Chapter 126: Born to Die

After Han Chen finishes, everybody is struck dumb.

It's a serious matter nonetheless.  He sweeps his eyes across everyone and explains quickly:

"The most basic existence, 1.

The most complicated form of life: 8.  From 0 to 9, only it is similar to the symbol of infinity as well as the shape of DNA.  As for the closing phrases for the first and two phrases, 'crisscrossing and turning' and 'losing morning and gaining night', are like what Su Mian said.  They seem more like they're written to portray emotion. It's probably how the killer feels about these two numbers.

It can blanket every day: 7.  There are 7 days in a week, so it covers all of it;

It can possess every year: 4.  There are 4 seasons in a year.

What is lost will always be regained……"

He hums under this breath.  Su Mian and the others listen attentively; their breathing stutters following the pause in his speech.  But they see a sarcastic smile brus.h.i.+ng across his eyes, "This phrase is simply the killer's play on words.  The characters making up the words 'lost' and 'regain' appear in the ending phrases for 1 and 8. The word 'always' means to repeat it.  Therefore, 1 and 8 together make up 9. At the same time, the meaning behind lost and regain is something that lasts for a long time, which is h.o.m.ophonic of 9."

Su Mian opens her eyes wide and mutters, "That's so sly……"

Han Chen's eyes are still dark and unreadable.  He continues, "A dream of nothingness. Nothingness can only be 0.  And then, his name, will finally not be buried by time……" he looks toward Su Mian, "Do you still remember how the last poem ended?"

The people around them are clueless.  Su Mian raises an eyebrow and blurts out, "I get it!  Taking S as the center.  Therefore, the 'he' in here represents S.  And the letter S in the alphabet is placed….."  She's not skillful in math, after all, so she quietly recites the alphabets to herself, but she's eighty percent sure about it.

Han Chen's eyes are clear as he answers, "It's 19.  Therefore, 18749019. After the series of numbers return to 0, it converges with 1 and 9.  This matches the poem's emphasis on the meaning of cycling and reincarnation."

Everybody turns quiet right after Han Chen finishes.  In the s.p.a.cious park, the fog has already dissipated. The sun is s.h.i.+ning through the clouds.  Everybody is standing silently. Only the bombs' displays on the victims' chests are showing the time ticking away.  The atmosphere is tense and serious.

Su Mian is confident of Han Chen's inferences.  It's a very basic logic——if they only look at the poem on the surface level, there may be many different meanings.  But for someone who knows math, their way of thinking must be very similar. Therefore, Han Chen's explanation has the highest probability of being the correct answer.

After a brief moment, Han Chen and Su Mian look at each other.  Su Mian nods her head firmly and then they both turn to look at the victim.  The other officers' gazes also follow.

The victim also heard Han Chen's reasoning just now.  He licks his dry lips and says trembling, "Ar-Are you sure that's the one?"

Han Chen walks up to him, lifts up his finger with his eyes half closed and says, "Trust me."

They're the simplest two words.  His deep and unhurried voice somehow calms one's heart.  Su Mian holds her breath as she watches him move. The victim grits his teeth as he closes his eyes with his body shaking.  The bomb disposal expert nods and retreats to the side. And the officers and the police cars around them are behind the explosion-proof s.h.i.+elds.  Just like Su Mian, they're holding their breaths. Even in the office far away at the provincial station, the authorities are fully concentrated on the live stream.

The time on the bomb is still counting down: 13:02, 13:01, 13:00, 12:59……

Han Chen lowers his head with his eyes calm as he punches in the numbers quickly——18749019!

The whole area is quiet.

Su Mian feels her heart skip a beat.  Tears are flowing from the victim's face.

12:57.

The time freezes.

The victim stares blankly at the frozen time on his chest.  Han Chen, Su Mian, and the bomb disposal expert all reveal a smile.  After a short moment of silence, the officers around them roar in cheers; they hug each other, hi-fives, and shouts.  Their voices are thunderous in the park!

After being caught off guard in previous times, they're finally able to save their first victim today!

Amid the deafening sound of cheers, Su Mian lifts her head and looks into Han Chen's dark brown eyes.  His eyes are carrying a hint of a smile as they stare back at her. And her heart is enclosed by the warmth in them; it's moving yet subtle.

They quietly stare at each other for a second before raising their heads.

There's still the second victim.

……

Probably due to seeing the other victim saved, the second victim has already started shouting his lungs out, "Save me!  Save me!" But when Han Chen and Su Mian walks up to him, they notice that his expression is even more frightening and hopeless than before.  His tears are flowing non-stop; nothing like seeing the hope of being saved at all.

Su Mian feels her heart being squeezed as she senses something bad coming.  Han Chen collects his expression and asks, "What is the content of the poem?"

The officer accompanying the victim moves his lips, but nothing comes out.  The victim's face is pale as a dead man as he responds with a trembling voice, "No.  None! He, he didn't tell me anything and just left!"

The officers around all exchange glances.

Han Chen doesn't say anything.  Su Mian's hand curl into fists at the side of her body.

None?  No poem to solve the pa.s.sword?  Could it be that A doesn't want to continue this game anymore, so he's not playing by the rules and is determined to kill this person mercilessly?

Seeing the officers' reactions, the victim is crying even more frantically.  The bomb disposal expert, on the other hand, nods toward Han Chen, "Let me give it a try.  There might be a way to dismantle it."

His words finally make the victim stop crying.  He stares hopefully at the bomb disposal expert.  Everybody's attention is also directed to the bomb disposal expert.  Han Chen and Su Mian are standing side by side. In the morning sky, his black jacket accents his fair white face that's cold like jade.  He looks at the victim, adjusts his black gloves but directs his words to Su Mian, "What do you think?"

He hears Su Mian hum in a low voice, "Hm," and then responds, "I'm thinking…If I were A, even if I don't say a word today, what kind of pa.s.sword would I set?"

Han Chen pauses his movement, turns around and looks at her.

In the early rising sun, her hair is tied up high and she is standing very straight.  It's been many days of hard work; she has dark circles under her eyes and due to her light complexion, it makes her look just like a panda.  But her expression is full of determination right now as she concentrates on the victim.

Han Chen observes her quietly for a moment before following her gaze and looking at the victim.  He asks suddenly, "'He didn't say anything and just left.'——you saw the criminal?"

This question stuns both the victim and Su Mian.  He nods and then shakes his head, "I did see him, but he was wearing a mask and a baseball cap, so I couldn't see his face."

Su Mian is worked up now as if a treasure has just landed on her lap.  She asks, "What did he do at the time? What kind of movements did he make?  Where was he standing? Think carefully and tell me everything. We might still have a chance!"

A loves playing games so much.  He even got R to set up such an intricate and complex pa.s.sword on the first victim.  There's no reason to break the rules of the game on the second victim.

This means only one thing——a pa.s.sword exists.  And it's possible that she knows what it is; a set of numbers that signify something special.  This is what a game should be like for A.

He wants her to guess.  He wants her to take a big risk and make a wild guess.

But what could these numbers be?

Her words make the victim feel dumbstruck.  The image of what happened today floats into his mind quickly……

It was dim with the stinky smell of the washroom.  He woke up in haziness and fear began to drown his heart.  That man was sitting on a broken chair not far away.

That man was wearing a dark blue baseball cap with a rough edge due to being worn out.  Under the cap, a pair of cold eyes could be seen. He leaned against the chair as he tapped his fingers wearing plastic gloves slowly.  It was as if he was thinking.

No matter how much the victims cried and begged to be freed, he ignored him.  After a while, he pulled out his cell phone and started browsing it with his head down.

……

"What was he reading?" Su Mian asks.

The victim is a bit stunned and then he shakes his head, "I-I don't know……"

But Su Mian's question makes him recall another detail.  The phone that the man pulled out was very old. It looked like a Nokia and its screen was half the size of phones today.  His fingers swiped the screen up and down. It was probably one of Nokia's first touchscreen models. Due to the dim lighting, the brightness of the screen flickered on his face as he moved his fingers on it.

……

"He was looking at photos," Han Chen says suddenly.  Su Mian nods, "Old phone, old photos."

And then?  What then?

That man browsed the old phone for a while with a smile showing in his eyes.  And then he fetched another phone. It had a big screen and much more intricate.  After he browsed through it for a while, he then put both phones back into his pockets.  He turned to look at the victim.

His eyes were calm, which actually made the victim think that there was still hope, so the victim begged him to let him go.  But it was as if he couldn't hear him. He got up and left.

……

What is the pa.s.sword?

What was he looking at and thinking about?

Han Chen watches Su Mian quietly.  He reaches out his hand and supports her shoulder.

"If there is an answer, only you would know."

Su Mian remains quiet for a moment before lifting her head to look at him.  She says in a voice that is only audible to them, "If he is reminiscing on something, it must be the seven-member organization in the past, and the me in the past.  And what he was looking at later must have been photos from the current. The set of numbers should be related to me. I should know what those numbers are. If it's something that matches this criterion, it would have to be 20090420.  Because after that day, Su Mian became Bai Jin Xi."

Han Chen ponders quietly but hears her continue, "But based on his crimes in the past, he almost never repeats his actions completely.  Therefore this time, the pa.s.sword wouldn't repeat, otherwise, it would be exactly the same as the previous victim. What other numbers do I know and he knows as well?  He knows that I've lost my memory, so I can't remember any dates or numbers relating to when I was an undercover as well as the seven-member organization. There's only one possibility left——

The first possibility, what we inferred last time.  The date of his first crime. But This date has no relation to me, so we can rule this one out;

The second possibility, the date of my reunion with him, which is when he entered our home and left behind a letter.  If we look at both the past and present, that day was indeed worth remembering. But that day was also the day that we started our battle with the three of them.  Based on how the victim described A's expression, he was not excited, but rather calm and gentle.  Therefore, that day doesn't fit the criteria. He wouldn't be carrying gentleness and reminiscing on the past on the day he left me an invitation letter……"

Su Mian finishes explaining with such a long speech and then switches her tone, "Through the process of elimination, there aren't many meaningful numbers left that I know of.  However, if what he was thinking of was me, I will have to be able to guess what it is and it has to be something that he reminisces. Therefore, there is a series of numbers that match this criterion——

19890317, Su Mian's birthday.  What he reminisces is the past.  If the seven-member organization did not break apart, I would not have become Bai Jin Xi then.  When we reunited, he called me Su Mian and not Bai Jin Xi. If he wanted to mock me, wouldn't it have been more fun to call me Bai Jin Xi?  But from the beginning to now, he has always called me Su Mian and Big Sister. What he acknowledges is Su Mian, even if she's a policeman and an undercover."

_____

Five minutes later.

The second bomb is dismantled successfully!

The area is full of cheers.  The two victims are also crying from joy.  In front of the monitoring screen, the authorities at the provincial station also nod with smiles.

And Han Chen and Su Mian are standing in the middle of the crowd and also smiling.  Han Chen places his commands to the other investigators, "Examine the area immediately to search for evidence.  Obtain the surveillance videos around the area to look for a suspect……"

The bomb disposal expert is pleased.  After all, he only had no more than 50 to 60 percent confidence of being able to dismantle the bomb.  Now that the victims are saved before the time is up, there's no better outcome than this.

The bombs that have been removed are handled by the bomb squad.  They open a box and place both bombs inside in order to transport and detonate them safely.  Just as they're about to close the box, they're suddenly in shock.

"Move out!  Hurry and move out!  Run!" he shouts as he pulls the officers around them to run away.

Han Chen and Su Mian feel their hearts shake.  They turn around at the same time and see the box that has been left on the ground by the bomb squad.  The time displays that were frozen before have started counting down again!

"01:32, 01:31, 01:30……"

Everybody is in a panic as they shout, "Run!" "Take hiding!  It's about to explode!" Everybody is das.h.i.+ng out of the park, running several hundreds of meters away to hide beside the explosion-proof s.h.i.+elds.  They hold their breaths as they watch the two bombs in the center. Han Chen is embracing Su Mian lying down on the ground with his eyes locked to the front.  Su Mian murmurs, "How could this be……"

00:10, 00:09……00:01, 00:00……

Everywhere in the park is dead silent.

Everybody looks up and at each other.  No explosion. There's actually no explosion.

Han Chen pulls Su Mian to stand up with him.  The phone in her pocket makes two beeps.

Ever since receiving L's dancing video, Su Mian s.h.i.+vers every time she hears an alert of a text message.  She feels a bit of queasiness. And the fact that she's receiving a text message at this very minute makes her sense that something bad is about to happen.

Han Chen notices her face turning pale and looks down at her.  She fetches her phone and sees that she has received two videos from an unknown sender.

She takes a deep breath and opens the first video.  The instant it starts playing, she is stunned.

Xiao Zhuan!

It's actually Zhou Xiao Zhuan!  Han Chen sees it as well. His dark brown eyes turn cold immediately.

It's an unfamiliar room with nothing on the wall.  Xiao Zhuan is tied up in a chair and there's blood on his forehead that has not dried yet.  His face is pale like a corpse.

There's a bomb tied to the front of his chest.  The display is showing exactly 30:00 and then it starts counting down.

Su Mian's breathing quickens.  She stares at it blankly for a few seconds and as if there's a strong feeling about what will happen, she opens the second video.

Xu Si Bai.

He's in the same situation as Zhou Xiao Zhuan.  There are also spots of blood on his face. It's just that compared to Zhou Xiao Zhuan, his expression is rather calm.  His eyes are looking directly at the camera but a bit s.p.a.ced out. A man who's so pure and handsome like spring is in such a wreck with a bomb tied to him.

At this very moment, another text message comes to her phone——

"The unlock code for the bombs is your right hand's fourth fingerprint.  You only have time to save one of them."

……

The end of the first two bombs is just the beginning of a new one.

When you've just saved two innocent people, your most beloved comrades are in danger because of this.

Su Mian, who will you choose?