How You Can Sue Me for My Crimes in Dreams

"What are the casualties?"

"No casualties. Cheng Yang and his wife were out socializing and weren’t home."

"The villa is secure, but it seems the suspect is still inside, holding Cheng Yang’s parents hostage. We heard them crying for help!"

The voice on the walkie-talkie crackled again.

"How many officers are on site?" Li Jianye asked urgently.

"Only four. The station has no spare manpower to send!"

Qian Hua didn’t hesitate. "Pull them!"

"Pull officers from their current assignments and send them over!"

"Pull as many as you can. Make sure the suspect doesn’t escape. Lethal force is authorized if necessary!"

"Notify the Armed Police. Have them surround the area as soon as we’ve secured the scene!"

With that, Qian Hua and Li Jianye put down their walkie-talkies.

The sound of their hurried footsteps faded as they headed out. Xu Huo frowned but got up and followed.

Once in the car, Qian Hua took the wheel while Li Jianye continued to coordinate personnel.

Xu Huo leaned against the window, his brow furrowed as he stared outside.

’Liu Bo wants to kill Cheng Yang?’

’No, that doesn’t make any sense.’

’If he wanted to kill Cheng Yang, he could’ve done it this afternoon. He could have even gotten away and moved on to his other targets!’

’In other words, anyone he could have killed this afternoon, during that window when police presence was thin, but didn’t... he’s even less likely to kill them tonight.’

’And yet, he still made his move...’

’Unless...’

"This is some kind of tactic!"

In a flash, Xu Huo seemed to realize something. His expression turned serious, and he subconsciously sat up straighter.

’If his target was one of the people the police already knew about, his failure to act this afternoon must mean he didn’t have an opening.’

’So, he needed to use Cheng Yang’s house to create that opening for himself.’

’A bomb?’

Xu Huo recalled the sound of the explosion.

’Why use a bomb?’

’Besides attracting the authorities’ attention, what else could it accomplish?’

’Apparently, nothing.’

’All it does is attract the authorities’ attention.’

’That serves... wait a minute.’

Suddenly, Xu Huo froze. He looked up at Li Jianye, who was busy dispatching officers to the crime scene, and then glanced around the speeding car.

A flicker of confusion crossed his eyes, followed by a look of utter shock.

"Stop the car!"

"Stop the car!"

Xu Huo roared suddenly.

SCREECH!

Qian Hua slammed on the brakes. The car lurched violently, throwing the three men forward.

"What’s going on!?"

Li Jianye was still dazed, unable to process what had just happened.

"He’s diverting our attention!"

It all clicked. At that moment, Xu Huo’s mind was crystal clear, his eyes wide with the shocking realization.

"Turn the car around!"

"Order all the officers you just reassigned to turn around and return to their original posts!"

"Now! Immediately!"

Sensing the sheer urgency in his voice, Li Jianye didn’t waste time asking for an explanation. He immediately relayed the order word for word.

After relaying the command, he looked back at Xu Huo, hesitating before he spoke.

"Without those officers, what about Cheng Yang’s house...?"

"Liu Bo isn’t there. It’s a feint! That bastard is trying to manipulate the police force to achieve his own goal!"

Xu Huo’s face was grim.

"Tell the officers on site to hail the suspect and attempt to negotiate."

"If they get no response within five minutes and only hear the victims’ cries for help, tell them to breach and search the building!"

"If they encounter any surprises, their safety comes first. The hostages are second."

’Negotiate?’

Li Jianye thought for a moment, then gritted his teeth and relayed the command.

Five minutes isn’t a long time, but it isn’t short, either.

But for a building that had just been bombed, it was a long time.

With a raging fire, the chances of survival for anyone inside would plummet after five minutes. Even without the order to negotiate, the police would have been forced to act after that long anyway.

A moment later...

"Chief, it’s a fake. The two elderly people were victims of Murder. The blood at the scene is dry; they’ve been dead for a while."

"The cries for help were a recording. Our initial theory is that it was a time bomb!"

The voice on the walkie-talkie was utterly dumbfounded.

’Just as I thought...’

Hearing this, Xu Huo’s heart sank.

"What in the world is going on!?"

Qian Hua was still completely baffled.

"His target isn’t Cheng Yang!"

"In other words, anyone who wasn’t under police protection this afternoon and is still alive isn’t his target!"

Xu Huo quickly switched seats with Qian Hua.

He immediately whipped the car into a U-turn and sped off in the opposite direction.

"Remember earlier tonight when I said there must be some ’hard condition’ that prevented him from acting all afternoon, forcing him to use a bomb now?"

Li Jianye nodded. He remembered.

"That ’hard condition’ was us! The police! Our presence made it impossible for him to get to his target this afternoon!"

"And if we were the obstacle, then his target must be someone we’ve already identified and placed under protection."

Xu Huo was perfectly calm as he drove, flicking on the high beams.

The neon lights outside blurred into streaks of color, flying past the window.

"So, he needed a way to draw the police away!"

"That’s where the public school came in, and all the other people involved in the incident who hadn’t been killed yet."

"Protecting them stretched our limited manpower thin. So if another incident occurred and we couldn’t get backup, we’d be forced to reassign officers!"

"And where would we pull them from? From the posts we’d already set up!"

"In other words..."

The more Xu Huo spoke, the colder his voice grew.

"He made us pull the guards away from his real target!"

’This was...’

’A ploy to lure the tiger from the mountain!’

’The suspect’s target was never Cheng Yang. He’s a former scout, but he didn’t even do reconnaissance. Setting off a bomb without confirming if the target was home? That in itself is illogical.’

’Unless Cheng Yang wasn’t what he was after.’

’What he cared about were the explosion and the hostages themselves!’

Xu Huo understood. So many things were starting to make sense now.

He’d had a host of unanswered questions in his mind, but now the pieces were falling into place.

’Liu Bo was released from prison just a month ago. How was he contacted, and who told him what happened to his family?’

’He didn’t even know about "Incident 80," so how did the person who informed him know about it?’

’And the most crucial part... it’s all too much of a coincidence!’

’The prime suspect in the first Murder, was coincidentally bullied by the same person as the second victim.’

’Coincidentally, the second victim left the hospital and suddenly took a job at the school.’

’Coincidentally, he ran into the same bully.’

’And also by coincidence, his family just happened to have someone capable of revenge, someone who dared to kill...’

’It’s even a coincidence that he was released from prison right before this all started!’

’Too many coincidences. They’re everywhere.’

’When there are this many coincidences, it’s not a coincidence. It’s... a setup!’

"A protected target?" Li Jianye’s brow furrowed.

"Exactly. A target already under police protection."

"And this person must have been identified by the police *before* the dean of instruction died. Otherwise, the killer wouldn’t have killed the dean so early in his plan."

Xu Huo yanked the steering wheel hard.

"So, the timeframe is between noon two days ago and yesterday afternoon. If we eliminate those who are already dead, those who weren’t targeted this afternoon, and the people at the private school, that only leaves..."

’Who’s left?’

’Only one person.’

Li Jianye and Qian Hua both paused, the name surfacing in their minds.

Even though she wasn’t a suspect at all, and there was no evidence whatsoever to suggest Liu Bo would have a reason to kill her.

But when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable... must be the truth.

Which means, the suspect’s target is...

"Sun Yang!?"

Li Jianye’s pupils contracted. He looked utterly astounded.

The prime suspect in the first Murder... was now about to be Murdered by the second killer.

Everything Liu Bo did today... was to kill a cripple?!

SCREECH!

"We’re here."

Xu Huo slammed on the brakes, yanked the handbrake, and threw the door open, stumbling out as he ran toward the building.

"There’s still time!"

"Upstairs..."

"Get him!"

Staring at the pitch-black building entrance, Li Jianye followed close behind, his mind still reeling.

’He... wants to kill Sun Yang?’

’He wants to kill a cripple?!’

’And not just any cripple—one who had already been through two rounds of interrogation by two criminal investigation captains, Xu Huo himself, and a polygraph!’

’Why?’

’Why kill her?’

’If she really was guilty...’

’How did she beat the interrogation?!’

Before he could figure it out, before he could even ask,

Xu Huo had already reached the fourth floor and kicked the door right at the lock.

The door...

burst open.

BANG!

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