Dark Light Chaser.

Chapter 285 You've schemed against me again!
Gao Bin lay on the sofa for a while.

By the time he got up again, it was already late at night.

"By the way, are you still suspicious of that student named Ai Liang?"

Gao Bin asked abruptly.

Although Xia Qiyuan outwardly acknowledged the results of his extrasensory perception, Gao Bin could sense it.

Xia Qiyuan still harbored doubts about Ai Liang.

"That's right, I still have some doubts."

Xia Qiyuan readily admitted it.

"Can you tell me your reasoning? Although his relationship with Xu Zhihai is somewhat coincidental, no matter how you look at it, he doesn't seem like a mask, does he? What exactly do you suspect about him?"

Gao Bin was puzzled by Xia Qiyuan's inexplicable suspicions more than once.

With the double assurance of DNA testing and extrasensory perception, the possibility of Ai Liang being suspected as a mask should be infinitely close to zero.

He had reviewed it in his mind several times.

But to everyone's surprise, Xia Qiyuan had a reason for doubting Ai Liang.

It's impossible to suspect that he's a hermit or a man of a thousand faces, right?
Xia Qiyuan put down his computer and waved his hand dismissively: "There's no special reason, it's just a feeling I've had for years..."

Xia Qiyuan wanted to say it was his intuition developed over many years of handling cases, but he swallowed the words back.

Although the matter of soul transfer is confidential, Gao Bin, given his current status, has the right to access this truth.

However, adhering to the principle of "it's better to avoid trouble," Xia Qiyuan chose to keep it a secret.

"Are you suffering from paranoia? You've lived all these years and you've never encountered a single coincidence?"

Gao Bin was utterly speechless at this response.

So after all that reasoning based on realistic logic, you're trying to pull an idealist stunt on me?
In fact, Xia Qiyuan himself felt that this idea was somewhat unreasonable.

But who is Xia Qiyuan?

Xia Qiyuan would be suspicious even of a dead person.

He wouldn't doubt the only person he had personally cleared of suspicion.

The leaders of Neihua City at the time criticized Xia Qiyuan quite a bit.

His attitude can be described in eight words: humbly accepting advice but never correcting his mistakes.

I just think he's Iron Wolf, so what?
Xia Qiyuan used vivid examples to illustrate what it means to have merits that overshadow one's master.

Back then, the people in the black market wanted to take him down, and they had plenty of excuses.

Rather, those excuses simply cannot shake his position.

However, Xia Qiyuan wasn't being unreasonable: "I've encountered quite a few coincidences. Originally, after your extrasensory perception, I was also planning to remove Ai Liang from the list of suspects, but..."

"But what?" Gao Bin pressed.

"However, the memories I saw in Mus's mind today have made me doubt him again."

Xia Qiyuan shared the information that the messenger was the Hermit with Gao Bin via armor.

Looking at the transmitted image, Gao Bin quickly understood Xia Qiyuan's idea after a moment's thought.

"You mean the reason the hermit hasn't been found is because he might be impersonating someone else? Could it be..."

Gao Bin felt that his conclusion was absurd: "Could it be that you suspect that this Ai Liang is the hermit in disguise?"

Xia Qiyuan neither confirmed nor denied this conjecture.

Instead, they started talking about other things.

"When the police are investigating someone, they will definitely identify the target based on height, build, and physical characteristics, but this method does not apply to people with strange powers, right?"

Gao Bin nodded in agreement.

"Then let me ask you, after killing so many people, how did the hermit manage to remain anonymous for so many years without making a sound? The answer is obvious, he must have impersonated someone else."

Gao Bin recalled the footage transmitted from the armored vehicle: "You mean, he's disguised as a messenger and living in Nevada?"

"No, although I did think that way at first, there are better options than being a messenger. I prefer the identity of a messenger, which he only uses occasionally."

To be honest, Xia Qiyuan didn't believe that a hermit would pretend to live as someone he knew.

"Could it be that the hermit randomly kills someone on the street and then takes their place?"

Gao Bin still didn't understand what Xia Qiyuan meant.

Xia Qiyuan did not give the answer directly, but instead guided Gao Bin to think about it himself: "Think carefully, is there a type of person that no normal person, including those in the Countermeasures Bureau, would suspect?"

"How could there be such a person in the world? Even saints have brain-dead idiots who would have such thoughts..."

Gao Bin subconsciously denied Xia Qiyuan's statement.

But halfway through his sentence, he was like a rooster whose throat had been suddenly choked, unable to utter a sound.

"It seems you've realized which type of person I'm talking about."

Gao Bin's face contorted, and he reluctantly uttered the name of the group: "Children."

“That’s right. Being a child is a natural protective layer. No one would think that someone like the Hermit would disguise himself as a child.”

Xia Qiyuan was very satisfied with Gao Bin's answer: "Since the hermit has the ability to change his appearance, can he also change his body shape? Nobody can say for sure."

"So you suspect that Ai Liang is the hermit?"

Xia Qiyuan's words were not without reason, but that is not a reason to doubt Ai Liang.

Did he simply think that someone so talented must have a problem?

Probably not...

Although Gao Bin had a very poor impression of the researchers in the lab, it didn't mean he would deny their talents as well.

The group of experimental fanatics in the Countermeasures Bureau are all geniuses.

There are quite a few researchers and doctoral students who skipped directly to university in their early teens.

Logically speaking, Xia Qiyuan has met many geniuses, so why would he fixate on this point?
"...His personality is very similar to that of the hermit, which is why I suspect him."

Xia Qiyuan finally revealed his thoughts.

However, Gao Bin clearly disagreed with Xia Qiyuan's point of view: "Hey, didn't we already find out about this? Ai Liang has hyperthymesia and takes medication frequently, so he rarely experiences emotional fluctuations. This is a fact that was confirmed when he was born."

"But doesn't that perfectly match the hermit's later personality? It's not surprising that he chose to take Ai Liang's place!"

Xia Qiyuan was clearly not going to be persuaded by Gao Bin's few words.

"Okay, you have a point, but the hermit is not Ai Liang after all."

Although Ai Liang's parents don't seem to care much about him, I heard that his maternal grandfather seems to have a good relationship with him. If Ai Liang is replaced, he'll definitely notice something's wrong!

Gao Bin argued his case logically, presenting all the information he could use to refute Xia Qiyuan's claims.

But the next moment, he sensed something was wrong.

Because Xia Qiyuan revealed the cunning smile of a shill on the Tieba forum.

Every time Xia Qiyuan showed that smile, it meant that he was about to suffer again.

“Since you don’t believe it…and it’s not going to make any progress on Mus’s side anytime soon, why don’t we go to Nevada City and use your extrasensory perception to confirm whether the people around Ai Liang have been subjected to psycho-suggestion?”

Xia Qiyuan, you scoundrel, you're plotting against me again!!!

(End of this chapter)