Wang Sunxu's third dream: “I dreamed of going to the woods near my home with my older brother to explore. There was a big hole on the road, and my brother jumped over easily. Then he encouraged me by saying, ‘You can do it too!’ It took me a while, but when I finally jumped over, I almost fell into the hole. My brother took my hand and dragged me back up. He even patted my head and praised me saying that I was really capable. I was very happy.”

“We walked into a maple forest. Older brother told me not to be afraid. I didn’t know why he said that, but suddenly a python came out of the forest. Older brother hit it with a branch and even poked its eye out. He looked at me and laughed.”

“The snake writhed on the ground, and looked really pitiful. I pitied it so I burned it to death.”

The psychologist asked, "What did the burning snake smell like?"

Wang Sunxu replied, "It stank like rubber. Some white stuff came out of the skin."

The psychologist noted that upon questioning, the patient had committed animal abuse in childhood but had not committed arson.

Chen Shi put down the consultation record and said, "Wetting the bed, animal cruelty, and arson. It seems that this psychologist was purposeful in his questioning."

"Correct. Macdonald triad symptoms[1], commonly known as the three essential factors predicting serial killers." Gu You said, "In order to find out the origin of Wang Sunxu's violent tendencies, my classmate did a dream interpretation. Do you want to hear about it?"

"No. It's probably nothing more than oedipal complex and the like."

"What? What? What?" kk picked up the file, "How can you tell?"

Chen Shi said, "Miss Gu, this seems a little bit ridiculous. You’re trying to find Zhou Xiao through three dreams?"

"You have a good understanding of psychology. You should know that dreams are the truest reflections of the subconscious mind. By restoring images to their origins, you can dig out the true thoughts of that person."

"But this truth is only on a psychological level. Anxiety, desire, and fear of people may be truthfully reflected in dreams, but do you think that there will be a person's name and an address in these three dreams? Even if Wang Sunxu dreamed of it, he wouldn’t say it out loud either."

"We’ve had no other breakthroughs."

"Well then, highly experienced psychologist, what do you think of these three dreams?"

"In the first dream, he walked through a dark world. Generally speaking, the darkness in dreams often hides danger, but Wang Sunxu was very calm when he described this part, which shows that he’s apathetic and someone lacking emotion. You and I know that dreams proceed and are generated synchronously. When you dream of a painting, the picture is blurred at first, then what you want to see gradually appears on the picture. Wang Sunxu in this dark world saw little people on the ground. He kicked off the heads with excitement. I think this symbolizes the people that he killed. As for the werewolf that suddenly appeared, I’m guessing it was someone who hurt him in his childhood. Pay attention to a detail here. There was blood in the werewolf's mouth, indicating that it had already harmed someone, and this blood may have come from Wang Sunxu."

"I agree with you on that." Chen Shi said, "Wang Sunxu had a human-faced but a beast of a teacher in middle school. Teacher Xu pretended to care for those students who were not valued. In fact, he secretly controlled them and got them to do terrible things. The werewolf symbolizes Teacher Xu. The blood in his mouth comes from the other students that he hurt. The werewolf does not appear from the front, but from the back, which shows that Wang Sunxu knows subconsciously that he is a 'person from the past' and is dead. Even so, he is still the biggest nightmare in Wang Sunxu's heart. One of the driving forces of Wang Sunxu's constant killing was to constantly strengthen himself in order to overcome this nightmare. That’s why he ate the people on the ground and became a werewolf. But even if he killed the teacher, he still couldn't get rid of the Teacher Xu in his heart."

"Childhood has a profound impact on a person." Gu You commented.

"You two are gods!" kk said, "You can analyze a bunch of things from such absurd stuff. You have my admiration.”

Chen Shi shook his head. "This is based on the fact that I have personally experienced the case. Aside from that, we know nothing about Wang Sunxu's past. Dreams alone won’t give you the truth."

Gu You said, "Do we really know nothing? It should be easy to trace his past through your contacts in the police."

"That's just a framework. Where he went, where he went to school and the like. But we can't know what he experienced."

"Not necessarily. If you lay out Wang Sunxu's life along a chronological timeline and find the unresolved cases that occurred at the same time and place, maybe you can dig out his past!"

"Miss Gu, do you think the latter two dreams will draw out one or two cases?"

"I’m just saying that we should try. How would we know without trying? Everyone just wants to find out the true identity of Zhou Xiao."

Chen Shi felt that this was too much of a roundabout way of going about it. While he was thinking about it, Gu You said, "Let’s just treat it as a small activity for our team building this time."

"Since you say so, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try." Chen Shi looked at his watch. "I'm sorry, I should go."

Sun Zhen said, "What do we plan to do for team building? I propose to do outdoor activities like bungee jumping or something like that. I’m usually always at home and I want to go out and have fun occasionally."

kk said, "Raise your hand if you agree!" He looked around and only Sun Zhen raised his hand. "Well, since no one agreed, in my opinion, we should go to a health club! I know a good place." He raised his eyebrows upwards pervertedly.

"Fuck off!" Chen Shi said.

"Have some consideration for me as a woman!" Gu You said, "Let’s look for some healthy and beneficial activities. What do you think of a hot spring spa?"

"I agree with Miss Gu," Sun Zhen said.

kk said, "What's so interesting about a spa? It's boring just lying there getting fixed up."

Gu You said, "You’ll know when you try it. It's very comfortable and it's good for the skin."

Chen Shi stood up and said, "That’s enough. Let's just do what Chinese traditionally do for parties. We’ll have dinner! I’ll make a reservation for a good restaurant."

This idea was also rejected. Gu You felt that it was best to have a quiet place for social interaction. kk hoped for a place that was more fun. Sun Zhen held no opinion. "I’m fine with whatever Miss Gu wants."

Chen Shi was anxious to get back and said, "How about this? I know a big bathhouse. It’s a very luxurious one. We can even rest and eat a buffet there when we’re done... Hurry up! Raise your hand to vote!" He took the lead in raising his hand.

kk asked, "Are there any special services?"

"No! But there are foot therapy treatments, massages and the like."

"Forget it. Knowing that you’re all serious people, you won’t go to any shady places. I’ll agree reluctantly!" kk raised his hand.

Gu You said, "Taking a bath and eating a buffet can allow for mingling. Seems to be not bad." She also raised her hand. Sun Zhen naturally raised his hand as well.

Chen Shi said, "That's it then. See all of you tomorrow night!"

1. A set of three factors that has been suggested if all three or any combination of two, are present together, to be predictive of or associated with later violent tendencies, particularly with relation to serial offenses. The triad links cruelty to animals, obsession with fire-setting, and persistent bedwetting past a certain age, to violent behaviors, particularly homicidal behavior and sexually predatory behavior. However, other studies claim to have not found statistically significant links between the triad and violent offenders.