There was a slight change in Fan Yansong’s expression, and even Yang Shaoqun and Zhang Shanfei noticed it. Thus, they knew Qi Youxuan was correct in his speculations.

 “You knew that something was definitely wrong, so you called your psychologist immediately for a chat and advice. You thought that the psychologist was a good doctor who would listen to you attentively and counsel you even though you couldn’t return to B City. The psychologist even encouraged you to call him whenever you face any difficulty. You were thankful for him and always gave him phone calls, and you would definitely feel better afterward.”

 Fan Yansong’s lips quivered uncontrollably as he stared at Qi Youxuan fearfully as if he was staring at a monster. “How… How did you know about this?”

 “In fact, there weren’t the slightest signs of recovery at all. Why would you commit homicide if your mental condition was improving? Why would you kill in order to calm your rage? Your condition actually deteriorated after listening to his counsellings instead of improving. You were suffering in B City initially, but the agony gnawed at you alone only. You had no desire to kill and certainly wouldn’t come up with the idea of murdering others just to vent your rage. Homicide was something that you wouldn’t dare to think at that time,” said Qi Youxuan calmly.

 Fan Yansong’s lips trembled in fear as he nodded slowly. “I… I didn’t know what happened… I just couldn’t control it. The agony was too much and I couldn’t bear it any longer. Only their deaths would alleviate my agony, so I gave in to the desire. I…”

 “The agony shouldn’t be this intense and your disease should be well controlled if your psychologist fulfills his responsibility and prescribes treatment plans for your own good. It’s easy to cure depression at the early stage of symptoms manifestation by counseling and medications. Well, it was obvious that the psychologist whom you believed in the most didn’t deserve your trust after all. He actually worsened your condition instead of treating your symptoms accordingly. That was exactly the reason why you didn’t see any sign of recovery in your disease until now.”

 “Impossible! Doctor Xu is a good man. He won’t hurt me! He treats me very well and has been helping me ever since. I’ve never seen such a responsible doctor in my life! In fact, I actually felt better before coming to T City. My condition only started to get worse after listening to Xiong Shishi’s indecent acts,” replied Fan Yansong while shaking his head.

 Qi Youxuan fixed his gaze on Fan Yansong. “Really? Then why can’t you face your relatives and friends if you claimed that your condition improved? He merely let you think that your condition improved and gave you hope that you were able to recover fully before making your condition worse again. He then discontinued your treatment plan temporarily and guided you to work toward a better goal. That gave you an illusion that your condition was stabilizing. He was the one suggesting you to start over in T City. When you started detecting a relapse in your condition, you contacted him again and that was when he started hypnotizing and controlling you. He guided you step-by-step and prompted you to start a killing spree.”

 “No! Impossible! It can’t be! Why would he do that when I didn’t even provoke him?” Fan Yansong shook his head vigorously in disbelief.

 How could Fan Yansong believe that his future was destroyed by a psychologist whom he had never met before in his lifetime?

 “Besides, when he was chatting with me, his tone sounded normal without any sign of hypnotism! Do you think I’ll fall for such obvious hypnotism? Am I really that stupid to do everything that he says? If he can control people with just a few words, he can manipulate hackers to hack into others’ computers or phones to obtain their bank accounts’ details, or better yet, he can command others to rob a bank without any worry of getting caught! The income is better and quicker that way,” replied Fan Yansong, obviously unconvinced.

 Qi Youxuan smiled in response. “That’s creative. You still have time to imagine using hypnotism for robbery.”

 The agitated Fan Yansong still could not believe that this was a set up all along.

 “Why don’t we play a game? It’s an experiment to let you learn the effects of hypnotism,” suggested Qi Youxuan.

 “Sure,” replied Fan Yansong who remained unconvinced.

 Qi Youxuan took a handkerchief out of his pocket and passed it to Zhang Shanfei. “Can you please cover his eyes?”

 Anxiety gnawed at Fan Yansong because he had no idea if Qi Youxuan was actually performing the experiment on him or it was just a disguise for punishment or torture.

 However, resistance was futile since Fan Yansong’s wrists were handcuffed, so he had no choice but to let Zhang Shanfei cover his eyes with the handkerchief.

 Zhang Shanfei returned to Qi Youxuan’s side after ensuring that Fan Yansong was blindfolded completely.

 “Where are you guys? Have you started the experiment?” asked Fan Yansong nervously since all he could detect was an eerie silence and pitch-black darkness before him.

 No answer. The only response Fan Yansong received were some messy footsteps in the room and the sound of the door opening and closing before him.

 Then, Fan Yansong heard Yang Shaoqun’s panicked voice. “Mr. Qi, are you alright? Why did you cut your arm all of a sudden?”

 “I’m fine,” replied Qi Youxuan weakly.

 “What do you mean you’re fine? You’re bleeding! There’s so much blood!” yelled Zhang Shanfei worryingly.

 “Ow! Why did you poke my wound? That’s painful!” exclaimed Qi Youxuan suddenly but Fan Yansong was unsure who or what had caused him pain.

 “I’m sorry. I didn’t manage to control it due to anxiety,” Zhang Shanfei’s voice traveled to Fan Yansong’s ears.

 Then, Fan Yansong heard Qi Youxuan’s pants of painful agony.

 “You’re pale. I think you should go to the hospital,” suggested Yang Shaoqun.

 Fan Yansong figured that Qi Youxuan was shaking his head despite the temporary blindness. “No need. I may consider it after this interrogation is over.”

 Silence followed afterward. A few moments later, Fan Yansong heard some footsteps again but this time, the footsteps were closing in on him.

 “What are you going to do?” asked Fan Yansong nervously before someone rolled his sleeve.

 His question went unanswered again and his vision was obscured too. Then, he felt a cool breeze touching his left forearm as his sleeve was rolled upward like a rubber band constricting his arm.

 The sleeve wrapped around his arm tightly and restricted blood flow to the distal part of his left arm, which felt cold and numb in mere seconds. He also had difficulty in clenching his fist tightly as energy started to drain away from the affected arm.

 Suddenly, an unknown object scratched Fan Yansong’s exposed forearm. The object felt cold like it was made of metal, so his first assumption was that he was cut by a blade.

 An agonizing pain shot through Fan Yansong’s arm. He shrieked horribly and wanted to apply pressure on the wound, but failed to do so since his wrists were handcuffed to the back of the chair.

 Fan Yansong could even feel some warm fluid oozing out of the painful spot and trickled the fine hairs on his forearm, inducing itchiness which felt uncomfortable when combined with pain at the same time.

 Fan Yansong yelled in fear. “Blood! I’m bleeding! It’s so painful! Stop the bleeding, quick! The pain is unbearable! Faster! I’m dying. You guys are going to kill me! Hey, police officers are murdering me!”

 The scream continued for quite sometime before the handkerchief was finally removed. However, he continued to yell in pain before opening his eyes, and if circumstances permitted, he even had the desire to roll on the floor repeatedly to soothe the pain.

 “Open your eyes and have a look before you continue screaming painfully,” a voice traveled to Fan Yansong’s ears suddenly.

 Fan Yansong was taken by surprise when he realized that the voice belonged to Qi Youxuan. He sounded calm and mellow without any previous sign of him enduring pain.

 The curious Fan Yansong opened his eyes and saw Qi Youxuan sitting opposite him with a tidy outfit and healthy complexion without any injury on his arm.

 “Take a look at your forearm,” instructed Qi Youxuan calmly.

 Fan Yansong lowered his gaze doubtfully. Surprisingly, he did not find any wound or even a bruise on his exposed forearm where the intense pain originated.

 Fan Yansong stared at his left forearm in disbelief for a very long time.

 What happened to the intense pain that he felt just now?

 It felt so real after all.

 Qi Youxuan smiled and explained when Fan Yansong glanced at him oddly. “This is hypnotism. It works by obscuring your vision and giving you auditory hints only. When you felt that your forearm was scratched after hearing that my arm was injured, you assumed that you were attacked exactly the same way as I did, but in fact, the object that scratched you just now was actually this.”

 Yang Shaoqun waved the notebook, which was used for recordings during Fan Yansong’s interrogation, in his hand at this instant. “I merely used a piece of paper to scratch your forearm gently just now.”

 “Your reaction was exactly how I predicted after giving you hints during the hypnotism. That’s beyond your expectations. You may even die due to intense pain if I didn’t stop you just now,” Qi Youxuan leaned forward slightly and added. “Let me give you another example. It’s a real case that happened in another country.”

 “A prisoner was sentenced to a death penalty. After his limbs were restrained and his eyes blindfolded, someone informed him that he was going to be executed by exsanguination. After that, the executioner merely used a leaf to scratch his wrist very gently,” Qi Youxuan pressed his thumb and index finger together and made a cutting movement on his wrist.

 “Naturally, there wasn’t any injury on his wrist. Beside the prisoner laid a container with water droplets dripping from it, and guess what, the prisoner died one day later. Postmortem autopsy revealed that the cause of death was indeed exsanguination, but in fact, he didn’t even lose a single drop of blood. The reason was that the prisoner strongly believed that his artery was cut and that his blood was oozing out by hearing the dripping sounds from the water container. He firmly believed that his death was certain and thus, died with signs and symptoms of exsanguination.”