"Then have you heard about the bizarre deaths of the people who had bullied her?" Chen Shi asked.

"I know that Gao Lei died really eerily!" Du Zilin’s agitated mood fell again. "I understand it like this. Hanmeng is a container for bad luck, but she was too small at the time and the capacity wasn’t large enough, so this bad luck overflowed and spread to the people around her."

"Isn't it supposed to be hatred? A girl was bullied like that. Do you think she doesn't hate you guys?" Lin Dongxue asked.

"Right, how did Lu Ming and the others die? Is the murderer Hanmeng?" Du Zilin became nervous.

"We’re still investigating."

"If you need help such as a portrait and the like, let me know. I don't want to be killed without a clear reason." Du Ziyu shivered while holding his shoulders.

Chen Shi saw an envelope on the table with the words "Class Reunion Invitation" written on it. He asked Du Zilin if he could look at it. Du Zilin agreed.

Picking up the invitation letter and looking at it, Chen Shi raised his eyebrows slightly. "Your middle school classmates are going to have a reunion the day after tomorrow?"

"Yes. Of course, it’s impossible for me to go. There are so many people outside who want to kill me, so I’ll never leave this place."

"Was Hanmeng also on the invitation list?"

"Haha, how could it be possible to invite her..." Du Zilin took out his mobile phone. "This is the contact group for all of our middle school classmates except for her."

Chen Shi opened the group and glanced at it. A group of old classmates chatted fervently, looking forward to the gathering the day after tomorrow. They didn’t know that Lu Ming had been killed.

Lin Dongxue called Chen Shi outside and whispered, "This party cannot be held. They may all be the target of the murderer. If the murderer does something at the party, we will be in a very passive position."

Chen Shi looked at the chat content in the group. "It looks like it was organized by a person called the class representative. Tomorrow, we should find them and stop the party."

"Okay!"

Back in the bedroom, Du Zilin roughly guessed what they were talking about and smiled. "If Hanmeng really went to the class reunion to kill people, please tell me. I want to see if this group of people can still be so arrogant. What class reunion? Isn't it just showing off how good you have it right now?! Tch!"

"You think you’re really safe?!" Chen Shi asked in turn.

Du Zilin spread his hands and said, "The security of this place is foolproof. I won’t let any strangers come within ten meters of me. Hanmeng can't kill me, haha!"

"I must state that there’s currently no evidence that the murderer is Hanmeng."

"Haha, who else could it be but her? What’s the big deal? She was just bullied as a kid. Is she murdering people because of this? Pitiful people must have hateful sides to them!"

"I won't comment on your values. Right, can you add me to this group?"

"I’ll lend you my mobile phone. Nobody is going to contact me anyway. Return it after investigating the case." Du Zilin waved his hand. "If there’s nothing else, leave. I still have to play games. I’m very busy!"

After coming out of Du Zilin's house, the sky was already dark. Chen Shi said, "Let’s go to my house!"

"Go to your house for dinner again? Let me treat you once in a while!" Lin Dongxue said.

"No, you should stay at my house tonight."

"Huh? So suddenly? Are you afraid that someone will come in again at night?"

"Someone snuck in last night. Thinking about it, I’m scared."

"Unexpectedly, you have times when you’re timid."

The two returned to Chen Shi's house. After dinner, Tao Yueyue asked, "Should I stay with Sister Gu for a while?"

"You don’t need to be so considerate. It makes us sound like we're going to do something. Just play in the house!" Chen Shi said.

"Oh… It looks like you two have already passed the honeymoon period."

"Nonsense!"

At this moment, someone knocked on the door and Gu You came in. Seeing Lin Dongxue, she smiled and asked, "Does Officer Lin live here now?"

"No. I’ve rented a house, but he asked me to accompany him." Lin Dongxue complained.

Gu You was holding a few old books in her hand, and she spread them out. These books were all written by Chen Fengde. Of course, they were all of some kind of academic nature, and they probably couldn’t be bought from bookstores.

"Today I re-read Chen Fengde's books and found that he mentioned a small group that teaches people to control their dreams. Although it was only briefly mentioned as a case study, I think it might be helpful to you."

Chen Shi took it and looked at it. It was a short essay at the end of the main text with the title: "Do you believe that dreams can be shared?"

"...In an interest group specializing in dreams, everyone shared their dreams every night. Two group members lay together to receive hypnosis and they had the same dream. Using the hypnotist as the medium, they began talking to each other, and they were able to repeat the conversation after waking up. With the deepening of the experiment, the members could even communicate directly in dreams without verbal hypnosis. Communication must have its medium. The author believes that the human unconscious is interlinked. With training, everyone can communicate in dreams..."

Chen Shi looked at the cover of the book and asked, "Was this book printed at his own expense?"

"It was originally an academic paper written by Chen Fengde. The college thought it was too subjective and didn’t publish it for him. He was unwilling to accept this, so he printed a thousand copies at his own expense."

"Can hypnosis control another person's dream?"

"It's very easy. The function of dreams is to protect sleep and turn internal and external stimuli into dreams that won’t wake up the hypnotized person. For example, when you hear someone yelling 'fire' in your sleep, logically speaking, you would jump up immediately and run for your life. However, your brain will process this information into a dream so that you can continue to sleep peacefully."

"Haha, what an extreme example." Lin Dongxue smiled.

Gu You said to Lin Dongxue, "Officer Lin can buy a sleeping device online and try it out. It's actually a headset that will play soothing music, making you have sweet dreams."

"No, no, my sleep has always been good."

Chen Shi continued to ask, "So can a person stay in a dream for three days? I mean one night in reality, but three days in a dream."

"Theoretically, when a person is dreaming, the brain runs very fast and the time in the dream is often longer than in reality. However, this has a limit, unless external force is used to forcibly increase the link speed of neurons."

"What kind of external force... Ah, I get it! Drug stimulants!"

"Yes, or like Chen Fengde, if they constantly trained their dreams... Whether it’s dreams or drugs, they’re cheap means of transcendence. Those illusions will make people indulge in them to escape reality." Gu You sighed.

Chen Shi suddenly stood up and went to the bedroom to check on his pillows and quilts. Recently, he had a lot of strange dreams and couldn’t sleep well. He was afraid that someone would have drugged him.

Of course, the result of the inspection was nought. He went back to the living room and asked Gu You, "Do you have sleeping pills? I’ve been having nightmares for the past two days, and I’ve become a little haggard."

"I'm just a psychologist. I don't have prescription rights or medicine.[1] I suggest doing some exercise before going to bed so that you can sleep more peacefully."

"Miss Gu, you’re so dirty!" Lin Dongxue laughed.

"I'm talking about ordinary exercise. What did Officer Lin interpret it to be?" Gu You asked with a smile.

"I... I also thought it was ordinary exercise." Lin Dongxue buried her face in shame.

1. Psychiatrists can prescribe medication.