The next morning, I woke Dali up. He rubbed his sleepy eyes and mumbled, "It’s still so early. Are you going to the station to conduct the autopsy?"

"That can wait,” I replied. “Let's visit Ding Xu's dormitory first."

Dali was suddenly energized. "Are you going to see Luo Youyou again? I'll get dressed right away!" 

We went to the cafeteria for breakfast and bought some soy milk and fried dough sticks, then headed to the computer science dormitory. After staying up all night contemplating the case, I remained resolute about my theory that Ding Xu was merely pretending to be possessed, though I didn’t exclude the possibility of his connection to Qiu Wanxia. Determining what that connection was would be key to solving the case.

If Jiu-ge had encountered such...