S.C.I. (Volume II) - Case 6: Chapter 20

The Innocent Killer 20 - Murder Weapon

"A murder weapon?" Bai Yutang and Luo were both unable to make sense of Zhan Zhao's conclusion.

"Cat," Bai Yutang asked, "what kind of murder weapon?"

Zhan Zhao gently lifted his injured leg, propped it atop his other knee, and lightly tapped against it as he said, "Throughout this entire case, there's been one thing that has been puzzling me."

"What is it?"

"Do you remember how several times I wanted to quit writing books?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Mhm," Bai Yutang nodded. "That time Qian Mingyue hired people to take photos of you, later when your books were being misused by the TV station... and of course, whenever you were feeling lazy and didn't want to write."

"Hey..." Zhan Zhao glared at Bai Yutang, then continued with a serious expression, "The reason I wanted to stop writing is because someone has been using the things learned from my books to commit all sorts of wrongdoing!"

"Mhm, and then?" Bai Yutang asked.

"You've both read my books, haven't you?" Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang and Luo.

"Mhm." Both of them nodded.

Zhan Zhao then asked Luo, "After reading them, what was your impression?"

Luo was somewhat puzzled as to why Zhan Zhao suddenly shifted topics. After thinking for a moment, he replied, "Well, to be honest, I didn't understand too much of the technical parts; I could just understand the meaning and the plot. It felt pretty much like reading any mystery novel, and the writing style is great."

Hearing this, Zhan Zhao nodded and asked, "After finishing them, did you ever feel like psychology is something magical?"

Luo nodded. "Of course. Applying it to solving cases is just amazing."

"Then... after reading them, did you ever think about applying the psychological methods mentioned in the books to commit a crime?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Huh?" Luo tilted his head, thought for a long time, and shook his head. "Thinking about it now, there aren't actually any special psychological methods in there... Besides, the main focus is on solving cases, not committing crimes at all..."

"That's the key point." Zhan Zhao interrupted Luo, speaking with a cold smile, "Whether someone is an insider or an outsider, it's impossible to learn any practical skill-based knowledge from my books, let alone feel inspired to commit a crime just from reading them!"

"You mean... even though that pervert is your fan, they couldn't actually learn anything from your books." Bai Yutang frowned. "That certainly makes sense, but what does it prove? They must have learned it from somewhere else. Where? A school or some other book?"

"You've read all my textbooks, haven't you?" Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang.

"I have." Bai Yutang nodded.

"What did you learn from them?" Zhan Zhao asked with a smile.

"What could I possibly learn?" Bai Yutang retorted. "Broken down individually, they're Chinese characters, but put into sentences they don't look like Chinese at all... Ah, I get it!"

Seeing that Bai Yutang had a sudden epiphany, Zhan Zhao smiled faintly. Luo, who was standing behind them, grew anxious and asked, "Get what? How come I didn't understand anything?"

Bai Yutang explained, "To put it simply, psychology is not a subject you can just casually teach yourself. Outsiders can't even make sense of the textbooks. But every single pervert so far knows that you're the absolute best in the field of psychology, which means they belong to a very special group of insiders!"

"That's right." Zhan Zhao nodded. "They are very special. They only understand how to use psychology to kill, and they all have a deep interest in harming people through psychological means!"

"Cat, could your murder weapon possibly be..." Bai Yutang was startled.

"Correct." Zhan Zhao turned serious. "We have reason to suspect that there exists an item in this world—an item capable of teaching people how to kill using psychology, and making them want to use psychology to kill."

Just then, the car had already pulled up to the entrance of the school where Yangyang was enrolled. With ten minutes left until dismissal, the three of them chatted and waited inside the car.

Bai Yutang unbuckled his seatbelt, tilted his head up in thought, and said, "Cat, I just thought of something."

"What is it?" Zhan Zhao looked at him with a smile.

"Remember that case with the numerical killer last time... Professor Xu, Zhang Boyi, and Old Man Sun—they all mastered certain psychological skills, and all of that stemmed from the research data that Zhao Jue failed to destroy back then. Moreover, Zhao Jue himself was exposed precisely because he burned those research materials... Could there be some kind of connection?" Bai Yutang asked.

Zhan Zhao nodded with satisfaction. "Bai, drawing inferences from one instance—you're really smart."

Although Luo didn't fully understand what kind of person Zhao Jue was based on Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang's discussion, he understood the gist of their conversation. Frowning, he said, "Dr. Zhan... I know a certain situation, though I'm not sure if it has any connection to what you're talking about."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both turned their heads back to look at him, asking, "What situation? Let's hear it."

"Yangyang was created because Edgar Allan Poe forced me... well, manufactured him. He did that largely because he happened to see a few pages of research data," Luo said.

"What?" Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao stared at Luo with widened eyes in shock. "What kind of data?"

Luo shook his head. "I don't know the specifics... But I just know that after reading it, Edgar Allan Poe acted like he went crazy, and even muttered things like 'so that's how it is'..."

Zhan Zhao turned back around, his entire demeanor suddenly growing tense. Bai Yutang reached out to grab his hand and found it shockingly cold, prompting him to ask with deep concern, "Cat, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

Zhan Zhao shook his head in a daze and said, "If that really is the case... then the implications and connections behind this might be massive..."

Bai Yutang and Luo exchanged glances, neither of them understanding what Zhan Zhao had managed to deduce, but judging by the expression on his face, the gravity of the situation was undeniable.

Right at that moment, the car window was tapped lightly a couple of times with a tap tap. Everyone turned their heads to see Yangyang standing outside the car with his schoolbag on his back, flashing them a radiant smile—a smile so bright that the eerie atmosphere inside the car vanished in an instant.

Luo hurriedly opened the door, reached out to pull Yangyang inside, and helped him take off his backpack.

"You guys came to pick me up?" Yangyang asked with a grin. "Aren't you busy today?"

Bai Yutang smiled, fastened his seatbelt, started the engine, and asked, "Yangyang, are you hungry?"

"Not hungry." Luoyang pulled an exquisite bento box out of his schoolbag and said, "Someone gave me cake today."

"Who?" Luo asked nervously, eyeing the box.

Luoyang grinned broadly. "A girl in my class."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged glances—this little ghost is quite popular.

Meanwhile, Luoyang picked up a piece of cake and shoved it straight into Luo's mouth. "Dad, have a bite, it's really good!"

Luo chewed and nodded. Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao exchanged glances once more, both beginning to reflect on just how unfilial they must have been when they were kids...

"Yangyang, how about we go grab some food in a bit?" Zhan Zhao leaned over the back of his seat to tease him. "Come take care of an errand with us first."

Yangyang rolled his eyes playfully and said, "Sure. You guys are going to see Jingjing, right?"

Zhan Zhao was surprised. "How did you know?"

Yangyang blinked. "It's your work hours right now, so coming to find me naturally means it's official business. What could I possibly help with? Isn't it about Jingjing?" Luoyang reached out to grab a tissue to wipe Luo's mouth, then leaned over the back of the front seat to ask Bai Yutang, "Uncle Bai, do you know any good karate instructors?"

Bai Yutang looked somewhat surprised and asked Luoyang, "What do you need an instructor for?"

"I want to learn karate," Luoyang said triumphantly. "Once I practice until I'm twenty, I'll be stronger than you!" With that, he patted Bai Yutang on the shoulder in an adult-like manner.

The others couldn't help laughing. After the laughter subsided, Zhan Zhao leaned back against his seat, lost in thought, as if something had just jogged his memory.

"Cat, what are you thinking about?" Bai Yutang noticed Zhan Zhao zoning out and asked.

"Uh... nothing." Zhan Zhao shook his head, though he still looked weighed down by heavy thoughts.

Bai Yutang didn't press further and continued driving toward the hospital.

...

Zhao Jing's condition was somewhat peculiar. Her attending physician informed Bai Yutang and the others that when there was no external stimulation, Zhao Jing's state was practically identical to that of a normal girl, save for being a bit introverted and disliking speech. However, the moment she encountered stimulation, she would turn bizarre.

"How bizarre?" Bai Yutang asked the doctor. "What are the specific manifestations?"

"She will arrange every single sortable object into the shape of the letters ILVEYU." The doctor looked at Zhan Zhao and said, "It feels just like severe obsessive-compulsive disorder."

Zhan Zhao nodded, pondered for a moment, and asked the doctor, "During Zhao Jing's hospitalization, has she ever cried?"

The doctor shook his head. "No, this child is very well-behaved."

"Then has she ever laughed?" Zhan Zhao pressed on.

The doctor smiled bitterly and shook his head. "Never. This child is quite strange."

Bai Yutang chuckled. "So she's well-behaved in a somewhat strange way, is that it?"

Luoyang suddenly chimed in, "Come to think of it, Jingjing doesn't seem to have ever mentioned wanting her mom or anything like that... It's like she has no emotions."

"No emotions..." Zhan Zhao stroked his chin, and Bai Yutang turned to look at the doctor.

The doctor shrugged. "That falls under the psychological domain; I'm only responsible for the physiological domain." With that, he chuckled, turned around, and walked away.

"Cat, this doctor is quite a character," Bai Yutang remarked to Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao nodded and said in a low voice, "Don't go joking around with him; that doctor's name is Ni Xiang, and he's the most renowned pediatric expert in the country."

"Whoa..." Bai Yutang watched the doctor round a corner and vanish down the far end of the corridor, then said, "Judging by his age, he can't be more than forty... To be an authority figure at such a young age—cat, it looks like freaks like you aren't one of a kind."

Hearing Bai Yutang's words, Zhan Zhao fell silent for a long time before slowly murmuring, "Freaks..."

Sensing a strange tone in his voice, Bai Yutang turned his gaze to him and asked, "What's wrong, Cat?"

"Nothing." Zhan Zhao shook his head, then said to Yangyang, "Yangyang, we'll listen from outside. You go in and see Zhao Jing alone."

"Oh." Yangyang nodded, asking Zhan Zhao, "What should I talk to her about?"

"Ask her about her mom and dad," Zhan Zhao said.

"I asked her last time," Luoyang replied. "She has no idea what kind of jobs her mom and dad had, and she couldn't even name their full names."

Zhan Zhao nodded and instructed, "Then just ask her whether her mom and dad had any particularly close friends... if there were any special things they loved to do, whether they had illnesses, took medicine, or any other scattered details like that."

"Scattered details?" Luoyang thought for a moment and nodded. "Oh... I get it. The stuff I asked last time was too specific, which belongs to precise search, so the probability of finding a hit was very low. But if I ask more broadly, that falls under synonym advanced search, which broadens the scope, right?"

Zhan Zhao nodded repeatedly, pulled Yangyang into his arms, and planted a kiss on his cheek. "Why are you so smart?"

Luo, on the other hand, didn't know whether to laugh or cry, saying, "Yangyang has been studying computers lately and is completely obsessed with it."

After Luoyang went inside, he sat down and began chatting with Zhao Jing. Zhao Jing was clearly already quite familiar with Yangyang, and the two of them quickly struck up a conversation.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang listened quietly from outside. Luoyang truly was a very clever child; he asked many clever questions. But as good as his questions were, the answers Zhao Jing provided failed to yield any solid leads.

Finally, unable to listen passively any longer, Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, "Cat... how could a child be so completely clueless about her own parents? Surely they didn't have zero contact or communication with her in daily life?!"

Zhan Zhao fell silent for a moment, then suddenly asked Luo, "You mentioned earlier that after Yangyang was born, he was raised by Edgar Allan Poe... right?"

"That's right," Luo nodded.

"Was he raised in a sterile room, completely isolated from the outside world?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Mhm," Luo nodded, then added, "Though you can't really call it completely cut off from the world either. Anyway, what does a newborn baby understand? To begin with, their minds are just a blank slate."

Zhan Zhao suddenly froze, muttering to himself, "Cut off from the world... a blank slate..." As he spoke, he raised his head to look at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang's expression turned somewhat pale in an instant. He scooped Zhan Zhao up and carried him a few steps away, saying, "Cat... Big Brother was also isolated in a sterile room for an entire year... Even though he was older, all his past memories were gone... Wasn't his mind a blank slate too?"

After a long silence, Zhan Zhao suddenly asked Bai Yutang in a dead-serious tone, "Bai, don't you think the two of our genes are exceptionally superior?"

Bai Yutang was stunned, torn between laughter and tears. "What are you talking about?"

Zhan Zhao looked at him earnestly. "Dare you say they aren't? My IQ is close to two hundred, your athletic abilities are completely different from a normal person's, and even though you've never tested it, your IQ is definitely higher than average!"

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, momentarily speechless.

Just as they were staring at each other, Luo gently clapped his hands from a distance. Seeing the two of them turn their heads over, he waved his hand, as if signaling—we have a situation.

Bai Yutang scooped Zhan Zhao up in his arms and walked over.

Placing Zhan Zhao onto a chair by the doorway, Bai Yutang asked Luo, "What's the situation?"

"Yangyang just asked Zhao Jing if she ever has dreams or anything, and Zhao Jing said she does, and that she frequently sees a person in her dreams," Luo replied. "However, she doesn't remember the name."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded, turning to look into the room. They saw Luoyang gently patting Zhao Jing on the shoulder as if comforting her, saying softly, "Close your eyes!"

Zhao Jing nodded and closed her eyes.

"Slowly now, don't think about anything... Right now it's twelve o'clock in the middle of the night... You're very, very tired..." Luoyang slowed down his pace and said to Zhao Jing, "Then, just like usual, you enter dreamland, and that person... appears again. Is he by himself, or is he with Mom and Dad?"

With her eyes closed, Zhao Jing slowly answered, "With Mom and Dad."

Yangyang continued asking, "Mom and Dad are talking to him, right?"

"Right."

"Then what do Mom and Dad call that person?" Yangyang asked, reaching out to give Zhao Jing's shoulder another gentle tap.

"They call him... Lu... Lu Liang..." Zhao Jing replied softly.

"Lu Liang?" Bai Yutang was utterly shocked, turning his head to ask Zhan Zhao how it could be him, only to find Zhan Zhao's face completely devoid of color.

"Cat..." Before Bai Yutang could finish speaking, he saw Zhan Zhao abruptly stand up, shove the door open, and charge inside. But he was far too hasty and completely forgot about the injury on his leg. His body listed to the side in a wave of sharp pain, and Bai Yutang hurriedly stepped forward to support him, asking, "Cat, what are you doing?"

Zhan Zhao's sudden movement not only startled Bai Yutang but also frightened the two children inside. Luoyang stared in a daze for a moment before running over to ask Zhan Zhao, "Uncle Zhan, what's wrong?"

Disregarding his leg injury, Zhan Zhao reached out and grabbed Yangyang by the arm, demanding, "Who taught you this?!"

...Luoyang was left at a complete loss. Zhan Zhao had always been gentle and deeply affectionate toward him; why did he suddenly turn so fierce? It felt as though he had done something wrong, yet he had no idea what. He looked up with tear-filled eyes at Luo, who wore an equally bewildered expression nearby, looking as though he were about to cry.

Bai Yutang panicked. "Cat, what's gotten into you? Don't scare the child."

Zhan Zhao, however, acted as though he hadn't heard a thing. He kept his grip on Yangyang, stared straight into his eyes, and demanded sternly, "How do you know how to hypnotize?!"