gave was ‘empty.’”

While talking, he placed another two dolls far apart on the table. “Second, since the behavior was disorderly, they must have lost some sort of support. Their heart is in chaos.”

Lin Chen paid no heed to the expression of the two people behind him and grabbed a handful of sand. Then scattering it bit by bit, some covered the dolls. “Finally…” Lin Chen slowly said, “Death.”

“What death?” Xing Cong Lian and Fu Hao asked in unison.

Lin Chen didn’t immediately answer. He looked at the table in front of him and said, “Death is a narrow yet broad concept, but there’s no doubt that there was an atmosphere of death beneath the stretcher in the morgue, on that street, and even in that park, which the criminal deliberately created. They wanted people to fear and tremble in the face of death. This fear will gradually amplify and intensify… And from this, we can speculate that…”

“That what?”

“If I were to analyze their sand table, then I would say they’re terrified of death subconsciously. Maybe a close relative died, or perhaps they have experienced trauma. In short, death has brought them extreme pain…” Lin Chen concluded, his eyes squinted.

……

It’s impressive, but quite weird, very much so…

This was Cong Lian’s feelings from beginning to end. Lin Chen only fiddled with the sand a few times and made a series of deduction. From a rational point of view, everything Lin Chen said was too abstruse and didn’t seem to have any impact on solving the case.

But from an irrational point of view, he felt that everything Lin Chen said seemed very reasonable.

The point here was that he actually believed it.

It was near evening, just 48 hours after the riot at the market.

Because he stayed up all night and had spent too much energy, Lin Chen was very tired. He changed into dry clothing and fell asleep the minute he was in bed.

Professor Fu wanted to stay, but he was dragged away by Cong Lian.

In fact, Xing Cong Lian also didn’t want to leave.

He had already ignored the director’s calls all afternoon. It was near time to clock out anyway, and he really didn’t want to go back to the office.

The old director still drank tea in his office.

When his subordinate rushed back, he first motioned for him to close the door properly then take a seat.

Cong Lian had just returned, so he had no time to inquire about the situation. He searched for clues in the director’s wrinkled face and that smooth head of his.

“I heard you took Lin Chen to the hospital?” The director took a sip of his tea and asked.

“Yes, I did.” Cong Lian replied casually.

The director stared at this subordinate of his with knives in his gaze. The young man just sat on the sofa nonchalantly, as if he hadn’t done anything wrong. 

“What did I tell you this morning!”

“To not let him participate in the investigation.”

“So why don’t you listen?”

“Because your reasons didn’t convince me. Or what, you’re afraid you will be reported?” Cong Lian sniffed and took out a cigarette carton from his pocket. However, because of the heavy rain, the cigarettes inside were damp and he, in turn, got a little angry, “I receive this kind of report every day on my desk. Someone told us not to let Lin Chen participate in the investigation, and we listen. Where does this evil force come from?”

“Evil force your fart!”

“Then how about you tell me who gave that order, and I will write a complaint letter and expose him?”

“Are you questioning the integrity of our force?”

“What’s that? Will we drag out the bullying tyrant?” Cong Lian rubbed his beard then his whole face and laughed.

The director was no longer able to stand Cong Lian’s demeanor, “Do you know who that is? You know nothing at all!”

Being yelled at so suddenly, Cong Lian was stunned, and he didn’t know how to retort.

Yes, he and Lin Chen only knew each other for one day, and Lin Chen was the silent type. The words they’d exchanged was maybe a hundred sentences.

Even Fu Hao knew more about Lin Chen than he did. No matter how you look at it, he was only an acquaintance with Lin Chen.

He looked at the director and said seriously, “Then can you tell me about him?”

The director was shocked.

At his subordinate’s sincere eyes full of expectation and even a little sadness, he picked up the teacup and drank aggressively to restrain the impulse to spill the story.

“You have a good relationship with him.” The director smiled and continued, “So ask him yourself.”

When you really want to know something, but the people who were in the know kept their silence about it, you will feel like you’re going crazy.

Xing Cong Lian ruffled his hair exasperatedly then stood up, angry, ready to leave.

His hand was on the doorknob when he heard the director’s question, “Have you ever heard of  Chen’s Consortium?”

“That real estate company that seems very rich?”

“Not very rich, it’s awfully rich.”

“Is it that great to have money? My family also has money.” The young policeman with messy hair threw out this sentence.