At midnight, the old man dreamed again.

Fourteen years ago, the fire became a lifelong nightmare.

Because he wanted to find out the truth about his parents' death and his sister's disappearance, he aspired to be a police officer. However, in the past 14 years, countless major cases have been solved, but no trace of her sister Chen Yue has been found.

Seeing that the 15-year effective litigation period is getting closer and closer, Chen Nian's heart is like a fire.

The clock struck midnight.

Chen Nian got up and walked to the whiteboard in the living room. The home and work of a criminal police captain who lives alone are no different. Looking at the photos, names, and relationships on the whiteboard, Chen Nian fell into deep thought.

At the same time, next to a neon-lit bridge in Huajiang City, a dark figure is silently smoking a cigarette, and a broken semiconductor radio is lying at his feet, which plays a radio program:

"The following song is from Qi Qin's "Cruise", and some listeners call it "Wolf II.", sometimes it is not only the desolate grassland that makes people feel lonely, but also the reinforced concrete city ...... we live in."

Music plays.

The shadow looked up and spat out a string of smoke rings into the air.

The neon lights are blowing in the snow.

The sound of the radio is muffled:

"The city at midnight is like the jungle with a full moon, and we are cruising the dark streets......"

The next day, the snow was clear.

Chen Nian walked alone in the snow to the scene of the crime. Standing under the tree where the murder occurred, Chen Nian lit a cigarette and took a deep breath, then closed his eyes.

When he was fifteen years old, he accidentally discovered that he had a perception ability that was different from ordinary people.

That day, Chen Nian returned home from school to find that there was a fire, his parents were burned to death in the fire, and his sister, who was four years younger, was missing.

Despite the obstacles, Chen Nian rushed into the house, where the fire had been extinguished, but the smoke had not yet dissipated. Soon, he was so smoked that he had to close his eyes, but this closure gave him a vague glimpse of his parents struggling in the fire before their deaths. In addition, he saw a man wearing a mask who had left his home before the gas canister exploded, and had abducted his sister Chen Yue. He reported what he saw to the police, only to be told that he might be suffering from paranoia.

Later, the police determined that the cause of death of Chen's parents was an explosion caused by improper use of gas, which caused the fire, and his sister Chen Yue reported the missing person, but there was no news.

Later, Chen Nian was adopted by his aunt. Three years later, he went to high school in the provincial capital and began to live in the school, until he graduated from college and was assigned to work in the Huajiang Municipal Bureau. Over time, he also developed a withdrawn and eccentric character.

Regarding synaesthesia, Chen Nian rarely mentions it again. Except for his university mentor Xu Tianlin. Professor Xu was the first to know that Chen had synaesthesia without laughing at him. Not only that, but Professor Xu also helped Chen Nian discover the secret to using synaesthesia - lighting a cigarette.

In the past, Chen only knew that he had the ability to perceive things in the past, but he didn't know how to open and use it, so he could only appear randomly. Professor Xu is a big smoker, and every time Chen Nian goes to him alone to discuss criminal psychology, he will keep smoking. There were a few times when I was in a bad mental state, and when I was drowsy, I accidentally discovered the mechanism that opened the past world.

But strange to say, the old synaesthesia ability is sometimes strong and sometimes weak, and the perceived situation is at most three minutes, less than ten seconds, and the fragmentation phenomenon is serious.

When Chen Nian was lighting a cigarette under the tree, Fang Jinyu and Zhou Kejian had already come to Huajiang Xingda Taxi Company.

It's better to come early than to come by chance, Lin Yang's boyfriend Li Xingwei was on the shift at this time, and the two police officers easily found the person they were looking for.

Li Xingwei was a little surprised: "Comrade Police C, is there anything wrong with me?" ”

"Do you know Lin Yang?" Fang Jinyu asked.

"Are you talking about Lin Yang, who works at an oil company?"

"Yes."

"Acquaintance." Li Xingwei said, "She's my object, what's wrong?" ”

"She's dead."

"Dead? How can it be...... It was fine when I saw her last night! Li Xingwei said with some excitement, "How did she die?" ”

"Whoever is strangled to death will be raped first and then killed." Zhou Kejian said.

"It's too early to draw conclusions." Fang Jinyu said, "We hope you will cooperate with our investigation." What time did you meet Lin Yang yesterday, where did you meet him, and what did you do? ”

Li Xingwei wiped his tears, choked up and said: "I made an appointment with Lin Yang yesterday to watch a movie at the Workers' Cultural Palace, the movie started at 5 o'clock in the evening, Lin Yang's unit is far away, I was afraid that she would be late, and I asked her to come out early." We met at the cinema at about 4:50 a.m., and she coquettishly said that she had arrived earlier than me. After watching the movie, around 6:30, we went to Nanxiao City to eat hot pot together. ”

"And after that?"

"Then I'll go home!" Li Xingwei said, "I was going to send her, but when I answered the phone and wanted to take over the shift in advance, I let her go by herself." ”

"Grandma's bear!" Da Zhou's face was fierce, "You think clearly." ”

Li Xingwei said that he was not lying, but his eyes flickered a little.

"Have you ever been in a relationship?"

"Nope!" Li Xingwei insisted.

At this time, Fang Jinyu changed her tone: "Lin Yang is dead, you are likely to be the last person to see her, you had better explain truthfully." ”

Li Xingwei frowned and thought for a long time, and then slowly lowered his head: "Okay, I said!" ”

The snow is dazzling.

Chen Nian saw in the smoke that a man in uniform carried a female corpse to the woods, the corpse had changed into a skirt and shoes, the man took out a brand new lipstick from his arms and applied it to the woman, perhaps because of the cold, the man's hands kept shaking, and the lipstick was applied casually and exaggeratedly. After the man had put on his makeup, he hung the woman with hemp rope. The man then placed a ring in the shape of a rose petal on the ring finger of the woman's left hand.

Chen Nian inhaled hard, trying not to open his eyes so quickly, but the light in front of him still shot into his eyelids unstoppably. Never seeing anyone's face during the perception process is something that Chen has always been annoyed about.

"It doesn't matter, at least it's certain that he killed him." While comforting himself in his heart, Chen Nian found a stone to put under his feet, so that he could stand at the same height and direction as the deceased. Sure enough, looking down the hillside from the perspective of the deceased, the low pine and cypress trees covered with snow looked like snowmen covered in silver makeup.

Chen Nian thought to himself, the murderer must have regarded the deceased as his bride, and these "snowmen" on the mountain as guests and friends attending their "wedding", and he was holding a wedding!

Chen Nian checked the scene of the crime again, and as yesterday, after a night of snowstorm, except for the traces of the investigators at the scene, there were no footprints of other suspicious people left on the snow.

Then, Chen Nian wrapped his coat tightly and lowered his head and walked down the mountain, still not finding anything along the way. But just as he was about to leave Cuifeng Mountain and come to the sidewalk on the side of the highway auxiliary road, Chen Nian's feet suddenly slipped. Looking back, the snow had been removed from the bald area he had just stepped on, revealing a clearing a little larger than the soles of his feet, and a lipstick was quietly embedded in the gap between the teeth of the road.