Warning: Graphic description of corpses in the second last paragraph, so I've put it into a drop down note...

In fact, the reason why Zhuang Zhen hadn't immediately started questioning Fan Jialuo as soon as they entered the interrogation room was because of two reasons: first, he wanted to use the wait to apply psychological pressure on Fan Jialuo; and second, he wanted to wait until Dr. Song Rui had arrived.

Given that Fan Jialuo was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, the diversity and complexity of his psyche and the uncertainty of his psychological state were far beyond the understanding of ordinary people. It would be difficult for an ordinary person to grasp his inner thoughts accurately and break through his psychological defenses.

After taking this into consideration, Zhuang Zhen had felt that it was necessary to invite specialized help from an external source, it would be best if that person was someone who arguably held absolute mastery in this field, to this interrogation session.

Zhuang Zhen never overestimated himself, and naturally, he never underestimated his opponents either. Based on his first face-to-face meeting, there was no doubt that Fan Jialuo was an opponent who was hard to deal with. He had a strange and temperamental character and acted in a random manner, yet would not allow even one drop of water to leak out. Although on the surface it looked like his behavior was riddled with flaws, Zhuang Zhen realized that he had failed to grasp his handle time and time again.

Dr. Song Rui was the best in his field and an expert at analyzing the psyche of criminal suspects, so Zhuang Zhen directly invited him to help with their interrogation.

Through the in-ear monitor, Zhuang Zhen learned that Dr. Song Rui had arrived and was watching them from the observation room next door. Once he confirmed Dr. Song Rui's arrival, Zhuang Zhen opened the file in front of him, a gesture that showed he was starting the interrogation. Luo Hong took out the recorder pen and pressed the record button.

Fan Jialuo had originally folded his left leg on top of his right leg. At this time, he slowly and elegantly changed his sitting posture so that his right leg now rested on top of his left leg. As he did so, he also turned his head to look at the one-way perspective mirror, which was only a few meters away from him, and slightly hooked the corners of his mouth as he stared into it.

The young police officer standing beside Liu Tao couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise and exclaimed, "Vice-captain, he seems to be smiling at me! He shouldn't be able to see us, right?"

"Are you a newcomer? He obviously knows that the mirror is a one-way mirror. He's provoking us! Damn it, this man is quite evil!" Liu Tao touched his half bald head, and his face fully expressed a mix of anger and helplessness.

From a simple bystander's perspective, it seemed that Fan Jialuo's entire person was full of pigtails, and a single slip could be used to arrest him. But only those who had been police officers for many years knew and understood that there was no way for them to charge him with these so-called conclusive pieces of evidence. At most, they could only detain Fan Jialuo for 24 hours. And if he did not confess in these 24 hours, then the police had no other option but to release him.

"Doctor, whether or not we can settle the case this time depends on you and Team Leader." Liu Tao said as he looked at Song Rui anxiously.

Song Rui continued to flip through Fan Jialuo's counseling records obtained from his psychologist, going through it page by page, and nodded. "I will my best."

Then, the two stopped talking, because Zhuang Zhen, who was sitting in the interrogation room, has started his questioning. "As an idol who was quite famous just a while back, how would you evaluate yourself?"

Fan Jialuo curled his lips and replied, "An idol is simply a commodity wrapped in especially beautiful packaging. Everything that others see is fake, there's nothing to evaluate."

"So, everything is fake? Is there no aspect that is real?" Zhuang Zhen asked gently.

"If the real thing simply becomes a blend of overstatements when exposed to the public, then it's still fake." Fan Jialuo smiled and shook his head.

In a vague manner, Zhuang Zhen asked, "You and Gao Yize were members of the same idol group. Did you hear or see anything unusual in particular about him? What do you think of him?"

"No comment." Fan Jialuo shook his head again, and the angle at which the corners of his lips were curved remained unchanged.

Zhuang Zhen had initially wanted to continue with this type of chatty conversational approach but Song Rui spoke to him through the headset, "This trick is useless against him. From what I can see on the computer monitor, the expression on his face has not changed at all. I can't determine a benchmark. You should change to posing sharp questions, and try to drive his emotions to the limit, maybe even anger him. At the moment, he has a stable state of mind. We need to break that stability."

Zhuang Zhen was silent for two seconds, then quickly gave up on his current way of questioning.

In order to deal with Fan Jialuo, as early as when they were planning and discussing on how to conduct the interrogation, the task force had already thoroughly determined the entire process and path of the interrogation, under Song Rui's guidance.

First, Zhuang Zhen would chat in a gentle manner with Fan Jialuo and ask a variety of irrelevant questions about life. This way, Fan Jialuo would not feel any threat, so most of the answers provided should be true.

When someone consciously thought about how to answer such questions, their eyes would shift about, their fingers would unconsciously move to feel for something, or their feet might twitch. Such small movements could allow the interrogator and psychological experts to establish a benchmark, which could then be used to judge whether the words being spoken by the suspect were true or false, and thereby determine whether the current course of the interrogation was helpful to the investigation or not.

In addition, another advantage of Fan Jialuo opening his mouth during such a conversation was that in the following interrogation, it would be hard for him to stay silent. Since he had said so much in the beginning, keeping silent during the next part of the interrogation would make him look as if he had a guilty conscience. In order to cover up his crime and mislead the interrogator, he would continue to speak regardless-getting stuck in a kind of psychological inertia. So, once he began to talk more, it would be almost impossible for the interrogators to not get what they wanted from his mouth.

This method often worked. Even an infamous smuggler like Taiban had betrayed himself unknowingly.

Now, however, Song Rui came to the realisation that the task force had invited him to deal with a young star who was in his early twenties, they preferred killing a chicken with an ox knife rather than being stuck in a quandary.

Each corner of the interrogation room was equipped with a camera which could observe the suspect's every move from all directions. Song Rui was now sitting in front of several computer monitors, and was frowning as he stared at the young man on the screen. The other party's white skin glowed under the strong light, and yet he couldn't determine the depth in his dark eyes.

Even when Zhuang Zhen was asking the easy-going questions, he kept smiling, and continued to do so through that entire part of the interrogation. The curve at the corner of his mouth did not decrease or increase in the slightest. Instead, his eyes were fixed on Zhuang Zhen, there was no shifting or even a hint of avoidance, making Song Rui unable to judge even the side of the brain he was using to think.

His hands were clasped and placed on the surface of the table. His fingertips were long and slender, but there were no extra movements. His legs were crossed, and the toes of his overlapping leg were naturally pointing to the ground, not so much as even twitching.

His entire posture was very casual and elegant, but it was also solid and unmoving, just like a sculpture. Only his pair of eyes shone, which made his gaze look penetrating and made him seem very quick-witted.

Song Rui had no way to extract any useful information from Fan Jialuo's behavior or his non-existent micro-expressions, so he was unable to establish a benchmark for what was true and what was false. Without a benchmark, Zhuang Zhen did not know whether the course taken by his interrogation was right or wrong. All their meticulous planning went to a waste, and that too from the very beginning.

After receiving Song Rui's instructions, Zhuang Zhen only took a few seconds to adjust his mind, and then asked sharply, "Did you know that more than half of the black material about you on the Internet was posted by Gao Yize? He seems to have had quite a bad impression of you."

Fan Jialuo smiled in reply and still did not answer.

Zhuang Zhen continued, "On the surface, he pretended to care about you with a lot of sincerity, but secretly, he slandered you wantonly. Do you know why? Is there some deep hatred between the two of you that made him deal such a cruel hand towards you?"

Fan Jialuo continued to smile at Zhuang Zhen, and merely shook his head, not uttering a single word.

Zhuang Zhen increased the intensity of his verbal attacks. "According to our investigation, STARS had been using the resources you obtained through your connections ever since its debut to the time when it gained popularity. In short, Gao Yize has no reason to hate you because you were his support. We also found out that he received the news of your imminent exile from the Fan Family from some insiders, and soon after that, he began to spread black material on you throughout the Internet. He couldn't wait to destroy you. If there were no previous grudges between the two of you, why would he do something like this?"

Fan Jialuo kept looking at the person in front of him with a smile. Not only did his expression remain unruffled, his pupils did not even flicker, let alone dilate or contract.

Song Rui stared at the youth being displayed on the monitor and sighed. "This person is sealed really tightly. I have no doubt that if we had a heart rate monitor here, even the frequency of his heartbeat would remain unchanged. His ability to control his emotion has reached its acme."

Zhuang Zhen forced down the sudden feeling of frustration and defeat that sprung up, and pressed on. "Aren't you currently living a very difficult life? According to our investigation, you need to pay 130 million yuan as compensation for liquidated damages, and there are still several other companies which are threatening to take you to court and are suing you for the damages they have faced.

"Your popularity and reputation are completely gone, and the entire network knows about your dark history. If it wasn't for the way Gao Yize pushed you from behind, even after being expelled from the Fan Family, you would still have been able to have a mouthful of rice in the entertainment circle. But look at what's happening now!

"There is no longer a place for you in the entertainment industry. You have no academic qualifications or skills. You can only live by pawning your belongings. What will you do after all the things you can pawn have been given away? Go beg in the streets? You've been ruined by Gao Yize. You're hopeless. Don't you hate him?"

Ordinary people might have already been gnashing their teeth in hatred after having heard so many provocative and heartbreaking words, but Fan Jialuo still looked at Zhuang Zhen, with a smile, and with no reaction at all. His body language and soft facial lines showed that he was not angry, and instead was just relaxed as he listened to an interesting story.

Zhuang Zhen waited for a few seconds but still didn't see any of the predicted reactions. The stifling feeling from before only increased.

Luo Hong scratched his head, and his face unconsciously showed a little discouragement. Why was Fan Jialuo so hard to handle? It seemed as though, even without consulting a lawyer, he already knew what to say and what not to say.

"This fucking little shit!" Liu Tao, who was standing in front of the one-way mirror, couldn't help but burst out with a rude remark. "Has this Fan Jialuo's mouth been sewn shut? Only knowing how to smile, and not uttering a single word! Whenever Laozi sees his smile, my fist itches and wants to meet his face."

"Vice-captain, don't beat the mirror, lest he hears you." Two young police officers, standing at his left and right, pulled Liu Tao away from the one-way mirror.

Song Rui removed his gold rimmed glasses, kneaded his slightly aching nasal bridge, and said, "Verbal attacks don't seem effective against him. Let's give him some visual stimulation instead."

The pre-determined interrogation procedure had been completely disrupted by Fan Jialuo, so they could only upgrade their interrogation methods step by step. Uptil now, this kind of special treatment had only been received by criminals or terrorists responsible for committing really severe crimes. Zhuang Zhen couldn't figure out how Fan Jialuo had trained himself in order to become what he was today. He didn't look like a spoiled young master, but more like an old fox spirit, who had been refined by society for thousands of years.

Once again, after adjusting his thoughts to suit the current course of interrogation, Zhuang Zhen took four photos out of the folder in his hand and spread them out in front of Fan Jialuo, before speaking in a cold voice, "Do you know them?"

At last, Fan Jialuo's eyes, which had continuously been staring at him, moved and his gaze fell down upon the photos.

The contents of the four bloody photos made the already chilly air in the interrogation room feel even colder.

Going from left to right, the first photo showed...

The four pictures showed four tragic scenes of death, and were reflected as is in Fan Jialuo's eyes, with no part of them being veiled or masked. Zhuang Zhen stared at him fixedly, afraid of missing even the most minute change in his expression.

...