Chapter 134: A New Sign
One week later.
It’s winter already. The sky is gray and the trees are bare. Everywhere on the streets is filled with people wearing thick clothes and walking hurriedly.
Su Mian is wearing a red down coat along with a pair of long boots. Her black hair rests on her shoulders. With her standing there like this, it makes her seem even more pretty and captivating. And behind her stands three even more attractive men: Han Chen, Cold Face, and Chatterbox.
Han Chen and Cold Face have always been the jacket wearers within the police team; even on a super cold day, at most, they’ll wear a thicker cotton jacket. It’s just that they have nice bodies and know what to wear, so they always look more handsome and fashionable than the other criminal investigators. Chatterbox has been influenced by them and no longer wears his big cotton-padded jacket like Zhou Xiao Zhuan does. He has started to wear casual style jackets that are filled with manliness. Therefore, with these three standing together, they sure attract a lot of attention.
A cold wind blows across them; Su Mian shivers and reaches up with her hand to hold her collar tight.
“Cold?” a deep and clear voice says.
Something weighs her shoulder down; Han Chen has already pulled her into his embrace. His jacket is open, so he wraps it around her in the process. Su Mian looks up and sees his handsome chisel face and long neck. He’s wearing a thin sweater underneath only, but his body is much warmer than her. Su Mian wraps her arms around his waist and thinks to herself that it’s so nice to have a strong criminal investigator boyfriend. And the key thing is that he dotes her and he’s so gorgeous looking too.
“He’s here! He’s here!” Chatterbox stretches his neck, “Xiao Zhuan, this fellow, is finally discharged from the hospital. He told us to wait downstairs yet it took him so long.”
Everybody laughs. At the hospital’s entrance in front of them, Zhou Xiao Zhuan is wearing an eye-catching blue big cotton-padded jacket while carrying a duffle bag in his hand. He looks up and walks over to them. He stares at them and chuckles.
Cold Face takes over carrying his bag. Han Chen pats his shoulder and doesn’t comment. Chatterbox leans over and assesses him from head to toe, “Are you fully recovered? You’re not missing anything, right? Your head doesn’t feel dizzy and your eyes are not blurry anymore? Are you really ready to come back to the battlefield to fight against the psychopaths?”
Xiao Zhuan pats his chest, “Yes! Strong man here has taken a week of those penicillin, flavomycin, gentamicin, and whatever-cin, so my body is full of power now! Even if the whole army from A to Z comes, strong man here can fight them all down!”
Even Cold Face bursts out laughing. Su Mian tilts her head and examines him, “Xiao Zhuan, why do I feel that after one week of staying in the hospital, your face has gotten rounder? You’re even able to gain weight this way? Tsk, tsk……”
Xiao Zhuan swaggers while following them and answers, “Of course! For the sake of getting well sooner, I’d been eating two big bowls of rice each meal.” His head leans over to Su Mian, “Speaking of it, this hospital’s red braised pork is super good! You have to try it next time.”
“Really, really? I must go then!” Su Mian loves red braised pork, so she can’t help getting excited. But her neck goes stiff as Han Chen pulls her back into his embrace.
“What nonsense are you talking about?” an indifferent voice says.
Su Mian stops immediately, “Pfft, pfft, pfft,” a crisp sound of spitting (act of knocking on wood). She then looks at him affectionately. Xiao Zhuan watches them and adds a few spits himself.
Chatterbox and Cold Face have been laughing all this time. A smile flashes across Han Chen’s eyes. He tightens his grip on Su Mian’s waist and says, “Let’s go eat.”
_____
The car drives past the desolate streets; trees and pedestrians are left behind them. The corners of Su Mian’s mouth are still curved upward as she looks out the window blankly.
It’s another peaceful day.
After the explosion that day, even though the police has issued a wanted order on A, the search throughout the entire city continues. But it’s as if those three criminals have disappeared; they haven’t committed another crime and haven’t sent any new messages to the police.
This city appears to have returned to its peacefulness on the outside. But the discussions about them are spreading quickly on the internet and at every corner of the streets. People are talking about this mysterious killing organization with a lot of interest; it’s as if they’re afraid of them appearing yet they look forward to seeing them.
And their one-week long of inactivity seems to let one think that they will disappear for good.
But it also feels like the calm before the storm; that short and deceiving sense of peacefulness.
They decide to eat dinner at a restaurant by the lakeside. The moon reflects on the water surface accompanied by the fragrance of the private room. The five of them eat and drink gluttonously, enjoying themselves. There’s a karaoke machine in the room. After they finish eating, Chatterbox and Xiao Zhuan pick up the mics, stretch their vocal cords, and sing their lungs out toward the lake.
Cold Face lights up a cigarette and smokes it slowly sitting by the side. He lets out a laugh every now and then.
Risking their lives together is no different than being in a drunken stupor.
Han Chen and Su Mian exit the private room. They take a stroll along the curvy deck along the lake. There aren’t a lot of people here at this season. There are also no lights along the deck. The lake surface is so dark that they can’t see the bottom of it. A couple of lights occasionally flash on the opposite side, reflecting the blurry contour of the shoreline, but it makes it seem even more empty and far away.
The two of them walk to the middle of the lake and sit down on a bench. The wind is blowing a little hard; a kind of freshness that seeps through to the bone. Su Mian pulls her coat up, leans toward Han Chen, and lets out a long breath of relief.
Han Chen rests his arm on her shoulders while holding her hand with the other. Su Mian stays still for a brief while before playing with his fingers in the darkness. Han Chen lets her do so. She rubs against his collar and neck every now and then and can sense the subtle warmth coming from his body. Perhaps because it’s too dark and quiet around them, so his warmth attracts her even more.
She continues squeezing his hand and then feels something hard against her fingers. She realizes that it’s a ring on the fourth finger of his left hand.
“Why are you still wearing it every day?” she asks stupidly. It’s actually because she doesn’t have anything she can wear right now; the necklace that makes up a pair with his is now cut into pieces. But he’s still wearing his every day; he doesn’t even take it off during shower or bedtime.
He looks at her sideways.
“Mm. You’re asking why I wear it all day? My hand feels itchy?”
His deep and laid back voice causes Su Mian to chuckle. She then murmurs, “But I don’t have one.” Since she has nothing to do, she turns on the flashlight on her phone and shines it toward his hand.
Everywhere is dark except his hand in the light, making it look slender and boney. Looking at the aged platinum ring actually makes Su Mian’s heart ache. She touches his fingers, feels them lightly and lets go reluctantly.
But a man’s and a woman’s senses will always be different. Having her silky smooth and soft fingertips running through his hand makes Han Chen a little worked up. This woman is beautiful and captivating, yet when it comes to love relationships, she always carries a kind of childish-like sexiness. After a while, he lowers his head and smiles. He retrieves his hand nonetheless, “I have something for you.”
It’s a very casual and normal phrase, but it makes Su Mian’s heart skip a beat.
She was fiddling with his ring just now and complained about not having one. Now he’s suddenly saying that he has something for her?
And at this moment, place, and time. Only the two of them are here in the middle of the lake away from the rest of the world.
Su Mian’s heart suddenly pounds quickly.
In this cool night scenery, hot air seems to hover over her face.
Could he be……proposing marriage?
It’s too sudden.
She watches Han Chen release her and reaching into his pocket with his hand as if he wants to fetch something from his jacket. Su Mian can’t hold it in any longer as she grins. The flashlight from her phone is still on. Han Chen sees her big grin and smiles as well asking, “What are you smiling about?”
Su Mian answers, “Hehheh. Take it out, take it out now.”
Han Chen glances at her and as if he realizes something, his movement stutters before he fetches an……an envelope from his chest.
Su Mian is speechless, “……”
Han Chen tosses the envelope to her but hugs her even tighter. He grabs her chin and looks down at her. His voice is deep and mesmerizing, “What did you think that I was going to give you?”
Su Mian is lost with words, “……Scram!” He’s such a smart guy, so isn’t he just asking the obvious?
“I won’t propose,” he says suddenly.
Su Mian opens her eyes wide and grabs onto his collar, “Why?”
He lets her protest as he leans back with both of his arms on the back of the bench. He looks to the front and says, “I’ve already proposed to you a long time ago and you agreed. Once you get your identity back, we can get our marriage certificate right away.” Speaking of this, he smiles and looks at her from the side, “Am I being unromantic? Should I propose once more?”
Su Mian turns her head to look the other way, “If you don’t want to propose then don’t. Who wants it?!” After a while, she can’t help laughing.
_____
What Han Chen has given Su Mian is a rather surprising document.
It turns out that after Xu Nan Bai fell off the cliff, the police notified the family and other colleagues in Beijing, and at the same time, they searched his apartment. Han Chen has friends in the Beijing station who found this document out of coincidence, so they asked someone to deliver it to City Lan today.
It’s not a document on Xu Nan Bai. But rather, it’s an old diary from his father, Professor Xu Mu Hua.
Xu Mu Hua. A famous criminal psychology expert in the country. He was also once a professor at the public security university that Su Mian attended in the past. A few days ago, when Han Chen and Su Mian visited Beijing, they also read about him at the university. According to the document, he passed away due to illness on the year of the 4.20 case.
But at the time what they didn’t know was that Xu Mu Hua also participated in the investigation on the seven-member organization——this must have been one of information kept secret from Beijing.
Until today, after reading the diary.
After returning to the dorm at night, Su Mian sits by herself under the light and starts reading the diary carefully.
“October 9, 2018, I received an invitation from the Public Security Bureau to participate in the investigation team for a recent series of serial killing incidents……”
“The perpetrators are extremely cruel. Together with my best disciple, we completed a few profiles for a couple of them. But they aren’t normal serial killers, they are ferocious bandits who are organized and are well planned in their actions. Even with their profiles, we are unable to find them……”
Reading up to this point causes Su Mian’s heart to tremble. On one end, she and Han Chen previously suspected that the bloodshed battle between the police and the seven-member organization may have been related to Xu Nan Bai’s betrayal. Now that they know that his father played such an important role in the case back then, it further proves their suspicion. On the other end, the “best disciple” that Professor Xu is referring to, could it be……her? And the challenge back then that Professor Xu described seems so similar to what she is up against right now.
Criminal Psychology isn’t all-knowing. They already have A’s detailed information. And as for L and R, she can even describe their likes/dislikes and characteristics. But they’re too well trained and know how to hide too well. So what if you know that L uses a scented handkerchief to wipe his mouth after drinking water? If he hides, you can’t find him.
As she continues reading further, Su Mian is more and more certain that she is Professor Xu’s disciple from back then. It’s because the profiles that he completes are almost identical to the ones she completed previously. Even their words and descriptions are similar. She must have been heavily influenced by the professor back then.
This makes her feel a little sad.
Another stranger yet someone whom she feels familiar with.
Another person who has passed away not long after the case. Even though the document writes that it was due to illness.
She flips through more pages. Besides some additional details amended to her profiles, there isn’t much else. The diary ends on March 25, 2009, which is a month before the 420 incident. That day, Professor Xu recorded the weather and his meals.
But the last few words he wrote captures Su Mian’s attention.
“In the past, there has never been a serial killing organization appearing in the country before. Even though there are some of them abroad, they are not as skillfully trained and possess such powerful abilities. I’ve been trying my hardest to come up with accurate profiles for each of them in order to assist the team with capturing the killers. One, two, three……I’ve already completed more than ten profiles, but we’ve only been able to catch a few. I’ve been thinking lately, could it be that I’ve gone down the wrong route?
If they are an undefeatable organization, how many profiles should I be completing? And whose is it?”
_____
Su Mian has trouble sleeping tonight. Inside her blurry mind, the words in Professor Xu’s diary constantly reappears. She can feel a certain thought that is about to make its way out in her mind, but she just can’t seem to grasp it.
As a result, before dawn, Han Chen, who has been in deep sleep, is woken up by this woman shaking him. The moment he opens his eyes, he sees the dark circles around her eyes while they’re gleaming at him.
“Han Chen! I understand Professor Xu’s words! I have a new thought! How many profiles do I have to complete? And whose is it? It’s not three, it’s one person! It’s not each of their own profiles, it’s a profile for the entire organization!”
Han Chen frowns, “The organization’s profile?”
“Yes!” Su Mian’s gaze turns solemn, “Do you remember Xu Nan Bai’s words? ‘My life has long been over. It’s not until I met him that it truly started to ignite.’ This organization reflects only one person’s temperament. One person’s soul. If I can complete the organization’s profile, it will be that person’s profile……”
She pauses before continuing, “It’s whom they revolve around to, the seventh person——S’s profile.”