Chapter 58: Three Key Questions
"It's extremely disturbing that He Shouye, who despised children, later became the director of an orphanage. He personally funded the adoption of abandoned infants and orphans on a large scale, which is highly abnormal and terrifying. We were curious why He Shouye made such a decision, so we conducted a personality simulation test to understand his psychological distortion." Li Xue mentioned a term that Han Fei had never heard before—personality simulation test.
"We tried hundreds of models, and the final conclusion was that He Shouye, in his extreme aversion to children, chose to become the director of an orphanage. This abnormal behaviour was stimulated by some external factor."
"Based on the advice of numerous criminal psychology experts, we organized all the notes and artifacts left by He Shouye and eventually discovered some issues."
"After his own child died, He Shouye changed completely. His tone of speech, his preferences, and his personality were all different from before."
"He started reading a lot of books about the spiritual world and philosophy. He often locked himself in his room and occasionally went out alone late at night, as if he was searching for something."
"We interviewed many children who grew up in the orphanage, and most of them had a very positive impression of the director. They were grateful for his care. However, a small number of children found the director strange and often asked them incomprehensible questions."
"For example, whether they dreamt of someone standing by their bed late at night, whether they saw a black box in their dreams, whether they dreamt of a butterfly falling on someone's head, and so on."
"He Shouye seemed to be searching for a special child. He searched for a long time but couldn't find one, so he wanted to create a child that met his requirements. This child should be the eighth victim of the body puzzle."
"No one knows what his criteria are. No one knows why a murdered child would meet his requirements."
"He seems to be performing some kind of ritual and being guided by something."
"Throughout the transformation of his personality, there is a term that appeared more frequently in his notes—butterfly."
"In the latter part of his life, the butterfly not only represents a living creature but also holds some kind of symbolic meaning."
"The same situation happened to Meng Changxi as well. We searched his belongings and some hidden information. Before he went missing, Meng Changxi, like He Shouye, was reading extensively about the human brain and was obsessed with butterflies, constantly pursuing them."
"In other words, there is some commonality between Meng Changxi and He Shouye, and the butterfly is the bridge that connects them."
After hearing this, Han Fei couldn't help but interrupt Li Xue: "Meng Changxi has been missing for so long. Is it possible that his belongings and the information left behind are forged? Or is it someone else deliberately framing him?"
Han Fei had met Meng Shi and knew that it was Meng Changan, not Meng Changxi, who was truly obsessed with those books and lured by butterflies.
"It would be difficult to forge the belongings. The forger would have to imitate Meng Changxi's handwriting, know all his social media account passwords, and, most importantly, who would spend several years setting up all of this?"
"If I were the real culprit, I would do these things. Once things were exposed, it would be my way out." Han Fei didn't want to beat around the bush and lowered his voice, saying, "Compared to Meng Changxi, you should really pay more attention to Meng Changan. That seemingly harmless guy might even dare to kill his own adoptive mother."
After Han Fei finished speaking, he suddenly heard a sound behind him.
He reacted quickly, but even so, when he turned his head, he only saw a rolling beverage bottle at the corner of the old street.
"Is someone there?" Han Fei had learned a lot from his recent readings, and although he showed no change on the surface, he spoke into his phone, "Li Xue, it seems like someone is following me. They probably overheard what I was saying."
"Where are you now?"
"At the entrance of the filming location for 'Flower of Evil.' The family members of the body puzzle victims are also here."
"Don't go home yet. Come directly to the North Street New World Shopping Mall. It's crowded there. I'll come over immediately."
"Alright."
After casually hanging up the phone, Han Fei didn't take any transportation. He leisurely made his way to the mall as usual.
He didn't feel the sensation of being followed. Han Fei wandered around the mall for a long time but couldn't find Li Xue. It was almost dark when he received another call from her.
Several police officers were keeping a close eye on Han Fei through the surveillance cameras. Everything was normal.
Han Fei didn't meet with the police, and they didn't mistake him for the situation this time. Instead, they unanimously decided to strengthen Han Fei's protection.
As a relatively unknown comedian, Han Fei had never been followed before. This time, he experienced the feeling of being followed and secretly filmed, like what big celebrities go through, except that the ones following him might be fugitives.
After buying enough food for a week at the mall and specifically purchasing a few large locks, Han Fei returned to his rented small house.
Closing the door, Han Fei had a simple meal and then added new locks to the door and windows.
"Now
it should be safe."
He placed various self-defence items he had ordered online within reach and practiced the combat moves that Li Xue taught him. Afterward, he started flipping through the books he had purchased online, the ones Meng Changan had read when he was young.
It wasn't until almost midnight that he rubbed his eyes, put down the book in his hand, and said, "Among the questions that He Shouye asked the children, there are two that we need to pay attention to: whether they dreamt of a black box and whether they dreamt of a butterfly falling on someone's head."
Li Xue didn't play games, so she didn't know about the Easter egg regarding the black box in "Perfect Life." However, Han Fei was different. He had just talked about it with Huang Ying.
"Could it be that they are looking for the black box in my mind? But 'Perfect Life' wasn't even released ten years ago. Could it be that the black box came first, and then the game 'Perfect Life' was created?"
"With He Shouye and the others targeting orphans and abandoned babies, could they be looking for someone who can contain the black box?"
Han Fei looked at the game headset on the table. There was one piece of information he hadn't told Li Xue, that he himself was an orphan.
He didn't grow up in the North Street Orphanage in Xinhu Old City like Meng Changxi did, but in a place called Happiness Welfare Institution in the old city area.
The orphanage he was in had given him a sense of family. It was lively during holidays, and everyone was happy and content. It felt like being part of a big family. However, at a certain point in time, everything changed.
"I haven't even made you laugh, and I've lost my own smile. Life is truly full of unexpected twists and turns."
Connecting all the lines properly, Han Fei dispelled the distractions in his mind. As midnight arrived, he put on the game headset.
Crimson descended, and the world in Han Fei's eyes was instantly dyed red.
"We tried hundreds of models, and the final conclusion was that He Shouye, in his extreme aversion to children, chose to become the director of an orphanage. This abnormal behaviour was stimulated by some external factor."
"Based on the advice of numerous criminal psychology experts, we organized all the notes and artifacts left by He Shouye and eventually discovered some issues."
"After his own child died, He Shouye changed completely. His tone of speech, his preferences, and his personality were all different from before."
"He started reading a lot of books about the spiritual world and philosophy. He often locked himself in his room and occasionally went out alone late at night, as if he was searching for something."
"We interviewed many children who grew up in the orphanage, and most of them had a very positive impression of the director. They were grateful for his care. However, a small number of children found the director strange and often asked them incomprehensible questions."
"For example, whether they dreamt of someone standing by their bed late at night, whether they saw a black box in their dreams, whether they dreamt of a butterfly falling on someone's head, and so on."
"He Shouye seemed to be searching for a special child. He searched for a long time but couldn't find one, so he wanted to create a child that met his requirements. This child should be the eighth victim of the body puzzle."
"No one knows what his criteria are. No one knows why a murdered child would meet his requirements."
"He seems to be performing some kind of ritual and being guided by something."
"Throughout the transformation of his personality, there is a term that appeared more frequently in his notes—butterfly."
"In the latter part of his life, the butterfly not only represents a living creature but also holds some kind of symbolic meaning."
"The same situation happened to Meng Changxi as well. We searched his belongings and some hidden information. Before he went missing, Meng Changxi, like He Shouye, was reading extensively about the human brain and was obsessed with butterflies, constantly pursuing them."
"In other words, there is some commonality between Meng Changxi and He Shouye, and the butterfly is the bridge that connects them."
After hearing this, Han Fei couldn't help but interrupt Li Xue: "Meng Changxi has been missing for so long. Is it possible that his belongings and the information left behind are forged? Or is it someone else deliberately framing him?"
Han Fei had met Meng Shi and knew that it was Meng Changan, not Meng Changxi, who was truly obsessed with those books and lured by butterflies.
"It would be difficult to forge the belongings. The forger would have to imitate Meng Changxi's handwriting, know all his social media account passwords, and, most importantly, who would spend several years setting up all of this?"
"If I were the real culprit, I would do these things. Once things were exposed, it would be my way out." Han Fei didn't want to beat around the bush and lowered his voice, saying, "Compared to Meng Changxi, you should really pay more attention to Meng Changan. That seemingly harmless guy might even dare to kill his own adoptive mother."
After Han Fei finished speaking, he suddenly heard a sound behind him.
He reacted quickly, but even so, when he turned his head, he only saw a rolling beverage bottle at the corner of the old street.
"Is someone there?" Han Fei had learned a lot from his recent readings, and although he showed no change on the surface, he spoke into his phone, "Li Xue, it seems like someone is following me. They probably overheard what I was saying."
"Where are you now?"
"At the entrance of the filming location for 'Flower of Evil.' The family members of the body puzzle victims are also here."
"Don't go home yet. Come directly to the North Street New World Shopping Mall. It's crowded there. I'll come over immediately."
"Alright."
After casually hanging up the phone, Han Fei didn't take any transportation. He leisurely made his way to the mall as usual.
He didn't feel the sensation of being followed. Han Fei wandered around the mall for a long time but couldn't find Li Xue. It was almost dark when he received another call from her.
Several police officers were keeping a close eye on Han Fei through the surveillance cameras. Everything was normal.
Han Fei didn't meet with the police, and they didn't mistake him for the situation this time. Instead, they unanimously decided to strengthen Han Fei's protection.
As a relatively unknown comedian, Han Fei had never been followed before. This time, he experienced the feeling of being followed and secretly filmed, like what big celebrities go through, except that the ones following him might be fugitives.
After buying enough food for a week at the mall and specifically purchasing a few large locks, Han Fei returned to his rented small house.
Closing the door, Han Fei had a simple meal and then added new locks to the door and windows.
"Now
it should be safe."
He placed various self-defence items he had ordered online within reach and practiced the combat moves that Li Xue taught him. Afterward, he started flipping through the books he had purchased online, the ones Meng Changan had read when he was young.
It wasn't until almost midnight that he rubbed his eyes, put down the book in his hand, and said, "Among the questions that He Shouye asked the children, there are two that we need to pay attention to: whether they dreamt of a black box and whether they dreamt of a butterfly falling on someone's head."
Li Xue didn't play games, so she didn't know about the Easter egg regarding the black box in "Perfect Life." However, Han Fei was different. He had just talked about it with Huang Ying.
"Could it be that they are looking for the black box in my mind? But 'Perfect Life' wasn't even released ten years ago. Could it be that the black box came first, and then the game 'Perfect Life' was created?"
"With He Shouye and the others targeting orphans and abandoned babies, could they be looking for someone who can contain the black box?"
Han Fei looked at the game headset on the table. There was one piece of information he hadn't told Li Xue, that he himself was an orphan.
He didn't grow up in the North Street Orphanage in Xinhu Old City like Meng Changxi did, but in a place called Happiness Welfare Institution in the old city area.
The orphanage he was in had given him a sense of family. It was lively during holidays, and everyone was happy and content. It felt like being part of a big family. However, at a certain point in time, everything changed.
"I haven't even made you laugh, and I've lost my own smile. Life is truly full of unexpected twists and turns."
Connecting all the lines properly, Han Fei dispelled the distractions in his mind. As midnight arrived, he put on the game headset.
Crimson descended, and the world in Han Fei's eyes was instantly dyed red.
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