Xu Xiaodong pinched his arm blankly and his eyes became startled. "I... Aren't I dreaming? When did I wake up?"

Chen Shi found that Xu Xiaodong was sweating and his pupils were dilated. He said, "Let’s go back and talk about it!"

"I... I'll pick up the car."

The two accompanied Xu Xiaodong back to the old house. Chen Shi asked, "Did the people inside the house come out?"

"They didn’t. Then, I fell asleep and had a very realistic dream..." Xu Xiaodong glanced at Lin Dongxue. His cheeks flushed. " I somehow ended up fighting the little gangsters on the street. When you showed up, I thought I was still dreaming."

"Do you remember when you fell asleep?" Chen Shi asked.

"It seemed to be after buying a meal..." Xu Xiaodong pointed towards the car, "There’s still my leftover hamburger in the car."

Chen Shi took a casual look, but suddenly found that the drink that was still in the car was missing. Just a short while after they left, someone took it away. Xu Xiaodong had probably been drugged.

How daring!

Chen Shi walked towards the old house. He stopped in front of the wooden door, hesitated for a moment, then retracted his outstretched hand. Even if they confronted them, they wouldn't admit it!

At the same time that Du Zilin was killed, the police officers who monitored them were drugged. These three must be connected to them!

But there was no evidence at all.

Chen Shi said, "Put your gloves on to drive. When you get back, take the car for an investigation to see if there are fingerprints on it... By the way, get Old Peng to give you a urine test."

"Why do I need a urine test? My health is fine!"

"Don't ask the reason. We'll see you in the bureau later."

"Brother Chen, won't you go back with me?"

"We’ll inquire around and see if anyone saw anything."

After Xu Xiaodong left, Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue asked around, but came out empty handed.

Around 8:00, the two returned to the bureau and found Xu Xiaodong sitting in the forensic department holding a piece of paper with trembling hands. He asked, "Captain Peng, this matter won’t cause me to be suspended, right?!"

"What did you find out?" Chen Shi asked.

"Hyoscyamine. It’s a natural alkaloid derived from solanaceae plants." Peng Sijue comforted Xu Xiaodong, "This thing isn’t a drug, but a simple poison. However, it has a negative effect. It can make people hallucinate."[1]

"Then my body..." Xu Xiaodong was scared into a cold sweat.

"Don't worry. The dose found in your body wasn’t enough to kill you. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here right now."

"Uh, why am I even more scared after hearing this?"

Lin Dongxue asked, "Don't you remember when you woke up?"

"Uh, from the time I fell asleep in the car to what happened between us just now, I don't remember clearly..." Xu Xiaodong’s eyes suddenly widened and he checked for his gun. "Oh no, my gun!"

"You didn't bring a gun while performing a surveillance mission!" Lin Dongxue said.

Chen Shi brought a paper cup over to them and said to Peng Sijue, "Help me do a urine test as well."

Peng Sijue glanced at the paper cup in slight shock. "Why is it this color? What have you eaten recently?"

"Ah, no, this is coffee poured from your coffee machine..." Chen Shi took a sip. "Give me a cup and I’ll use it to hold the urine."

"Sit down!"

Peng Sijue pressed Chen Shi on the chair, checked his pupils, and said, "No need for testing. Hyoscyamine metabolizes very fast in the body. If it exceeds one day, it can’t be detected at all."

"Wouldn’t it be untraceable to murder people with this?" Xu Xiaodong exclaimed.

"Idiot, metabolism doesn’t exist after death." Lin Dongxue said.

Chen Shi thought of something and asked Xu Xiaodong, "By the way, did you see a little girl in your dream?"

"What girl? Does Dongxue count?"

"This girl." Chen Shi showed him the picture.

Xu Xiaodong shook his head. Chen Shi thought that entering the dream state was indeed fake. The dreams they each had were all things they had seen or experienced.

Chen Shi asked if Peng Sijue's identification results from the afternoon had come out yet. Peng Sijue said that they would have to wait a while. The three of them went out for a meal and went to a small noodle shop. Xu Xiaodong ordered two iced mung bean soups, saying that it was to detoxify himself.

Lin Dongxue smiled and said, "Why are you like an old lady? It’s harmless if it doesn’t reach the lethal quantity. For example, this tomato. If you eat too much, you’ll die, but... who ordered the tomatoes?"

"I ordered it." Chen Shi took a slice. "Tomatoes contain nicotine, which can make my head clearer."

"Does it work?" Lin Dongxue didn't believe it.

"If you think it works, it works." Chen Shi smiled. "Xiaodong, were you having a dream or a nightmare?"

"A sweet dream."

Chen Shi thought, why do I have nightmares every time? Sweet dreams are for controlling people, such as Xin Bai. What are nightmares for? Do they want me to drive myself crazy?

At the class reunion tomorrow, would this group of people use similar methods?

"Xiaodong, what have you monitored over the past few days?"

"Nothing at all. This is probably the most boring surveillance task I’ve ever done. The family just keeps the door closed all day as if they don’t need to eat. Right. At night, I often heard someone groaning in the room. It was the voice of the man who lives on the first floor. The girl often looked at me from the window on the second floor. My car window is covered with sun shields and I couldn’t be seen from the inside, but she seemed to be looking at me... Their whole family is weird."

"Tomorrow, you should still go there and stare. Go early. This time, bring your own food and water, and don't have the window down."

"Oh, okay!"

After eating, Lin Dongxue glanced at her phone and said, "Captain Peng's results have come out."

The three hurried back. Peng Sijue sat at the table looking a little off. He said, "The fingerprints brought back from the scene where Du Zilin was killed belonged to Chen Fengde."

Peng Sijue pushed through two photos of the scene. "On the floor of the second floor, and the back of the deceased are his."

"Chen Fengde really came in through the skylight, then got into that hole and killed Du Zilin?" Lin Dongxue was shocked.

Chen Shi took a piece of paper, drew a circle on it, and said, "I remember the hole was only this big. How could he get through?!"

"Didn’t someone in the prison say that Chen Fengde had been starving himself and was very thin? Maybe he was preparing for this murder."

Chen Shi felt unconvinced and shook his head. "Even if people starve, their heads won’t get smaller. This incident is very suspicious!"

"That's right..." Peng Sijue continued, "I also found a fingerprint on the roof of Xiaodong's car. I did the comparison together. I wanted to exclude it, but it turned out that the fingerprint was also Chen Fengde’s!"

He pushed another photo over, and the three were shocked. Lin Dongxue said, "Why did he leave fingerprints there? When Du Zilin was killed, we speculated that the murderer was very tall, but Chen Fengde's actual height is only 1.7 meters."

Chen Shi compared the three photos and said, "These fingerprints are all very strange. They’re entire palms, as if someone deliberately printed fingerprints for us to see..."

"Yes, these fingerprints are exactly the same!" Lin Dongxue said.

Chen Shi looked at Peng Sijue and asked, "Old Peng, are these fingerprints left by a living person?"

1. Hyoscyamine is actually used to treat stomach and intestinal disorders, but it does have many potential side effects. Some of them include confusion, disorientation, hallucinations, short-term memory loss, ataxia and speech difficulties.