Chapter 40: Psychological Profiling of Bai Su, the True Culprit Emerges!

Chapter 40: Bai Su's Psychological Profiling, and the True Culprit Emerges!

Bai Su nodded and picked up the sheet of white paper.

She did not ask how Su Chen had managed to take such detailed notes, because when it came to the contents of the case files, Su Chen was now the expert.

With the statute of limitations for the case rapidly approaching, Bai Su and her team naturally had no time to thoroughly review the files from scratch.

Therefore, she naturally attributed Su Chen's notes to a well-structured summary of the case material.

"Su Chen, you know what? I always get the feeling that you know something about these cold cases, but you're just not telling us."

Bai Su adjusted her glasses, her dark pupils scanning back and forth across the words on the paper.

"Usually, when newcomers are handed a case, they feel lost and completely overwhelmed, but your sense of direction is extraordinarily clear."

Hearing this, Su Chen neither denied nor confirmed it.

He simply smiled and took a sip of his coffee:

"Chief, I looked it up online. The other four experts all have publicly available backgrounds, even insiders like Wang Yanxing."

"But yours? I couldn't find a thing."

Bai Su pursed her lips and chuckled softly:

"We've only known each other for a few hours, and already you're talking back to me. This manhunt live stream isn't going to end anytime soon—are you planning to stage a rebellion later on?"

"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare."

Su Chen waved his hands repeatedly, signaling his surrender.

The bullet comment stream was amused by Su Chen's actions.

[Hahaha, Officer Bai is right! This Su Chen is practically planning a mutiny. You should hurry up and arrest him!]

[How strange! How did Su Chen end up as a member of the investigative team before I even noticed, actually working on a case?!]

[Holy shit, I just realized it too! Su Chen isn't even fleeing—why is he solving a case?!]

[A virtual criminal is leading the experts to catch real criminals. Is Su Chen trying to atone for his crimes with meritorious service? Hahaha!]

[Still, his handling of the case is quite methodical. I'm in law enforcement myself, and honestly, if I were handed a cold case of this caliber, I wouldn't even know where to begin.]

Inside the expert team office, seeing that Bai Su had begun to frown and analyze seriously, they stopped chatting for fear of disturbing her work.

Recalling the massive beast sculpture that had appeared outside the door in his mind earlier, Su Chen picked up his phone and began to search.

He remembered that the giant beast possessed a few distinct features: it had a single horn on its head and a tuft of goat-like beard on its chin.

Against the backdrop of its gaping maw, it looked exceptionally majestic.

Armed with these features, Su Chen started searching the internet, but the results were far too cluttered.

Just as he sighed and prepared to close the browser, an image suddenly caught his attention.

It was a museum exhibit photo depicting a palm-sized bronze beast.

The design of this beast was identical to the one in Su Chen's mind.

"Xiezhi," Su Chen murmured, pronouncing the name somewhat unfamiliar to him.

The historical records about it were sparse, only mentioning that this mythical beast was the guardian of law and justice.

It seemed that ancient case-evaluators—the spiritual ancestors of the modern manhunt live stream—would invite this mythical beast to act as an adjudicator.

However, whether this "invitation" meant literally summoning the entity itself or simply commissioning a symbolic statue was not explicitly stated.

Most ordinary people, along with the vast majority of experts, believed that the mythical beast did not actually exist and was merely a creature of human imagination.

Therefore, mainstream opinion interpreted the act of "invitation" as the latter.

Yet, some superstitious individuals believed that the ancients could genuinely summon such fantastical creatures... both theories existed side by side.

Aside from the Xiezhi, this old photograph featured another exhibit.

It was a slender brush shaft, almost as long as a human forearm, densely carved with intricate patterns using the gold-inlay technique.

The intertwined gold patterns formed the ancient seal script characters for "Iron Face."

Su Chen felt that such an exquisite piece of craftsmanship should undoubtedly be a national treasure.

However, the accompanying information indicated that the item had been lost during the turbulent war years.

It was now housed in the Shingu Museum in Sakura Country.

Su Chen silently committed the information of these two cultural relics to memory, then resumed browsing the internet.

This time, however, he found no further useful clues.

After searching for a little longer, he put his phone away.

Meanwhile.

"Hoo—"

Bai Su lifted her head from the paper Su Chen had given her and let out a long breath.

She pulled a fresh sheet of white paper from her bag and began to write and sketch on it.

Su Chen leaned over and saw that the paper was not blank; instead, it was pre-printed with line graphs representing twenty-six personality tendencies.

Holding a pen, Bai Su was recording and analyzing data on it.

"Chief, what is this?" Su Chen asked out of curiosity.

"This is psychological profiling, primarily used to evaluate a criminal's motivational behavior and to treat individuals with psychological abnormalities," Bai Su explained patiently.

"However, normal individuals can take it too."

She abruptly changed the subject:

"For instance, I'd really love to run a profile on the killer in this manhunt live stream. They are quite extraordinary."

Su Chen rested his chin on his hand, his facial expression remaining entirely unchanged.

"Let's save that for after we catch him."

After this brief exchange, Bai Su handed the completed professional psychological profile analysis to Su Chen.

In addition to descriptions of the killer's personality, it also made judgments regarding some of his potential preferences.

Su Chen began to read aloud in a low voice:

"Paranoid personality, 70%; chaotic personality, 21%. These two make up the largest proportion, while the remaining personality tendencies have minimal influence."

"Preference for heavy metal music, possesses strong anti-surveillance capabilities, ample physical stamina, and specialized knowledge in anatomy."

"Complex social relationship with the deceased..."

It was clear that in order to make it comprehensible to a layman like Su Chen, Bai Su had stripped away virtually all technical jargon.

Furthermore, her linguistic style closely mirrored that of official case records.

"How is it? Is it helpful to you?" Bai Su asked.

Su Chen put down the paper.

At that moment, his heart was pounding wildly, and he felt as though an invisible thread in his mind was connecting all the previous pieces of information!

The puzzle of the case had originally been scattered in disarray.

Through Su Chen's sorting of the case files, his reasoning utilizing the Divine Deduction technique, and the final discovery of the skeletal remains, the puzzle was already nearly complete.

Now, Bai Su's analysis had provided the very last piece to complete the puzzle.

"Of course, it's immensely helpful!"

Su Chen looked at Bai Su with excitement; he almost felt like showering her with praise for half an hour.

However, time was of the essence, so Su Chen suppressed the impulse, gave Bai Su a thumbs-up, stood up, and hurried out the door.

...

Inside the restroom stall, Su Chen braced his hands against the wall and closed his eyes.

He was once again transported back to that rainy night.