delirium

The owner of the pancake shop was using a spatula to slap the flour, and sprinkled chopped green onions on top while it was still hot.Standing in front of the stall were two tall men, with the left hand biting a straw and drinking Coke, glancing at the man on the right from time to time.

"What's the matter?" Xia You put her hands in her pockets and wore a well-designed black jacket on her upper body.Noticing Wu Tiao's small movements, he tilted his head and said in a friendly voice: "Mr. Police Officer, do you have any orders?"

He was referring to the busy police officer who deliberately did not bring cash to buy breakfast and asked Xiayou to help pay for it.The Coke drinker paused, let go of the straw that had been bitten shriveled, and testified to him through the sunglasses: "Speak directly."

The boss yelled, and Xia You followed suit and went up to pay.After receiving two pancakes, Xia You handed one of them to Wu Tiao, and watched the other party take it happily, warming his red fingers from the cold.He thought for a moment, then took out a cigarette from his pocket, looked for a lighter and said, "You have nothing else to do with me, a boring suspect, hanging around all day?"

"Let's not say a few words, do you still want to go back to the detention room?"

The cold wind blew across the street, the old bald trees trembled, and the tantra leaves rustled.The heat dissipated quickly, and the Wutiao Coke cans came into Xia You's hands very naturally. The latter looked at the cigarette for a moment, threw the cigarette away with one hand, and lowered his head to take a sip.

With the movement, the black hair on his forehead drooped, gently brushed the edge of the cup, and curled up beside the straw.Wujo obviously noticed, and the movement of eating pancakes stopped for a moment.But when Xia You raised his head, he continued to chew as if nothing had happened, his cheeks bulging.

During these four days, Wu Tiao ordered Xia You to act together with him in the name of surveillance and assistance, and started an in-depth investigation from the eighth victim.Xia Youjie, the suspect and university professor, quickly showed his amazing talent in the field of crime—his approach to problems was always precise and unexpected, his analysis was clear and logical, and he often amazed the surrounding police officers. .

At this time, the head of the serious crime team would always fold his arms and make sarcastic remarks: "Your words make sense, but anyone with a little field experience will feel that there are many loopholes."

This morning was extraordinarily cold, and small brown foam gathered on the rim of the Coke glass, swirled densely, and burst with a "snap".Xia You suddenly remembered this sentence.

He unpacked the pancakes in twos and threes, straightened the cigarette in his palm, and asked, "What did you mean by 'full of loopholes'?"

Wutiao ate the cakes slowly, and was stunned for half a second when he heard the question, before he asked inexplicably, "Which sentence?"

"Okay, your heart is almost the same color as the sunglasses." Xia You smiled wryly, took out the cigarette butt of the lighter, shook it, and took a deep breath while shaking the cigarette butt with both hands.The fire light was particularly obvious in the morning fog, cleverly lit the young man's face from half the side, making the deep part deeper, the shadow covered a large area of ​​the cheekbones, forcing Xiao Su's hostility between the eyebrows and eyes.Like a sharp knife unsheathed, Gojo thought.He stared into Xia You's eyes almost obsessively, and heard the glacier being crushed by the sharp blade of the magic weapon. He still climbed up from the pool of blood over and over again, struggling to open his arms, trying to meet [-] slaughters with his bare palms.

The exhaled breath instantly turned into white mist, the police officer swallowed the last piece of cake, and Chao Xiayou reached out for a Coke: "What you are talking about is theoretical knowledge, and everyone who has taken the class seriously knows it. "

Xia You shook the cigarette butt, stretched out his hand and handed him the Coke. "Oh? If this knowledge is not systematic, surely it will not be included in the teaching materials?" He raised his eyebrows with great interest and questioned.

The plastic straw swayed up and down with the bumps, and a few drops of water were dotted on the nozzle.Gojo smiled, and was not in a hurry to drink, instead he raised his left index finger—he was holding a Coke in this hand—and shook it slightly, saying: "The textbook must not have written how to deal with a brilliant serial killer. Right? Even if there are, there are too few cases for reference, so it must not be accurate enough.”

The professor of criminal psychology is interested: "What do you say?"

Circled the rim of the cup with the index finger, Wu Tiao said without thinking: "Investigate, profile, substitute, it's that simple."

Reminiscent of his well-known "record", I have to laugh.His eyes deepened, and when he looked at Wutiao, there was a vague provocation, and he made a dark fire burn on the wet wood: "Okay, then I will wait for you to show your magic."

They both walked back, and the pancake stand owner glanced casually, and out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the tight-fitting electronic shackles on the ankles of the black-haired youth.The spatula fell to the ground with a "click", and a few skinny dead leaves scraped across the corner of the alley, as if dying.

Walking out of the square, Wujo's cell phone rang suddenly.

"Hello, I'm Wutiao, if you have something to say, hurry up." The police officer answered the phone with a strange voice.The other side didn't know what to say, he paused, and his leisurely expression gradually disappeared.

Xia You stood three steps away and looked back at him, witnessing a rugged smile.Gojo stood there, with a sea pouring out of his blue eyes, and there were thrilling piles of rocks hidden under the ocean,

"The ninth victim has appeared." The sense of strangeness was fleeting, and Wutiao quickly hung up the phone, crushed the empty Coke can, and threw it away.The parabola perfectly led to the trash can, and the police officer took advantage of the situation and slapped Xia You on the shoulder: "Start work!"

He walked towards the parking lot with his long legs. Xia You stood there for a while, shook his head, and snuffed out his cigarette with a chuckle.

The victim lived in Financial Street and owned a single-family villa of [-] square meters.When Wu Tiao arrived, yellow and black warning strips had already been drawn outside the villa, and dozens of police cars were parked around, with red and blue lights flashing alternately, driving away the last ray of dense fog this morning.

The continued appearance of the dead is unexpected and reasonable.Therefore, Ye Mo Zhengdao, who is the head of the section, came to the scene in person, led Wutiao and Xia You across the blockade, and opened the sophisticated anti-theft door of the villa.

In order to protect the scene, everything in the room remained intact. Police officers in protective clothing came and went, barely enduring the turbid air rushing through the filter.The windows of this villa seem to have not been opened for 200 years. Even though Wujo put on a full set of equipment early, he was still sneezed from the smoke.

"Is it okay?" Xia You patted him on the back with moderate strength, miraculously soothing the rough trachea.Five luxurious crystal chandeliers straight up, almost reaching the top of the head - that thing is connected with a few jingling tassel bells, hanging long.

Following the moth up the stairs, the two entered the victim's bedroom.As soon as the wooden door was opened, the stagnant breath in the room had already forced everyone to take a step back.

"Sure enough..." Xia You murmured.

Exactly the same as the previous eight times.The bedroom is spacious, but the curtains on all sides are tightly closed, and the overhead light is bright, even the fine dust flying in the air is exposed.The surrounding environment was extremely clean, except for the dead man sitting cross-legged in the center of the bed, covered in blood, with steel nails embedded in his hands and feet, and a hole between his eyebrows.It is like a secret ceremony, either for sacrifice or prayer.

The section chief ordered the auxiliary police to contact the forensic doctor as soon as possible, and turned to look at Xia You, who had come into contact with the crime scene for the first time, and asked in a deep voice, "Can you see something?"

Wujo, who was walking around to observe the environment, rolled his eyes, muttering "Do you think he is a robot?" while dusting with the forensics props in the tool bag.Unexpectedly, Xia You picked several angles around the corpse to observe, and quickly replied: "Before reporting, please allow me to ask one more question: Has the police received a new notice?"

Night Moth frowned and sighed: "It's the same as before. I just lay quietly in the mailbox and searched for a long time before I found a small piece of paper. Our decoding team compared it with the previous eight groups repeatedly. Yes, I still haven’t been able to find a reasonable way to decipher it.”

"Then, I may have an idea." The young man pondered for a moment, then said clearly and slowly, "The dead bodies are all standing upright, which is obviously intentional by the perpetrator. Although the gestures are not very standard, this posture Maybe it’s some sort of partial cross-legged sitting—————————————— Different from the popular orthodox cross-legged sitting, the direction of hands and feet changes, I don’t know if it’s deliberate or not.

Saying that, Xia You breathed a sigh of relief, with dark flames in his eyes: "According to the records, the interval between each case is exactly seven days, and the bodies were found thirteen hours after death... Have you ever noticed Pass these two numbers? If my guess is right, maybe everyone in the decoding team should change their direction, at least to help them narrow down the range.'”

After the words fell, the night moth had already held its breath, and was bombarded with "sudden enlightenment" one after another, tongue-tied.And Xia You still looked at him solemnly, with a focused expression, and even ignored the black hair hanging by the side of the servant girl.

Those few strands of hair swayed in front of the mandible, hooking five fluttering gazes to that place, and then climbed up the eyebrows inch by inch.

He was engrossed in watching, Xia You suddenly turned around, and changed Wutiao's gaze impartially.They looked at each other, one was thoughtful, the other suppressed the undercurrents, hiding the surging flames without saying anything.

"Thank you for your contribution." Noctua said sternly, with a hint of admiration on his perennially cold expression, "It's our incompetence that didn't realize such an obvious factor, I'm really ashamed. I'll let the decoding team start working, as for the scene Yiwu!"

The person being called was talking on the phone, half of his face was sunk in the shadows, not very clear.Ye Mo turned around and explained to Xia You who was slightly puzzled: "Wu is our best profiler, he can 'empathize' with all the most vicious criminals, and simulate and calculate their trajectories. "

Xia You raised her eyebrows: "Oh?"

On the opposite side of the room, Wujo listened to the indifferent noise of the woman on the phone, and said in a low voice: "Glass..." The words other than the name were quickly interrupted, and the forensic doctor who was rushing to Financial Street was impatient Said: "If you want to say it, say it quickly, I am not responsible for the severe neurology patients."

"Glass, it's definitely him."

"what?"

"Even if there is an alibi, even if the remaining suspicions are about to be wiped out, even if he coaxes Section Chief Night Moth around—" Wujo put it lightly, it is as simple and direct as asking a person if he has eaten or not; but people who are familiar with him But Niatz shuddered, his five fingers holding the phone trembled faintly, and he gritted his teeth to listen to the police officer's announcement to the world in a gentle tone.

"—everything about me tells me that You Jie is the murderer."