S.C.I. (Volume I) - Case 1: Chapter 28

The Digital Killer 28: Obsession (Case Closed) 

The call was indeed from Zhang Boyi, and the terms were very straightforward: Zhan Zhao was to go alone to the city's docks tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM to meet him on an abandoned cargo ship. The ship's registration number was TX512. Zhang Boyi demanded that Zhan Zhao bring the classified files containing Zhao Jue’s old cases as leverage to exchange for Zhao Jue himself. He explicitly warned Zhan Zhao that if any police accompanied him, he would kill Zhao Jue immediately. If that happened, all the hundred-plus researchers at the research center would be transformed into murderous monsters.

At nine o'clock the following morning, Zhan Zhao kept his end of the bargain, showing up at the docks completely alone.

Walking along the docks, he located the cargo ship marked TX512 in a highly concealed location.

Zhan Zhao boarded the ship and walked down into the hold.

The cargo ship had been abandoned for a long time. The weathered hold was massive, piled high with old livestock feed and discarded tarps... a pungent mix of mold and greasy machinery oil filled the air, exceptionally sharp and biting.

As Zhan Zhao stepped further inside the hold, he saw a solitary figure dressed entirely in white crouching right in the center of the space. He held a wooden stick, sketching something onto the deck. Around his neck was a highly complex acoustic speech device—it was Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue raised his head and saw Zhan Zhao. He offered him a faint smile before lowering his head to continue sketching.

Zhan Zhao began walking toward him. Still crouching on the deck, Zhao Jue raised his hand and pointed his wooden stick directly behind Zhan Zhao. Zhan Zhao spun around instantly. Standing a mere three to four paces away was a rather sheepish-looking Zhang Boyi, holding a damp handkerchief in his raised hand.

Tossing the handkerchief to the deck in sheer annoyance, Zhang Boyi glared viciously at Zhao Jue.

Zhan Zhao knit his brows as he looked at him. "I suggest you turn yourself in."

"Cut the crap, I have no intention of going to prison! Did you bring the goods?" Zhang Boyi extended his hand.

Zhan Zhao handed over a brown paper folder he had been holding.

Taking the folder, Zhang Boyi hurriedly tore it open to inspect the contents.

"Why do you want these files so badly?" Zhan Zhao asked abruptly.

Zhang Boyi froze, looking at Zhan Zhao with deep suspicion.

Zhan Zhao suddenly burst into laughter. "Do you know why everyone gets hit by falling apples, but only Newton discovered gravity?"

Zhang Boyi's face began to turn pale.

Zhan Zhao locked eyes with him, slowly parting his lips to utter two words: "Raw... talent!"

A sudden commotion broke out behind them. Turning back, they saw Zhao Jue pounding the wooden deck while laughing hysterically. Although he could make no sound, the sheer delight he felt was blindingly obvious from his contorted expressions and uncontrollably shaking shoulders.

Zhang Boyi's eyes widened in blind fury as he glared at Zhan Zhao. "What are you trying to say?"

Zhan Zhao pointed a finger at Zhao Jue, flashing an entirely harmless, innocent smile. "To put it simply, he and I are geniuses. You and Professor Xu are complete simpletons."

"You!" Zhang Boyi trembled violently with rage.

"Professor Xu was a fool because he spent twenty long years researching things that Zhao Jue and I could master in a mere two days!" Zhan Zhao continued calmly. "And you are a fool because you were placed under a psychological suggestion without even realizing it."

Behind them, Zhao Jue was already rolling around the deck in silent fits of laughter. Zhang Boyi's face turned a ghastly shade of gray. "You... how do you know I fell under a suggestion?"

Zhan Zhao smiled. "I only needed to look at the drawings once. Furthermore... I expect you wanted these files because you hoped to find the key to breaking the suggestion within them, correct?"

Seeing that Zhang Boyi remained dead silent, Zhan Zhao pressed on, "Why don't you just ask me?"

"You know?! How could you possibly know?"

Zhan Zhao shrugged. "Because I'm a genius, obviously."

...Behind them, Zhao Jue lay face down on the deck, gasping heavily for air as if he had literally injured himself from laughing so hard.

Zhang Boyi suddenly slammed the files violently onto the deck. "Do you take me for an idiot? In your eyes, I'm exactly like that old corpse Xu Yanqin, aren't I? Let me tell you! I am nothing like him!"

Zhang Boyi suddenly became wildly erratic. He reached into his coat pocket and brandished a long, sharp paring knife, lunging toward Zhan Zhao. "I am different from him! I..."

"You are indeed different from him." Before Zhang Boyi could even finish his sentence, a voice cut in from directly behind him. Bai Yutang had somehow materialized right at his back.

The moment Zhang Boyi turned his head, Bai Yutang delivered a swift kick that sent him flying. He soared across the room and crashed hard onto the deck right beside Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue scrambled to his feet instantly, taking a few steps back to crouch down in a safe corner, watching the unfolding drama with absolute amusement.

"That black Honda belongs to you, doesn't it?" Bai Yutang sneered as he stepped up to Zhan Zhao's side. He looked down at Zhang Boyi, who was hacking uncontrollably as he struggled to drag himself up. "You only drove that car to tail Zhan Zhao. The person you truly wanted to run over was me, right?"

Zhang Boyi gasped, stunned. "You... how could you possibly know?"

Bai Yutang found it comical. "They call you dim-witted for a reason. You trailed Zhan Zhao for so long; if you wanted to run him over, you would have done it ages ago. Why wait until the exact moment I was right next to him?" He glanced down at the damp handkerchief on the deck. "You wanted to kidnap him, didn't you?"

Hearing this, Zhan Zhao was also faintly taken aback.

Bai Yutang reached out to smooth Zhan Zhao's hair, smiling. "Want to know how I figured it out?"

Zhan Zhao looked at him. Bai Yutang let out a low chuckle. "The day I kissed him at the university, the look you gave me... it was filled with absolute, deep-seated hatred. Do you understand? Pure hatred!"

Zhang Boyi suddenly let out a frantic chuckle. "That's right... I despise you... and I despise him!" He snapped his arm out, pointing a trembling finger straight at Zhan Zhao. "So flawless that no one dares to taint him... just like... just like..." As he spoke, a sudden wave of vacancy and confusion blanked out his eyes.

Zhan Zhao’s brows drew together slightly, sensing that something was profoundly wrong.

Bai Yutang cut across the increasingly unhinged Zhang Boyi, stating, "You and that man named Xu were both merely tools used by someone else."

Hearing this, Zhang Boyi glared at Zhao Jue with sudden, bitter resentment. "It's all that old bastard's fault! Believing in his absurd suggestion theories, talking about building some kind of kingdom? Wielding that half-baked psychological knowledge to implant suggestions into schizophrenics, playing at being a... a priest... ugh... it's absolutely laughable!"

The unsettling sensation in Zhan Zhao's chest grew stronger by the second. Forcing his breathing to steady, he spoke up, "You weren't being used by Zhao Jue."

"What?" Zhang Boyi looked up at Zhan Zhao in sheer disbelief.

"You were being used by the true mastermind behind this entire case." Bai Yutang shook his head helplessly. He turned his head and shouted toward the heavy, dark curtains shrouding the back of the hold, "Come on out, killer!"

Zhang Boyi was utterly bewildered. He stared blankly at the dark curtains, then turned back to look at Bai Yutang in total confusion.

Bai Yutang casually scratched his ear. "Like I said, you really aren't the brightest bulb. How did you know that Zhao Jue's case files were classified encrypted data to begin with?"

...! ...

Zhang Boyi froze instantly, his face immediately washed over with absolute shock. "Could... could it be..."

"Haha... Hahaha!" From behind the curtains came a slightly weathered, raspy chuckle. A hunched figure slowly emerged from the darkness.

The man held a silencer-equipped pistol. He walked right up to Zhao Jue, pressing the barrel firmly against Zhao Jue's temple. He raised his eyes to look at Bai Yutang and spoke. "As expected of Bai Yunwen's son, born with natural instincts... Hmph, and you," he said, shifting his glare to point at Zhan Zhao, then back down to Zhao Jue. "Just like him when he was young—so smart it makes you utterly detestable!"

"Sun Qingxue, Chief Sun..." Bai Yutang looked at him with a steady smile. "You've been plotting this meticulously for nearly twenty years. That's a terrifyingly deep obsession!"

Sun Qingxue erupted into a grand laugh. "Not so fast, not so fast. Before we discuss anything else, how on earth did you two realize it was me?"

Bai Yutang glanced at Zhan Zhao. "Do you want to explain first, or should I?"

Zhan Zhao gestured politely. "You go ahead."

Bai Yutang nodded, turning his gaze back to Sun Qingxue. "You gave yourself away during Chen Jing's case!"

"Oh?" Sun Qingxue pondered for a moment. "How so?"

Bai Yutang continued, "The person who suggested Chen Jing to harm Gongsun, and the one who spent years operating out of that private clinic providing psychological counseling, wasn't Professor Xu at all—it was you. And naturally, you were the one who murdered Professor Xu! You intended to use him as the perfect scapegoat."

Sun Qingxue nodded appreciatively. "Spot on. But how exactly did you uncover that?"

"Daily habits!" Bai Yutang stated firmly. "Professor Xu was a man of considerable wealth, an extreme clean freak, highly traditional, and suffered from a severe heart condition."

"There is absolutely no way he would live in a filthy, red-light district crawling with prostitutes and drug addicts. I went to the bar directly across the street to ask around. The window of the room where the barmaid lived looks straight into your clinic. The description she gave of the doctor's silhouette looked exactly like you."

"A silhouette?" Sun Qingxue froze slightly.

"Precisely! You kept your head down every day, dressed exactly like Professor Xu, and coupled with the fact that you always conducted consultations in a dimly lit room, everyone naturally mistook you for him. Only that woman, who had spent years staring down at your back from above, could offer the most accurate description. She described a wide, hunched back, not a slender one... That was the greatest physical discrepancy between you and Professor Xu."

"Excellent... truly excellent," Sun Qingxue praised. "But relying on that alone can only be considered a hunch."

"Of course there's more," Bai Yutang pressed on. "I then began to consider how many old men could possibly be linked to Zhao Jue's case. That person needed unrestricted access to Zhao Jue or his case files to mimic his crimes. That was when I thought of you."

Bai Yutang paused for a beat. "Do you remember the time you treated the Cat and me to noodles?"

Sun Qingxue blinked. "Noodles?"

Bai Yutang explained, "I found myself wondering back then: why would a man who clearly didn't care much about his standard of living keep so many individual bowls at his station while on duty?"

Sun Qingxue's eyes widened.

Bai Yutang continued, "As luck would have it, I found an identical abundance of bowls inside that private clinic as well—I assume it was a specific habit or sentimental memory you preserved over decades of living, correct?"

...............

"Hahaha..." After listening to Bai Yutang's breakdown, Sun Qingxue laughed hysterically. "Brilliant! Simply brilliant... Incredible, truly, all because of a few bowls..."

Bai Yutang kept speaking. "All of this formed the foundation of my suspicion against you. Following that, what the Cat discovered fully validated my hypothesis."

Sun Qingxue turned an intrigued gaze toward Zhan Zhao. "Oh? What did you discover?"

Zhan Zhao reached out, raising a single finger to his lips as he directed a "shh" gesture toward Sun Qingxue.

Sun Qingxue gasped.

Zhan Zhao spoke up, "Even though you possessed the data from Zhao Jue's cases back then and had a rudimentary grasp of psychology, at the end of the day, you are nothing more than a crude copycat."

"What did you say?"

Zhan Zhao smiled faintly. "After Chen Jing murdered Wu Hao, he deliberately made that exact gesture toward Qin Jiaqi. He did it specifically to draw everyone's attention to Zhao Jue. I've thoroughly reviewed Zhao Jue's case files; he would make this exact gesture during every single one of his crimes. To the average observer, it looks like nothing more than a signature quirk or habit. In reality, it was a direct command issued by Zhao Jue. Anyone under his suggestion only needed to see that gesture to carry out his order. Back then, it was precisely because of this gesture that Bai Jintang realized something was wrong with Zhao Jue."

The smile completely vanished from Sun Qingxue's face, replaced by a sinister, chilling aura. "So that's how it is... Indeed, there was no way Xu Yanqin or Zhang Boyi could have known about that. Only someone like me, who had direct, firsthand access to the classified files, would know."

"And finally, the phone call from Zhang Boyi demanding the classified files in exchange for Zhao Jue served as the absolute proof that you were the mastermind pulling the strings!" Zhan Zhao concluded.

Bai Yutang nodded in agreement. "I expect that on that day, you deliberately summoned Zhang Boyi to your clinic and fed him the information about the classified files. You did it so Chen Jing would cross paths with him, beautifully framing Zhang Boyi and Xu Yanqin for the entire affair."

"Heh... Hahaha..." Sun Qingxue laughed uproariously. "What a... flawless deduction... Haha..."

Bai Jintang furrowed his brows, staring at the manic Sun Qingxue. "Why did you have to harm so many people? Gongsun had absolutely no grievances with you!"

"Because I utterly despise people like you!" Sun Qingxue suddenly shrieked hysterically. "I despise you! I despise your father, Bao Zheng, and you!" He snapped his hand out, pointing wildly at Zhan Zhao. "You goddamn geniuses! Your goddamn perfection! You exist like angels, making it feel as if the rest of the world is nothing but a backdrop for your brilliance!"

As Sun Qingxue ranted endlessly, Zhan Zhao noticed Zhao Jue suddenly flash a subtle smile. That profound sense of wrongness grew even more intense.

"Especially you!" Sun Qingxue violently shoved Zhao Jue, pressing the gun harder against him. "You... Yunwen and Bao Zheng completely doted on you, treating you like an angel! I was just a mediocre clerk tasked with watching over files, yet I constantly had to endure being around you bright, shining stars! My only worth to you guys was boiling noodles!... But do you remember how you mocked me? You told me I had absolutely zero talent, you said I was incapable of studying psychology... you said I was never destined to be an angel in this lifetime... Damn it, all of you wretched angels..."

Sun Qingxue grew more and more erratic as he spoke. Zhan Zhao suddenly felt a sharp jolt of realization hit him, and he screamed toward the space ahead, "Don't!"

Zhao Jue's smile bloomed fully.

In the blink of an eye, Zhang Boyi suddenly lunged toward Sun Qingxue with his sharp paring knife, slashing down with brutal force... blood splattered violently across the air.

Clutching his throat as blood sprayed uncontrollably from the wound, Sun Qingxue collapsed slowly to the deck. Lying in a pooling sea of blood, he stared fixedly at Zhao Jue, who was doubling over with silent laughter beside him, before his breathing gradually ceased entirely.

"Drop the weapon!" Bai Yutang barked loudly. But without a moment's hesitation, Zhang Boyi raised his hand and slashed his own throat.

Staring at the two corpses lying in a pool of blood, Bai Yutang found himself momentarily frozen by the rapid escalation. Zhan Zhao could only let out a weak, bitter smile. "Calla lilies..."

"What?" Bai Yutang turned back to look at Zhan Zhao, completely lost.

Zhan Zhao took a deep, heavy breath, keeping his eyes locked onto Zhao Jue as he spoke. "The language of calla lilies represents pure holiness and eternity... it evokes the image of pure white wings..."

Bai Yutang's heart skipped a beat. "The command word was 'angel'?!"

Zhan Zhao nodded. "Precisely. Zhang Boyi saw calla lilies constantly. Furthermore, due to Professor Xu's research, his daily life was constantly bombarded with the word 'angel'... Anyone under a psychological suggestion will never speak the command word themselves; their subconscious even harbors a deep dread of it... That is why Zhang Boyi cut himself off twice earlier without ever uttering the word 'angel'!"

Bai Yutang stared at Zhao Jue. "This was the suggestion he implanted? Everything went exactly according to his plan?"

The expression on Zhan Zhao's face was deeply complex. He turned to face Zhao Jue, speaking softly, "You deliberately altered the lines of your drawings, making the brushstrokes appear increasingly frantic and urgent. You did that to ensure Zhang Boyi's reaction to the urgent command word would be exponentially more violent... Just now, Sun Qingxue's emotions grew more and more erratic, meaning the command word he screamed out became increasingly frantic... Zhao Jue, you truly are a genius. In the end, the final victor is still you..."

A short distance away, Zhao Jue tilted his head, looking back at Zhan Zhao with eyes filled entirely with profound affection. He reached his hand down, rummaging through Sun Qingxue's pockets for a brief moment, before suddenly pulling out a crude, simple lighter...

...! ...

Bai Yutang shuddered violently. The sharp, pungent odor permeating the hold suddenly registered in his mind. Looking past the curtains behind Zhao Jue, he realized the space was crammed full of canisters and bottles of raw fuel...

"Cat!"

Ignoring everything else, Bai Yutang grabbed Zhan Zhao's hand and bolted toward the exit of the hold.

Zhao Jue slowly sparked the lighter, bringing the flame down toward the deck—in an instant, a roaring wall of fire erupted.

Zhan Zhao helplessly let Bai Yutang drag him along as they sprinted outward, yet his eyes remained fixed on Zhao Jue. He watched as the man offered a faint, gentle smile, raising a single finger to his lips.

"Shh..."

A deafening explosion tore through the ship like the sky splitting open.

Throwing all caution to the wind, Bai Yutang shielded Zhan Zhao with his own body as they leapt clear off the cargo ship, plunging into the water below. The massive shockwave from the explosion generated a violent surge that swept the two far out into the sea.

It felt as though an eternity passed before Zhan Zhao finally felt his body stop drifting. Amidst the chaos, he couldn't remember anything else, only knowing that he had to grip the hand of the person beside him with absolute desperation, refusing to let go even in death.

Bai Yutang managed to pull himself onto a small rubber dinghy floating nearby, using every ounce of his remaining strength to drag Zhan Zhao up after him.

"Ugh..." The moment he made it onto the dinghy, Bai Yutang collapsed face down, completely motionless.

"Xiao Bai?" Zhan Zhao instantly sensed something was wrong. He gave him a firm push, but received no response...

"Yutang... Yutang, don't scare me..." He pushed harder, but there was still not a shred of movement.

Extending a trembling finger, he placed it beneath Bai Yutang's nose... there was no breath...

"No... don't do this, Yutang... Hey..." Zhan Zhao felt his mind go completely blank. He stared in absolute terror at the completely motionless Bai Yutang lying before him. In that single fragment of a second, memories rushed back like a tidal wave. His entire mind was filled with images of Bai Yutang: fighting over things as children, bickering with him, fighting over pajamas before bed... his smiles... the way he kissed him..."

A pair of warm fingers gently brushed against his cheek. The man who had supposedly stopped breathing was now wide awake, looking up at him with a deeply apologetic gaze. "Cat, don't cry. I was only teasing you..."

"..." Zhan Zhao froze in absolute shock for a long beat before realizing his eyes were entirely flooded with tears. Bai Yutang was currently reaching up to wipe them away for him...

"You... You! You bastard! You dead rat! You..."

Zhan Zhao couldn't utter a single syllable of what came next, because Bai Yutang had already flipped over, pinning him firmly beneath his body as he kissed him fiercely.

"Cat... you won't get rid of me that easily!" After wiping away the rest of Zhan Zhao's tears, Bai Yutang gazed down at the man beneath him with absolute devotion.

Zhan Zhao locked eyes with him, slowly opening his mouth. "Yutang..."

"Mm?"

Bam! A swift, direct punch flew straight out.

"Ow!"

"You dead rat!"

"Dead cat!"

"Don't you dare think about coming near me again for the rest of your life!"

"I absolutely will!"

"No touching!"

"I'm going to kiss you anyway!"

"Dead rat! Mmph..."

...

Half an hour later, Bai Jintang arrived with the rest of the team, locating the two inside the small rubber dinghy. They were completely drenched from head to toe, huddled together shivering violently from the cold while still loudly bickering back and forth.

Bai Yutang pulled a small black square device out of his pocket and tossed it back to Ding Zhaohui. "It works beautifully!"

"What is that?" Zhan Zhao asked, thoroughly confused.

"A satellite tracker."

Bai Jintang let out a long sigh of relief. "Without this, we really wouldn't have been able to track you down."

The twins grinned. "For a rainy day! Better safe than sorry!!"

...............

The wail of police sirens gradually faded into the distance, and the docks returned to their absolute serenity. Upon the calm surface of the sea, a photograph drifted up and down with the gentle ripples of the water. The four young men captured in the photograph were smiling with breathtaking brilliance...

As night fell, inside a fishing boat, a fisherman brought over a thick blanket to wrap around a visibly frail individual. "Are you alright?"

"I'm... fine..." The voice drifted out, rather raspy and hoarse.

"Drink some hot water to warm up your body."

"Thank... you..."

"By the way, what's your name?"

A pair of slender fingers pressed gently against his lips, softly emitting a single syllable: "Shh…”