Chapter 21

Big big thanks for the coffee ･:*+.(( °ω° ))/.:+

When Bao Zheng stopped the car, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were blown away by the sight before them. They found it hard to believe that they were still in S city, it felt like they were in another country.

It took a nearly 3-hour drive for them to arrive at their destination—situated within a desolate valley was a cluster of white buildings. Surrounded by towering electric fences, the occasional appearance of patrol officers armed with loaded firearms, These were all signs that this was no ordinary compound.

"So? What you think of this place?" Bao Zheng prompted, amused by the reaction of the two clearly stupefied children.

"My thoughts…" Bai Yutang raised a brow, "It's like Guantánamo…"

"…What on earth is this place?" Zhan Zhao asked Bao Zheng.

Bao Zheng lit a cigarette and replied, "Special Pathological Phenomena Research Centre."

Bai Yutang laughed, "It sounds all fancy. So, is this a medical institution or a military facility? Or perhaps, a prison?"

Bao Zheng glanced at him before answering, "This place houses the brightest lunatics in the country."

"And the person you want us to meet is inside?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"He's called Zhao Jue," Bao Zheng replied lightly and put out his cigarette, "Let's go."

Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao curiously, "For you to not even know of this place! Aren't you the expert?"

Zhan Zhao continued moving forward quietly, replying in a hushed voice, "They've written to me before, asking for me to join."

"Oh?" Bai Yutang was surprised, "Then why didn't you join them?"

Zhan Zhao scoffed, "Psychology is the study of people."

"Don't they hold humans in here?"

…After a short pause, Zhan Zhao responded grimly, "They're materials…"

It's plain to see that Bao Zheng visited this place often. Whenever the trio came across the staff of the research centre, clad in white coats, they would greet Bao Zheng. The trio continued walking on. They passed through a hall to a seemingly neverending hallway. Metal doors open and shut as they walked through, almost as if it was a monster behind those doors and not a person—white walls, tiled floor, cool gloomy lighting and frigid atmosphere, as if something else was in the air.

At last, Bao Zheng stopped in front of a heavy metal door and unlocked it with his fingerprint. Pushing open the door, they are greeted with an enormous glass wall in the centre of the room. Behind the room, were black metal bars—a prison cell!

The furnishing within the bars was simple and neat. Surrounded by snow-white walls with sunlight shining in from the window on the ceiling. Coupled with the light reflecting off the glass, the entire room was mottled in patches of light and shadow. Some green plants were lined up against the wall, with some occasional white flowers in the mix, the African Calla Lily.

(lilies: I did enjoy snow white as a child XD)

And seated on a red chair, right in the middle of the cell, was a person with his back to the glass wall. Looking intently at the Calla Lilies on the floor while drawing something on paper in his hand. Scattered on the ground were pieces of paper with pencil sketches of the Calla Lilies… drawn so skillfully, it was like they were real.

That man's back was unusually thin. He was in a simple white outfit and had unevenly cut black hair, but what was most jarring to look at was the metal collar with a complex design around his neck.

"A Silencer1?" Bai Yutang frowned, this metal silencer was specially made for prisoners. Due to its complex structure, once on, it can only be removed with a metal cutter. With that on, no matter how loud you tried to scream or shout, you wouldn't be able to make a single sound.

"Why would you put that on him?" Zhan Zhao glared at Bao Zheng. The back view of the man in the cell looked so small and miserable2. To live like that for 20 years… it's just too cruel…

Bao Zheng fell silent for a while before saying, "He used his voice to kill all those people. Without it, he no longer poses a threat." As he said that, he opened the door on the glass wall and led the two into the observation room between the wall and the cell.

Evidently, the glass wall was soundproof. The sudden noise from the entrance broke the man's concentration as he turned around to look at the trio that entered.

He was a very fair-skinned man with soft features that had a hint of elegance to them. Perhaps it's because he hadn't seen the light of day in so long, that terribly pale complexion of his made him look really young. He didn't look like someone in his forties at all.

He scanned the three of them, one by one, with his eyes with a poker face. One couldn't tell what was inside his mind. His eyes, were even more so, like a pool of still water, completely undisturbed.

He didn't react in any way when he saw Bao Zheng and simply swept past him. But when he saw Bai Yutang come in next, he tilted his head slightly like he was pondering. And when Zhan Zhao entered last, he looked like he had discovered something new and interesting. As his eyes trailed after Zhan Zhao's figure.

"Zhao Jue, I've brought the kids to see you," Bao Zheng introduced, "They're Yuwen and Qitian's, kids."

Zhao Jue put down his pen and paper and walked over. As he neared the door to the cell, his eyes never left Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao stared back at him. Zhan Zhao got a strange feeling when looking at Zhao Jue. Based on his observations of the latter's behaviour, or more specifically, his expression. It wasn't so much like he was mentally ill but more like he had gone mad. The kind like he had lost his sense of self…

By this time, Zhao Jue had arrived at the door and had reached out a trembling hand, as if he was trying to touch Zhan Zhao's face.

Slap.

Just before Zhao Jue's hand came into contact with Zhan Zhao's face, Bai Yutang swatted it away.

A small yet sharp pencil-sharpening blade fell to the ground with a 'ding' and blood seeped out of Zhan Jue's outstretched finger.

"Who said he's not a threat?" Bai Yutang gave him an icy stare as he pulled Zhan Zhao back.

Seeing the blood oozing out of his finger, Zhao Jue looked up at Bai Yutang with a disapproving expression. He then turned around and went back to the chair in the middle of the room, carefully licking his wound.

"Why did he shoot my older brother?" Bai Yutang asked Bao Zheng who was beside him.

"…" Bao Zheng kept quiet for a moment before speaking, "To get rid of the witness."

"What do you mean?" Bai Yutang asked, puzzled.

"The first person to discover that he's the perpetrator was your brother!!""…!…"

Bao Zheng added, "Just that… your brother doesn't have any memory of it anymore."

Zhao Jue picked up the pen and paper again and went back to his sketch.

"Let's go," Bao Zheng called out to the two of them as he turned to leave.

Bai Yutang who was keeping an eye on Zhao Jue's every movement suddenly felt sick in the stomach and quickly followed behind Bao Zheng. Zhan Zhao was last to leave, as he continued watching Zhao Jue's actions, those drawings and that pencil sharpener… Just as he was about to leave, Zhao Jue suddenly looked at him with a faint smile. Then he brought a finger to his lips and gestured, "Shh…"

When the trio exited the observation room, Zhan Zhao stopped Bao Zheng and said, "I want to see his medical records."

Bao Zheng answered, "Sure, but your investigations had better not be centred around Zhao Jue."

……

Both Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao fell silent. In Zhao Jue current condition, there's no way he could be out and about, giving people psychological suggestions or numbering the victims. If that's the case, then was this Numbers Case just a coincidence or was it done by a copycat killer? Just when they thought they'd found some clues, everything became muddled and unclear again.

……

Inside a research lab, Zhan Zhao was meticulously going through Zhao Jue's medical report. Bai Yutang was deep in thought while Bao Zheng was out smoking in the corridor. After a long while, Zhan Zhao suddenly muttered, "Eh?"

Bai Jintang cheerily hopped into the lift, oblivious to the fact that Gongsun had one hand in his pocket.

Holding the polished scalpel, Gongsun thought to himself, "Once we get to a place with no one, I'll chop him up and destroy all traces of his murder!!"