Another Side Effect of NZT

Chen Chen walked out of Zheng Jian's office.

He behaved as usual. No one would be able to tell that he had just locked horns with an associate professor half a minute ago. 

He went down the stairs to the ground floor, exited the lobby, and walked out of the office block.

Only then did Chen Chen take out his phone and looked at the time.

Currently, it was ten o'clock on the dot.

"Time's… Up."

Chen Chen muttered to himself, then walked down the path toward his dormitory.

When he was about a dozen meters away, there was a sudden, loud "thud" behind him.

It was as if something soft but heavy had plummeted from a higher floor.

There was a brief instant of silence among the passersby but this was soon punctured by successive bursts of shrieking.

The campus was thrown into discord…

Chen Chen did not look back. He simply left right away.

Before this, Chen Chen was not certain whether Zheng Jian had killed his previous wife. 

Nonetheless, in some cases, certainty was not required. A seed of suspicion was enough.

Why would Chen Chen start suspecting Zheng Jian?

It was simple.

First of all, medulloblastoma was not a common affliction for those at the age of Zheng Jian's wife. Rather, it was a malignant glioma of the posterior fossa that often occurred in children while being rare in adults.

Of course, this alone was not enough to arouse Chen Chen's suspicions but there was also Zheng Jian's identity.

Zheng Jian had a double Ph.D. in biochemistry and pharmacy and was a lecturer in the Institute of Biological Science.

In simple terms, he possessed the necessary technology and conditions to obtain his wife's somatic cells anytime he liked, induce the formation of cancer cells in the laboratory, and finally inject them back into his wife's body. 

This was why Chen Chen would ask the question "Did you set up an IV drip for your wife at home?".

Of course, both of these points did not mean much by themselves. Zheng Jian would still need a motive to kill his wife.

In that case – his second wife, the daughter of the high-ranking official. Naturally, that was the motive.

To put it simply, this was like a crappy storyline of a scumbag who got rid of his poor, loyal wife after he became successful and chose to marry another, more promising woman.

Since a motive existed, Chen Chen only had to apply inductive reasoning. Naturally, he would reach the conclusion that Zheng Jian had killed his previous wife.

Even so, this was just a guess. What solidified Chen Chen's conviction was the framed photo placed in the office.

According to criminal psychology, this was a form of compensation.

First off, by placing the photo of his previous wife on the desk, Zheng Jian could reduce his feeling of guilt.

Secondly, others around him would think that he cherished his past wife very much, thus lessening any suspicion of a crime. 

However, humans were not cold-blooded animals, after all. Throughout the years, ethics and morality had haunted every single person. Not everyone could easily overcome this obstacle.

As a result, although Zheng Jian had succeeded in killing his wife, he still felt uneasy.

The fear of being exposed, his guilt toward his wife, and the weight of his conscience kept on tormenting him. He dared not even visit a psychologist.

This had resulted in a state of constant distress over the years.

As a result, this distress had made Zheng Jian afraid of his dead wife, which explained the scene earlier.

Even though the photo of his previous wife was set out on his desk, it was faced away from him…

By this point, Chen Chen's conjecture had a sixty percent possibility of being true.

One should not underestimate this sixty percent. In this world, other than incontrovertible truths such as "the sun rises in the east", "water flows to the lowest point" or "objects will fall, not rise", most events were simply random with a certain degree of probability.     

Sixty percent possibility was enough for Chen Chen to bet on.   

Therefore, when Chen Chen entered the office, he first displayed an acquiescent attitude to lower Zheng Jian's guard.

Following that, he worked with what he had, fiddling with the clock to plant a "seed" in Zheng Jian's heart.

This was a common method of hypnosis.

Human consciousness could be divided into the conscious and the subconscious. In general, when one was awake, the conscious mind was dominant.

Through guidance and suggestion, hypnosis allowed patients to enter a light sleep state. At this point, the subconscious would be released and the hypnotist could bypass the conscious mind and communicate with the patient's subconscious directly.

This was the reason why Chen Chen had immediately sent the data over. He wanted Zheng Jian to be fully at ease.

Still, even then, Chen Chen was unable to hypnotize his target.

Although the concept of hypnosis was mysterious, it all came down to one thing. For a psychologist to hypnotize someone, the person must be actively cooperating. Otherwise, it would be a futile effort.

Chen Chen also knew that no matter how submissive he appeared, Zheng Jian would not completely let down his guard. 

Nevertheless, all these were just the first step.

The second step was when the clock struck the hour.

When this happened, Chen Chen brought up the question "Who is the woman in the photo?". This would link the clock's chime and the previous wife in Zheng Jian's subconscious.

However, because Chen Chen had set the clock forward by five minutes, it was only 9:55 then. After that, Chen Chen corrected the clock once again, thus planting the "seed" deeper in Zheng Jian's heart.

Then, it was the third step.

Chen Chen had abruptly turned confrontational, interrogating Zheng Jian about the cause of his wife's death. This extreme turnaround in approach would usually take the other person by surprise.

Furthermore, the pointed questions would cause Zheng Jian to become discombobulated.

This was why Zheng Jian was so furious.

Sometimes, an expression of anger was a way to mask one's guilt when one was caught off guard. 

At the same time, Chen Chen laid his cards on the table by telling Zheng Jian that he was going to be hypnotized.

Although this would make Zheng Jian highly vigilant, it was also a form of suggestion to Zheng Jian.

It was this suggestion that truly buried the seed of "I might be hypnotized" into Zheng Jian's heart.

After that, it was the last step.

Chen Chen had deliberately acted out an attempt at hypnosis, which drove Zheng Jian into a panic. However, Chen Chen suddenly slipped up and the frame fell to the floor.

At this point, Zheng Jian's immediate assumption would be – Chen Chen's attempt at hypnotizing him had failed.

Finally, Chen Chen left.

Seeing that his interrogator had left, Zheng Jian's tightly wounded mind would relax instantly. His mind, in a few short minutes, had switched violently between relaxation, tension, extreme tension, then relaxation again.

Having gone through such a rollercoaster, Zheng Jian's mental state sunk into exhaustion.

It was at this point that Chen Chen's final attack landed!

"Bong!"

The clock struck once like the trigger of a pistol being pulled.

In this instant, the seed buried in Zheng Jian's heart exploded, igniting the terror and guilt he had suppressed for many years!

It was like a torrent rushing down a mountain. In the state of hypnosis induced by Chen Chen, Zheng Jian leaped down from the fifth floor and ended his sinful life…

It was just that simple.

'Still, I'm truly being decisive. That was a living person but I killed him just like that.'

Chen Chen pondered silently.

Was all these a side effect of NZT-48 or the liberation of his own dark side upon abruptly gaining power?