Chapter 410: Stockholm Syndrome (1/2)

I nodded, ”Have you ever heard of Stockholm syndrome?”

”I think I’ve heard of it somewhere.”

In 1973, two criminals went to the largest bank in Stockholm and held four bankers hostage. After a stalemate with the police that lasted over a hundred hours, the criminals chose to turn themselves in.

However, the four hostages pitied and sympathised with the two criminals, not only refusing to testify against them in court, but also actively raising defense funds for them. One of the female hostages was eventually engaged to one of the criminals while serving his sentence.

This incident sparked a great uproar in the academic circles who named it the Stockholm Syndrome. Psychiatrists explored the reasons behind it and found that everyone had a mental switch that leaned towards favorable circumstances and away from pain and harm. Once the surrounding environment exceeded the threshold considered bearable, this mental switch would automatically turn on as soon as the perpetrator showed little gestures of goodwill, such as giving the victims a meal or a mouthful of water! Feelings of gratitude, dependence, and trust towards the perpetrators would sprout within the victims. Eventually, they would surrender and obey their perpetrators.

This was a self-preservation mechanism in order to protect themselves. Anyone, even me, Xiaotao or Wang Yuanchao whose will was as strong as iron would collapse and surrender in such an environment and under constant ‘rewiring.’

MLM organizations and cults often used this method to brainwash people. They imprisoned them and forced them to do all sorts of things, repeatedly instilling fallacies in their heads. Over time, these people would be bound by invisible chains. Therefore, it wasn’t surprising to see news of rescued MLM members who return on their own accord or perhaps create their own organization to harm others.

”It is terrible!” cried Xiaotao. “That’s to say, the witnesses kidnapped by the Dog Trainers won’t testify even if we manage to find them...”

In fact, there was a simple solution–fight fire with fire and rewire the victims’ minds by means of torture and training! However, this was obviously illegal. If we ever reached the end of the road, I could resort to this under necessity.

At the time, I never imagined both Xiaotao and I were hatching a bold yet illegal plan.

With the four scapegoats in detention, Xiaotao led the task force to continue tracking the expenditures of the real culprits’ fathers. Before I left the station, she turned to me and said, ”Don’t worry. I will do everything in my power to arrest these criminals.”

Xiaotao burst into laughter, ”I know! I'd rather live to receive your flowers!”

Thus, I returned to the store and briefly chatted with the cashier about my work. The store was operating well so Dali and I weren’t required to do a lot of hands-on work. During this period, Dali stuck to Luo Youyou like glue.

After my conversation with the cashier, I headed to the supermarket and bought a whole black chicken and some herbs to prepare a nourishing soup for Huang Xiaotao.

I chanced upon Dali whom I didn’t expect to see home. The idiot was lying in bed holding a literary classic. Feigning surprise, he said, ”Hey, weren't you going to investigate the case today?”

Scanning the apartment, I chuckled, ”Luo Youyou, you can come out!”

The closet door slowly opened and there stood Luo Youyou. ”Song Yang, you’re so observant!” she spat her tongue. “How did you know I’m here?”

”Dali, the book in your hand upside down!” I laughed. “Why the hell are you still pretending?”

Embarrassed by the revelation, Dali made up some excuse about hanging out with Luo Youyou at home. I couldn’t be bothered to expose their lies. Instead, I headed to the kitchen to start cooking soup. A novice at cooking, I decided to follow a recipe on Baidu and managed to churn out a decent pot of soup.

Smelling the fragrance, Luo Youyou walked into the kitchen. ”Song Yang, how thoughtful of you to make soup for your girlfriend. Dali has never even thought about doing that for me.”

”Dude, you’re deliberately making me look bad, aren’t you?!” frowned Dali.