71 Forgotten Pas
Chapter 71: Forgotten Past
It was quiet in the barracks. Gu Jun looked at the screen, and it felt like the patient inside the video was looking at him as well.
"This is just a simple line up procedure meant for facial recognition," Wang Ke explained. "The people doing the identification are all 1024 patients who have suffered from hallucinations inside this camp."
"..." Gu Jun took a deep breath, but it did nothing to unfurl his heart. He did not recognize this patient; he had not met this man in his life. Before he could settle on his thought, the video switched to the next patient and the next... but the picture they all identified was of the same man, Gu Jun. The members of the Investigation Department around him sliced at him with their gazes that spoke of suspicion, danger, and violence. They were demanding an explanation from him. Or perhaps this was their psychological tactic to pressure him into submission so that he would surrender for a lighter punishment.
"Doctor Gu, of the 1024 patients, 751 of them identified you." Wang Ke probably elected himself the role of the mediator. His tone was objective and even. "The other 206 did not choose. Sixty-seven chose others. And of the 751 that chose you, more than half of them, 397 of them to be precise, were certain that they had met you in their hallucination, but they could not recall the details."
Cai Yichong, Tang Ziyin, and the rest were basically glaring at him now. They did not know Gu Jun in private. After a brief interaction, they thought he was quite a trustworthy person. But the uniformity of seventy-three percent, that was enough to convict a criminal in a normal case, and that was probably with just several witnesses and ten pictures. But now they had 1024 sample size. From thirty pictures, seventy-three percent identified the same person. Gu Jun was not a public figure, and he had not been in the news. He did not even use his own picture on his social media profile. The Investigation Department must have known about all that, so why did this happen? Well, it could only be due to abnormal energy.
Wang Ke's face now only had severity left on it. "Doctor Gu, we suspect that you are that 'thing inside the banyan tree' referred to by all these patients."
He had seen the cruelty of the Afterlife Cult. He had also gained some clues from his illusions and memory. He had never once suspected that the Afterlife Cult or even himself would be related to this. But... Gu Jun swept over the faces of Wang Ke, Cao Yichong, and the rest. "Officers, I too hate the culprit behind this Malformed Banyan Disease as must as you do. I wish that I could help you catch them all tonight, but I am just a doctor. I can only help save the victim; that is the most I can do."
Hearing the confession from Gu Jun, the gaze from the group softened. After more than ten hours of surgery where he had not consumed even a drop of water, this was truly a good doctor.
"Doctor Gu," Wang Ke said in a softer tone, "we do not suspect that you are the one who spread the disease, but we believe you might be connected somehow. All this suspicion is based on clues and proof, and this is merely one of the scenarios that we are contemplating."
"What other scenarios are there?" Gu Jun asked.
"Well, let us conduct an experiment to find out. We are pressed for time. Just consider this as working overtime, Doctor Gu." Then, Wang Ke and a few of his people led Gu Jun into a smaller barrack. This was the room in the video. The front room was separated from the backroom with a clear glass wall. Gu Jun was told to sit on the chair in the backroom and face the front room.
"Doctor Gu, we will lead the 1024 patients into the front room in teams of ten each time to look at you, and we will see what happens." That was all Wang Ke gave him before he and the rest of his team exited. He could see the soundproof door between the two rooms.
"..." Gu Jun could see the camera in the four corners of the room. Through the glass window, he could see Wang Ke's team standing to the side. Soon, Tang Ziyin and another investigator brought in a batch of ten patients. They were of different backgrounds-male, female, young, old. There were grandparents in wheelchair, middle-aged ladies using cans, young people already familiar with the fake limbs, and children who were missing a sleeve. Once they looked at them, they were overwhelmed by fear and disbelief. How could someone from their hallucinations be sitting right before them?
try {
window._mNHandle.queue.push(function () {
window._mNDetails.loadTag("386623558", "300x250", "386623558");
});
}
catch (error) {
}
The color drained from one girl's face. She hid behind the adult in panic, but even so, she could not stop crying until Tang Ziyin had to cancel the session early to bring her out. Gu Jun did not move. His expression did not even change. He only sat there quietly, listening to the soft whispering of the patients giving more details that might further condemn him to the investigators.
It was quiet in the barracks. Gu Jun looked at the screen, and it felt like the patient inside the video was looking at him as well.
"This is just a simple line up procedure meant for facial recognition," Wang Ke explained. "The people doing the identification are all 1024 patients who have suffered from hallucinations inside this camp."
"..." Gu Jun took a deep breath, but it did nothing to unfurl his heart. He did not recognize this patient; he had not met this man in his life. Before he could settle on his thought, the video switched to the next patient and the next... but the picture they all identified was of the same man, Gu Jun. The members of the Investigation Department around him sliced at him with their gazes that spoke of suspicion, danger, and violence. They were demanding an explanation from him. Or perhaps this was their psychological tactic to pressure him into submission so that he would surrender for a lighter punishment.
"Doctor Gu, of the 1024 patients, 751 of them identified you." Wang Ke probably elected himself the role of the mediator. His tone was objective and even. "The other 206 did not choose. Sixty-seven chose others. And of the 751 that chose you, more than half of them, 397 of them to be precise, were certain that they had met you in their hallucination, but they could not recall the details."
Cai Yichong, Tang Ziyin, and the rest were basically glaring at him now. They did not know Gu Jun in private. After a brief interaction, they thought he was quite a trustworthy person. But the uniformity of seventy-three percent, that was enough to convict a criminal in a normal case, and that was probably with just several witnesses and ten pictures. But now they had 1024 sample size. From thirty pictures, seventy-three percent identified the same person. Gu Jun was not a public figure, and he had not been in the news. He did not even use his own picture on his social media profile. The Investigation Department must have known about all that, so why did this happen? Well, it could only be due to abnormal energy.
Wang Ke's face now only had severity left on it. "Doctor Gu, we suspect that you are that 'thing inside the banyan tree' referred to by all these patients."
He had seen the cruelty of the Afterlife Cult. He had also gained some clues from his illusions and memory. He had never once suspected that the Afterlife Cult or even himself would be related to this. But... Gu Jun swept over the faces of Wang Ke, Cao Yichong, and the rest. "Officers, I too hate the culprit behind this Malformed Banyan Disease as must as you do. I wish that I could help you catch them all tonight, but I am just a doctor. I can only help save the victim; that is the most I can do."
Hearing the confession from Gu Jun, the gaze from the group softened. After more than ten hours of surgery where he had not consumed even a drop of water, this was truly a good doctor.
"Doctor Gu," Wang Ke said in a softer tone, "we do not suspect that you are the one who spread the disease, but we believe you might be connected somehow. All this suspicion is based on clues and proof, and this is merely one of the scenarios that we are contemplating."
"What other scenarios are there?" Gu Jun asked.
"Well, let us conduct an experiment to find out. We are pressed for time. Just consider this as working overtime, Doctor Gu." Then, Wang Ke and a few of his people led Gu Jun into a smaller barrack. This was the room in the video. The front room was separated from the backroom with a clear glass wall. Gu Jun was told to sit on the chair in the backroom and face the front room.
"Doctor Gu, we will lead the 1024 patients into the front room in teams of ten each time to look at you, and we will see what happens." That was all Wang Ke gave him before he and the rest of his team exited. He could see the soundproof door between the two rooms.
"..." Gu Jun could see the camera in the four corners of the room. Through the glass window, he could see Wang Ke's team standing to the side. Soon, Tang Ziyin and another investigator brought in a batch of ten patients. They were of different backgrounds-male, female, young, old. There were grandparents in wheelchair, middle-aged ladies using cans, young people already familiar with the fake limbs, and children who were missing a sleeve. Once they looked at them, they were overwhelmed by fear and disbelief. How could someone from their hallucinations be sitting right before them?
try {
window._mNHandle.queue.push(function () {
window._mNDetails.loadTag("386623558", "300x250", "386623558");
});
}
catch (error) {
}
The color drained from one girl's face. She hid behind the adult in panic, but even so, she could not stop crying until Tang Ziyin had to cancel the session early to bring her out. Gu Jun did not move. His expression did not even change. He only sat there quietly, listening to the soft whispering of the patients giving more details that might further condemn him to the investigators.