Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

Two hours later.

Morning Light City Police Department, High-Level Conference Room.

This was an emergency high-level coordination meeting convened in response to the "sudden extreme murder case at Genting Palace".

At the head of the long conference table sat Zhou Wenyuan, the vice mayor of Chenxi City, who had rushed over.

On his left and right sides were the director of the city's security bureau and the deputy secretary-general of the municipal government, respectively.

On the other side of the table, Zhao Jianguo, the head of the special task force, sat in the center, facing Vice Mayor Zhou.

To his left is Pang Shilong, and to his right are Li Ming and Wang Gang, in order.

In front of each person was a thick case file and a cup of strong tea that had long since gone cold.

"Isn't this conclusion drawn too hastily?!"

Pang Shilong pointed his finger at the words on the report: "Directly characterizing Chen Guohua's behavior as 'drug-induced hallucinations' may temporarily explain his abnormal physical functions, but it does not stand up to logical scrutiny."

"There's new progress on Lei Zhen's side. Clues about Zhao Qiang taking the blame and Wei Zixuan's alleged rape leading to death are surfacing! This is Chen Guohua's real motive for the murder! If we cover up the core issue now to quell the situation, and the truth is revealed later, the police will completely lose the public's trust!"

Zhou Wenyuan, the vice mayor sitting at the head of the table, frowned and said, "Shilong, we need to look at this issue comprehensively. This is not just a criminal case, but a major political test concerning the stability and investment environment of Chenxi City."

Zhou Wenyuan surveyed the crowd: "The Wei Group is a major taxpayer in this city. Although Wei Zixuan has flaws in his personal conduct, he still represents the Wei family's reputation. Now he's dead and his life is extinguished, and he was publicly tortured and murdered in a prestigious setting like 'Cloud Top Palace'."

"If we were to delve into any old cases now, it would not only be disrespectful to the deceased, but it would also cause Wei Donghai to completely lose control. If the Wei Group withdraws its investment and causes unrest, resulting in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs, who in your municipal bureau can bear that responsibility?"

Pang Shilong opened his mouth, about to argue his point, but Zhao Jianguo next to him lightly kicked the tip of his shoe under the table.

Zhao Jianguo interrupted, "Old Pang, Mayor Zhou is right. Let's be realistic, Wei Zixuan is dead, and the law cannot judge a dead man. We need to give the public an explanation, but we certainly don't want to put ourselves in such a precarious position."

"But does the Wei family want to portray Wei Zixuan as a 'hero who acted bravely and righteously'? That's absolutely impossible. Hundreds of eyes were watching; Wei Zixuan's shameful behavior while being chased couldn't be hidden at all. If we insist on calling a deer a horse, it will only incite public backlash, and then more dirt will be dug up. Not only will the Wei family be unable to cover it up, but the credibility of the police will also be destroyed."

With Zhang Jingyi absent, Zhao Jianguo could finally speak the truth.

He paused, his voice lowering even further: "Similarly, we cannot admit that Chen Guohua is seeking 'revenge.' Revenge implies injustice, and injustice implies judicial injustice. Once the lid is lifted on Zhao Qiang's case, the mess it will unearth will erode our credibility."

"It's neither a hero's suffering nor a righteous man's revenge." Deputy Mayor Zhou Wenyuan tapped his fingers lightly on the table, signaling him to continue. "Then what is your suggestion?"

"It was a madman who committed the crime," Zhao Jianguo concluded. "Chen Guohua suffered from end-stage uremia for a long time, which led to a severe mental breakdown and the development of serious paranoia and antisocial personality disorder."

"This is an extremely heinous criminal case caused by a severe mental illness." Zhao Jianguo looked at Zhou Wenyuan. "Mayor Zhou, this conclusion not only saves face for the Wei family—Wei Zixuan was just unlucky to encounter a madman; it also upholds our bottom line—we are facing a deranged madman, not some kind of mistake."

A brief silence fell over the meeting room.

Pang Shilong gripped the teacup tightly in his hand, his knuckles turning white.

He knew it was a lie, a fig leaf to cover up another festering sore.

But looking at the tacit eyes of his colleagues around him, he felt a deep sense of powerlessness.

When faced with the "big picture," the truth is always the first bargaining chip to be sacrificed.

"That's settled then." Zhou Wenyuan made the final decision, stood up and straightened his suit. "The Municipal Bureau will issue a unified statement immediately. I don't want to see any media outlet still discussing the word 'revenge' tomorrow morning."

------

Two o'clock in the morning, Chenxi City Garrison Bureau Forensic Identification Center.

On the autopsy table, the stark white light illuminated Chen Guohua's withered corpse in every detail.

The chief forensic doctor of the municipal bureau, Qin En, had just cut open the victim's chest cavity with his scalpel.

Standing opposite him were two top medical professors from the Wei family, while Zhao Jianguo, dressed in isolation suits, stood aside expressionlessly to supervise.

The moment the sternum was pried open, a collective gasp filled the dissection room.

"What...what is this?"

A professor from the Wei family pointed in horror to the inside of his chest cavity.

The muscle fibers, which should have been bright red, now appeared as an eerie grayish-white, as if they had been corroded by some strong acid, or as mud that had been instantly cooked and dissolved by high temperature.

What's even more terrifying is that heart.

It was not in a state of relaxation or contraction like a normal deceased person, but rather presented an extremely distorted fibrotic tear.

The ventricular walls were as thin as cicada wings, and the valves were already shattered. It was as if, in the last moments before its death, the heart was beating wildly at a frequency of hundreds or even thousands of times per minute, until it shattered itself.

"This is absolutely not a normal human physiological state!" The professor from the Wei family's family said, his voice trembling, his eyes filled with shock and disbelief. "This level of muscle breakdown couldn't be caused even with the maximum dose of military-grade stimulants! This...this is a biochemical virus! Or some kind of new biological weapon! Director Zhao, I suggest we immediately seal off this place and report it to the counter-terrorism department. This is a terrorist attack targeting the Wei family!"

He tried to smear the filth even more, demonizing Chen Guohua into some kind of non-human monster.

Stop spreading alarmist rumors.

Qin En snorted coldly, and the hemostat in his hand precisely picked up a piece of adrenal tissue that was almost shriveled into a piece of paper. "As a doctor, you should have heard of 'hysterical power outburst'."

"That's just theory..."

"The theory exists because it is supported by facts," Lao Qin interrupted him. "News reports have shown that to save a child trapped under a car wheel, a frail mother can instantly lift a car weighing one ton. That's the result of the brain completely disabling muscle protection mechanisms and adrenaline surging like a flood when the body is in dire straits."

Old Qin tossed the shriveled tissue into the tray with a soft thud.

"The deceased, Chen Guohua, was in a state of extreme stress." Old Qin raised his head, his gaze sweeping over everyone present, explaining the extraordinary phenomenon before him with a materialistic scientific perspective: "He experienced an extreme and sustained 'catecholamine storm' in his body—meaning that the hormones such as adrenaline he secreted reached devastatingly high levels."

"This completely depleted and recombined his remaining vitality, compressing it into a violent outburst within a short period of time. It's like pouring a tank of gasoline into an engine in an instant; the car can indeed reach incredible speeds, but the engine will completely melt down the next second."

"This is neither a biological weapon nor a virus." Old Qin removed his blood-stained gloves and heavily signed his name on the autopsy report. "This is a medical anomaly resulting from the interaction of extreme emotions and the body's illness. A dying person, driven by some obsession, experienced the most violent compensatory error in their physiological system."

Looking at the report, Zhao Jianguo felt a weight lifted from his heart.

Although this explanation still cannot perfectly encompass Chen Guohua's speed and precision that left afterimages, it is the most self-consistent "truth" within the existing cognitive system, given the need to close the case as soon as possible and maintain stability.

"Let's stick with this conclusion," Zhao Jianguo said in a deep voice. "Close the case as soon as possible."

Under the operating lights, a final trace of mockery seemed to remain on Chen Guohua's ashen face.

Mortals have exhausted all their science and cunning in an attempt to revert the miracle brought about by the "seed of the soul" back into their mundane understanding.