The next night, they went to Tang Palace Bathhouse to take a bath, and then moved to the public rest area wearing loose bathrobes. Gu You had already arrived; she was wearing sunglasses and lying on a lounger drinking juice.

kk and Sun Zhen were talking with smiles on their faces while walking towards her. Gu You asked, "What has made you guys so happy?"

kk smiled lasciviously, "Let me put it simply. It turns out that Brother Chen is a man of great stature..."

"Did you not drink enough water in the bath?!" Chen Shi appeared from behind them, and kk shut up immediately.

Gu You covered her mouth and laughed, and then the four of them found a secluded corner. During this time, Sun Zhen ran to bring some fruits and said solicitously, "Miss Gu, you must be feeling thirsty after taking a bath. You should eat some fruits... This honeydew melon are the last few pieces. I barely managed to grab some."

Gu You smiled, put the fruit plate in the middle of the table, and said, "Let's eat together!"

kk taunted Sun Zhen softly, "You’re not very skilled in bootlicking."

"Mind your own business!" Sun Zhen picked up a piece of watermelon angrily.

kk took out a box of fine cigars. There were four of them in total. He said animatedly, "Come! This is good stuff. Brother Chen, come and try it."

Although Chen Shi was really tempted, he had promised Lin Dongxue to quit smoking, so he restrained himself. He said, "No thanks, you guys can smoke them yourselves!"

kk and Sun Zhen smoked the cigars and looked as delighted as if they were taking drugs. Smelling the scent, Chen Shi was afraid that he would relapse, so he quickly got to the main topic. He threw a piece of paper on the table, "This is Wang Sunxu's timeline. His background is like this. Childhood, orphanage, school, and entering society. Let’s see what juicy details we can dig out!"

Gu You said, "About the second and third dream, I think they have something to do with women. In the rainforest, there was a house hidden in the middle. Doesn’t it seem like a woman’s reproductive organ?"

"Oh, Sister Gu is getting risque. Everyone, please sit tight." kk said excitedly.

Chen Shi disagreed. "Pansexualism? I personally don't think that the entire space in which the person is located is a symbol of some organ. I think that objects with humanoid characteristics in a dream can symbolize someone."

Gu You said, "Don't you think that Wang Sunxu is in a state of sexual deprivation?"

"This assumption is meaningless. What if Wang Sunxu is gay and he and Zhou Xiao are a couple?" Chen Shi suddenly remembered something. "Well, he did have a crush on a girl in middle school."

Gu You smiled, "A snake appeared in the third dream. In psychoanalytic theory, snakes also symbolize women. I said that dreams are generated synchronously. Wang Sunxu entered a house in the second dream. This symbolizes sexual intercourse, but he immediately found out that it was a church. In his faith, it represented a sacred and inviolable place, so this woman should be a mother figure. He was obsessed with this person but knew she shouldn’t be violated."

kk and Sun Zhen ate the honeydew melon and listened with interest. Chen Shi has always disagreed with the theory of pansexualism. He felt that it was epoch-making to propose such a theory in the age of Freud, but given how open people are in modern times, people are no longer as oppressed as they were in the 19th century. Sexual imagery isn’t omnipresent in dreams anymore.

But Gu You’s statement did have some truth. At least, he couldn’t think of a reason for refuting her. Chen Shi said, "I agree with the statement regarding the ‘Mother’, but the image of ‘Mother’ should correspond to that portrait of the Virgin Mary. She wore red clothes. Red can be a symbol of blood or sexual desire. What happens in a person's dream is exactly what they hope for. The portrait of the Virgin burned, which shows that he wanted to kill the person. Wang Sunxu’s response afterwards was extremely flustered. This was likely to have been his first murder. He might have burned the body after killing her!"

Gu You added, "He wanted to sleep in the church, which shows that this place gave him a sense of security. It was a familial place. I think the woman killed was his mother and the place was his home."

"No, that doesn’t seem right! Wang Sunxu and his brother were interdependent. If he had really killed his mother, there must be a place for his brother in his dream... And there’s another detail. The fruit-eating monkeys. Wang Sunxu was thirsty, tired, and wanted to eat their fruits, but those monkeys didn’t give any to him... What does the fruit symbolize? What do the monkeys symbolize? This was obviously a group that Wang Sunxu once lived with."

"I see. The fruit-eating monkeys symbolizes other children who have families. The memory of this dream corresponds to his time at the orphanage. Could he have been adopted before?”

"It's possible that he was adopted. If he was, it must have been a woman. He killed the person who adopted him!"

"Fuck!" kk exclaimed, "You two are fucking amazing. The analysis is very vivid. Younger Brother is deeply impressed." kk handed a slice of melon to each of them.

Chen Shi smiled. "Go get some food."

"Okay!" kk stood up and left.

After the fruitful analysis, Chen Shi was very excited, but also a little tired.

After kk had brought the food, Chen Shi took a few bites and took a break before continuing to say, "Let me talk about my thoughts regarding the third dream. The most important person in the dream is Wang Sunxu's brother. But this brother probably started as his elder brother and later became another person. A brotherly person."

kk blinked his eyes, "That’s too unbelievable, right?"

Gu You explained, "Dreams are generated synchronously, and one person often appears in dreams. As the 'plot' advances, he will become another person that you want to see."

kk pondered, then suddenly smacked his thigh. "No wonder I once had an erotic dream and the other party suddenly became Wu Mengda[1] halfway."

"That's disgusting!" Sun Zhen moved away from him reflexively.

Chen Shi said, "I think there’s a real reason for this. If we go back to our earlier analysis, during the orphanage period, his brother was no longer with him. The snake symbolizes women, and the imagery of fire appeared twice in his dream. Once in the maple leaf forest. Once when the snake was set on fire. This was probably connected to what happened in the second dream. This "brother" told him, "Don't be afraid" and then killed the snake. This person must have guided him towards the path of becoming a criminal. He may very well be Zhou Xiao!"

Chen Shi pointed to the timeline, "When Wang Sunxu was in the orphanage, it was when 'Black Honey' broke apart. Zhou Xiao had already become a criminal, and the timeline is consistent."

Gu You added, "Wang Sunxu's feelings for this 'snake' are complex. He felt both pity and hatred towards it. He said that the snake was very smelly when he burned it. He also mentioned that white stuff came out of the snake’s skin... The white stuff may be semen. Wang Sunxu may have raped this 'mother' before killing her."

kk gaped, "What! The more was said, the dirtier it got."

1. An actor in Hong Kong. https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w235_and_h235_face/9kemdd6ubjuOC0DMPqLedbuQQlo.jpg