Yongchuan University Female Dormitory, Building 7, Room 201, 4 beds, 6:30 a.m.
When Jin Xiaoan saw the video, it was already the next morning.
In fact, she didn’t sleep well last night. Overall, her heart was still calm. After all, everything was finally coming to an end, so she deserved to spend the last night of her life in peace.
But for some reason, there was always a feeling of uneasiness deep in her heart.
She opened her eyes very early. At that time, there was barely any light outside the window. She felt as if she hadn’t woken up this early in a long time. She turned around slightly, picked up the phone that was fully charged, and clicked on it as usual. This was the place she looked at every day after opening her eyes.
It was like washing her face and brushing her teeth; such an act was like cleansing her heart as she chanted her scriptures. This was what she did every morning, and it had an important sense of ritual. At this time, she was in a mood for nostalgia or homage and thought about that place and wanted to take another look. After all, it was the most beautiful place in her memories.
But the beauty was no longer there because she saw the video.
The video was silent, but she could hear manic drum sounds beating in his ears, as if someone were roaring and screaming at her. In the midst of the chaos, there was a figure with an expression of indifference.
She watched helplessly as the person ruined the beauty in her mind.
Bright red blood dripped from the walls. The figure’s writing speed wasn’t fast, but in the dark space, those bright red characters were like countless ants devouring her world.
Seeing the original white wall defiled like this, Ji Xiaoan’s hand holding the phone trembled. Finally, the person’s writing paused. Jin Xiaoan curled up abruptly and began to gasp in anger.
She leaned against the cold wall, trying to calm herself down, but she discovered that the person in the video didn’t have any intention of stopping.
The figure just walked leisurely to the edge of the paint bucket, dipped his brush into the bright red paint, and then returned to the wall again.
The red paint dripped from the brush onto the wooden floor. It was so dirty, and it took them a long time to wipe that floor clean…
Seeing this, she subconsciously stretched out her hand and rubbed hard on the phone screen, trying to get rid of the stains, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t wipe the dirt away.
Her fingertips became hot, and her anger burned like a flame—at her fingers, in her eyes, in her chest. She sat straight up and smashed the phone, creating a loud bang.
The sound of people waking up immediately filled the bedroom. At first, it was her roommates who woke up and didn’t seem to know what had happened. A few seconds later, angry scolding could be heard.
“Crazy!”
“What idiot isn’t asleep!”
“Get out if you’re not sleeping!”
Not only in the bedroom, but even next door, there were angry pounding on the wall.
The voices rumbled in her ears as Jin Xiaoan tried her best to restrain the urge to kill. She gritted her teeth and crawled out of bed cautiously. She gathered the pieces of her smashed phone and reassembled them slowly, then tentatively turned over the phone again.
The screen lit up, the webpage lit up, and the video lit up again. She dragged the video bar to the end in a daze.
The picture was frozen in the empty room. Only red blood meandered down from the wall, but her gaze was frozen at the end of all the formulas, where there was an obvious message to them.
Seeing that line of information, it was impossible for her to smash her phone again, so she opened the curtains and turned on the lights. She ignored the insults that sounded in the bedroom again, opened the book, and found the corresponding world.
[Rubbish*]
*Originally in English.
It meant garbage. What other intention was there to leave this word on the wall than to curse, but specifically curse at people who could understand the word.
You guys are rubbish.
You’re trash.
You’re garbage who lives in a dark corner.
Countless words passed through Jin Xiaoan’s mind. She pursed her lips. From beginning to end, she didn’t see that person’s face, but she could feel that person’s condescending voice and contemptuous eyes.
That person had smashed the door, cracked their code, and written out the formula all over the walls, just so he could call them rubbish?
It truly made people want to kill.
Ji Xiaoan tasted saltiness in her mouth and smelled rust. Perhaps extreme anger could also be calming. At least, this was what she thought. She didn’t make any more noise. She closed the curtains, turned off the lights, and then sat down quietly at her desk.
—-
Some people were as angry as Jin Xiaoan. In a dormitory some distance away from Jin Xiaoan, specifically in Yongchuan University of Technology, which was adjacent to the Yongchuan University campus.
In dorm room 6-601, the protagonist was a boy.
Shen Ran woke up earlier than Jin Xiaoan. He was awakened by a sudden text message at around 5 a.m.
He picked up his phone in a daze. The sender had no name, and the content of the text message was only one extremely short message: [Go to the Yongchuan University City forum.]
Shen Ran was still sleepy and wasn’t in the same tense mood as Jin Xiaoan. On the last night of his life, he had slept soundly. If it weren’t for the fact that he felt the number looked familiar, he would’ve put down his phone and gone back to sleep again.
Well, it didn’t take much time to go to a website with his phone, so he opened the forum and immediately saw the top post at first glance.
With bright red headlines, cool highlights, and thousands of replies, on such a deep night, the content inside must be quite sensational. This was, in fact, the case. When he clicked on it, he saw a wall covered with red paint.
Probably because he had seen this place so many times that it was deeply engraved in his mind, although the original white walls were now covered in blood-red handwriting, he didn’t even need to enlarge the picture to know where it was.
At that moment, his reaction was the same as Jin Xiaoan’s. He was angry. He wanted to kill. His drowsiness had disappeared without a trace, and he felt all his muscles trembling uncontrollably, but perhaps because the night was still deep or because different people reacted differently, he was able to restrain his anger and read the post carefully from start to finish.
Finally, he opened his messaging app and sent a text back to the anonymous sender.
[Who are you?]
But the other end didn’t reply to him in text but sent him a multimedia message. Because he had read the post, Shen Ran could identify the content of the MMS without any effort.
This was the floor in the comment section that was forcibly removed from the entire long post, and someone had saved it in the form of screen shots.
When Shen Ran downloaded the picture, his fingers were cramping nervously. Soon, like many sleepless students in University City, he saw the “unspeakable” reply.
In fact, it didn’t seem like the reply was such a big deal. It was only the second half of a 150-person list indicating the school’s top rankers in 2013, 2014, and 2015. The difference from the long list was that there were four names on the list that were circled. Other than that, there was nothing else in the screenshot.
The problem, most likely, was the four circles—or rather, the names that were circled.
Shen Ran used the most unimaginative but effective way. He typed the names in the search box and pressed enter.
In an instant, the search engine listed thousands of results for him, and the most important and closest result was impressively at the top.
[The list of the 10th General Election of the Yongchuan University City Joint Association of Science and Technology Application is as follows:]
With almost perverse excitement, Shen Ran clicked on the campus news. Sure enough, the news seemed to have been deleted, but a snapshot of the webpage captured by the search engine still existed.
He saw the four names in it, and the president of the association was Chen Xuan, the owner behind the famous ID that suddenly went online and then offline.
Probably the heavens had opened his eyes, or rather, those self-righteous idiots didn’t expect that the power of the masses was so great that the things they were trying to hide were picked up in an instant.
Shen Ran continued his search.
As with the result of the conjecture, almost all information of the Science and Technology Association was almost wiped, but this kind of remedial measures taken under panic was full of loopholes.
He quickly found the organizational structure of the association, the location of the event, and the arrangements for the event…
What bullshit “Three Graves”. This was simply a small student club that was completely unknown. They were pretending to be ghosts playing tricks, thinking that they were so refined and extraordinary, but in fact, they were just trash that didn’t dare show their true colors!
Shen Ran clenched the phone tightly and continued his search…
He suddenly discovered that the group of people also had a routine meeting today.
What a wonderful coincidence.
With this in mind, Shen Ran edited the information he found into a text message and sent it out.
—-
Countless messages, together with the rising sun, spread rapidly throughout University City at a pace that was fast, but wasn’t unstoppable.
However, in this world, what humans really couldn’t do was stop time.
It was April 14th, 12:00 p.m.
The sun was just right, and it wasn’t affected by yesterday’s rain in the slightest.
Everything on the campus showed an undisguised sign of spring, such as flowers on the side of the road or the legs of girls; they all exuded warmth as if they had a sweet smell of chocolate.
The bell just rang, indicating the end of class. Students were laughing happily around the cafeteria. Jin Xiaoan carried a plastic bag and walked out of the cafeteria against the flow of people.
This was her lunch.
The cafeteria at Yongchuan University sold a lot of delicious food, but her favorite was the 50-yen buns that came in a pack of three and were sold on the corner of the second floor. If it were like usual, she wouldn’t eat the buns at noon, but since today was her last moment, she felt she deserved to treat herself to the best thing in life.
So she carried the buns and walked to the lake.
Because of the suicide two days ago, there were few people here. It was quiet under the banyan tree. The air was filled with the smell of candles, and the sound of water was inaudible.
Her favorite place was under this banyan tree. She sat down by the tree, opened the plastic bag, and took a bite from her favorite bun.
Everyone’s preferences were different. After all, people were different.
Shen Ran, unlike Jin Xiaoan, didn’t believe there were any beautiful things in life worth remembering, so after class ended at noon, he skipped lunch and wandered through the entire campus until he came to the ruins by a playground.
When everyone was running to the cafeteria, no one noticed what he was doing standing by the ruins. People in this world were always so indifferent that they would eventually die from it.
Shen Ran’s gaze swept across the ruins and found the mark he had made. He removed some bricks and pulled out something at the bottom.
Under the banyan tree at Yongchuan University, the girl who had just finished gnawing on her buns stood up.
In the campus kiosk, someone pulled up their hoodie and checked out their newly selected fruit knife in front of the cashier.
In front of a car repair stall, someone stuffed an abandoned chain into their pocket.
On the road, someone tightened their clothes as they walked slowly forward…
In all people’s lives, some people eventually walk on a completely different path than the rest.
They were angry and determined and had started to gather from all directions.
Right now, it was an inappropriate point in time for him to respond, but in life, there were always moments where people would act inexplicably.
It was like a flower with dew or a roasted potato on a winter’s night; for Lin Chen, he spent too much time giving advice and making suggestions to others, so it came as a surprise to hear someone admonish him. While shock came first, he became deeply moved, and, finally, the only emotion he felt left was touched.
The night breeze carried the wetness of the morning dew.
Lin Chen looked at Xing Conglian’s back and gradually moved towards the light. The white light made the figure shaggy before it disappeared around the corner.
Suddenly, Lin Chen felt a darkness in front of him. Someone had covered his eyes with a hand.
“Tsk, don’t look back. Don’t look at me like that.” Su Fengzi’s playful voice sounded in his ears.
Lin Chen grabbed Su Fengzi’s wrist, turned around, and was flabbergasted. “Is it time to talk about such things now?”
“What kind of thing? The thing where your unshakable heart finally begins to sprout or is it that your clear and restrained eyes are staring at your work partner?” Su Fengzi leaned over slightly. Lin Chen had the feeling that he was going to be seen through by him. Just when he wanted to interrupt, he heard Su Fengzi say, “But no matter what it is, it’s not just about when you get married. You still have to pick an auspicious date, no?”
When it came to verbal fights, Lin Chen felt that Su Fengzi was invincible.
“Your use of metaphors is so bad, it’s no wonder why your books don’t sell.” Lin Chen had no choice but to quip back like so.
Su Fengzi, on the other hand, was not one to tolerate interruptions.
“Then I’ll change my wording. You don’t really like that officer, do you?” Su Fengzi asked bluntly.
Lin Chen had also thought about the kind of scene when his emotions were revealed, but unlike the imagined nervousness or disorientation, when he heard Su Fengzi ask this question, he didn’t have any anxiety or panic but was rather quite calm.
After all, this moment would come eventually, and there was nothing wrong with it coming now. Then, since that was so, there was nothing wrong with telling him the truth.
“That’s right,” he replied.
Hearing this, even Su Fengzi was surprised. “You could at least be reserved.”
“Why?” Lin Chen put his hands in his pocket, not quite understanding what Su Fengzi meant.
“Well, you’re gay now. Shouldn’t you have any sense of entanglement that violates worldly ethics or a sense of fear that your feelings won’t be responded to? In short, shouldn’t you be at least ashamed?”
“I like him. What does that matter to him?” Lin Chen couldn’t help asking.
Too often, the pain of love came from having your feelings unreciprocated, but Lin Chen didn’t have this kind of problem.
“Why?”
Finally, even Su Fengzi’s tone was no longer as teasing as before. He asked this solemnly, with the sincerest concern, for someone who was his friend. It was heavy, unlike the light wind from outside.
Lin Chen didn’t expect him to ask this so seriously, which left him a bit speechless.
In fact, he felt that he couldn’t even answer this question.
How much did he like him? Why did he like him? How could there be so many reasons?
This kind of thing was just a feeling, and it was even more inexplicable to feel such a feeling.
Perhaps it was when he saw him for the first time.
Perhaps it was when he saw him for the second time.
Perhaps it was when he left him, or maybe it was when they were reunited again.
Perhaps it was because the weather was too good in the rest station that day, and he looked so handsome in that windbreaker, or perhaps it was when they were in the command center and his strategizing look made him feel reassured.
Perhaps it was the half-withered look of the bunch of lilies in front of his tomb that was beautiful, or perhaps it was the way he lowered his head, looking too gentle as he planted flowers…
There were so many possibilities, and as they accumulated, it became inevitable.
At least, Lin Chen thought, there were really not many lucky things he had encountered in his life, so things that made him feel lucky had perhaps accumulated to the point where they became inevitable.
“He is like a piece of candy. Very sweet after just one bite that you’re reluctant to spit it out.” Lin Chen thought seriously for a moment and decided to answer using a metaphor.
“You got a bit emotional when you said that.”
“But it’s really sweet.”
After Lin Chen said this, their conversation ended.
This was an appropriate break. Among friends, the most valuable thing wasn’t endless talk, but timely care and just stopping when it was right.
Lin Chen walked back to the brightly lit office. All the arrangements had been completed.
Some of the police officers in the second division were lying on the table and sleeping lightly; some began to shut down while others looked at him with uncertain and helpless eyes.
They seemed to be asking, “Is this really useful? Will they really take the bait tomorrow?”
Lin Chen read a passage from the most famous book on popular psychology research.
Roughly speaking, it said:
As an individual, a person is rational, so good and evil can be used to move his emotions, to regulate his thoughts, and to restrain his behavior with interests…
For example, because rationality can restrain sensibility, he will not provoke Xing Conglian because of his personal feelings. Unfortunately, this kind of rationality isn’t effective in groups.
To use an inappropriate metaphor, if he’s in a fanatical fan club for Xing Conglian and is surrounded by other Xing Conglian’s fans, he won’t be able to control his love rationally.
So, solving a group that’s deeply embedded in the collective unconscious is about as difficult as disenchanting a group of rabid fans.
First, time certainly works. Most people will lose their fanaticism and regain their sanity over time, but in the absence of time, to influence a group, it’s necessary to use all kinds of tricks and dirty tactics.
In fact, the theory was simple.
Groups weren’t restricted by reason and logic, but they had a wealth of imagination and pseudo-reasoning skills. They seemed to be inclined to believe in something impossible, something illogical, something that didn’t exist, but they didn’t believe in daily logic.
For instance, in ancient times, people sincerely believed that shamans could summon heavy rain through sacrifices. For this reason, they were willing to kneel for three days and nights or kill women and children in other tribes and use their lives as an offering for the heavens.
The beginning of these beliefs may have just been an occasional wind that blew when the shaman chanted or a sudden rain that fell in the days after he cast his spell.
In short, the more connections that seemed to exist on the surface, the more group members could make people believe in them.
Therefore, he just shaped the belief that a group of elites guarded the campus. Although an ordinary student would be skeptical about this, they would think, ‘Is that document really a settlement agreement signed by “Three Graves” to help the elderly and punish the bad pharmaceutical company?’ They would suspect Lin Chen, who had appeared at the crime scene, and wonder if he was a member of “Three Graves.” They would even consider that the three semicircles signature was really a logo of a certain campus elite organization, and since that logo had appeared, it could prove that the campus elite organization really existed.
But it was different for the members of the group.
Once they saw the superficial connection and the unreliable evidence, their imaginations would already be vividly running wild. They would imagine the faces of the members of “Three Graves”; imagine a situation where tall and outstanding campus elites gathered together. Not only that, but they would also be convinced of the fact that the members of the “Three Graves” were plotting to get rid of them. They could even clearly visualize the contempt and disgust those campus elites had for them.
People often had paranoia about being victimized based on biological instincts of self-protection, and among them, the members of this group were more susceptible. Just as fans would hate anyone who spoke ill of their idols and regarded those people as enemies that had to be defeated, members of extreme groups would naturally dislike those who challenged them.
While fans would only tap keyboards to fight with the bad guys, these members of that group would really take up arms and smash the heads of those who opposed them.
What was more, Ye Yan vividly portrayed one of the most classic villain images; defiling the holy land in their minds and leaving the most disdainful words on it.
Lin Chen could fully imagine that tomorrow—no—in just a few hours, that anger would accumulate into a kind of violent storm that would come barreling down towards him.
The keywords that were coded were obviously patents for the small group, just like you need to show your membership card when walking into a high-end club; the threshold itself represented a status.
When most people see a tall wall, they immediately fantasize about the world behind it, not to mention the laborious access controls required to open it. The more mysterious things were, the more they would stimulate interest in the discussion.
Therefore, an hour and twenty minutes after the photos were posted, the number of replies grew wildly again.
At first, everyone was just discussing the connection between the “signature” and the “three graves” to the buried corpses found on the Yongchuan University campus. The person who proposed this idea was sprayed* badly at first. After all, it was nighttime, and no one wanted to associate bedtime gossip with death.
*Slang referring being scolded/cursed at (usually online).
But perhaps the more bizarre the idea, the more intriguing it was.
Soon, someone posted another photo, as if to prove that the signatures of the three semicircles had indeed existed.
It was a document from many years ago. Because the person who posted deliberately cut off the large picture, people couldn’t see the full text. They could only see the date, which was July 17, 2003, and in the signature line, there wasn’t a name, but only three semicircles connected before and after, arranged from small to large.
[What’s going on? Did someone use this signature more than ten years ago?]
[How scary. What exactly is that document?]
[Ahhhhhh, I want to know so badly!]
[I enlarged the picture and took a look. This seems to be a three-party written contract. One party seemed to be victims of medical fraud. This was signed in 2003, so it reminds me of a group of elderly people who collectively sued a pharmaceutical company for defrauding them out of a lot of money, but that company refused to admit it. For some reason, that case didn’t seem to constitute a fraud case…]
[Is 1378L a teacher? Do you remember everything in 2003?]
[Hello teacher. Teacher almost hit the jackpot*!]
*Referring to Fast 8 (快八), which is a welfare lottery in China (note that the term welfare here means that the government raises funds for social welfare through lottery revenue). This comment is saying that this poster (assuming 1378 is the person behind all this) almost hit the jackpot because he was part of this big fraud case (if he had won the lawsuit and got a big payout (jackpot)).
[I seem to have found the news. It seems to show teacher 1378L, but there’s no follow-up. What’s going on?]
[In the end, it seems the two sides reconciled, but I don’t know how that happened.]
[Oh, oh, oh. I searched according to teacher’s clues. The last news was about the Anhua Pharmaceutical fraud case was on July 15, 2003. There seems to be now news after that, I guess the three-party contract on July 17th resolved the matter?]
The story fell here, but there was another clue.
It seems that in 2003, an unknown person, together with the elderly, signed an agreement with the pharmaceutical company to resolve the medical fraud case.
[Everyone, it seems there’s something weird about this story. For some reason, there’s a mysterious group in your University City. This gang has been lurking for more than ten years. Whenever there’s a major incident in your city, these people will come out and help the weak?]
[1501L, can you stop spouting such bullshit because of the recent Batman release? We’re not living in the DC universe!]
[According to 1501L, this group of people is going to come out now?]
[Could it be the suicide case was a murder and there’s a serial killer in University City?]
[What the hell are you talking about upstairs? I won’t be able to sleep at night…]
[Shit, three people jumped at our school today. All of them committed suicide, so how can there be a serial killer?]
[I don’t know? Maybe they were forced?]
[I also saw the police at night. In short, there are police everywhere in our school now. The more I talk about it the scarier it becomes. When will this case be solved? I dare not go out tomorrow!]
[I feel sorry for the students of Yongchuan University.]
Just when the chat content gradually turned to waxing and pity, someone finally couldn’t help but jump out to reply.
[Uh, actually, I once received an invitation to join a club with that signature painted on it, but I didn’t get accepted in the end. I’ll stop here. It’s up to you if you believe it or not.]
The reply wasn’t long and was hidden among the various conspiracy theories that were swiping the screen.
But soon, someone extracted this reply.
[They really exist?]
[Damn, I really don’t know what to think.]
[Think about what? There’s some kind of gang in University City? How did you receive the application for membership? This isn’t well edited at all, hahaha.]
[I’m 1501. I’m just guessing!]
[The original commenter said believe it or not. How come people can’t KY*? Anyway, it’s good to live in your little naïve world.]
*Comes from the Japanese term [Kuuki Yomenai] (空気を読む) meaning “read the air/room” as in understanding other people’s emotions and thoughts in the room (or in this case this chat thread).
[Does anyone feel the creeps like me? How deep is the water in this matter?]
[Please add me.]
[Add me too.]
—-
It was as if someone was pinching a watch and always putting out the most intriguing news at the most appropriate time. Despite it being nearly 2 a.m., the number of people online had only increased.
A mysterious and unknown campus organization only appeared when the police couldn’t do justice. This kind of speculation made people’s blood boil and pushed this campus organization to a noble and mysterious pedestal.
Various rumors continued pouring in like snowflakes.
Some people broke the news that only true elite students could get an invitation letter from that campus organization. After that, they had to pass a series of tests before they could finally join. This was why most people had never heard of this organization; its mysterious existence was only known to the elite students.
Later, there were replies that gradually confirmed the previous speculation, and some people even gave the criteria for membership in the organization: During the four-year tenure of university study, you must rank first in the first three years of your major, and you would receive an invitation in the fourth year.
This threshold was also one of the reasons why that organization was so little known.
For a while, rumors about the student organization were rampant. Some people even revealed its name. It wasn’t called the “Awesome Club” or the “Elite Club” but “Three Graves”.
The appearance of the three graves that appeared on campus enraged the organization’s leader, so they surfaced.
Of course, all this was pure speculation.
However, since the speculation existed, it both showed that people were constantly going through clues and chasing the truth behind the matter, and usually, people believe more in what they have unearthed with their own hands, whether it was the truth or not.
Therefore, someone began to organize a list of the top-ranking students in all the schools of Yongchuan University City over the years since 2000. Such a feat would be a vast project, but they were in a university where there would be students with skills. Soon, someone wrote a small program to filter the list.
Finally, it was concluded that there have been no more than 150 such gods over the past decade or so.
With the list, naturally, those who were particularly gossipy would start reaching out to those on it. They called these seniors, who had ranked first for three years, in the middle of the night. One worked as a small clerk in a bank after graduation and didn’t seem to have any special development in “saving the world”, but the senior’s words were quite vague, neither proving nor denying the existence of such an organization.
In short, the story became even more mysterious.
Gossip moved people.
There was nothing more powerful than gossip, so the midnight gossip that took place on the forum spread into real life through the connections with real people.
Some dorms even suddenly turned on their lights, while others had notification sounds suddenly ringing in their bedrooms. Other bedrooms had people who hadn’t stopped talking all night. Naturally, there were those who thought this was purely a farce and turned off their computer and went to sleep.
However, none of this prevented people from fantasizing about a hidden elite organization.
The number of replies quickly passed the 2,000 mark, and the public’s opinion seemed to be moving in the established direction, but Xing Conglian felt a bad feeling in his heart.
Because on the list of the 150 people, he saw Lin Chen’s name.
It stood to reason that it would be strange if Lin Chen’s name wasn’t there. After all, Consultant Lin should be a top student, but in fact, the entire list had been adjusted by Wang Chao. Lin Chen’s name could not have appeared on it, but it did, which meant that this arrangement was purposefully done at Lin Chen’s behest.
Xing Conglian looked to his left, full of hesitation.
The incandescent lamp was too bright.
Lin Chen leaned back in the office chair. His hand was carrying a pot of coffee, and his eyes were half-squinted, as if he were asleep. Xing Conglian leaned back in his chair and refreshed the page.
A photo dropped in the latest reply.
Xing Conglian sat upright without feeling too surprised. This was completely Lin Chen’s style of doing things.
The photo showed the crime scene. It was the vast rooftop where Lin Chen looked indifferently at the girl who jumped off it.
About half a day ago, this photo caused an uproar in the Yongchuan University forum. After being forcibly suppressed, it had now appeared again.
After the photo, Lin Chen’s four-year college transcript and ranking were published with four “1” that were extraordinaryly eye-catching.
[Fucking hell. Is that person named Lin Chen really from “Three Graves”? Did “Three Graves” really have a person appear at the scene of the crime?]
[I told you! “Three Graves” must really exist. Please continue peeling* this building.]
*Internet buzzword referring to publishing people’s ugly photos and scandals. || In this case, it’s saying to keep posting more information about “Three Graves” in this comment section.
[Me, me, me. I’m going to start believing in this shit. It can’t be that the person from “Three Graves” discovered the problem of these suicide cases and then…]
[Count me in. It feels like a battle between the Justice League and the Axis of Evil!]
[Ahhhhhhhhh. Although it’s fantasy, I don’t think this matter is simple. I suspect the wall paintings is a declaration of war.]
[What the hell is a declaration of war?]
[Upstairs been reading too much comics, but I’m believing it too? What should I do? I’m so caught up in this that I don’t want to sleep tonight…]
The comment flow became crazy again, but suddenly, everyone who refreshed the page found that the forum had become [This page is not accessible], and the uppercase 504 made everyone’s hearts sink.
Wang Chao rang his finger and tapped the enter button again.
Like a dam opening its gates and allowing the water to cascade down, the number of replies grew exponentially again.
[What happened just now?]
[Too many visitors that the forum couldn’t handle it?]
[Wait, look at the number of floors. This seems wrong.]
[It seems that one floor has been evacuated. It happened during that 504.]
[Wait, let’s look at the number of floors. It seems a bit wrong.]
[It seems that one floor has been taken out. It happened that at the 504 just now, one floor fell.]
[What floor was taken out?]
[Holy shit, my heart’s going to stop. Fortunately, I was fast and took a screenshot, refusing to jump to another area… How lucky…]
[??????]
[Screenshot +1]
[Ahhhh, I didn’t see it. What the hell is it? Can anyone share it? I’ll give you my number xxxx]
[My email is xxxx]
[What exactly was erased? Is there any information about it?]
[Uh, I can’t say it. I’m afraid the technology emperor who’s monitoring this will block the IP. In short, I can only say that everyone’s guess isn’t wrong. I’m so scared to even go pee!]
[Use your cellphone to say it. Our dorm’s IP has been blocked, so I can’t touch it. In short, that picture really can’t be posted…]
[The great God is so cruel!!!]
[Kowtowing to the great God. Praying to the Almighty that they won’t block the IP.]
[Increase the number so it won’t fail!]
[This feels divine. Should I pray too?]
The floor was abruptly removed, data was erased, ID was banned, and IP was blocked…
Couldn’t speak about it, couldn’t speak about it, couldn’t speak about it…
The sudden high-pressure policy made it no longer doubtful whether the so-called “Three Graves” really existed.
The entire story had been compiled to the present, and the replies had stopped speculating and discussing and turned to the development of a personality cult.
The students gradually began to believe there was such an organization that guarded the tranquility of the entire University City. They began to believe that the elite student organization had appeared now precisely because of the successive suicides in University City. After collecting extraordinary evidence, they declared war on the evil forces before the police.
This was probably the effect that Lin Chen wanted; a perfect effect.
Xing Conglian furrowed his brows.
The sound of friction coming from a chair scraping the floor resounded in the silent office.
Xing Conglian looked up, saw Lin Chen stand up, and walked out of the room. Without even making eye contact, Xing Conglian stood up and followed him out.
It was the same corridor with the windows that were still half open.
Lin Chen waited for him, standing next to the pot of broad-leaved plants that were taller than a person. The first thing he said was, “Sorry.”
Xing Conglian couldn’t even get angry.
“So you arranged it and set only yourself as the target?”
“The story can only be made up like this. There’s no better way. When the internet closes tomorrow, I must be present, because…”
“Because?”
“Because my bluffing skills are extraordinary,” Lin Chen said this sincerely. His gaze was clear and sober, without any kind of fanaticism that was common in the eyes of those patients who had thoughts of heroic endeavor. Xing Conglian also believed that he wasn’t sacrificing the ego for the superego. Perhaps things could only go like this, and this was the only way out.
Xing Conglian put his hands in his pockets and felt that he couldn’t continue and wanted to walk away.
Just in the moment he turned around, he suddenly realized that what he cared about wasn’t Lin Chen’s actions or risking his personal safety again, but that Lin Chen didn’t tell him about this in advance.
Thinking of this, he naturally turned back and spoke out his thoughts. “Have you ever thought you could have told me this in advance?”
But before Lin Chen could answer, Xing Conglian waved his hand and said, “Actually, you knew well that if you told me that you’re using yourself as bait again, I would definitely object, right? Then it was more straightforward to let me see the result of your perfect solution than to spend a lot of effort to convince me.” He paused and looked at Lin Chen’s clear eyes and continued solemnly, “You’re too smart and know everyone’s thoughts too well, so it’s easy for you to give up your efforts to change the minds of others. But you know, this isn’t a good thing.”
He saw Lin Chen’s lips tremble slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but he didn’t give Lin Chen a chance.
“I hope that if something similar happens next time, you can try to convince me. Although I’m indeed stubborn, I am also willing to listen—at least willing to listen to what you have to say.”
After Xing Conglian finished speaking, he walked away without looking back.
Kinky Thoughts:
Please, no more passerby comments. I’m dying here.
Whether one believed it or not, there were always people who were particularly good at making up stories. The stories they created seem bizarre, but they could make a three-year-old believe in them until they got much older.
So starting from the Yongchuan University campus, where two terrifying mass suicides occurred, a mysterious rumor began to circulate throughout University City.
At first, the rumor only appeared on the public forum of Yongchuan University City, and the entire topic post was decisively deleted by the administrator after a few minutes. If it weren’t for the good people who quickly took screenshots, it was likely that most people wouldn’t be able to see the content of the entire post.
History was made through gossip.
The time was 1:13 a.m. on April 14th.
Most of the school’s dorms had turned off their lights, but a majority of the students were still hiding under their blankets, glued to their phones as they browsed the internet.
Therefore, when the students saw a blood picture in their Moments, it wasn’t too late.
From the small picture, it seemed to be a wall under dim lighting. The overall tone was as dark as the picture. The photo unfolded smoothly, and the bright red font caught the eyes of the students. It was just a wall that was covered in bright red paint.
Countless numbers and unknown characters covered the entire wall, seemingly forming a collection of formulas, making the scene quite miserable.
Where was this?
What was going on?
What kind of psychopath was doing math on the wall?
Many students thought of this and naturally turned off the picture and continued to chat about school gossip in their smaller friend groups, discussing topics such as which certain department’s grass was having an affair with which school flower or whether a certain celebrity was cheating again.
Nevertheless, the unresolved question didn’t disappear immediately.
When the second photo appeared, it quickly swept through the student’s circle.
Someone shouted in the group: [Hurry up and look at Yongchuan University City BBS. Something happened to Phoenix Pedestrian Street!]
Soon, the entire message with the address of the same forum was quickly copied and pasted into different WeChat groups.
Even though the tone of the message was exaggerated, many students still followed the link and found the situation to be far less serious than what it was made out to be.
It looked as if a shop in the underground pedestrian street of the Phoenix Book Mall was vandalized with a bunch of mathematical formulas.
The glass door was smashed to pieces, covering the original clean wooden floor with glass and a hammer. Bright red characters were oozing under the green fluorescence of the “Emergency Exit” sign. Other than that, it didn’t seem to be a big deal.
Therefore, students who were hoping to see gossip felt disappointed, and the replies below expressed their boredom.
[Shit, who’s painting someone else’s shop red? Are they sick?]
[The probability of those mentally ill in the mathematics department is pretty high.]
*Japanese clothing retail company. Most likely the commenter is jokingly referring to their logo, which is all red and white characters (based on the picture being posted).
[LZ*, go to hell. This post should just die.]
*Internet slang referring to original poster (of the thread).
[Don’t always post shit and try to blow it up!]
Most people were too lazy to reply to the post, and those who were idle enough to fart, replied to the post and then closed the page.
The first person to find the situation abnormal was the administrator of Yongchuan University City BBS.
When he clicked to delete the post, he found that the forum system gave him an error, prompting him that there was a problem with the administrator account and kept reminding him that he didn’t have the permission to do so. As a responsible forum administrator, he quickly called the school forum maintainer and reported the problem.
However, just when he called, a “marked red”, “highlighted”, and “refined” subject post floated swaggeringly on the homepage. The content was also ostentatious—please don’t delete my post. If you try again, there will be consequences.
The ID of the poster was the same as the owner of the poster in the photo building.
Occasionally, some students returned to the homepage of the forum, saw the pinned post, and became confused about the situation for a while. When they clicked back to the “building photo post” again and went down to the very last reply, they found that someone had summarized the key points of the entire thing.
It was roughly as follows:
[The poster with the ID SF9706 posted a bloody wall photo on the BBS of Yongchuan University City. After the post was published, it was quickly deleted by the administrator. This act of deleting the post seemed to have angered the poster, so the person went and posted another post of the same photo and arrogantly pinned a subject post on the home page, warning the administrator not to make any small moves.]
Naturally, this wasn’t something the administrator themselves would do—to pin a post to the top—so the only one who would do this was SF9706 himself.
The “building photo post” was still there, and the “warning post” was pinned at the top. It seemed that the administrator of Yongchuan University City BBS was either asleep or had been hacked out of his permission.
[The SB* administrator deleted my post a minute ago. It seems that someone has really removed their permission?]
*Slang referring to “dumb cunt”.
A new reply soon appeared in the “building photo post”. It was a screenshot of the time of deletion, which proved the fact that the administrator had lost their rights.
If this had been an ordinary shop that had been smashed and vandalized, it might make the news, but now that the school forum had been captured by the enemy, things didn’t seem to be so simple.
The conclusion could only mean that behind this incident, there was a tech powerhouse that could kill the administrator’s permission on the school forums in seconds.
The question then arose, why did this technical powerhouse hack into Yongchuan University City BBS in order to post and prevent these two photos from being deleted?
What was written on the walls? What did the person who wrote those things want to do? What did the person who posted the photo want to do?
Everyone had different questions in their hearts, so the comments under the “building photo post” immediately flooded in.
[Holy shit, who’s the landlord trying to fight with?]
[LZ, what happened to that store? What are you doing?]
[It seems that it’s really the underground pedestrian street under Phoenix Book Mall. When I passed by after 9 tonight, it looked fine?]
[Did LZ hack the forum?]
[The Emperor of Mathematics and the Emperor of Computers have made a move?]
[Does anyone understand what’s written on the wall?]
[Can LZ speak human language? My low IQ can’t afford it!]
The number of replies increased at a rate visible to the naked eye, and the onlookers gradually realized that cracking the content on the wall seemed to be key to understanding the entire gossip.
[I can’t see it very clearly, but it seems to be solving something?]
[Reconsidering LZ, is this really cracking some kind of code?]
[People still use codes? Is this espionage?]
[It feels like some big news is about to spill!]
It wasn’t just the Yongchuan University City Forum that was lively.
The police force of the second division of Yongchuan was also brightly lit all night.
“Dare to delete laozi’s post. Hmph! Truly brave…” In the office, comrade Wang Chao opened another can of energy drink. After taking a sip, he refreshed the page again and reviewed the new comments.
Sure enough, they didn’t need to guide public opinion. The conspiracy theories in the picture post were already running rampant. The brains of the students had expanded from the mathematics department to an alien invasion of Earth, and they were still expanding.
Though time was getting late, the number of people watching was increasing.
“You must hold on for a while! Don’t go to bed so early!” The teenager, who was controlling the entire situation in front of the screen, murmured to himself.
Before he could speak again, he heard someone ask, “How’s traffic?”
“The number of people online is 973, but the increase has slowed down,” Wang Chao replied. He thought for a while and then said, “A’Chen, do we have enough time?”
After listening to Lin Chen’s fully laid-out plans, Wang Chao, as the executor, wasn’t worried that it wouldn’t work. What he was worried about was the time it would take for it to take effect.
After all, they were now using the Yongchuan University City forum to deliver the information they wanted to deliver to over 200,000 students in entire University City. In this process, the most uncontrollable thing was the time required for the transmission of this information.
“Large-scale information dissemination depends on accumulation and sudden outbreaks, which we often call the tipping point. As long as the tipping point is controlled, we still have enough time.” Lin Chen pinched the teenager’s worried face and said, “The number of online visitors has reached 1,000. Post the next content.”
The students who frantically flocked to Yongchuan University City BBS probably wouldn’t have thought that every reaction they had was the result of being artificially manipulated.
The midnight blood letters not only kept gossip going all night, but they even alarmed the big shots in various fields in University City.
The account of the most famous mathematics department on the BBS lit up, and the homepage of the forum was instantly swept with admirers.
[Fuck, is Xuan Ge online???]
[Xuan Ge, Xuan Ge, solve the problem!]
[Xuan Ge, I love you. I love you. I love you.]
[Xuan Ge is here to decode. What does the picture say?]
Questions flooded in, but the account named CXUAN quickly went dark after being lit up and didn’t leave any replies.
Even so, the speculation of onlookers didn’t stop there.
There were rumors that CXUAN, the most talented student in the mathematics department of Yongchuan University, was Chen Xuan. The reason why Chen Xuan was so famous wasn’t because of the dozens of math trophies he had won, but because of his face.
Chen Xuan was incredibly handsome; the type that could be on the front page of a magazine.
Soon, Chen Xuan’s fanatical fans began to tout Xuan Ge’s glorious deeds to onlookers who didn’t know much about him. Of course, while praising him, it was also necessary to attach his speech as the president of the student union at the opening ceremony.
Until the big shots of the fine arts department went online, most girls were focused on licking* their screens.
*Slang basically referring to drooling over someone (they’re so hot you can help but lick the screen of their picture).
It was almost 1 in the morning, but the number of people online was as stable as a mountain.
Naturally, the fine arts department’s big shot was far superior to the icy department grass. She had deliberately clicked on the “building photo post” that was covered with comments and then replied: [This signature… I seemed to have seen it somewhere before?]
Like digging a ditch to guide the water, the eyes of onlookers fell on a small area in the lower right corner of the wall.
It was a strange figure composed of three semicircles with small marks on the front and back, like unfinished wavy lines, but after careful observation, it was found that, compared to the scribbled writing of the formulas, the three semicircles seemed to be drawn more seriously. Since the big shot of the fine arts department had identified the wavy lines as a signature, a person who would leave their signature on such a bloody work must be extremely arrogant.
[I seemed to have seen this signature as well?]
[LZ is it a code? SF???]
[Can you stop being so mysterious upstairs? Is this a coded message? Give it to us straight.]
[I don’t think I need to sleep tonight…]
The issue of signatures once again brought the discussion in the comments to a climax. Various speculations emerged in an endless stream in the increasing number of floors*, and soon someone asked the most critical questions.
*Clarity: Floors refers to the replies under a comment. The original comment and the replies under it make up the “building”. When someone refers to upstairs, it’s referring to a previous comment above them.
[The code the girl upstairs is referring to is talking about three graves?]
It was as if dry wood had been ignited by fire or water had dripped into a pan full of oil.
With everyone speculating what was in the post, a pattern and a simple keyword could instantly inspire many crazy associations, and even without deliberate guidance, the association Lin Chen wanted would naturally appear.
[Shit, it’s not related to the three corpses dug up at Yongchuan University, right? I’m getting goosebumps!]
Finally, someone said it.
Kinky Thoughts:
For those who read YRILGPED, which I translated, you know how much disdain I have for translating online comments. It just gives me a headache because there’s so much slang, and it’s also a pain. This chapter is giving me PTSD from those days again.
“Captain Xing is a very thoughtful person.” It was Su Fengzi who reacted faster than Lin Chen. His slightly mocking voice came from the corner.
Su Fengzi narrowed his eyes, as if he were judging Xing Conglian for being too whimsical, but perhaps his words came from pure admiration.
Lin Chen thought about what Xing Conglian had thought of earlier.
The problem now was that no matter how they dealt with this situation, they would have to pay a corresponding price, whether it be for public safety or the health of the students. These were all prices that had to be paid, but they weren’t the people qualified to do this exchange.
It was like solving a plane geometry problem. No matter how they solved it, those auxiliary lines had to be added.
“Now we seem to have reached a dead end?” Lin Chen shook his head as he asked.
“What do you think?” Xing Conglian lit his cigarette.
Looking at his silent but firm eyes, Lin Chen suddenly felt relaxed.
“The road to life always comes from the path of death.”
He turned around and leaned on the counter and asked Xing Conglian, “In our minds, what is the most ideal way to solve the crisis?”
“Naturally, I hope they come forward to me and say, ‘Uncle Policeman, I was wrong’, and then put down the butcher’s knife and become a Buddha.” Xing Conglian exhaled a puff of smoke.
“I can try,” Lin Chen replied.
Xing Conglian was shocked. He knew very well that his request just now was an almost impossible task. After all, it wasn’t easy to reverse the will of a group of lunatics in such a short period of time.
But Lin Chen thought about it seriously and gave an equally serious response. He would try.
Truly, he was arrogant.
“Shit, anti-brainwashing?” Comrade Wang Chao suddenly became excited.
“The theoretical basis is this. The members of the group have lost their individual personalities and replaced their individual will with the collective will. This is a state of collective unconsciousness that lacks cognitive ability… Since it’s an unconscious state, there’s one thing that becomes useful.”
“What is it?”
“Suggestion.”
“Eh, like collective hypnosis? Although that sounds very powerful, is it really feasible?” Even the little comrade Wang Chao was skeptical.
“It’s not that exaggerated.” Lin Chen petted the teenager’s soft hair and said lightly, “If you want them to calm down, warnings, threats, and rational persuasion will have no effect. They are crazy and paranoid. It’s the mastermind that made them what they are now. So, if the mastermind can brainwash them, why can’t we do the same?”
“Although I don’t understand what you’re saying, I think it makes sense!”
“How do we do it?” Before Wang Chao’s voice fell, Xing Conglian spoke up decisively.
“It needs to be done step by step. First, what we have to deal with is a group of avengers full of hatred. Your goal is to hope that they appear in front of you, not in front of those innocent students. Then the only way is to… pull hatred.”
“Pulling hatred?”
“It’s like playing a game. If your ally cut the boss and does 10 damage and I cut the boss and does 100, the boss hatred for me will be higher, right?” Wang Chao said.
“Yes, you can think of that group as a pack of wolves. How can you make wolves not attack a weak flock but instead attack the target we set for them?”
“You hurt them,” Xing Conglian replied.
Lin Chen nodded.
But before he could continue, Wang Chao interjected, “Isn’t this just going in circles? We don’t know how many there are, who they are, where they are, or how we can hurt them.”
“Not knowing who they are doesn’t prevent us from having some exchange with them.” Lin Chen raised his head and looked at the camera, seeing red dots flashing in the opposite shop. “Guess how many people are watching behind that camera?”
“A’Chen, your brain is just as big as the Captain’s! You want to use the surveillance camera to brainwash them, but will there be that many people watching?”
“It doesn’t matter how many people are watching. The important thing is that someone is watching.” Lin Chen paused, then continued, “There are two inferences. First, if there are 100 people in that group, it’s impossible for all of them to come here every day to read the message board, so we assume that they have their own internal means of transmitting information. Second, look at the shop. Even though they evacuated the space, the entire shop is still tidy, without a single trace of clutter. Assuming that this shop is very important to the group members, even if it’s not a holy land in their minds, it’s still an emotional and spiritual source, so if something bad happens to this store, do you think they won’t feel uncomfortable?”
“How do we anger them?” Wang Chao asked expectantly, as if he were ready to handle the task by himself.
“Since they have lost their humanity, it has devolved into animalistic behavior. For any social animal, the most uncomfortable thing is that your own territory is occupied and trampled on by others…” Lin Chen tilted his head. There was even a slight smile at the corner of his mouth. “Imagine if someone approaches your room and puts your most beloved handicraft on the floor and tramples it.”
“I’ll fuck him up!”
“Then what if that person who crushed your favorite handicraft is someone you truly hate?”
“Captain, if BlackJack did this, can you lend me some money?” Wang Chao asked as he turned his head to face Xing Conglian.
“What do you want to do?”
“Hire some mercenaries to kill him!” the teenager replied angrily.
Xing Conglian laughed dumbfoundedly and said, “Sure.”
Lin Chen was left momentarily speechless but quickly brought the topic back. “So, if you agree to this plan, we’ll need to find a way to exploit their hatred.” After speaking, he turned to look at the captain of the criminal division and said, “The police obviously can’t.”
Xing Conglian raised his hands and said, “I know, but you’re acting with the police, so you can’t do it either.”
“Of course I can’t. My personal strength is limited.” Lin Chen looked around the room. “So we still need a group, one they despise vehemently. Although it may be too biased to say this, just imagine, if you were a member of that group, what kind of person would you hate the most?”
“People who are better than me?” Xing Conglian said.
“Prettier than me?” Wang Chao said.
“Smarter than me?” Professor Ye said.
“Not only better, prettier, and smarter, but they are also extremely intelligent. In short, they are those who are favored and could offset a hundred times the efforts of ordinary people,” Su Fengzi concluded with a smile.
“Shit, are we going to drag all the school flowers and grass* in University City into the water?” Wang Chao rubbed his palms together excitedly. “That seems very interesting.”
*Refers to the most beautiful/handsome girl/boy that’s recognize by everyone in school (aka the school hunk/beauty).
Lin Chen’s gaze fell on Xing Conglian.
The captain of the criminal division was still thinking. Suddenly, Lin Chen saw him raise his head and asked, “Is it too late?”
“I’m a little nervous, mainly because the layout takes time…”
He wanted to continue to elaborate, but Xing Conglian stopped him with his sharp eyes.
“Let’s go,” was all that the captain of the criminal division said.
Xing Conglian was a simple person.
Lin Chen realized the meaning behind his simple response. It roughly meant, “I decided we’re doing it, and I’ll take full responsibility. You just need to do it.”
Lin Chen didn’t say anything else. He nodded at Xing Conglian and glanced at the clock on the wall. It was now almost close to midnight. Time was more constrained than he thought.
His tone also became solemn. “Professor Ye, I will have to trouble you.”
—-
Ye Yan was a person who was afraid of trouble.
After all, most people who engaged in mathematics liked to nest in their own territory and think about problems that they were interested in.
And these questions of interest obviously didn’t include how to be a good actor.
He looked at the row of red brushes and paint cans in front of him, extremely depressed.
“Does it really have to be me?” He scratched his head irritably, restraining his desire to kick over the paint bucket in front of him.
“Yes. Time is tight. It doesn’t allow you to write down the calculation process and let us find students to recite it,” Lin Chen explained.
Ye Yan always thought he was crazy, but he didn’t expect anyone to be crazier than him.
Just a few minutes ago, the police sent two buckets of red paint and a row of brushes. His task was to use these props to paint the process of unlocking their coded language with blood red characters all over the coffee shop, leaving a naked provocation at the end.
How heartless could someone be to come up with such an idea?
“Don’t worry, you can turn your back to the camera the entire time so they can’t see your face.”
“Then why should I wear his clothes!” Ye Yan tugged at the smoky gray suit that didn’t really fit him and made him uncomfortable all over.”
“Because… of all the people present, only my clothes looked the most expensive.” The owner of the suit reached out his hand and gently tidied up the hem of his shirt for him.
“You’re not allowed to get my clothes dirty!” Ye Yan looked at Su Fengzi wearing his outfit and became even angrier. Why did the same clothes look like they were made for dogs on Su Fengzi’s body?
“Okay,” Su Fengzi said as he tied the tie for him. “Please pay attention to safety.”
It was rare for Ye Yan to hear Su Fengzi speak so solemnly that he suddenly felt inexplicably moved.
“Don’t get my clothes dirty. It’s really expensive,” Su Fengzi added.
The empty coffee shop stood quietly in the corner of the underground world.
A hammer had already been prepared. Wang Chao had calculated the range of the surveillance on the camera in advance, so everyone stood in its blind spot.
Ye Yan was barefoot. He tugged at his tie, lifted the hammer, and took a step forward. He raised the hammer high and swung with all his strength.
A loud crash sounded, and glass exploded as the hammer flew into the store.
Ye Yan stepped on the glass ballast all over the floor and walked into the dark coffee shop.
The floor was the color of pure wood, but at this moment it was stained with broken pieces of glass. The man who walked into the store threw down the paint bucket daintily, causing a few drops of bright red paint to spatter out and fall onto the floor like blood.
Like all crazy character settings, once standing in the field in which he was confident, Ye Yan didn’t need any acting skills to portray the contempt mortals had for geniuses.
With one hand in his pocket and the other holding a paint brush, he tilted his head slightly and began to write casually and neatly on the walls as if there were rousing music playing. Ye Yan’s strokes were moving faster and faster.
The lights were dim, and his back looked rebellious and free.
It was like a god writing runes or a painter splashing ink indiscriminately.
Numbers one by one formed formulas, and they grew and spread on the snow-white walls at an alarming rate. More and more red paint dripped slowly along the walls, sprawling in tiny lines that looked like blood-red vines.
Looking at the blood-red handwriting spreading in the shop, Xing Conglian said, “A normal person like me would want to rush in and beat him up.”
“Shit, I’m getting goosebumps,” Wang Chao said as he rubbed his arms.
“This isn’t enough.” Lin Chen stood with his hands in the air and spoke quietly.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s still like I said. The power of an individual is always limited. It’s impossible for a group to turn their spreadhead because of an individual’s resistance. The only thing that can attract a group is another group.”
“We want them to think that Professor Ye isn’t alone and that there are others behind him?”
“Yes, we want them to think that behind Professor Ye stand those whom they hate to the point of madness, those who can humiliate them and crush them without any effort and are completely out of their reach. We want to think that the people provoking them are those that are blessed by the heavens.”
“But how do we do that?”
“The group only accepts suggestions, so we can make up stories,” Lin Chen said, tilting his head slightly and looking at Su Fengzi.
The name of the person Su Fengzi found was Ye Yan, a professor in the mathematics department of T University.
At 11 PM, Professor Ye hastily arrived at the underground mall with a door key in hand.
Most mathematicians usually had an unruly image—Professor Ye could be considered one of the best looking in terms of said standard. He had messy, curly hair and was wearing a pair of cotton slippers. After opening the door and entering, he didn’t talk much. He was panting as he threw the key on the table and asked, “What code do you want me to solve?”
Lin Chen glanced at Ye Yan’s appearance. He could almost imagine what kind of hellish mood the other party was in when he received Su Fengzi’s call. Although he probably wanted to hang up, at the thought that the caller was Su Fengzi, he could only obediently get up from bed, go out, and take a taxi.
Wang Chao had stepped aside in front of the laptop, and Jiang Chao’s subordinates had already sent over the book “Discrete Mathematics”.
Ye Yan quickly flipped through the book, glanced at the restored price list on the screen, and then said, “Oh, it’s really a code.”
“Professor, Professor, are you sure? How come when we just look at it, it’s all just garbled code!”
“Because you don’t read enough,” Ye Yan said calmly, as if he didn’t want to stay here for a second longer. He casually pulled out a notepad, wrote down a few words, then threw it on the table and asked, “Is there anything else? If not, I’ll be leaving first.”
Lin Chen glanced at Su Fengzi, who was leaning against the window, lost in his own world. Su Fengzi then turned to look at the angry Professor Ye and said with a shallow smile, “Why are you in such a hurry? Shall we have dinner together?”
“Am I sick to go have a meal with you?”
Su Fengzi was probably used to this kind of attitude, as he didn’t seem angry but smiled instead.
Seeing that Ye Yan was about to leave, Xing Conglian hurriedly stepped forward. “Professor Ye, please wait a moment. Our technician is still restoring some images. We have to trouble you later.”
“Then why did you call me here so early.” Although Ye Yan spoke rudely, he still sat down.
Lin Chen picked up the notepad.
There were two short sentences written on it.
[4.10 Home Farewell Dinner]
[Wir waren tot und konnten atmen.]
In the dim light, the black and white characters became more blurred.
Despite his rough appearance, Lin Chen had to admit that Ye Yan’s handwriting was quite good.
“Hey, the book is in Chinese. Why is it deciphered in English?” Comrade Wang Chao began to ask questions again under the principle of asking if he didn’t understand something.
However, Professor Ye didn’t have the patience to teach and educate others. He crossed his arms and said coldly in Su Fengzi’s direction, “Am I also responsible for teaching the police how to solve the case?”
“Of course not,” Su Fengzi replied.
The atmosphere between these two was subtly weird, especially as long as Su Fengzi was present, it wouldn’t be normal.
Lin Chen looked at the last two sentences translated by Ye Yan and handed the notepad to Xing Conglian.
“What day was the first one taken?” Xing Conglian asked.
“April 8th,” Wang Chao replied.
“What about the second one?”
“April 10th. I’m very lucky, Captain. They cleared the venue on April 10th. That was the last message before they left.”
“What do you think?”
Lin Chen was listening when Xing Conglian suddenly asked him this. After pondering for a moment, he slowly answered, “The first one is very easy to understand. It’s more like a schedule. On April 8th, the itinerary for April 10th would be arranged. This should be the location, referring to their usual meeting place, so the farewell dinner…”
“It’s more appropriate to translate it as a break-up dinner.” Xing Conglian took out his phone and called Jiang Chao again. “Lao Jiang, have your men investigate the whereabouts of the six deceased on April 10th and see if there was a meeting point.”
“The second line…” Lin Chen turned his head and asked Xing Conglian, “What does it mean?”
“German. It should be a poem,” Xing Conglian said.
“Fuck, poetry?! So high and literate!” Wang Chao looked up from the screen and interjected. “Isn’t this a bit sick? They’re spending a lot of effort to encrypt a line in a poem so no one will suspect them, ah?”
“It’s a different feeling,” Lin Chen interrupted the teenager.
Not only Xing Conglian, but even Ye Yan looked at him with a puzzled gaze.
The underground mall at night was so quiet that there wasn’t even the sound of footsteps.
Lin Chen said softly, “What it creates is a beautiful illusion. A code word that everyone keeps chanting silently in their hearts. It will give everyone incomparable power.”
After the dinner party, before the death began, they would recite it silently in their minds.
“We were dead and could breathe.”
Xing Conglian’s voice was low, and his melodious voice was like a cello echoing in Lin Chen’s ears. Lin Chen was taken aback for a moment before realizing he was talking about the poem.
Without indulging in the poem’s intention about death, Xing Conglian typed in the keywords on his phone and quickly searched out the full text.
[Memory of France] You, think with me: the sky of Paris, the great autumn crocus… We bought hearts from the flower girls: they were blue and blossomed in the water. It started to rain in our room, and our neighbor came, Monsieur le Songe, a thin little man. We played cards, I lost the pupils of my eyes; you lent me your hair, I lost it, he struck us down. He left by the door, the rain followed him. We were dead and could breathe.
The author of the poem was Paul Celan*, a Jewish poet who had gone through hardships.
*Was a Romanian-born German-language poet and translator. He became one of the major German-language poets of the post-World War II era.
“What does it mean?” Ye Yan glanced at it and couldn’t help asking.
Lin Chen shook his head, a bit speechless.
Anyone who had read this poem could appreciate the cool and beautiful artistic conception of death in it. For those students, this was too attractive; death wasn’t bloody but was beautiful.
This made him suddenly think of the scene of his little shimei jumping down from the transparent blue sky. She was so happy, as if death were just another form of life.
That was the last message left by the organization to the believers before they cleared the venue. In addition to inspiring and instigating, it had to have a symbolic significance.
Of course, Lin Chen knew that what Xing Conglian wanted him to infer was an exact address from the poem. At 18:00 tomorrow, that would be where the students would end their lives.
But the problem was that the intentions in poetry were complex and changeable, and what made things more complicated was that different people had tens of millions of different understandings of the same poem.
We were dead and could breathe…
So what was their understanding?
As the cellphone passed from person to person, Xing Conglian took out a cigarette and looked at Lin Chen.
“Buy a heart, or is it blue? The heart is blue, floating in the water? The water in spring is green, and the only blue is sea water, but Yongchuan is also by the sea…” In this atmosphere, the only person who could keep talking was Wang Chao. “Playing cards? Is there a card game in University City recently? I don’t think there is. The neighbor, Mr. Le Songe… the rain that’s following him… Who is he?”
As the boy kept asking, the captain of the criminal division couldn’t stand it any longer and knocked him hard on the back of the head.
“Let’s use the exclusion method first.” Lin Chen paused, then said to Wang Chao, “Bring up the topographic map of Yongchuan University City.”
“Got it!” The teenager’s hand rose and fell, and a gray 3D satellite image spread out. “But A’Chen, why do you think it’ll be in Yongchuan University City? Shouldn’t we focus on Yongchuan University first?”
“Now, it seems that tomorrow’s incident at Yongchuan University is no longer likely. If I were mastermind, I would use the first two times to collectively attract the attention of the police and arrange the final highlight in an unexpected place…” Lin Chen said as he looked at Xing Conglian, but he found that the other party just raised his brows and was lost in his thoughts. Without any response, he continued, “Since the primary purpose of the mastermind is to broadcast it live and make money, then we can exclude all areas that aren’t monitored or have relatively weak surveillance coverage.”
Wang Chao quickly turned all unmonitored areas gray.
“In fact, it’s easy to say it would be in a public area, but many school classrooms have cameras. What if they rush in and attack a teaching building?” Wang Chao worriedly looked at the areas that were still bright.
“Since the object of their hatred is the ordinary classmates around them, they will inevitably choose densely populated areas with a high concentration of students.” Lin Chen paused, then said to Wang Chao, “Please organize a list of student activities for each university in University City tomorrow. Give me a list.”
“Already sorted.” Wang Chao took out a piece of paper from his backpack and smiled. “The Captain asked me to do it, so I was prepared!”
Lin Chen looked at dozens of activities, large and small, on the paper, and finally understood the pressure on Xing Conglian.
Probably earlier on, Xing Conglian had already considered suspending various activities due to the issue of deployment and control, but even if collective activities on campus could be suspended, there were still classrooms, cafeterias, libraries, and other crowded places. The entire University City had more than 200,000 students, and it was impossible to clear it all out overnight.
Lin Chen gazed at the satellite map and was lost in thought.
He suddenly heard Xing Conglian ask him, “What do you imagine is the most dangerous and uncontrollable situation?”
“You’re asking, if it were me, how would I kill the most people in this situation, right?”
“You can interpret it like that.”
“They are a group, and only collective activities can make them feel the short-lived and incomparable power…” Lin Chen took a deep breath and continued, “I will choose to slaughter in a closed place that outsiders can’t break through in a short period of time…”
After he finished this, no one in the shop spoke.
A rotating display stand was still turning gently, and the crystal ornaments on it reflected colorful light.
“Then you can exclude all open places.” Xing Conglian took a pen and scratched out all the outdoor activities on paper and continued, “The cafeterias are unlikely. The flow of people in them is too dense. Unless they have firearms, it’s difficult for a niche group to control the number of students who are several times larger than them, and…”
“The cafeteria isn’t elegant and beautiful enough,” Lin Chen said.
“If they’re killing, do they have to do it gracefully? Are they trying to match the BGM*?!” Wang Chao said angrily.
*Background music.
“Since it needs to be elegant and beautiful, if the place doesn’t satisfy that criterion, there will be some resistance…” Xing Conglian seemed to think of something and then asked Lin Chen, “How likely are they to carry out the killing according to the content of that poem?”
“That poem has existed for a long time. If it’s a code word or a slogan, then they should hope that the final killing feast will conform to the artistic conception.” Lin Chen thought for a moment, then suddenly looked at Xing Conglian. “Did you just say control?”
Xing Conglian raised his brows, obviously thinking along the same lines as him.
The two suddenly looked at each other but did not speak. Comrade Wang Chao began to worry. “Control? You mean how they can control those innocent students?”
“Colchicum*…” Lin Chen looked at Wang Chao and said, “Search for it and you can find a picture.”
*Clarity: Commonly known as naked lady, autumn crocus, and meadow saffron. The reason why this gave Lin Chen his flash of inspiration is because when Xing Conglian said ‘control’ [kong zhi] (控制) the pronunciation is similar to the English pronunciation of colchi, which Lin Chen then connected to colchicum, which is mentioned in the poem (autumn crocus).
Hearing this, the teenager quickly entered the keywords in the image search box. He looked at the flowers that instantly covered the entire screen. After a while, he said calmly, “This is, blue heart?”
“Colchicum is roughly pink, but when the light is dim, it will appear blue-purple,” Lin Chen explained.
“So they want to set the killing time in the evening?” Wang Chao swallowed. “But what’s the blue heart floating in the water…”
“Colchicine* is extremely toxic, and a lethal dose is about 0.8 mg/kg,” Lin Chen said lightly. “It tastes relatively bitter, so the students may not take it to the point where they die, but its effects will still make those who eaten it by mistake weak and less resistant.”
*Medication used to treat gout and Behcet’s disease. It’s formed from colchicum. It is toxic, and an overdose can cause organ failure.
“Poi… Poisoning?” Wang Chao almost exploded in fright. “Fuck me, what should I do? Are they going to poison the drinking fountains? Do we have to thoroughly investigate all water sources overnight, including bottled water in the school classrooms and libraries and mineral water that will be distributed at the events? But that workload is too large. What if the problem lies in the source manufacturer of drinking water, which has already flowed into the market?!”
The teenager’s brain hole was becoming so big that Lin Chen had to stop him. “It won’t be so difficult. Let’s analyze it first. First, we haven’t received any reports of colchicine poisoning. Assuming there’s a batch of problematic water sources, it hasn’t flowed into the market yet, and the supermarket distribution and school water delivery don’t run this late at night, so we have time to stop this part of the water problem.” Lin Chen looked at Xing Conglian and continued, “Second, if it’s a poisoning incident aimed at student activities, it’s very likely that the batch of water sources has been purchased and will only be distributed to students at the right time. It’ll be relatively difficult to prevent the distribution of free drinks. However, the most difficult to control is the third point. If colchicine is in the hands of the organization members, then the school’s boiling water room and drinking fountains in the classroom will all become targets…”
“The third point is scary enough, but all three together~”
Su Fengzi’s voice came around the corner.
“Colchicine is very bitter. It’s easy for students to find that there’s a problem with the drinking water after taking a sip. The poisoning of drinking water facilities can’t control the amount of drinking done by the students. If there’s a similar poisoning situation, it’s most likely just an auxiliary effect. It’s used to distract the police and create an atmosphere of panic…” Xing Conglian spoke with a cigarette in his mouth. “The teaching building and the library can be ruled out. This should be a targeted attack.”
When Lin Chen heard this, he looked at the list of tomorrow’s activities compiled by Wang Chao again. Although most school activities began after class ended at 5:30, the time limit of 6 p.m. could still help them exclude some daytime activities.
For the poisoning to be successful, drinking plenty of water was essential, so things like knowledge competitions, group initiation ceremonies, college assemblies, and lectures could also be temporarily excluded…
What remained was an after-school indoor basketball game, as well as a singing competition at A University and a dance festival at T University…
Lin Chen circled these three activities with a red pen and then looked at Xing Conglian.
Tonight, Xing Conglian had spoken very little, especially since just now he had spent most of his time in deep thought. Obviously, when it came to such a difficult decision, even Xing Conglian struggled to make up his mind.
There was still time before the live broadcast tomorrow evening. If they reacted quickly and used tough tactics, it was entirely possible they could wipe out the organization. Opportunities and danger often went hand in hand.
For example, the best way to deal with this situation was to set up control at the three specific locations and deploy the police to resolve the problem.
However, once they chose this method, it meant they couldn’t alarm the snake in advance and must quietly wait for the other side to act.
Just waiting like this would put public safety at great risk. They not only had to watch unsuspecting students drink highly toxic liquids and wait for them to be poisoned; they also had to ignore any possible poisoning of the public water supply.
In this process, if any deaths or injuries occurred, it would be a heavy responsibility that they couldn’t bear.
Or, they could choose the simplest and easiest way to solve the problem. Go out and smash the door of the coffee shop open, then flick off the surveillance camera there and write down all their speculations.
But the problem was, then what…
It was possible that the organization would order a halt to their plans, leaving the group members dormant. It was also possible that there was a second set of plans within the organization and that they would not be able to guess the location of the next dangerous incident.
Or, the organization could let its members walk en masse to one place and drink the highly toxic water in front of the entire school.
Corpses would litter the campus and create an atmosphere full of mourning. Wouldn’t that be fun?
“We can’t take risks.” Xing Conglian finally spoke up.
Lin Chen had not anticipated Xing Conglian’s decision.
“Is there any way to change the will of this group before 6 tomorrow night?” Lin Chen heard Xing Conglian ask him this in a very solemn tone.
Kinky Thoughts:
I’m not a literary type of person, let alone poetry, so I can’t really tell you what the meaning behind Memory of France is. That will be left up to your interpretation. However, given Paul Celan’s background—the deaths of his parents and his experience in a concentration camp, which defined his poetry and use of language—I highly doubt the meaning of the poem is whatever these cultists (frankly it is what they are) think it means.
“Of course it’s possible, but the problem is, Captain, don’t you think your brain is too big?”
A minute ago, Wang Chao rushed to the underground mall at the urging of his boss.
Perhaps the underground mall was too flashy for the likes of Lin Chen or Xing Conglian, but for little comrade Wang Chao, it was an extremely interesting place.
He threw down his backpack excitedly and talked about the pirate figurine he had just seen.
“Pull up the surveillance video first!” Xing Conglian backhandedly smacked the teenager.
Perhaps it was because he was too excited to get all the way here, but the teenager didn’t make any rebellious remarks about workplace violence. He quickly climbed onto a small bench by the jewelry store and looked at the camera model, then muttered, “It’s a rhinestone-encrusted Ace*, Captain!”
Xing Conglian didn’t even think about it as he said casually, “I’ll buy it for you.”
Lin Chen couldn’t help but glance at him.
In the window of the jewelry store, the figure of a rhinestone-encrusted Ace ornament was hanging brightly. The female shopkeeper’s face turned blue when she heard their conversation.
“Captain, not all love in this world can be solved with money.” Wang Chao jumped down from the bench and started tapping on his keyboard. “Not bad. The surveillance in the store was saved for a week. If you have the money, you better start warming it up for me.”
Since the time was past closing, the female shopkeeper closed up, picked up her bag, and left.
It wasn’t until little comrade Wang Chao looked up after pulling out a series of videos that he found that there was someone missing.
“Eh? Where did that lady go just now? I still want to ask her what time she opens.”
“Noon on weekdays, 10 AM on weekends,” Xing Conglian replied.
Wang Chao made an OK gesture and found the exact time.
“Shit!” the teenager shouted as he zoomed in on the screen. “Captain, the floor-to-ceiling mirror you mentioned does seem to reflect the corridor, but only at a specific angle. Also, when someone pushes the door, it blocks the sign, and the clarity is poor. I can’t guarantee I can restore the image.”
“Work more, talk less,” Xing Conglian said naturally. “Do your best. This is probably the only chance we have now.”
Seeing that Xing Conglian’s tone had become serious, Wang Chao didn’t dare say anything else and began to hum as he watched the videos.
His enthusiasm for work didn’t last for more than two minutes when the laptop he brought suddenly went off with a fierce alarm.
“Shit, shit, shit, finally there’s a response!” The boy excitedly turned the laptop screen. “The original red entry on the reward site finally turned green, showing that someone finally answered the question we previously set.”
Suddenly, Xing Conglian’s phone rang.
Team Leader Ren’s voice sounded tired and apologetic. “I’m sorry, Captain Xing. Although the other party responded back, I don’t understand it very well, and I have to trouble you.”
Since Ren Xian couldn’t understand it, it meant that the reply wasn’t a URL but a dialogue.
Wang Chao hooked his fingers at his captain and then went back to his “investigating” business.
“What does it mean?” Lin Chen asked.
Xing Conglian leaned closer and looked at the complicated statement, but couldn’t answer Lin Chen for a while.
The simple reply was mixed with alphanumeric characters and even emoticons. It looked extremely confusing and unsolvable.
“I can’t understand…” he replied honestly.
“Even groups on the internet are exclusionary. Most likely, it’s slang for those who watch the live video.”
“So, in their eyes, we appear to be the kind of naïve and cute internet ninnies?”
“It’s more like an old grandfather trying to get in touch with the lives of young people…” Lin Chen’s gaze fell on the youngest person in the vicinity. “Do you understand it?” He rubbed Wang Chao’s head as he asked.
“It’s not BT1, not magnetic link2. It looks more like garbled code. I really don’t understand what young people are playing nowadays, but some people on the dark web are criminal geniuses and some are pure idiots…” the 18-year-old adult said disdainfully while chewing gum.
1BitTorrent, a communication protocol for peer-to-peer file sharing that enables users to distribute data and electronic files over the internet in a decentralized manner. 2A de facto standard for identifying files by their contact via cryptographic hash value rather than their location. Although magnet links can be used in a number of contexts, they are particularly useful in peer-to-peer file sharing networks because they allow resources to be referred to without the need for a continuously available host and can be generated by anyone who already has the file, without the need for a central authority to issue them. This makes them popular for use as “guaranteed” search terms within the file-sharing community, where anyone can distribute a magnet link to ensure that the resource retrieved by that link is the one intended, regardless of how it is retrieved.
“That’s right. If the other party is trying to profit from this, they wouldn’t set up levels that are too obscure. After all, there are always more idiots than geniuses. Since things have almost reached their end, don’t they want every psychopath on the entire network to spend money and see it?” Xing Conglian asked rhetorically.
Lin Chen nodded thoughtfully and continued, “If I hope to attract viewers around the world, then the so-called ‘slang’ will inevitably break through the limitations of language…”
However, the so-called code cracking wasn’t a category Lin Chen was good at, and judging from the appearance of Xing Conglian and Wang Chao, neither of them seemed apt in this area either. They didn’t seem to understand what that passage meant.
“If you can’t understand everything, just look at what you can read.”
Suddenly, a soft voice came from the entrance. The lights of the jewelry store created an ambiguous atmosphere. Lin Chen turned his head and saw Su Fengzi holding two cups of coffee in his hand as he calmly pushed open the door.
It seemed that Mr. Su had completely regarded the scene of the police case as his own field study. Lin Chen looked at the Americano he tried to hand over and frowned. He didn’t know if he should accept the bribe.
On the contrary, Xing Conglian seemed quite calm. He picked up the cup of coffee and added two packs of sugar. As he stirred the coffee with the wooden stick, he said, “Mr. Su seems to know a lot of inside knowledge about this case?”
“Officer Xing, you…” Su Fengzi said, leaning closer to Xing Conglian’s ear.
Lin Chen couldn’t help but glare at him.
Su Fengzi didn’t seem aware of it, but instead leaned even closer. His red lips seemed to say something, and at the end, he finished with a casual smile.
Lin Chen couldn’t hear what he said, but he felt that whatever it was, it wasn’t anything good.
Xing Conglian was still calm, neither showing shame or anger after being molested, nor any expression of surprise. He didn’t know what Su Fengzi had said, but Xing Conglian actually let Su Fengzi go on the “insider” issue, and even helped him pick up the topic that had been staggered before. “Can Mr. Su understand?”
Su Fengzi raised his coffee and didn’t answer the question.
He walked around Lin Chen and Xing Conglian, put down his coffee cup, and propped his hand in front of the cash register, unconcerned about his posture, then circled the person sitting in front of the laptop.
Little comrade Wang Chao opened his pair of black and white almond eyes and, like seeing a perverted maniac, tried to shrink his body.
Su Fengzi lowered his head, looked at the furry little head in front of him, and smiled. “Very cute little friend. How old are you?”
Lin Chen and Xing Conglian tacitly looked at each other and ignored the teenager’s pleading eyes.
Su Fengzi finally moved. His long, slender white fingers gently scratched across the laptop screen, then he said, “If you remove all the symbols and emoticons, there’s still a string of thirty-four digits left…”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Hearing this, Wang Chao finally moved. He ignored the person pressing against him and sat straight up, quickly processing the data. “Holy shit, it’s a URL address!” After he finished speaking, he copied the entire string of digits and said, “Isn’t it just a fucking QR code? Why is it so complicated? I have to pay to get the address, right? Why don’t you open a Taobao store? Captain, what should I do? Should I send money to this account? What if it’s not the account for the live streaming?!”
“It’s not a paid account for the live streaming. You can offer a reward to the person who gave you this information. I’ll pay for it,” Xing Conglian said frankly. “The price isn’t too high. Considering the average in today’s market, you can try 5 bitcoins.”
Wang Chao whistled and quickly did as he was told.
At this moment, Xing Conglian’s phone rang again.
Usually, everything would have a centralized breaking point.
The caller was Jiang Chao.
Vice Captain Jiang seemed quite irritable on the phone. “The fingerprints on those small beads you picked up came out. We determined it belonged to a junior from Yongchuan University. Do I arrest him now? Is that little bastard crazy?!”
Xing Conglian’s fingers gently rubbed over the phone. Lin Chen saw him glance at him and then decisively say, “No, not yet. Wait a while longer.”
On the other end of the line, Jiang Chao was obviously dissatisfied with this order. In fact, he didn’t know when it had started, but the real commander had long changed from him to Xing Conglian.
It probably had something to do with some possessing natural abilities to make others trust and obey them. Although Jiang Chao was unhappy, he still answered “okay”.
“They actually left fingerprints?” Lin Chen was standing next to Xing Conglian just now and had heard their conversation. He could naturally sense the irritability in Vice Captain Jiang Chao’s voice. He repeated it in disbelief and looked at the coffee bar on the opposite side, which was so clean there wasn’t a trace of fingerprints left. “When did they change1 their behavior?”
“How can you call them transexuals1…” Su Fengzi stood beside Wang Chao and interjected with a smile.
1Clarity: In the previous line Lin Chen uses the word transexual/transformation (转性) but in the context he’s saying a change in behavior. Su Fengzi is making a joke by asking why he is calling them transsexuals.
“It could also be a mistake.” Lin Chen moved away from the cashier’s counter stiffly and turned to look at Xing Conglian. “In fact, using the collective unconscious to control a group is a very dangerous thing in and of itself.”
“It does not appear that the suicide incident and the rainy night riot were planned by the same group of people. The latter had too many loopholes. Although it’s dangerous, there are too many uncontrollable factors, and there was also a heavy rainstorm. If you want to kill people, would you ignore the weather?”
After listening to him, Lin Chen took a sip of coffee and fell into contemplation.
The so-called personality test itself was an on-the-spot decision, so the time left for the mastermind to react was short, which meant that even if they had time to plan and create a stampede on the stairs, they wouldn’t have time to broadcast the matter live. Being unable to broadcast meant that they couldn’t make a profit. This was indeed not in line with the motivation of the mastermind…
“Perhaps the timed power-off device installed in the distribution station is their only purpose. In other words, they just want to stop the personality test for an unknown purpose but have no intention of planning a riot…”
“In other words, those nails, beads, and even those yells from the classroom were actually not the original intention of the mastermind, but some hot-blooded member did it out of their own accord?”
“I doubt that…”
“Hearing what you said, why don’t I think this is bad news?” Xing Conglian finished his cup of coffee in one go and said readily, “Can you give me a complete analysis of the group. For example, what was it like when it first formed and why did the entire organization evolve into what it is now?”
“You really are…” Lin Chen was speechless for a while.
“Captain Xing is really sharp.” Su Fengzi greeted Xing Conglian with the cup of coffee he was holding, as if it were a wine glass. “It’s amazing to ask him to use so few clues to describe the entire picture of a huge organization. I look forward to this.”
Su Fengzi most likely had the ability to make everyone obediently shut up.
At this point, no matter how difficult it was, a complete profile of that organization was necessary.
“This involves the issue of group psychodynamics…” Lin Chen walked out the door as if he had been chased away, took off the small blackboard at the entrance of the jewelry store, and brought it into the store. He then wiped off all the promotional information on it with his hands and drew a pyramid-shaped triangle.
“In the beginning, if I guessed right, the mastermind just wanted to use simple students to gain benefits. Its organizational structure is similar to a pyramid scheme. It attracts students to join the organization using bait, promising them change, money, and a better life.” Lin Chen painted the bottom of the pyramid white. “There’s a skill to this. First, the people they selected are all introverted individuals with low self-esteem. These individuals tend to have more yearning for a better life, so they are more eager than those with sound personalities. Although I haven’t been to the coffee shop across the street, the owner of the jewelry store just told me that most of those books in there are inspirational. In fact, those kids were probably tempted to participate in the organization at first just so they could change themselves. They wanted to become better, more beautiful, and more attractive.”
Perhaps it was due to the surroundings being so quiet and the shops around them gradually darkening that Lin Chen’s voice softened unconsciously. He recalled Xu Haozhen’s earliest appearance at the podium, introducing herself. His little shimei was so shy and timid. He wondered if this was what she was like when she walked into that coffee shop.
Perhaps the clerk handed her some kind of card, or someone in the store took the initiative to strike up a conversation.
She probably felt a deep sense of gratitude for a moment—that in this cold world, there was someone who would pay attention to her who was so inconspicuous.
She then followed her guide and walked into that big, warm family.
“Once the victim joins, the mastermind has countless means to convince these simple people that they can only truly get that beautiful life within this organization. Other than that, the world was full of hypocrisy and darkness. The magical thing about the collective unconscious in group psychology is that the talents of all people are completely wiped out and will no longer be subject to moral and legal constraints. Moreover, unlike illusory pyramid schemes, those in this organization can earn money by completing tasks, gain love and a sense of belonging, and they do undergo a qualitative transformation, which increased their faith in the power of the organization even more. Gradually, the association between the benefits and the organization becomes inseparable.”
Lin Chen drew a horizontal line in the middle of the pyramid and then painted it a second color.
“Once a crime occurs, the entire group has changed from a simple social group to a criminal organization, but such a criminal organization is far more terrifying than those gangsters who hack people. A more appropriate name should be ‘criminal group*’.”
*Clarity: Lin Chen is using a different term than criminal organization. This term, criminal group (犯罪群体), is defined by psychology terminology. It refers to a group of criminals with different degrees of connection composed of multiple people and usually classified according to: 1. Degree of contact between members, 2. According to age, 3. According to nature of criminal activities, 4. According to participation of criminal activities.
A third color appeared on the pyramid. Lin Chen continued, “Since it’s a criminal group, it has its general characteristics. In general, criminal groups are easy to instigate and trust. They tend to go to extremes and use a combination of positive and negative reinforcement. They will show a morality that isn’t usually present, for example, convincing their members that they have an important mission that can only be completed if they carry out a massacre. These missions may bring prosperity to the organization or perhaps benefit all of mankind. It’s never personal self-interest that dominates the group, but the spiritual beliefs shared by the group.”
“So what kind of spiritual beliefs do those children hold that they can even commit suicide for?” Xing Conglian’s voice couldn’t help but be moved a little.
“For the collective benefit, for a better future… One that they will no longer have.” Lin Chen felt a bit uncomfortable, and he almost began to regret his analysis. In the end, those criminals who committed suicide were all just poor children who yearned for a better life and were fooled by a false beauty. Maybe one day, when this case was opened, all bystanders would say how stupid those children were and how they could be easily deceived, as if they were mentally retarded.
And at that time, he couldn’t explain the so-called collective unconscious or the fragility of human psychology to those disdainful people one by one.
Lin Chen took a deep breath and said, “In any case, no matter what they want to do next, they must be stopped. This entire organization is constantly evolving, and it’s very likely that even the mastermind can’t fully control it now.”
“But we still don’t know what their next goal is. What do they want to do…” Xing Conglian once again brought the topic to its most critical point.
“In fact, if it weren’t for the fingerprints, I probably wouldn’t be able to imagine…” Lin Chen stared at the last blank space on the pyramid and said, “If I’m not mistaken, the person behind the scenes wanted to remove Cheng Weiwei, so they installed a belief in her and the other two, including Wang Shishi, that their deaths could benefit the entire group. In fact, when someone gives their life for the group, the entire group will sublimate to a more invincible stage, which is also the fundamental purpose of the mastermind.”
“You’re saying Cheng Weiwei’s and Wang Shishi’s deaths were used as catalysts, but what exactly are they trying to catalyze?”
“Hatred.” Lin Chen put down the chalk and said lightly, “They hate them, so they want to kill them.”
The riot on the rainy night and the small traps by the stairs—if that wasn’t the intention of the mastermind, then it only showed that this was a spontaneous action by a member of the group that wanted to kill the classmates around them.
Lin Chen couldn’t understand the source of this hatred, which transcended logic and was completely irrational but was ever so sincere.
Perhaps it was due to the contempt they have suffered or the thoughts that have been instilled in them for a long time that have convinced them that those seemingly excellent people had taken away their love, status, and money. Those people weren’t sanctimonious bastards at all and didn’t deserve to have those things. One day, they would get back what was lost…
The deaths of Cheng Weiwei, Wang Shishi, and the others were not only to make the members of the group believe that gossip was what killed their members, but also that the world was ugly and they must unite against those ugly and evil people around them.
All this, perhaps starting when Wang Shishi’s mother saw her daughter’s sex video, was probably all calculated.
Due to gossip, the girl committed suicide as a result, leaving behind an angry mother and indifferent classmates…
In the eyes of ordinary people, this was the process of a black-hearted mother squeezing the last trace of value from her daughter, but in the eyes of the members of the group, every word of Wang Shishi’s mother was their voice, and the indifferent world once again showed a mocking smile at them…
In this case, simple instigation and suggestion could make the entire group look like a collapsing wave, frantically lapping at the rocks until they shatter to pieces.
The triple suicide of Xu Haozhen and the others became the horn of charge, which was a cry of defiance to the entire world.
The real butcher’s knife, which was about to be waved, would come next.
Lin Chen held onto his coffee cup tremblingly. The coffee inside had become bitter and cold.
In the small jewelry store, those rhinestones emitted a dark and bright light. No one spoke, and even the sound of breathing was inaudible.
“In fact, their goal has been exposed a long time ago. They want to kill people, and they want to kill a lot of people, right?” Xing Conglian finally spoke. His voice was unexpectedly calm.
It wasn’t Lin Chen who answered his question but little comrade Wang Chao who was hiding in the corner.
“Cap… Captain… A… A’Chen… Come take a look… this…” the teenager said as he turned the laptop around in horror. In the middle of the screen, a bright red advertisement almost dyed people’s eyes red.
A huge black X ran across the entire piece of bright red background, and the four areas separated by the lines were filled with various types of knives and pipes. Those stacked weapons exuded a cold light on the screen, as if indicating the upcoming howl and blood.
Under the advertisement, there was a small URL and a date and time.
2016.4.14.18:00
Xing Conglian glanced at the time in the lower right corner of the laptop and said, “There are less than 20 hours left. We need to determine the specific location.”
“This was just sent by the other party?” Lin Chen asked.
“Five bitcoins. Ah, 10,000 yuan to buy this… Captain, I really don’t want to spend money on this,” Wang Chao said with extreme sadness.
“The above didn’t imply any location, only the time, which means they may attack anywhere in University City,” Lin Chen said.
Xing Conglian nodded and stared at Wang Chao and asked, “Has the content on the blackboard been restored?”
“I only found two days of it, but, Captain, is there any point in cracking the code now?” Wang Chao said as he opened the picture. “I know you’re looking for clues about where they are going to end up, but look, the store closed three days ago, which means the last information was updated three days ago. Will there be a location on it? Can a small blackboard issue orders to everyone in University City? Captain, do you have that much brain power…”
When Xing Conglian was serious, he didn’t talk much, so he didn’t bother responding to Wang Chao’s questions.
Two blurred pictures appeared on the screen.
Wang Chao had used the best algorithm to process the patterns on the blackboard, and the chalk handwriting could vaguely be seen.
It was strange that despite only being one day apart, on one day, the blackboard says: [Today’s Special Offer] and on the other day, it changed to [Special Recommendation]. This change did seem a bit strange.
Xing Conglian looked at the two blackboards carefully, but apart from the menu, he couldn’t see anything else.
“The key problem, Captain, is that even if it’s a code, it will take some time to crack it… Our IQ couldn’t even understand that small statement from the bitcoin account…” Wang Chao lay in front of the computer and sighed. “Anyway, it’s giving me a headache just looking at these numbers.”
Xing Conglian didn’t respond. After a while, he straightened up and said to Wang Chao, “Send the picture of Jiang Chao. The book ‘Discrete Mathematics’ is in the conference room. Let him try to crack it.”
“No way, you’re counting on Captain Jiang?” Wang Chao suddenly remembered something and turned his head suddenly to look at the man who was standing beside him drinking coffee.
Lin Chen also raised his eyes and looked at his old friend, whom he hadn’t seen for a long time.
Xing Conglian raised his eyebrows.
All their lines of sight converged.
“Of course I can’t.” Su Fengzi raised his hands in surrender. “However, this is an area with the highest concentration of higher learning in the country. Is it really that difficult to find someone to decipher the code?”
Naturally, it was impossible for a store to be robbed for no good reason. It was even more unlikely that the surveillance would simply vanish from the computer for no apparent reason.
The only possibility was that someone had cleaned up all possible clues before the crime.
“How many days ago was this?” Xing Conglian asked as he grabbed the poor employee.
“Three… Three days ago. Yes, it was three days ago.”
“It was the day before teacher’s birthday banquet.” Lin Chen paled slightly.
If the previous investigation still made him feel as if he was groping in the dark, unable to see where they were going, then the situation now certainly was still dark, but he suddenly realized that they had actually been staying close to the sack. Someone had already tightened the sack, and their struggle was only within a very limited range.
“Before the kids committed suicide under the banyan tree, the other party had already set up to erase the evidence. They were well prepared.” Xing Conglian didn’t show any dejection. He even thought that this was a matter of course. “Oh, this can’t be said to be well prepared, but rather the fundamental purpose was like destroying the corpse to not leave any traces?”
An organization that had been hidden for several years and used students to make countless shady dealings and profit off them had always operated low-key. Why did it suddenly create big news with those collective suicides?
They should know better than anyone; once surfaced, there was no turning back. No matter what their final goal was, as long as it was a major social event, the police would always track them down. It was only a matter of time before things would be thoroughly investigated…
Well, in fact, Xing Conglian wasn’t wrong. Six dead students, including Lin Chen’s shimei, were simply discarded as a burden, just like the surveillance video. There was probably no better way to deal with it than to just “delete” them.
So all of this meant that the organization wanted to clear all evidence of their existence, but in this case, they haven’t forgotten to take advantage of this last opportunity to profit from it. This was something that was beyond what cold-blooded could describe.
Lin Chen suddenly remembered Wang Chao’s question.
Have you ever seen an extremely evil world?
This really was too sharp a question.
He rubbed his face vigorously, as if the brief darkness could wake people up, then he heard Xing Conglian’s voice ringing in his ears.
“Let’s go. Let’s go to the store and have a look.”
The young man’s voice was calm and relaxed, and there was no sense of frustration at being preempted.
“I have sent Wang Chao over to see if the surveillance can be restored, but three days have passed. “The chances of the hard drive not being overwritten are slim, and they won’t be so careless in doing things so that it can be recovered.”
Lin Chen nodded and stared at the shop marked with a star on the floor plan.
It wasn’t much different from what he had imagined.
The empty coffee shop wasn’t big. It was located in the corner of the underground mall, like a cold beauty isolated in a corner, and in fact, it was now truly cold.
The glass door was closed, and it was dark inside the store. The light of the street illuminated a piece of the original wooden floor near the glass door and a wooden bar counter that couldn’t be disassembled. The counter was empty; not even a single flier was on it. No matter how he looked at it, it really was as management had said. The store was “robbed”, and there was nothing left.
Except the store sign was still there.
It was a very small wooden board, hung on the lintel of the door, with English letters written in cursive.
Lin Chen frowned, then subconsciously looked at Xing Conglian.
“In French, it means knowledge.”
The outstanding language skills of the captain of the criminal division once again made great contributions.
Lin Chen lowered his eyes in contemplation and unexpectedly felt someone behind him smiling softly. He turned his head and saw Su Fengzi glancing at Xing Conglian and then at him, full of teasing in his eyes.
“Why are you still here?” Lin Chen asked angrily.
“Hey, the police are handling the case. Is the crowd not allowed to watch?”
Lin Chen felt that he couldn’t communicate with this person at all.
At the entrance of the coffee shop called “Knowledge”, Xing Conglian took out his phone, turned on the flashlight, and looked inside the shop. The walls that originally had hanging frames were now bare, with nails protruding from them. The chandelier hanging from the ceiling only had a few chains left, with its lightbulbs and lampshade completely gone.
“I have never seen such a hungry thief in my life.” Xing Conglian sneered. “If I get forensics to scour this store, do you think I won’t be able to find a single fingerprint at all?”
“Yes, it’s too clean.” Lin Chen returned to Xing Conglian’s side and looked at the glass door that didn’t have a single fingerprint on it.
“What the hell is in this store to make someone go through so much trouble to clean up all possible clues?” Xing Conglian complained indifferently, then squatted down and put on his gloves to briefly check the door lock.
The lock core had been violently dismantled, which showed that even if the other party was acting, they were extremely meticulous in their plans.
“In fact, we can probably guess that it has records of people entering and leaving the store, some leaflets and other things, and even issues tasks from this store…” Lin Chen leaned against the wall of the opposite shop and watched Xing Conglian survey the scene. “If only there were surveillance records.”
“Yes.” Xing Conglian raised his head and pointed to a black, teardrop-shaped camera in the southeast corner of the store. “It’s just that we can’t see it.”
“How likely do you think it is that this camera is still operational and they have discovered that we found this store?” Lin Chen asked.
“The likelihood of it being operational is 100%.” Xing Conglian looked at the red dot that lit up on the camera. “However, fortunately, if we don’t enter the store, they won’t be able to find us, since we’re in a blind spot right now.”
As Xing Conglian spoke, his movements became more careful.
After checking the door lock, Xing Conglian started to inspect the exterior wall of the shop. He brushed his rubber-gloved hand across the wall and then stopped at an iron hook.
He turned on the flashlight again to make the white wall clearer.
Under the strong light, he could clearly see that there was an area on the white wall that was lighter in color than other places, like a trace left by something hanging for a long time.
“What did this say?”
“Which one?”
“Is it possible to guess it?”
“This store?” Lin Chen looked at the light-colored area and thought for a while, then said, “First, its purpose is of course to attract those potential targets to take the bait, so the store must have some type of flier. With regard to the function of releasing tasks, since it has a wide range of business, there must be an internal and external window…”
“Like a promotional board?” Xing Conglian’s fingers bushed the outline of the light-colored area, which happened to be the size of a children’s blackboard. “What thief would even steal a promotional board by the entrance?”
“This is too…”
Lin Chen didn’t know how to describe his feelings.
While he was stunned, Xing Conglian turned around and opened the jewelry store opposite the coffee shop.
It was already closing time, and the female shopkeeper was closing the window, preparing to lock up.
Xing Conglian flashed his police badge and began to ask about the details of the shop opposite of where she worked.
“It appears that the shop across the street closed three days ago. No one has come since then…” The female shopkeeper tucked back her hair and lowered her voice. She leaned closer to Xing Conglian and said, “I suspect it’s not going to open anymore, and the owners deliberately ran away.”
“Oh?”
“Who has nothing better to do but come here and drink coffee? The business was so bad that sometimes there would be no one there for an entire day. And all their staff was so strange and aloof!”
“Aloof?”
“Yes. That store there, right? Do you know them? When I first opened my store, I went there to place an order for coffee. It stands to reason that since we work in the same area, they would give me a discount and be courteous, but their waiter just ignored me. I sat there for a while and then just left. I’ll never go back there again…”
The female shopkeeper probably had a long-standing grievance against the store on the other side and began to gossip.
The difference in attitude was completely understandable. After all, a female boss was definitely not the target the organization wanted to recruit. Lin Chen decisively interrupted the other party’s complaint and asked, “The property management said that they sold books there. Do you remember what type of books?”
“How should I know? I’ve only been there once.”
“Since you sat there for a while before leaving, there must be something there that makes you feel uncomfortable. It may not just be the attitude of the staff, but perhaps another reason?” Lin Chen began to probe.
“When you put it like that, it’s those books…” The female boss narrowed her eyes and fell into contemplation. “Well, it’s quite embarrassing to read them. It’s all chicken soup for the soul-type. There’s not even a normal magazine!”
“Chicken soup for the soul*?”
*Refers to articles, posts, etc. that are motivational.
“Oh, you know the kind of things like ‘Change Yourself in Ten Days’, or ‘Beautiful Inspirational Life’. That kind of stuff.”
Lin Chen nodded, then pointed to the exterior wall of the coffee shop and asked, “Was there anything hanging there?”
“A small blackboard. I also have it at my door.”
Hearing this, Lin Chen glanced at Xing Conglian.
The captain of the criminal division took out his notepad, wrote a few words, and asked, “Do you perhaps remember what was written on that blackboard?”
“Mr. Police Officer, I really can’t. Who cares what they wrote!”
Lin Chen felt that Xing Conglian was glancing at him with an inquiring look. Although Xing Conglian didn’t speak, Lin Chen could roughly guess what he was asking: “Can you reawaken her memories?”
Lin Chen shook his head.
Xing Conglian tapped on his notepad and asked, “Then how about roughly telling me what was written on it. You can say whatever comes to mind. It doesn’t need to be specific.”
“I think things like the today’s specials that’s free for students, take out calls. Things like that…”
“Does the price change?”
“Of course it changes, but it’s kinda weird…”
“How so?”
“I mean, it’s strange that there’s always someone looking at the blackboard at the entrance… but they never enter. They just look at the blackboard…”
“What kind of people are they?”
“Who else can it be? It’s only students who come and go there.”
Lin Chen looked back at the iron hooks on the opposite wall and their distinctive gray and white outline.
A blackboard, students who stopped by, and the D-zone erased surveillance…
The content written on the blackboard may be more serious than they had guessed.
He could almost imagine that every morning the clerk put on his uniform, casually glanced at his phone, and then slowly fastened his apron. He would open the door, pick up the chalk on the blackboard, and write down “today’s specials” and maybe something else.
To the average person, those characters may be the slogan that determined whether they go in for a cup of coffee, but to others, it could be the difference between life and death.
Students didn’t need to enter the shop. As long as they passed by the entrance occasionally, they knew exactly what they were going to do.
This approach seemed leisurely and light, but in reality it was so truly cold-blooded that it made people shiver.
Lin Chen took a deep breath, hoping that it was all a result of his overactive imagination.
As if thinking of something, Xing Conglian put down his pen and said to him, “You’re not thinking what I’m thinking, are you?”
“What are you thinking?” Lin Chen had just responded when he was dragged to the corner by Xing Conglian.
“It’s a bit exaggerated to say, but we now have a code book. If they are really bold enough to write instructions on the blackboard, wouldn’t we be able to find out what the organization was instructing students to do?”
Lin Chen was surprised by Xing Conglian’s thinking.
“Discrete Mathematics” was the code book, but this was simply speculation. It was also speculated that the organization transmitted various commands to students through an encrypted form. The only way to prove these speculations was to find an exact instruction, which was exactly what they were missing now.
Perhaps someone had taken a picture of the entrance of this coffee shop?
Maybe someone would remember what was written on the blackboard?
But that was tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack, and they, once again, were one step too late.
“If there’s only a camera in this store that monitors that blackboard 24 hours a day,” Lin Chen said almost helplessly.
“There are in this store.” Xing Conglian was a man who had a deep understanding of cameras. He casually pointed to an inconspicuous camera at the corner of the store. “How can you open a store without installing cameras?”
As he spoke, he walked directly under the camera and then looked around. There were large and small glass mirrors hanging everywhere in the jewelry store, and even the back of the window was full of mirrors, making it look extremely bright.
Suddenly, Lin Chen saw Xing Conglian’s gaze stop. Lin Chen followed his gaze and found that Xing Conglian was staring at the floor-to-ceiling mirror.
“Go and open the shop’s door.”
Xing Conglian’s voice suddenly became calm. Lin Chen did as he was instructed and opened the door.
The captain of the criminal division hooked the corner of his mouth and said, “What do you think? With so many mirrors here, how likely is it that one of them accidently reflected the small blackboard on the opposite side?”
He patted Xing Conglian on the shoulder, who saw Mr. Consultant walk upstairs without turning back, as if the reunion had ended.
Xing Conglian hurriedly caught up, as Lin Chen had already stepped onto the escalator.
“That was?”
“A friend.”
Xing Conglian wanted to look back at Lin Chen’s “friend” again, but Lin Chen grabbed him in advance and said, “Don’t look. Ignore him.”
“So, that friend, why is he so interested in our case?” Xing Conglian asked tentatively. Although Lin Chen’s friends were probably not a vicious guy, he didn’t necessarily look like a good person either. At least Su Fengzi didn’t seem to be.
“I don’t know, but if he wants to talk, naturally he will follow us.”
Lin Chen seldom had a hostile expression on his face. After mentioning Photoshop, Consultant Lin suddenly thought of something and decided to get angry.
Sure enough, when the escalator took them to the second floor, they caught a glimpse of his friend in the smoky gray suit, who was already standing at the bottom of the escalator, seemingly about to go upstairs.
“What’s the matter?” Xing Conglian asked with a smile.
“We always thought that whether it was Wang Shishi or Xu Haozhen, or even Jiang Liu and Jin Xiaoan, they all met in school…”
Xing Conglian probably wanted to ask Lin Chen why he suddenly turned his back to Su Fengzi, but the other party had cleverly prevaricated this question with another answer to avoid answering it.
Xing Conglian had no choice but to follow along and ask, “Is it not?”
“Su Fengzi is right. To apply the ABC model, Wang Shishi has always kept Xu Haozhen’s signature book, indicating that the mythical C is Xu Haozhen. Then the person who tricked Wang Shishi into entering the organization can’t be her.”
Xing Conglian roughly understood where the problem was.
Lin Chen continued, “Xu Haozhen misled me before. She said that both she and Wang Shishi had participated in the literary club, and Jiang Liu was an officer of the student union, so they all knew each other… It’s natural for us to think that they met in school, but if this is a premeditated criminal organization, it’s impossible for it to select its members so hastily, and…”
“And they’re just ordinary classmates. If suddenly one day someone mysterious said to you, ‘Classmate, do you know XX?’ this would seem like some kind of MLM scheme and would arouse some suspicion,” Xing Conglian said.
“Yes, you asked me before, how did they select loyal victims and why no one has mutinied or reported them for so long. To do this, they select members carefully, picking only people with certain types of personality traits.”
“But they can’t always give everyone a personality test like you do…” Xing Conglian touched his chin and thought of another possibility. “It’s not like they could hack into the school’s system and view the students’ psychological files like Wang Chao, right?”
“Whether it’s stealing information or screening by other methods, this is just the first step. This isn’t enough… The best way is to first find the target group, trick them into coming to the trap, and then choose who takes the initiative to step into the trap.” Lin Chen increased his pace, bypassing two rows of shops and walking deeper into the store. “Initiative is important.”
“Oh… It’s like waiting for the rabbit. This is a process of mutual attraction.” Xing Conglian followed Lin Chen’s steps. “In other words, somewhere in University City, there’s a trap that a student will take the initiative to step into… such as a bookstore?”
“It’s not a bookstore.”
Lin Chen stopped abruptly with a look of disappointment on his face after his speculation failed.
The Siyuan Inspirational Bookstore was at No. 19, Area B, 3rd Floor, of the Phoenix Book Mall. Xing Conglian raised his eyes and looked at the target of their trip.
At nearly 8:50, most of the rolling shutter doors had been pulled down, but the lights were still on.
In front of the store were piles of unopened packages of various sizes that held new books shipped from major publishing houses. The situation inside the bookstore was much worse than outside.
Xing Conglian pulled the rolling shutter door up a bit and bent over to enter, finding there wasn’t even a spot to stand.
The floor was covered with books piling up, some reaching the ceiling. There were colorful novels and magazines on and under a table. The inside of the shop was full of teaching aids ranging from “Three-Year College Entrance Exam” to “Cambridge IELTS Complete Solutions”. Xing Conglian was deeply concerned about the possibility of finding a clue here.
Hearing that someone had entered the store, the employee who was cleaning up emerged from behind a pile of magazines and frowned. “We’re closed. Come back tomorrow if you want to buy anything.”
Xing Conglian didn’t hesitate to show his badge, then said, “There’s some problems that we need your assistance with in our investigation.”
“What… What?” The shopkeeper hurriedly stood up, carefully maneuvered around the books, and stepped in front of Xing Conglian.
“Do you have a record of all the outgoing books in your store?”
“Yes, yes.”
Xing Conglian patted the young man on the shoulder and said, “Don’t be nervous. Help me check a book’s outgoing record…” Xing Conglian then showed the book copyright information page sent to him by Wang Chao.
The young man nodded and hurried to the computer.
“‘Discrete Mathematics’ by Ye Wenzhong, right?” he asked as he entered the search term, and a line of outbound records appeared shortly after.
The outbound time was 17:44 on November 19, 2011.
Xing Conglian’s gaze fell on the last line showing the outbound quantity, and he was stunned for a moment.
Quantity: 300.
“More than expected.” Lin Chen’s clear voice sounded from behind him.
“I just got hired this year. I don’t know anything about this!” The young man quickly clarified himself.
“Can you find the person who picked up the goods?” Xing Conglian asked.
The young man shook his head. “There are no records.”
“What about an invoice?”
After Xing Conglian asked, he saw the young man raise his head and say with a sarcastic smile, “Mr. Police Officer, unless our customers have special requirements, general retail doesn’t really have invoices…”
“Call your boss,” Xing Conglian said.
The young man hurriedly grabbed his phone to call his boss, and after briefly explaining the situation, he handed the phone to Xing Conglian.
“Hello, let me make a long story short. Do you have any images of the batch of ‘Discrete Mathematics’ that was released in November 2011?”
“Look, Mr. Police Officer, I have people coming and going every day here, and you’re suddenly asking me about a batch of books that came out of a warehouse five years ago? I really can’t remember.”
“Even if you’re a regional distributor, it shouldn’t be common for you to suddenly export 300 copies. What’s more, this is ‘Discrete Mathematics’ not ‘Three-Year College Entrance Exam’. Please recall carefully.”
“To tell you the truth, I wasn’t in charge of this shop before. My previous business partner and their family have immigrated, so I just took over… And this is asking about a book from five years ago. Let alone telling you about it, I don’t even remember who the staff at the store were at that time.”
“Send me your former business partner’s number and contact information to this number.” After Xing Conglian finished speaking, he hung up and then shook his head at Lin Chen.
Lin Chen’s attitude instead looked relieved. “It would be strange if that person would leave such an obvious clue.”
“They bought 300 copies five years ago. How long has this organization existed…” Xing Conglian started thinking about whether to tell the news to Captain Jiang, who had recently become extremely nervous.
“At most, it’s something that happened in the last five years, which isn’t too long ago,” Lin Chen suddenly said.
“What did you mean when you first said that it’s not a bookstore?” Xing Conglian dropped the subject and continued the unfinished conversation with Lin Chen about the trap just now.
“What he meant is that this place is so shabby that it’s hard to create a sense of love or trust at first glance. After all, whether they like it or not, it mainly depends on face.” A slightly lazy tone came from the door of the store. Xing Conglian didn’t even have to turn around to know who was speaking.
It was just this time, Lin Chen didn’t give the person who interrupted them any good face and didn’t even bother looking back and responding to the other party.
“If I am the mastermind behind the scenes, in order to pick my targets, I’ll first use the most scientific method to screen the people who are most easily controlled by me. The characteristics of such people are introverted, low self-esteem, and lacking friends, but at the same time, they have to have a strong yearning and longing for a better life in their hearts. In general, all pyramid schemes, whether they use a high level of brainwashing or not, exploit this yearning and longing. So, if I want to attract these people to take the bait, I’ll definitely arrange a very beautiful place. The place will be dazzling and elegant but have a relaxing atmosphere without an unattainable sense of alienation… It will not be too hidden and mysterious, as that would be too suspicious. Most likely, it will be located in an ordinary street or alley, leaving people unsuspecting. Members of the organization can easily lure victims here, and even those potential victims will take the initiative to come to their door…”
“A shop,” Xing Conglian said.
Lin Chen nodded. “This is just an assumption. If we’re looking for a store, it must first be in University City. Its target audience is students, with the majority of them being female. In the major categories of food and entertainment, most likely it’s a bourgeois beverage shop or a female clothing store or a bookstore…”
Xing Conglian motioned for Lin Chen to pause and then called Wang Chao.
“Hello, Mr. Xing. I will serve you wholeheartedly.”
Xing Conglian handed the phone to Lin Chen.
“Wang Chao, can you find the registration records of all shops within the scope of Yongchuan University City? I need to find a store within its boundaries.”
“So hacking into the Bureau of Industry and Commerce, right? That’s trivial… Come on, my broadsword is already hungry and thirsty!”
“This store doesn’t have a specific name and address, so it’ll be relatively difficult to retrieve. First, it may be a beverage shop, a clothing store, or a bookstore. If it’s a beverage shop, exclude all milk tea shops and large coffee chains. The store area is about 50-150 square meters… Clothing stores are more difficult. First, exclude all brand stores in shopping malls, and then exclude men’s clothing stores. The store area is about 20-80 square meters… And the approximate area of the bookstore is the same as the clothing store…”
“There is definitely no such bookstore in Phoenix Book Mall…” the smiling writer leaning against the doorway said.
Lin Chen glanced at the entrance, then said to Wang Chao, “Exclude all bookstores in the Phoenix Book Mall… Tell me how many similar shops there are.”
“There are 12 beverage shops, 3 bookstores, and clothing stores…” Wang Chao paused and then said, with some embarrassment, “92…”
“The book was purchased in November 2011. If someone planned it this early, then the time the store open would be…”
“The opening time and the book purchase time won’t be too far apart.”
Xing Conglian suddenly leaned closer to the mic and said to Wang Chao, “The opening time of the store should be between June 2011 and June 2012, and there hasn’t been any register for suspension so far.”
“Shit, Captain, why didn’t you say so earlier!” When Wang Chao was talking to Xing Conglian, he obviously wasn’t well-behaved and obedient like he was to Lin Chen. Xing Conglian could hear the teenager’s grumbling. “There are 3 beverage shops total, no such bookstores, and 27 clothing stores.” After Wang Chao finished speaking, he suddenly shouted in surprise as if he had discovered a new world. “Captain, do you know that the first floor of Phoenix Book Mall has the largest underground pedestrian street in Yongchuan University City… There are 2 beverage stores and 20 clothing stores that are right under your feet. They close at 10. Do you want to try your luck?”
“I remember that Lao Jiang’s subordinates watched Cheng Weiwei for a few months. Ask him to check their records and see if Cheng Weiwei has been to any of these stores. First, check to see if she had been to the pedestrian street in Phoenix Book Mall, then have him send me the address.” After Xing Conglian finished speaking, he hung up.
“It’s already ten past nine,” Lin Chen said.
“There are still fifty minutes left,” Xing Conglian replied, looking at Lin Chen.
Before Xing Conglian could say anything, Lin Chen had already taken the lead and strode out of the bookstore. He glanced at the writer at the door and gave him a menacing look, then turned the corner, as if looking for a secluded place.
Xing Conglian couldn’t help laughing.
—-
Lin Chen stood still at the back stairway of the bookstore, turned around, grabbed the man behind him by the collar, and pushed him against the wall.
“What the hell are you doing here!”
“If I want to come back, I will.”
There was still a smile in Su Fengzi’s eyes. Lin Chen was even more angry, “Be honest, Fengzi. Why did you come here?!”
“You don’t believe me when I say I’m here to help you solve the case?”
“Don’t believe?”
“Criminal investigation is good material. A handsome criminal investigator and a cool psychologist—isn’t this quite interesting?”
“Fuck off.”
“Tsk… You’re so angry. Let me guess… You’re angry because you suddenly realized that I’ve been interested in this case for a long time.” Su Fengzi spoke softly, and his tone was light, as if airy like freshly baked bread. “You’re angry, of course, because I suddenly appeared to find Fu Hao instead of looking for you and thought that I likely grasped the key evidence of this case much earlier, which is why I’ve appeared at Phoenix Book Mall instead of telling you the clues that I knew in advance, right?”
Lin Chen pursed his lips and said coldly, “Speak properly.”
“Hey…” Su Fengzi stretched out his hand and gently broke Lin Chen’s fingers apart, then said, “I can only tell you that the reason I came back and was paying attention to this case is because of some very personal reasons. The reason I know this is because these are all the clues you found. I’m at the Phoenix Book Mall today for a book signing. You have to believe in fate. After all, I am a writer.”
As Su Fengzi spoke to him, the corners of his mouth were slightly raised, revealing a sly smile in his eyes.
Seeing him smile like this, Lin Chen took a step back and suddenly had a bad feeling. He turned to leave only to hear Su Fengzi say behind him, “But I didn’t expect this. It’s rare for me to come back, but it’s so sad to see you empathize with someone else.”
Lin Chen only felt the creeps.
At that moment, he seemed to be suddenly illuminated by a beam of light in the dark night. The sudden light made him just want to find a place to hide himself. He didn’t even have time to explore this inexplicable shyness—all he felt was hiding was his first priority.
Trying to control his emotions, he turned his head and said to Su Fengzi, “Is this the time to talk about this?”
As if he had titillated to a certain point and it was now time to call it quits, Su Fengzi straightened out his clothes and said with a smile, “Yes, I was wrong. Can we go now?”
Walking around the corner, Lin Chen saw the captain of the criminal division leaning against the handrail waiting for him.
When Xing Conglian saw them, he swept his gaze up and down Su Fengzi, then removed his phone from his ear and said, “Lao Jiang has confirmed. Cheng Weiwei has been to the pedestrian street below us.”
After he finished speaking, he went downstairs without saying a word.
Lin Chen wasn’t really familiar with the underground pedestrian street under Phoenix Book Mall.
After all, when he was in college, the pedestrian street was still under construction, and all similar places in University City were aimed at girls. Guys would rarely go shopping here unless it was to accompany their girlfriends.
When he reached the underground, Lin Chen found that this place was more exaggerated than he had imagined.
Dazzling lights and all kinds of shops could be seen at a glance. The air pressure underground was low, making the atmosphere turbid.
Although it was evening, students in twos and threes could still be seen walking, stepping on the bright tempered glass floor. Lin Chen thought for an instant that he had walked into some two-dimensional space.
“It’s really a place of unique taste,” Su Fengzi said lightly.
Lin Chen had no intention of speaking to him again. At this moment, Xing Conglian spoke up.
“I’ve just contacted the administrator here. Let’s go directly to the management office.”
Xing Conglian had a good sense of direction. He walked through piles of colorful paving and took them directly to the management office.
It was almost half past nine when they arrived, and there was only one employee on duty.
The man seemed to have predicted the arrival of Xing Conglian in advance, as he quickly got up and said, “Captain Xing, right? Our manager arranged for me to receive you.”
“Thank you. I need the floor plan of the entire underground pedestrian street.”
“The floor plan is hanging on the wall,” the employee said as he pointed to the wall.
Xing Conglian turned sideways and made way.
Lin Chen glanced at the floor plan, took note of the general layout, and wanted to find a marker. At this moment, Xing Conglian took a marker from the holder and handed it over.
Lin Chen nodded, apologized to the employee, and then marked the locations of all the stores on the drawing one by one based on the information provided by Wang Chao.
In an instant, many black dots appeared on the paper. As Lin Chen looked at the marked-out store, he began to think.
If such a store truly existed, then it couldn’t be in such an eye-catching location in the first place. It wouldn’t be in a prime location, but rather a relatively hidden spot.
He quickly crossed out all the popular stores located at the entrance of the street.
The stores on the main street were also impossible because it would be too noisy and not comfortable enough. Thinking this way, he crossed out the four shops on both sides of the main street.
As a result, the remaining stores became 10.
Lin Chen stepped aside from the location in front of the map and said to the property management employee, “Please take a look at these stores. Which one has a fresh and refined feeling? The decoration isn’t necessarily luxurious, but it should be chic. Although there aren’t many customers, they have been open for several years, and sometimes you wonder how this store makes a profit and why it is still open…”
When Lin Chen said this, even he himself felt that such inexplicable speculation was a bit absurd. All of their reasoning was based on possible assumptions, and it was only Xing Conglian who would quickly help him look for such a store that even he couldn’t even determine if it truly existed.
“Based on what you said, the store that was in D15 seems to match that description. Ah, I remember. It has a French name and is a coffee shop that also sells books. It’s very quiet…”
Like the dawn appearing before the horizon, when Lin Chen heard those words, he put down the marker, but when he took a step back, he suddenly stopped.
“You said… was?”
“Yes, a few days ago, when I opened the office, the clerk of the store suddenly ran over and said that the store had been robbed and wanted to look at the surveillance. We went over and took a look. Holy crap, the entire store was empty. The robbers took everything. There wasn’t a single thing left in the store.”
“Did you call the police?” Xing Conglian asked.
“Of course I reported it!”
“So, what about the surveillance?”
“It’s weird. When the clerk and the boss watched the video, the entire D area was dropped.”
“What do you mean dropped?”
“Dropped means gone. Poof. I’m not sure if there was a problem or maybe it was deleted by mistake, but anyway, it’s completely gone…”
Xing Conglian was always like this. While he made it seem like it was free and democratic, in fact, it was completely hegemonic.
In the process of making judgments and decisions, he would not be influenced by anyone. They only needed to follow his orders. Although when he gave those orders, his words were often soft and his eyes were gentle, the content of those orders could be disobeyed and could not change.
For example, when he said not to follow the clues in the drug case, they must not touch it, or when he said not to make in-depth contact with the people on the dark web, they must not do so.
Lin Chen was sitting in the car. The light from outside the window flowed like water. He suddenly felt that Wang Chao really owed Xing Conglian a sizable amount of money.
He sighed almost inaudibly.
For some reason, Xing Conglian seemed to have noticed something. He closed the car window, and the car suddenly became quiet.
“Do you think we can finally find those people?”
Xing Conglian’s voice was low and almost cold.
Lin Chen suddenly felt that Xing Conglian was probably judging the situation again.
If he was sure, then they would follow the existing path, aiming to try and wipe out the group behind this; if he wasn’t sure, then Xing Conglian would probably choose to jump out and spook the snake after they visited the bookstore, forcing those behind the scenes to give up on their bloody plans.
Option A was perfect, but it was also possible that they would end up with nothing, which meant not only would they fail to catch the murderer, but they would also be unable to stop the tragedy that would unfold. Although option B was conservative and stifling and had endless consequences, there was nothing more important than preventing possible deaths and injuries.
If this were a series, they could drag the progress bar to take a peek at the end and then make the right choice, but in real life, once the choice was made, it was impossible to rewind and start over.
Suddenly, Lin Chen felt someone patting him on the shoulder.
He looked toward the front seat.
There was a strange smile in Xing Conglian’s eyes.
“Relax,” Xing Conglian said. “Don’t think too much. It’s not time to make a choice between life and death.”
Lin Chen was a bit speechless. It was obviously him who was thinking too much.
“But what if the Phoenix Book Mall clues are useless?”
“If it is, then it is. We’ll just look for another clue if it doesn’t work out. This is my responsibility. What does that have to do with you?”
“Captain Xing…”
“Consultant Lin, please speak?”
“Have you noticed that you’re quite dictatorial sometimes?”
When Xing Conglian heard this, he smiled without surprise. “How can that be? I have always been democratic.”
“This time, it’s different from before. I really have no certainty.” Lin Chen gripped his seatbelt as he continued, “Time is limited, and the clues are lacking. We’re basically taking a gamble.”
“It’s not a gamble. At any rate, under the guidance of Consultant Lin, we quickly found Jin Xiaoan.”
“But even if we find 10,000 Jin Xiaoan, the probability of them loosening their mouths is almost zero. They won’t tell us what will happen next. They won’t reveal whether what’s to come is going to be murder or arson, mass riots or mass suicide, a bank robbery or bus hijacking. Anything is possible, which makes it the most terrifying thing.”
“Uh… Consultant Lin…” Xing Conglian suddenly interrupted him. “Can I ask why they are so desperate to serve the organization? Is it appropriate for me to use the word ‘organization’?”
“Well, because they’ve been brainwashed.”
“Of course they’ve been brainwashed, but most of them are highly educated students…” Xing Conglian turned the steering wheel right, according to the navigation instructions. The letters for Phoenix Book Mall had become visible in front of them.
“Groups, brainwashing, suicide, and violence—haven’t you seen the pattern when combining these keywords before?” Lin Chen frowned as he asked.
“It’s because I’ve seen it that it’s all the more strange. How can the person behind the scenes be this successful in this and hide their identity so well that no one has ever reported these people all this time?” Xing Conglian thought for a moment, then said, “Even if it’s a pyramid scheme, there are warriors who would rather die than obey and finally escape from the nest, right? How are they able to pick such loyal victims? This is something that’s akin to sorcery.”
Xing Conglian stopped the car on the side of the road. He pulled on the handbrake and saw Lin Chen sitting in a stunned position, as if he had been struck by lightning; he wasn’t saying a word.
He leaned over and unbuckled the seatbelt for the psychologist.
After a soft click, Lin Chen moved.
“What did you just say?”
“I said a pyramid scheme.”
“Thank you.” Lin Chen patted Xing Conglian on the shoulder, then pushed the door open and got out of the car. “That’s why it takes three people.”
Lin Chen walked quickly. Xing Conglian jumped out of the car and hurriedly ran to catch up with him.
“Why three people?” he asked as he followed Lin Chen.
Lin Chen didn’t answer. He walked into the hall of the bookstore and then stopped on the left side of the entrance and casually wiped clean the whiteboard hanging in front of it. He picked up the marker from the stand and wrote down three letters without hesitation—A, B, and C.
The three letters were arranged in a triangle. Xing Conglian stood in front of the whiteboard as he stared at the letters Lin Chen had written.
From the beginning, the whole case had one of the most conspicuous but also the most difficult circumstances to figure out. Why were there three people, and why did three people die together?
Everyone knew that three had some meaning, but they had no idea what that meaning was.
“Although it’s not a pyramid scheme, there’s a classic operating model in all brainwashing procedures. We call this the ABC model*. A tricks B into the organization. A cannot do the ideological work of B. A is solely responsible for deifying and implanting C’s ideas in B. Therefore, in this organization, activities are generally based on three people.” Lin Chen spoke slowly, enunciating each word solemnly.
*It’s a simplified framework used in REBT to change irrational beliefs into rational ones, thus prompting healthier reactions to situations. The idea behind the ABC model is that a person doesn’t necessarily have to change their environment to feel better; instead, they can acknowledge and change their reactions to their environment.
Xing Conglian quickly understood what he meant.
“You mean Xu Haozhen tricked Wang Shishi into joining the organization?”
“Of course he didn’t mean that.”
A gentle voice came from the rear, which caused Xing Conglian to turn his head. He followed the sound and found that there was a publicity desk beside the bookstore. A young man sat behind the desk, twirling his pen and interjected in their conversation, looking bored.
The young man was wearing a smoky gray suit with a light-colored striped shirt. His hair and eye colors were light, which gave him an elegant look. It was clearly night, but he was like a flower that was basking in the sun, making it impossible for one to look away.
At the moment when Xing Conglian was in a daze, Lin Chen’s plain and frosty face showed signs of melting ice. Before he could react, Lin Chen had dropped the marker, walked around Xing Conglian, and gone to the publicity desk.
The young man in the suit stood up from his seat and then gently bent over and stretched out his arms as if to greet him. The next moment, Xing Conglian was shocked to see that Lin Chen had hugged the other party tightly.
For about five seconds, time seemed to have frozen.
Xing Conglian looked at the two people who were hugging tightly and watched Lin Chen put his hand around the other person’s back. He was so surprised he couldn’t close his mouth.
In the end, what broke the frozen time was an extremely malicious smile from the young man in the suit. Xing Conglian saw the young man curving his lips and even winking at him, full of implications.
Xing Conglian quickly regained his senses and moved towards the publicity table.
When he got closer, he realized that it wasn’t a publicity table, but a broken desk with flowery books on it with titles such as, “The Thirteen Consorts of the Tyrant” and “The Domineering General’s Sweet Concubine” which creeped him out a little…
In the middle of the desk, there was a name tag with the words “Famous Writer—Su Fengzi” written on it.
So this was an autograph event?
But how unpopular was it for this writer to set up a stall alone at night when there were no readers in front of the autograph desk? Given the book titles, it was normal that no one would care about it!
At that moment, Xing Conglian felt that, compared with the young man in front of him, Wang Chao was really like a normal child.
Just when he was seriously lamenting, the two people who were hugging tightly let go.
Lin Chen quickly calmed down.
Xing Conglian coughed in a low voice and, with a tone that he himself didn’t expect, extended his hand to the “famous writer”. “May I ask who you are?”
“Su Fengzi.” Xing Conglian saw the young man’s eyes darting to the name tag on the table and then looked back at him with a smile. “Isn’t it written on the sign?”
Not only was this person ill-mannered, but he also actually left Xing Conglian hanging and had no intention of shaking his hand.
Xing Conglian withdrew his hand and felt he was starting to miss the little comrade Wang Chao even more.
“So, what did Mr. Su mean just now?” Xing Conglian asked.
“Oh, what I mean is that it wasn’t Xu Haozhen who lured Wang Shishi into the organization. Xu Haozhen was the one who was deified. That’s why Wang Shishi’s Discrete Mathematics had Xu Haozhen’s name written on it.”
Xing Conglian’s thoughts turned as he quickly looked at Su Fengzi. The name on the book was an undisclosed detail in this case, so why did this person know about it?
Just when Xing Conglian frowned and was lost in deep thought, Su Fengzi, as if unaware, said, “Like Jin Xiaoan’s book has Jiang Liu’s name written on it. This kind of organization will give recognized members a little certification, just like being a member at a supermarket where you’ll be given a loyalty card or getting your idol’s autograph. Isn’t this creative?”
Hearing this, Xing Conglian became less nervous. He glanced at Lin Chen and then asked, “Who are you and why do you know the details of the case that hasn’t been announced?”
“That’s simple. I asked Professor Fu to keep me informed on the progress of the case at all times. If he doesn’t, I’ll post his nude photos all over the school windows.
Xing Conglian felt that this was simply outside of common sense. “Why do you have nude photos of Lao Fu?” Although he should focus on the case or condemn such illegal behavior angrily, he subconsciously asked the question he wanted to know the most.
“Photoshop…..” The person who answered was Lin Chen.
Xing Conglian turned his head blankly, but he only saw a helpless expression on his consultant’s face, as if something similar had really happened.
Given that even Lin Chen had no power to parry this man named Su Fengzi, Xing Conglian suddenly felt his mood getting better.
Kinky Translations 