The sheriff standing behind Sun Hang imdiately drew his pistol, nervously saying, "Ghost... ghost... ghost... ghost... ghost... creature?!"
"Don't worry, it's not a ghost creature." Sun Hang waved his hand, indicating for him to lower his gun, "It's just a specin of a baby's corpse."
"Just a corpse... specin?" The sheriff hesitantly lowered his gun.
"The ghost creature detection equipnt didn't react." The investigator holding a shield nodded to him, "The Hunter is right, this thing is indeed not a ghost creature."
Sun Hang stepped forward, carefully extracting the glass jar from the wall.
The glass jar wasn't tightly sealed, but fortunately, the gap at the bottle's mouth wasn't large, and there was a layer of wall outside acting as a barrier, so the solution inside the bottle only evaporated to below the neck level. The entire corpse specin was still subrged in the solution, with no significant signs of decay.
"Give the law enforcent recorder." Sun Hang turned to the sheriff and said.
"Oh... oh! Okay!" The sheriff quickly took off the law enforcent recorder from his shoulder and handed it to Sun Hang.
Sun Hang took out his phone and dialed Song Yarong's number.
"You're watching the real-ti footage from the law enforcent recorder, right?" Sun Hang asked.
"I've been watching." Song Yarong's voice ca through the earphones.
"If I'm not mistaken, the corpse specin inside this jar is Zhao Ming's daughter, Zhao Xuan." Sun Hang said.
"Judging by the size of the specin, this baby seems to be only two or three years old... which suggests that Zhao Xuan actually died very young." Song Yarong continued, "But Zhao Ming faked the fact that Zhao Xuan was still alive and gradually growing up... No wonder, no wonder every ti he showed us photos of his daughter, they were only from her infancy."
"To Zhao Ming, his daughter Zhao Xuan has never died." Sun Hang said.
"But if that's the case... there's no way Zhao Ming could pass the routine psychological state examination... Those psychologists should have noticed these issues..." Song Yarong muttered quietly.
"What if he's so deeply imrsed in his fantasy world that even those psychologists can't see any flaws?" Sun Hang retorted.
"This..."
"There's a saying that goes, to deceive others, you first need to deceive yourself... I believe Zhao Ming genuinely thinks his daughter is still alive, believing his daughter is growing year by year. Just yesterday, he celebrated her ninth birthday, watching her blow out the candles on the cake..."
"No, it still doesn't add up!" Song Yarong suddenly interrupted, "If he believes his daughter is alive, why, after handling Zhao Xuan's school enrollnt, does he fabricate reasons to request long leave from the school? Can a person unconsciously create lie after lie, each logically coherent with the other? I don't think soone deeply imrsed in fantasy could do such things!"
"No, it is possible." Sun Hang contradicts Song Yarong's opinion, "He believes Zhao Xuan is still alive, but Zhao Xuan is indeed dead; hence, when Zhao Ming discovers evidence that Zhao Xuan no longer exists, he assus these things contradict his perception and see them as bugs of the world. Yet, he can't remove this irreversible bug; he can only try his best to fake this bug. After the bug is perfectly fabricated, he'd then plunge back into his original fantasy... it's similar to schizophrenia. One personality is normal, a benevolent father and a dutiful daughter, living harmoniously... while the other personality is a mindless zombie, existing purely to maintain the fantasy world."
"If it's schizophrenia, shouldn't there be so signs exposed during the psychological state examination?"
"What if his other personality is buried deep and only appears when he realizes Zhao Xuan is truly dead, are you sure the psychological examination can definitely spot this personality? During the psychological examination, do you even ask him questions like, 'Suppose you find out your daughter has died, what would you do'? If that happens, it'd be a miracle if the psychologists conducting the examination leaving work without getting ambushed in an alley and beaten up."
"..." Song Yarong fell silent.
"If we could place this glass jar in front of Zhao Ming, perhaps we can induce his hidden personality, but unfortunately, the opportunity is gone now."
"... Speaking of which, at Zhao Ming's residence, you found nothing related to ghost creatures, right?"
"No, Zhao Xuan died very early. Zhao Ming's nine-year-old daughter only exists in his imagination." Sun Hang simultaneously thought to himself— that mysteriously smiling girl doesn't exist either; it was all Zhao Ming's fantasy.
Only... his fantasy seems to have been manipulated by 'soone'.
"Then the cause of Zhao Ming turning ghostly...?"
"It was the emotion, sudden bursting emotion." Sun Hang said quietly while glancing at the two people behind with the corner of his eye.
Zhao Ming isn't a prowler; the cake he ate was genuinely made of eggs, flour, and cream, not so tentacle-laden rotten flesh.
Apart from that hidden personality that arose due to the tragedy of losing his daughter, he was completely normal before turning ghostly—whether from a physical or psychological perspective.
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