Chapter 119: Milliseconds Apart
The moment she receives Chatterbox"s message outlining the date of the injuring others incident, Su Mian knows that it"s not the right one.
Firstly, without a doubt, A didn"t write the poem. He doesn"t have the literary skills to. It was most likely L who wrote it.
L does not have compa.s.sion. He only cares about himself and definitely does not have any concept of punishing the evil. How could he possibly write a poem for an innocent person and write it with so many feelings?
And even if it were A, he only kills others based on his liking; he doesn"t seem to show any views of justice.
Therefore, the prediction from Chatterbox and the others cannot be correct.
And thinking more carefully about the poem, "the sky changes colors", "the clouds above his head", they can signify something else——explosion.
In addition, "crawling among the crowd" is such an obvious behavior. They can be sure that this poem is writing about A"s process of committing a crime.
As for "the little bird"s wings have been clipped" and "using its legs to fly", it clearly signifies a certain downfall and change in life.
"Wings are returned to him": could this be the new life that the mentally ill are chasing for?
And "that day" and "until one day" are concepts of time. Since the pa.s.sword is a string of numbers, Su Mian can predict that the numbers must be from a certain explosion case.
But, which one is it?
There are two dates that match her criteria.
One of them is the date of A"s first time committing a crime. Su Mian has flipped through the doc.u.ments many times, so she remembers the date clearly. It"s 20080630. If the metaphors in the poem are writing about A finally carrying out his first crime to search for a new meaning in life, just like how Xu Nan Bai said "his life started to ignite" before the cliff, then this date matches with the criteria.
But there"s a second date: 20090420.
Su Mian takes a deep breath thinking about this. It"s the time when the seven-member organization fought with the police causing many bloodsheds; it"s the date of when she and Han Chen were separated. Using Xin Jia"s words, it was also when the seven-member organization started breaking apart.
Therefore, if the metaphors are talking about this incident, it would make sense too.
As for the alphabet letters at the end, Su Mian can"t figure it out yet. If they"re the letters representing the seven-member organization, there"s too many. If they"re supposed to be combined, she can"t think of any English words or romanization from the letters.
……
She looks up at Han Chen. Just as she wants to grasp the time to talk to him, a terrifying child"s scream comes from the crowd behind them, "AHH——It hurts!" And then a woman shrieks, "My child! My child! Don"t step on her, don"t step on her!"
Su Mian and Han Chen both turn around. They can actually see a seven to eight year-old girl on the ground being stepped on by the crowd blindly. Her mother has been pushed away two to three meters from her; she"s pale as she screams and tries to make her way back. And people who see the girl are subconsciously moving away, but due to the ma.s.sive crowd, people are being shoved around and many end up stepping on the girl"s body. The girl"s voice suddenly goes silent; as if she"s dead.
Han Chen and Su Mian don"t hesitate any longer.
"Move aside! The girl"s going to die from you stepping on her!" Han Chen"s face is as cold as ice. He pushes a big and tall man away in front of him. He releases Su Mian"s hand and rushes toward the girl. The big man"s face changes due to being pushed, "What"s with the pushing?! Who doesn"t want to live now?! Move aside!" He reaches out his arm to push Han Chen. But before he touches Han Chen, Han Chen dodges quickly. He tilts his head slightly and his face is stern like a statue. He punches him fiercely in the face!
Su Mian can"t help but feel satisfied: great punch!
The big man"s face is now bleeding as he falls to the person behind him. The man is completely dumbstruck and others beside him are also shocked as they turn to look at Han Chen. Han Chen and Su Mian use this time to get to the girl. Han Chen carries the fragile girl in his arms and puts her into her mom"s embrace.
The crowd is starting to move again. Han Chen embraces Su Mian tightly as he leans against the wall. It"s too noisy around them. He pulls out his phone and sends a text message quickly: "200980420".
Su Mian feels as if the waves in her heart has finally settled down, but she feels perplexed at the same time. Once he puts the phone down, she asks immediately, "Why is it this day? Is it not 20080630?"
Han Chen"s fair white face is still cold as always. He answers swiftly, "The order of the letters."
They"re not in a place for him to explain it to her right now. But he was able to spot the pattern of the letters at first glance.
The first set of letters: a, e, i, m, and q are in order, and between each letter, it skips 3 consecutive letters. Based on this pattern, the next letter would be u after skipping r, s, and t.
The other set of letters are z, x, v, and t. They are in reversed order and between two letters, one letter is skipped. Based on this pattern, the next letter should be r, skipping s.
Although he doesn"t know the meaning behind skipping the letters, Su Mian said before that A and L both have a childish side. Therefore, he might as well use the most direct approach to think through this pattern. This allows him to discover that between the two sets of letters, the letter "s" is in the center of it.
And what does s stand for?
A letter representing another killer?
Or is it the beginning letter of the word, "seven"? And the phrase in the poem, "he was only seven that day," is the day after 20090420 where their organization is left with seven people only.
Therefore, Han Chen is certain that this is the date.
And two seconds after sending the text message, his phone rings again.
Han Chen picks up the phone. Su Mian feels her heart in her throat.
Chatterbox"s speech is rapid and carries pain, "Leader……it"s too late! The situation is out of control!"
Han Chen"s eyes darken suddenly.
When Han Chen and Su Mian went to save the child who was being stepped on, they still had 2 minutes before the explosion time of 7:05. According to their initial plan, the civil officers at the square would have dispersed the crowd to ensure their safety. There would be only one criminal investigator left who volunteered to stay by the clown"s side in hope to grasp the last chance to save him.
But probably due to panic or having his emotions collapse after suppressing them for so long, the clown has broken free from the criminal investigator and is chasing after the crowd!
"I don"t want to die alone! Why do I have to die alone! You guys shouldn"t live either!" he shouts as he comes running. The criminal investigator chases after him, but from discovering the clown untill now, it has only been a few minutes, so the square is still filled with people running frantically. The criminal investigator is blocked off by the people and can"t chase after him. Therefore, even though the criminal investigator shouts toward him, "We have the pa.s.scode, come back!" he can"t hear him.
……
"Which direction is he heading?" Han Chen asks in a cold voice.
Chatterbox responds, "Toward Northeast!"
Han Chen hangs up and throws the phone to Su Mian. Su Mian reacts quickly and grabs his wrist, "Which way is Northeast? Are you going there? It"s already too late!" If they had 2 minutes left initially, how much do they have left now? 1 minute? 30 seconds?
Han Chen doesn"t answer. His pupils are black like ink.
But he doesn"t need to answer. Because at the exit of the underground walkway not far away, where there is sunlight shining through, people are panicking suddenly.
"Oh my G.o.d! He"s coming this way!"
"He"s crazy! It"s not enough that he dies?! Hurry and run!"
……
"Su Mian, I can"t stand and watch someone lose their life in front of my eyes!" Han Chen says these words quickly and fiercely in a deep voice. Before Su Mian can react, he breaks free from her grip, turns around and runs, "You stay here. Don"t go anywhere." There"s no way for Su Mian to agree, but the people around them have already separated them. She can only see Han Chen"s shadow running in the opposite direction of everybody else and is moving farther and farther away from her.
Su Mian curses under her breath. She follows Han Chen and raises her fist at whoever blocks her way. At the same time, she dials for Chatterbox and chases after Han Chen.
"Chatterbox! Han Chen is going to save the clown himself!" she shouts.
On the other end of the phone, Chatterbox and the others go pale, "Don"t let him go! The bomb will explode any second now!"
Su Mian feels her heart shaking so hard that her chest is hurting. Seeing that Han Chen has already exited the tunnel and is nowhere to be found, she grits her teeth with tears almost flowing and squeezes her way through.
"Move aside! Move aside! Han Chen!"
……