Bab 86: Chapter 86
Suki, hearing Yan Su's words, suppressed her excitement: "Miller has worked so hard for so long, and it wasn't all in vain. Now, where should we go to find this club?"
Yan Su glanced at her and said, "We can't find it."
Suki felt like a bucket of cold water had been poured over her. Although she didn't show it on the surface, she was confused. After all, Yan Su had deduced so much information from the video, and she thought they had finally seen a glimmer of hope, only to have it snuffed out instantly.
But she understood that the video revealed a club with a very high level of secrecy; the scene was completely unrecognizable, making it impossible to analyze the location. She was asking for the impossible.
However, Yan Su added, "The tools used in the video were made with great precision and cannot be purchased through ordinary channels. Since you have ample resources within the CIA, you can try to find someone to search for them. But considering that this video was filmed by the female teacher many years ago, these tools might have been replaced. It's possible that the supplier has changed as well, so don't hold out too much hope, but don't give up trying either."
After being reminded, Suki nodded quickly. "Thank you! If I find anything, I'll come back to tell you."
Yan Su didn't respond. Suki packed her things and left.
Zhen Ai held the parrot and sighed softly, "The female teacher must have been so pitiful back then."
Yan Su didn't comment but asked, "Didn't you feel uncomfortable?" He was referring to watching the video.
Zhen Ai was taken aback, then changed to a calm expression. "Not really."
To be honest, the content of the video made her somewhat uncomfortable, but not to the point of being shocked. After all, she had known a pervert since she was young—a real pervert. He wouldn't actually rape women, but he would instruct others to do so, and his methods of bullying women were on par with or even surpassed those in the video. His ways of tormenting people had long ago shifted from physical to mental humiliation and will.
Zhen Ai remembered that every time she passed that pervert's laboratory building, it was filled with the faint, piercing, and incessant screams.
She had once sneaked in to take a look. Every locked door had a long, narrow vertical glass panel, through which she could peek. Behind them were beautiful rooms resembling Barbie dolls, each door revealed a different scene.
Once, Zhen Ai saw a room adorned with a five-fold silk screen of Kaguya-hime, embroidered with legendary items such as the Buddha's stone bowl, the Penglai jade branch, the fire mouse fur, the dragon head pearl, and the swallow amber. The style was graceful, ancient, and tranquil, with a vase of cherry blossoms arranged beside the screen.
A small table, tatami mats, and a girl in a kimono kneeling, her face painted with thick white powder. The smoke from the tea curled around her; her eyes were hollow, like those of a dead person.
At that time, Zhen Ai had just passed through several rooms styled in ancient Roman and Greek themes and lingered for a few seconds upon seeing the East Asian scenery.
Someone approached from behind: "Little C, do you like it?" He blocked the doorknob with one hand and pressed against the doorframe, trapping her in the narrow space.
Zhen Ai turned to look at his smiling face, uninterested. "B, you're so boring."
He leaned in closer to look inside with her. "Hey? I think it's fun. How about I take you to visit my lab?"
"No, thanks."
At that time, the Japanese girl in the room noticed and her eyes, hidden behind the thick white powder on her face, suddenly focused as if a wolf had pounced. She cried out, "ta su ke te."
Zhen Ai understood she was calling for help, startled, and reflexively stepped back, bumping into Bert.
The girl in the room saw Bert and screamed in terror as if she had seen the Grim Reaper, instantly hiding behind the screen and disappearing.
Bert pondered for a moment, rubbing his chest where Zhen Ai had bumped him, his eyes sparkling with a beautiful light as he leaned closer to her pale little face: "Did she scare you? Let's kill her."
Zhen Ai refused, but a few days later, she found that the Japanese girl's corpse was lying on the surgical table in her lab. From head to toe, it was a horrifying sight. She finally learned what had happened in that building.
She was furious, storming into Bert's bedroom in the middle of the night, tying him to the bed, and whipping him. She was even prepared for Bert to tell her mother and for her to be punished, but Bert never mentioned the incident, and it ended up being forgotten.
After leaving the organization, Zhen Ai heard various stories about perverts from her agents.
She learned that, generally speaking, many sadistic perverts treated women like livestock, keeping them in filthy, disheveled basements with poor sanitary conditions, where they would eat, drink, relieve themselves, and be sexually abused.
This was different from Bert. He had severe obsessive-compulsive tendencies and perfectionism, and this personality manifested in a horrifying disaster during his acts of cruelty. She remembered that in Bert's building, every girl's clothing and living conditions were extremely luxurious, while in his lab, every metallic instrument was spotless, gleaming with a cold silver light.
So, when Suki mentioned the exquisite cages at that club, Zhen Ai couldn't help but think of Bert.
She lowered her head, gently stroking the parrot's feathers. These questions made her feel exhausted. Having lived in such an environment since childhood, she had no sense of right or wrong. Until she was 17, she had thought Bert was just a boy with a peculiar obsession—someone who always teased her but also always protected her. But now, everything had changed.
Seeing her lost in thought, Yan Su looked at Isaac and asked, "Are you thinking of plucking its feathers?"
Zhen Ai came back to her senses, startled. Had she accidentally plucked a feather from the parrot? She quickly held Isaac up, looking him over, and seeing that not a single feather had fallen, she realized he was just teasing her. She shot him a glare and continued petting Isaac.
Yan Su watched Isaac enjoying Zhen Ai's touch and felt displeased. "Stop touching it. If you keep petting it, it will lose feathers."
"How is that possible?" Zhen Ai pouted.
Yan Su thought for a moment, then shamelessly lied against common sense, "Well, your body temperature will burn it to death."
Zhen Ai looked at him in surprise for a few seconds and said, "I'm not an idiot. Parrots have a higher body temperature than humans. It's summer now; if I touch it, it'll feel cooler."
Only then did Yan Su realize his little girlfriend wasn't so easy to fool. After a brief silence, he softly muttered, "I hate biologists."
Zhen Ai didn't hear him and continued lost in her thoughts.
Seeing her silent again, Yan Su felt unhappy. She must have something on her mind, but what could it be that she couldn't tell him?
He speculated for a while, considering she had been acting strange since watching the video. Could it be that she was thinking about that issue?
Yan Su deliberated for a long time: "Ai."
"Hmm?"
"About the rational analysis of piston motion, I'm not referring to all sexual activities in the world."
"I know," she replied casually.
He was dissatisfied with her attitude, paused, and declared, "Ai, I'm not asexual. Don't be worried."
"Ha?" Zhen Ai was confused, not grasping where his thoughts had suddenly jumped to.
"Don't worry; I can prove to you that I'm not asexual."
Prove? Who needs you to prove anything!
Zhen Ai stared wide-eyed: "So what?"
Yan Su said seriously, "If I were to have sex with you, I would not hesitate to put all my personal emotions into it. And I would enjoy it."
"Not hesitate..."
Zhen Ai had no idea what was going on in his head, but his words still made her heart race and her face flush. "What's wrong with you?"
"I don't want my indifferent attitude towards that video to make you think I have, uh, some sort of psychological issue."
His thoughts were just...
Zhen Ai was a bit embarrassed. "Didn't you already explain? In your eyes, you were just observing the rational details."
Yan Su froze for a second. "Oh, I did explain. But... then why do you still seem troubled?"
Zhen Ai looked down. How was she supposed to explain this? Should she say that it suddenly made her think of Bert? Right now, Suki's case was just her own statement, and mentioning it would only add unnecessary complications.
As she hesitated, Yan Su's phone rang. He answered it, frowning slightly as he listened. After asking a few questions, he hung up.
Zhen Ai noticed his expression. "What's wrong?"
"The FBI's BAU team just got a strange case." His laptop beeped, and Yan Su opened an email. Zhen Ai glanced at the sender—it was from Spencer Reid, who was likely the one who had just called.
The email had an audio file attached. As soon as it was opened, the piercing scream of a woman filled the room, like something from the most horrifying of horror movies. Zhen Ai felt a chill run down her spine.
The screams ripped through the air, one after another, tugging at the nerves of anyone listening. It was terrifying and agonizing. On this summer afternoon, the temperature in the room suddenly felt like it had dropped below freezing.
The high-pitched screams of different women continued for over a minute, and one of them even sounded like a little girl.
The audio track was extremely clear, without any background noise except for the women's screams.
Yan Su frowned as he listened, his expression calm and unchanged. At the last two seconds, the screaming stopped, replaced by a distorted machine voice, eerie and childlike: "S.A., Are you listening?"
"S.A., are you listening?"
Zhen Ai hugged herself on the sofa, stunned. Was someone challenging Yan Su? But why send the recording to the BAU and not directly to him?
Yan Su closed the laptop.
Zhen Ai was puzzled. "Not going to listen anymore?"
"I've already memorized it," he said casually. "Four women, the youngest about 5 years old, the oldest about 30. The 30-year-old's scream lasted the longest, followed by the one around 27 or 28, then the one about 20, and the 5-year-old's scream was the shortest. My initial guess is that the severity of their abuse increased with their age."
That much information?
Zhen Ai was impressed. "So, what does it mean?"
"No idea." The person who had been so sharp moments ago suddenly toned it down. "There's too little information. Making subjective judgments this early would hinder future objective analysis."
Zhen Ai nodded, though she still couldn't shake the feeling that the screams seemed vaguely familiar. She couldn't help but ask softly, "Could this be related to Suki's case?"
"There's no obvious connection for now. In Suki's case, the writer disappeared, but here, there's no male voice."
"So what do we do?"
Yan Su smiled oddly. "He won't just send one audio file."
Zhen Ai understood. The person targeting Yan Su would definitely send more. But for now, with no leads, they had no choice but to wait.
She had expected Yan Su to be anxious during the waiting period. But to her surprise, he acted as if nothing had happened. That evening, he even took her to the local N.Y.T. summer rock concert as planned. Zhen Ai was a bit puzzled, thinking his interests were quite broad. Classical, mainstream—he seemed to appreciate it all.
At the entrance to the park, Yan Su specifically bought a bunch of colorful glow sticks.
Zhen Ai looked at the handful of colors in his hand and said, "One of each color is enough. There's no need to buy so many."
Yan Su ignored her and started fiddling with the glow sticks, like a street artist making balloon animals. In just a few seconds, he created a glowing duck with a big mouth and handed it to her. "Do you like it?"
Zhen Ai was dumbfounded. How did he make this? She didn't know Yan Su had such a crafty side.
Yan Su's eyes sparkled as he looked at her. Seeing that she didn't respond, he thought she didn't like it, so he quickly dismantled the duck. His hands moved swiftly, and in no time, he had crafted a glowing dog with big ears. "How about this one?"
Before Zhen Ai could react, Yan Su dismantled it again. Within a few minutes, the glow sticks in his hands transformed into all sorts of shapes—snakes, rabbits, birds. Zhen Ai watched in amazement.
In the end, the light in Yan Su's eyes gradually dimmed. He mischievously connected dozens of glow sticks into an incredibly long rod, handed it to her, and said, "This is the last one. I never thought you'd be so uncreative—turns out you like fishing rods!"
Then he muttered under his breath, "I learned how to make more than ten different shapes, and you didn't like a single one."
Zhen Ai held the long, colorful "fishing rod" and looked up. The glow sticks were so long that the rod wobbled in her hand like a willow branch, unstable and swaying. She worried it might hit someone.
She brought her gaze back down and said slowly, "Actually, I liked all of them. But every time, before I could say I liked it, you took it apart and made something new."
Yan Su: ...
Zhen Ai took the rod apart and handed it back to him. "I like the little bear the most—the one that looks like Yan Xiao Su."
Yan Su, though clearly displeased, quickly crafted a little glowing bear for her.
Holding the hollow bear, Zhen Ai walked toward the concert venue and asked Yan Su, "Actually, I wasn't reacting slowly at first. I was just thinking about something else. Something strange."
"What's strange?"
"With such a serious matter hanging over you, you act like nothing's wrong. I'm worried... Are you pretending nothing's wrong because you don't want me to worry about you?"
It was a bit awkward to say this. Yan Su smiled faintly, then after a moment, explained,
"Work is work, life is life. When something happens, you give it your all; but when there are no leads, you set it aside so it doesn't affect your daily life. Many people in jobs like mine—police officers, lawyers, doctors—handle it this way. If you constantly think about negative things, it ends up affecting your state of mind."
Zhen Ai thought for a moment. "Hmm, what you said makes sense."
They strolled along, slowly, in the cool evening breeze. Yan Su continued, "Seeing suffering can make you angry and compassionate, but in the gaps between work, you have to focus on the bright side of life. Only by living positively can you work positively."
Zhen Ai smiled faintly. So this was why he wasn't affected by the heavy cases in his everyday life?
Yan Su glanced down at her and smiled inwardly.
When he was alone, this kind of self-adjustment was just a habit. But now that they were together, he was even more aware of the need to balance things.
In the future, if he wasn't alone—if he had a family—he'd be the head of the household. There would be a wife, independent yet inevitably relying on him, and children who, while growing up, would look up to him in their younger years.
When spending time with them, he would want to give his family his undivided quality time. He wouldn't want to neglect them because of work, nor bring the stresses of work home.
He wanted to give Zhen Ai the perfect home, the most ideal, normal life.
The young people on stage were singing with abandon. She looked at the stage, her dark eyes reflecting the colorful lights, while he gazed at her with deep affection.
As the concert neared its end, Yan Su's phone vibrated in his pocket. He stepped aside to take the call, and Zhen Ai followed him.
After he hung up, Zhen Ai asked, "Is something wrong?"
"It's about to be," Yan Su said, pausing for a moment before adding, "Weren't you curious about the BAU? Want to come along and see?"
His indulgence in her curiosity had reached an almost lawless level.
On the nighttime drive, Zhen Ai quietly sat in the passenger seat, resting her eyes. Occasionally, she'd open them to gaze at the night scenery outside the window, thinking back on the music from earlier, feeling peaceful and content.
Life was about enjoying the moments of joy in between the seriousness. This was really nice.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone