Muchuan And Xiang Wan

That sounded deeply uneasy.

Tormented.

A name… that he couldn"t bring himself to hear.

He felt like he was thrown into a net and was corroded by a plague-like virus.

When he heard that name, he would feel like his blood would flow reversely, and his muscles would stiffen out of control.

"Aye!" Zhan Se sighed. "You lost. You have told me the answer."

"I didn"t!" An Ying bawled and sprang up from the chair.

The suffocating feeling in his heart was no longer there. He suddenly realized something; his eyes widened and looked at Zhan Se, who had a half-smile on her face.

Zhan Se arranged the doc.u.ments on the table and returned to Xiang Wan.

"We got the answer. It"s definitely him!"

Click! The lights came on.

The room was suddenly bright, burning bright.

An Ying suddenly awakened from his trance. His face was now ashen like a ghost.

"You…"

After a momentary silence, he looked like a wounded beast who suddenly wanted to dash towards them.

"I"ll fight it out with all of you!"

Thud! At the next moment, he fell to the ground heavily…

In the end, he overestimated his ability and underestimated the restraining power of the legcuffs.

Bai Muchuan rose from his seat and held his chest and started to cough. He had been suppressing himself not to cough for a long time.

"Cough… Cough, cough…"

…

The door to the interrogation room opened and closed.

It was around noon when the few of them walked out of the detention center.

The sun was s.h.i.+ning brightly to the point where the earth looked like a golden nugget.

It was not raining.

There was never a rain, to begin with…

"Senior Zhan, you"re really good."

When they hopped on the car, Xiang Wan gave her a thumbs up to Zhan Se.

Zhan Se smiled, ma.s.saged her temples a little, and leaned against the seat. She seemed a little worn out. "It"s because all of you played your parts well. Also, this person is not that strong mentally. Otherwise, this would have been futile…"

"He"s not mentally strong? I"ve thought that people like him are the hardest to succ.u.mb to such tactics."

"It"s actually the opposite." Zhan Se smiled at her. "People with psychological trauma and people with a mental illness or disorder belonged to the group of people that could be most easily hypnotized. Wei Gang felt that he had been wronged and jailed for the wrong reasons over what happened at the Special Training School. Also, all those incidents that happened when he was jailed turned his emotional state into something warped and weak. When he entered the detention center again, he became something like an arrow at the end of its flight."

Xiang Wan nodded and listened attentively.

"That makes sense. So is what happened today, considered hypnosis?"

Zhan Se chuckled. "It"s not."

Eh? It"s not? Thought Xiang Wan.

She was perplexed.

"It"s just what I"ve told him. He"s in a state of light trance." Zhan Se explained slowly, "Well, he was simply being led into a state of mind that we have planned for him. The trap started right at the beginning when I asked you to play the recording of a rainstorm. That was to control his feelings about the environment, so he could be led into the mood that we wanted. Consequently, each time you both mentioned the time, it increased the amount of fear and uneasiness in him…"

The arrival of a good hypnotist would come.

It would mean that it could be difficult for him to keep the secret.

Whenever they "reminded" him the time every five minutes, the amount of fear would increase by a notch.

A raining and dim environment would affect the resistance in a person"s mind.

It was the same when people were in a dark environment, they tend to be more sensitive and vulnerable compared to when it was bright.

All of these played a significant role in getting An Ying in a state of light trance.

What she did was to give him a push—

"In fact, even till the end, he was not hypnotized, although he couldn"t control his emotions."

"I get it now!" Xiang Wan mulled over it and gave a simpler a.n.a.logy. "It"s just like when I read a novel or watch a drama series, sometimes, I would be so engrossed and fascinated by it that I will laugh or cry with it. It felt like I"m in their world, and my mood changes according to what the characters were feeling. Although I might be temporarily engrossed and would lose touch of the real world, that doesn"t mean it hypnotized me…"

"Correct!"

Zhan Se laughed in appreciation of her a.n.a.logy.

"Your a.n.a.logy is more accurate than my explanation."

Xiang Wan smiled, but at the next moment, she looked serious. "I still find it hard to believe that Ye Lun is the son of An Ying! Isn"t he a child star? Didn"t An Ying"s son go abroad when he was small?"

Zhan Se shrugged her shoulders. "Well, that means Little Bai has a lot of investigation to do."

Bai Muchuan had been on the phone.

Just before they left the detention center, he had issued an order to Quan Shaoteng.

He wanted him to bring Ye Lun back to Serious Crime Division One.

Xiang Wan talked to Zhan Se since Bai Muchuan was busy.

"If Ye Lun is really An Ying"s son, then this could explain many things."

Zhan Se replied, "Such as?"

"For instance, he would be linked to Xie Wanwan in another aspect. Back then, Xie Wanwan was a student in that Special Training School while An Ying was one of the instructors. Xie Wanwan got violated while she was in that school. An Ying got sentenced to jail, his reputation was tarnished, and his wife and son got implicated… All these are related through cause and effect."

Zhan Se nodded. "If so, from Ye Lun"s point of view, he"s also a victim."

"Yeah," answered Xiang Wan, "his father was jailed with the charges of statutory rape, and he experienced how people gave him the cold shoulder or even spurned upon. All these would affect his mental well being. These like the shadows that formed in the critical period of a child"s development and would follow him forever—"

This world was never gentle.

Among the gentle winds and drizzles, there were always some winds that cut like knives.

There were many unfortunate people around.

Rather, there were always some difficulties in everyone"s life.

Perhaps the only difference was, in the face of adversity, the people were the ones beside them.

Those who had parents who loved them and people who adored them would not collapse easily since they had their loved ones" support.

However, what if they had no one—?

What kind of situation would that be?

Xiang Wan suddenly let out a cold s.h.i.+ver.

Could it be that Ye Lun did not leave the country at all but encountered some other incidents?

Zhan Se stroked her wrist. "Looks like those celebrity tabloids couldn"t be trusted."

Those personal pieces of information about Ye Lun that were being publicized were pretty impressive.

His family was well-off; he became famous since young, and his life was smooth sailing, apart from a lack of iconic drama or show that people could identify with, which made people criticize him. So far, he was a favored presence that had many fans. He seemed to have never worked really hard for something in his life but had everything that countless people would envy.

"Life doesn"t move the way you want nine out of ten times."

When Xiang Wan made that statement, Zhan Se giggled in amus.e.m.e.nt.

"But that doesn"t seem to apply to you?"

"Uh! I"m just making the best out of my current life…" Xiang Wan blinked at her then peered for a glance at Bai Muchuan when she was baffled for a moment.

He was talking on the phone. She was unsure what the other party had said, but he was pulling a long face while looking grim and displeased.

"Follow her closely, and don"t let her run freely about!"

"This is a critical moment. We can"t afford any mistakes!"

Both Xiang Wan and Zhan Se remained silent.

When he hung up the phone, Xiang Wan asked, "What happened?"

Bai Muchuan was sitting on the front pa.s.senger seat. He didn"t turn back but continued to look before him. He instructed Ding Yifan to increase the driving speed before replying to her. "Tang Yuanchu just reported that Xie Wanwan received CEO Song"s call, and she insisted that she needed to go out to meet him. He couldn"t stop her."

Eh?

CEO Song?

It"s that man who would be able to get "The Grey List" a broadcasting schedule smoothly? She thought.

Xiang Wan raised her eyebrows and smiled. "If I were you, I would have told her directly that there"s no point looking up CEO Song now."

Once they obtain conclusive evidence that Ye Lun was An Ying"s son and that he was related to Operation Heaven"s Wrath, "The Grey List" would most probably not get a broadcasting schedule, ever…