How You Can Sue Me for My Crimes in Dreams

The information is wrong...

The moment those words were spoken, everyone present realized the gravity of the situation.

For example, imagine you’re told the answer is 66, but the only numbers you’re allowed to use are 1 and 1. How could you possibly arrive at that answer?

In other words, it was highly likely...

that the police had been investigating in the wrong direction for a day and a half!

Li Jianye’s eyes narrowed. He took the file and scanned the information inside again and again.

A man in his forties, born in the sixties, probably wouldn’t know what a cocktail was.

But he knew what bars and nightclubs were!

To get this drunk in a place like that...

Li Jianye’s eyes kept scanning until they finally landed on the word ”honest.”

”This...” His throat bobbed. He never imagined that the information they’d gotten from the deceased’s neighbors and elders could be wrong...

And so catastrophically wrong that it led the entire investigation in the wrong direction!

If that was the case, then a day and a half of police work had been wasted. Besides, if even the information about their personalities was wrong, what else in this file could possibly be true?

”Remember this point, but don’t get bogged down in it.”

Xu Huo said nothing. His expression was placid as he observed the bodies on the ground. Then, as if struck by a thought, he added:

”I have a few questions. Take these down for now.”

Chu Xi nodded hastily.

”First, the crosses. Why did the killer tie them to the victims? Is he a religious man?”

”Second, common sense dictates that a killer will dispose of a body by either ’dumping it far or burying it near.’ But no matter the method, it always comes down to one thing: hiding.”

Xu Huo glanced at the crowd of onlookers who were lingering, unwilling to disperse.

”But in this case, why at a busy crossroads!?”

”There’s even a traffic police post here. The moment dawn breaks, the bodies are guaranteed to be discovered. Why did he insist on leaving them here?”

After a murder, the first impulse is to hide the body, or to flee.

But the killer clearly did neither. He chose a third option.

Putting the bodies out in front of everyone!

It defied common sense, and it defied the logic of a typical murder case.

Xu Huo didn’t pause. As he continued to speak, all the officers’ minds raced.

”Whenever you see a cross, you can’t separate it from Jesus and the Bible.”

”In the Bible, the cross represents the suffering of Jesus, the instrument of his atonement for humanity’s sins.”

”So why would this object appear on the victims?”

An officer with a name tag that read ”Zhao Shui” frowned, thought for a moment, and said:

”The killer is atoning? No... the victims are atoning!?”

”The victims are atoning for humanity?”

”That’s not right either. Human beings are complex creatures. Our actions are judged as good or evil by human morality. Outside of that framework, there is no right or wrong, only simple ’action’,” Li Jianye mused, his brow furrowed.

Any concept of good and evil is heavily colored by subjective judgment. The only exception might be a butcher who kills for pleasure, but if you take them out of human society, their actions mean nothing in the animal kingdom.

”It’s not about ’you, me, or them’ in the general sense.”

Xu Huo spoke, not offering a fixed line of reasoning, but rather fitting the pieces into a model.

”Put yourself in the killer’s shoes. If he isn’t atoning for his own sins, then that only leaves ’you’ or ’them’.”

”Captain Li’s words have eliminated the ’them’ in the killer’s eyes—that is, people unrelated to the case.”

”Which leaves... ’you’.”

Who is the ’you’ in the killer’s eyes?

Everyone subconsciously looked at the four bodies on the ground.

”If the cross truly represents atonement, then the killer’s meaning is...”

Zhao Shui paused, a look of astonishment on his face. ”He’s making the victims atone for their own sins!?”

In that instant, with those words, the nature of the case shifted once again.

If, in the killer’s eyes, the victims were guilty, then...

”The victims committed a crime?” Li Jianye’s brow furrowed. ”There’s no record of them committing any crimes in the police files...”

”What crime did they commit!?”

Xu Huo waved his hand dismissively. He paused, then changed the subject. ”Who knows.”

”Just remember this point: [In the killer’s eyes, the victims are suspected of being guilty].”

”Now for the second question.”

”Why... after the murders, did the killer place the four bodies at a crossroads?”

This place has heavy foot traffic. The purpose of coming here was clearly to be seen.

But... what kind of murderer, after killing, would display the bodies for everyone to see!?

”Why?” Li Jianye frowned. He had never encountered such an illogical case before.

”Captain Li, what did you say just a moment ago?” Xu Huo asked.

”I asked...”

”The sentence before that.”

Li Jianye thought for a moment, then said: ”There’s no record of the victims committing any crimes in the police files.”

”Correct. No record means the police didn’t find any evidence of the victims’ crimes.”

Xu Huo nodded. ”Now, let’s apply that logic in reverse. If A is greater than B, then B must be less than A.”

Li Jianye paused, instantly understanding his meaning, and spoke subconsciously.

”The police didn’t discover the victims’ crime, so the perpetrators got away. The reverse of that is...”

”A killer commits a crime and gets away, paying no price, because the police never found them!!”

A look of shock spread across Li Jianye’s face.

Looked at this way, from the killer’s perspective...

”The prerequisites are met, enough information has been gathered. The next step is...”

”Deductive reasoning.”

Xu Huo said immediately. Deductive reasoning, in this context, meant gathering a large amount of information, then psychologically simulating the target’s mindset to uncover further clues.

”Assume I am the killer.”

”Some years ago, four youths broke into my home. They did something to me, and it’s highly likely someone died—my parents, for example.”

”Afterward, not only did they avoid prison, they might not have received any punishment at all.”

”In that situation, what would happen inside the mind of a person, a normal person?”

Xu Huo’s voice reached everyone’s ears. Throats went dry. They fell silent.

”Rage. Absolute rage...” Chu Xi replied.

”Yes, rage. And so the crime occurred. I killed the four of them to get my revenge.”

”But, from the moment they escaped justice, my hatred was no longer just about simple revenge.”

Xu Huo spoke again, slightly adjusting his tone, immersing himself in that state of mind.

”My hatred also extended to... the police.”

The moment the scales of justice tipped, even a small matter could fuel an infinitely growing rage!

The sense of being wronged, the obsession... If the four victims had been brought to justice back then, the killer would never have risked his life to murder them.

And now, he, the original ”victim,” had to face the judgment of the law himself!

”I feel wronged. I can’t accept it. I’m furious. I hate the perpetrators who scurried away like rats, and I also hate the police for failing to uncover the crimes they committed against me!”

”So, I killed them. I mutilated their bodies, desecrated their corpses. But that wasn’t enough, so...”

”I dragged these escaped rats to the most crowded place possible. This time...”

Xu Huo gazed at the surroundings. This was the busiest crossroads in the area.

Tens of thousands of people passed through here every day. The surrounding shops started getting busy at four-thirty in the morning.

This location was the exact opposite of what would be needed to hide a crime. It put this killer in direct opposition to the killers in every case they had encountered before!

Those killers wanted to hide the bodies; this killer wanted to expose them!

”This time, these rats won’t get away.”

Xu Huo ran through the logic in his head. He lowered his gaze to the four kneeling corpses, their faces frozen in fear.

”Just like this.”

People from the Eastern Country place great importance on the posture of kneeling, even having a saying: ’A man has gold beneath his knees.’

Kneeling is a sign of shame. Unless forced, one only kneels to heaven and earth, ruler, parents, and teacher. Other than that, one only kneels after committing a wrongdoing!

Conversely, the concept of ’standing tall’ is also clear, embodied by the proverb: ’An upright body need not fear a crooked shadow.’

And in this case, to the killer, perhaps... these four bodies were the real criminals. The real murderers!

”It’s obvious. This is a revenge killing.”

Xu Huo took a deep breath, composing himself slightly.

”A revenge killing fueled by incandescent rage!”

A revenge killing...

Not a cult killing, not a crime of passion, but a revenge killing!

Li Jianye swallowed hard, his gaze slightly dazed as he stared at the bodies.

The bodies were covered in wounds.

The killer must have gripped the knife tightly, using all his strength, stabbing again, and again, and again, and again... until a body was just a mangled mess of flesh and blood.

As if he wanted to drive his arm straight through the body!

The wounds looked like they were stuffed with ground meat...

Even separated by an unknown distance and the passage of time,

at this moment, they could still feel that monstrous hatred... and that endless, boundless rage!!!

And the source of it all might have been a single instance of police incompetence.

Li Jianye was silent for a long, long time before he suddenly spoke.

”What... did they do?”

The contradictory witness statements...

The heavy stench of alcohol...

The killer, consumed by overwhelming hatred...

At the sound of his voice, the others snapped back to reality. They looked at Xu Huo, their expressions somber, their hands unconsciously clenching into fists.

”Before they died, the deceased...”

Li Jianye took a deep breath and, in a heavy voice, asked again.

”What in God’s name did they do to the killer!?”