Gu You glanced into the room in surprise. Sure enough, she saw Nalan Fang sitting on a chair, staring earnestly at the computer screen.

Chen Shi asked, “Why did he come to your clinic?”

Gu You smiled. “It was a coincidence. One of my employees accidentally bumped into him that day walking in the streets in his ancient outfit as he was talking madly and thought that he might need help. He went up to talk to him and brought him back. As psychiatrists, helping others is our principle.”

“What sickness do you think he has?”

“Dissociative personality disorder.”

“Dual personalities?”

“In a narrow sense, yes.”

“Why not send him to a psychiatric hospital then? Because you can earn consulting fees?”

“Money is a small problem. Many people who come to do consults don’t have money at all. We help when we can. We also know what a mental hospital is like. It’s just like your prisons at work. He didn’t hurt others. I don't think it’s necessary to isolate him.”

“So, what advice do you have as an expert? Have you heard all his crazy words?”

“After reading the consultation records, I think that the personality he split out is likely to be the person he wants to be. For example, a little girl eager to protect others may split the personality of an older brother.”

“He said that he was a prince. According to what you said, his true identity should be very ordinary. He said that his father had two sons, but both died. Could it be...” Chen Shi thought of a person, but he wasn’t quite sure.

It can’t be so coincidental!

No other words were exchanged by him for the rest of the night.

The next day, Chen Shi couldn't rest well with the guy staying in his house alone and simply took him to the bureau. Xu Xiaodong missed a good show yesterday. Today, he was particularly excited when he saw the time-traveler, asking him this and that.

Nalan Fang was very taken-aback by this stranger and said to Chen Shi, “You modern people are very ignorant of politeness.”

“This just pertains to this individual.” Chen Shi referred to Xu Xiaodong.

Chen Shi put the time-traveler in an empty conference room, gave him a fully charged tablet computer, and let him watch TV dramas quietly.

Xu Xiaodong said excitedly, “This person didn’t actually time-travel here, right? In fact, I had an idea when I was in high school. With so many novels out there, maybe there really is such a thing?”

Chen Shi felt like he was looking at an idiot and said, “There are streets full of ads saying that they’ll reward people with lots of money to provide their genes to make children. Maybe there’s a real one among them. Why don’t you try it out?”

“Time-travel is not completely unreasonable if you thought about it carefully. Brother Chen, do you know about parallel universes?”

“Wouldn’t all that effort you put into speaking nonsense be better suited for investigating the case?” Lin Dongxue came in. “Guess what I found out?”

“Xiaodong's IQ arrears payment notice[1]?”

“Hey, we’re just discussing...” Xu Xiaodong said innocently.

Lin Dongxue smiled and said, “The identity of this person has been found. Wang Haitao, male, 45 years old from Yunnan, single, and occupation is a mechanic. His mother Wang Hongfang died last year and she left him a small property.”

“He really time-traveled over here?” Chen Shi ridiculed Xu Xiaodong, then asked Lin Dongxue, “How did you find all that out? Great work!”

“When we went to check the origin of his clothes, a driver who transported clothes for the film and television company said that when the driver parked his car outside a restaurant on April 26th, someone ran to his car and stole an outfit. The person changed out of their own clothes and left it there. There was Wang Haitao's ID card amongst the clothes. Because the car was overloaded[2], the driver just boiled it down to being unlucky, so he didn’t report the case.”

“The robbery was made on April 23rd, which is before April 26th.”

“The location is also correct. The address where he found his ID is in the Southern suburbs. We’ve sent people over there to look for witnesses!”

Chen Shi asked the two to come with him to interrogate the time-traveler again. When they got to the conference room, Chen Shi slapped on the table. “Wang Haitao. Does this name sound familiar to you?”

Wang Haitao froze before pointing to himself. Chen Shi thought he was going to admit to it, but he didn't expect him to say, “That man is the former master of this body.”

“Do you want to talk about soul time-traveling?”

“According to your modern people's understanding, that is the case. I am from the Tu Dynasty, and I am your majesty Nalan Fang. I can guarantee this with my character.”

“Fuck, still writing a script for yourself!” Chen Shi cursed in a whisper.

Xu Xiaodong asked, “Mr. Time-traveler, did you inherit the memory of the previous owner?”

“I have.”

When Chen Shi heard that, he got very excited. With his eyes, he encouraged Xu Xiaodong to continue to ask. Xu Xiaodong asked, “What did Wang Haitao come to Long’an to do?”

“To find someone.”

“Who was he looking for?”

Chen Shi interjected, “Looking for relatives? Was he looking for his father?”

Wang Haitao's eyes widened, then he suddenly pressed on his head and groaned. “Ah, I have a splitting headache, I... I can't remember. I'll stop talking about this. See you!”

The three looked at each other and went outside. Chen Shi said, “His true memory conflicts with his own identity. Did you notice that Wang Haitao followed his mother's surname?”

Lin Dongxue said, “His household registration information mentioned that his father and his mother divorced in the 1990s.”

“Investigate it.”

They went to the Information Department and found that when Wang Haitao's father married his mother, Wang Haitao had already been born for three years. His father was not surnamed Wang. Chen Shi said, “It seems that he came to Long’an to find his birth father. This father should be rich and powerful, but he has lost two sons already. It may be that his biological father initiated contact with him.”

“One is in Long'an and the other is in Yunnan. It’s so far...” Lin Dongxue mumbled. “Wang Haitao was born in a time when there were not many long distance relationships. How did the two know each other? The educated youth went to the countryside for learning[3]?”

“It's possible,” Chen Shi said.

“Coming to find his father after forty years. Isn’t it a bit too late?” Xu Xiaodong said, “Of course, blood is thicker than water, but money is thicker than blood. Maybe the father is rich and powerful, so he came to depend on him.”

“No one would think you’re dumb if you don't talk.” Lin Dongxue scolded.

Chen Shi had a candidate for this rich and powerful father who already lost two sons in his mind, but he really didn't want to contact that person.

In fact, it didn’t matter if the two were connected or not. After all, the goal now was to solve the robbery. It wasn’t in his job’s scope to find out who Wang Haitao's biological father was.

Lin Dongxue and Xu Xiaodong's phones rang at the same time. After checking, Lin Dongxue said, “Two bodies were found in the southern suburbs. Let’s hurry over!”

Xu Xiaodong said, “I'll take Brother Chen's car.”

When the three arrived, the other people from the task force were already on the scene, including Lin Qiupu and Peng Sijue. It was an abandoned demolition house in the southern suburbs. There wasn’t anything around the desolate area. In Xu Xiaodong’s words, it wouldn’t be strange to see a zombie here.

Witnesses said that on April 30th, a suspicious vehicle was seen staying here. The police went to find it here, but the house was empty. The police who had been holding it in for a long time finally took a leak behind the house. The urine broke away the soil, revealing a body.

The forensics squad was digging in that area. In the soil, a man and a woman were buried with a bloody rag and a bloodstained knife next to their bodies.

Lin Dongxue said, “Robbing couple?”

“There seems to have been an internal conflict,” Chen Shi said.

1. Teasing Xiaodong about his intelligence. I assume he means that Xiaodong has to rent his IQ.

2. It’s an illegal practice.

3. It was a 1950’s cultural revolution scheme where they got educated young people to go to the countryside to help with enhancing the countryside which held farming opportunities because they weren’t able to go to university due to the cultural revolution. This was more of a way to settle and calm these young people who the government figured would rebel against them eventually. A lot of young people were persuaded because it was said that people with potential needed to learn of some suffering and learn more before they could succeed. For more information, please read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sent-down_youth