Chapter 10: Psychosis (Part 2/2)

Although Commander Lu was somewhat frivolous, he had already acquired the habit of caution from doing logistics work for a long time so he had some hesitation towards the current situation: “There isn’t any problems with the others, but this one kid Luo Nan is truly a bit suspicious. He’s so young; how could his hand be so fierce? His behavior after what transpired was bizarre as well.”

Zhang Yingying replied completely seriously: “Having this sort of thing happen is truly regretful. But in my opinion, this was a small conflict caused by the impulsiveness of being hot-headed. It won’t hinder the judgment of this case itself.”

“Of course the military is only temporarily responsible for detaining these youths. We won’t make a statement on this incident.”

Commander Lu spoke, putting the matter to the side. Soon he revealed a smile: “In accordance to orders from higher in the chain of command, Luo Nan’s batch of people still need to wait for their investigations to be completed. We still need to conduct screening and establish records. It should take about eight more hours at the very least, during which we won’t permit them with any contact with people on the outside. You’ve come early Miss Zhang&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;. The coffee in the officer rec room is said to be quite good. Why don’t I invite Miss Zhang over there to kill a bit of time?”

Zhang Yingying’s eyes didn’t even blink once when faced with this tactless and crude pickup technique. She directly refused: “No that’s not necessary. My client has the miserable look of despair and apathy. It would be better for me to keep a close eye on him.”

Commander Lu shrugged his shoulders: “It should be because his flexible screen is broken. It should have some special significance for him. For instance, it could be a gift from his father or something like that.”

Zhang Yingying raised an eyebrow: “A gift from his father? What good thinking!”

Commander Lu was a bit taken back when he was met with the rejecting signs by this young female lawyer. But he still revealed forth a smile for the sake of his objective. He spoke showing off in the sort of clear, yet not clear philosophical manner:

“Adults need to cautiously decide on allowing weak justification. The number of kids who are laid back are plenty. They could suffer setbacks are any time, but they can bounce back quickly. This is because they’re still under the protection of their family. Their fathers quickly compensate for it&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;”

“When my client was four his father threw him to the ground, smacked his b.u.t.t, and disappeared.”

Was this another rejection?

Commander Lu was rather embarra.s.sed for a while. He slipped away crestfallen and unwilling. While in this state of confusion, he actually met with Zhang Yingying making a big thumb’s up towards him:

“Therefore I need to say this. Mr. Commander has quite the excellent intuition!”

“......”

Zhang Yingying’s forefinger and thumb pressed to form a ring. Her other fingers sliced through the empty air: “Did you know that the flexible e-ink screen was a product that emerged 60 years ago. That there are approximately 200 different brands in total with over 3000 products. However, my client’s screen isn’t a model that could be found on any market.”

Commander Lu’s mind was a foggy mist. It was great just to be able to chat with this beauty. He did the utmost to get the gears in his head turning:

“It was personally made?”

“That’s right! My client’s father was one of the best industrial designers. He worked in manufacturing in Quantum Corporation and had outstanding creative work experience across two departments before retiring without a trace. He created this gift as a present for his sole son. There’s no present as fitting as this.”

Commander Lu performed a rough a.s.sessment: “In other words, that screen has at least 12 years of history to it? Tsk&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;. But I need to say this. It would be very hard for you to use this reasoning to ask for a higher compensation due to damages.”

Zhang Yingying chuckled. Naturally she wouldn’t give Commander Lu further explanation. In reality she had already obtained the data on the flexible e-ink screen display and had already performed a more meticulous a.n.a.lysis when she was in the office.

Although Luo Nan’s flexible e-ink screen was not a product that could be found on any market, it still required manufactured parts. For example, its super thin panel was part of the Medusa Series that hit the market in the year 2090.

From this she could prove that the earliest timeframe in which Luo Nan could receive this gift was in the 90s at the earliest. In other words, it was highly likely that Luo Nan’s determined to be missing or even dead father still maintained contact with Luo Nan in the 90s&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip; Maybe that was all there was.

“The year 2090. The matter with Yan Hong also happened in this year. There was also Quantum Corporation’s Burners, Deep Blue Platform&h.e.l.lip; There were many pivotal events&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;”

Zhang Yingying stared at the monitoring screen at that taciturn and stiff big boy. She suddenly really wanted to know what had happened on a certain day in the year 2090. At that time Luo Nan would barely be 10 years old when he would receive that present from his father whom’s location was unknown. What kind of emotions did he go through?

Was he reminiscing right now?

The display of the monitor wouldn’t be able to broadcast Luo Nan’s inner thoughts, but it did broadcast Luo Nan’s bodily movements perfectly clearly&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip; After a long period of sitting in silence, Luo Nan finally made a new movement.

He stood up, placed the broken notebook onto the chair, and strode a step towards the door.

From this distance Luo Nan could stick his forehead to the thick and ice-cold metal door with a slight leaning of his body due to the small size of this s.p.a.ce. He maintained this position for several seconds. He could be seen performing a few deep breaths in this time period&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip; So far Luo Nan’s actions were quite understandable; he was doing his best to maintain a calm state of mind. 

But Luo Nan’s next action made people quite bewildered.

Luo Nan slightly moved back on the display of the monitor, adjusting his distance. His line of sight remained facing the metal door from start to finish. He concentrated with all his might; it was as if what was in front of him was an unparalleled and exquisite work of art.

He closed his eyes a full minute later, reaching out with his hand and letting his fingertips slip across the surface of the metal door. He felt from here to there. This wasn’t the end of it. His fingertips streaked to the corner to touch the metal plated walls and he continued with his preceding action.

And just like this, Luo Nan walked in circle after circle in this cramped room. His fingertips stroked on the metal walls, forming continuous invisible linking traces.

“What. What’s going on?” The inexplicably bizarre change caused Commander Lu to be a bit dizzy.

Zhang Yingying didn’t reply. She just looked on with complete interest.

This lawyer was intoxicated&h.e.l.lip;...

Fine. Commander Lu felt that things should be put to a stop. After all, Luo Nan was only a minor. What if he really was traumatized and was stifled to madness. His military career would completely dry up if the media were to report this.

He hinted to his subordinate to prepare measures of intervention&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip; The closed room had a sedative mist spray installed and prepared to prevent enclosed people from getting mental breakdowns or even perform self-mutilation.

But Luo Nan stopped his footsteps at this moment. It was as if the previous events hadn’t happened at all. He picked up the notebook from the chair and sat as before. He flipped to a blank page in the notebook and whipped out the digital pen. He removed the inductance tip to transform the pen into a fluorescent pen that could be used to write on paper.

The tip of Luo Nan’s pen fell onto the paper under the astonished gaze of Commander Lu. He drew out crisscrossed, fine, and muddled lines. His pen moved exceedingly fast to draw in an expertly minimal manner. After a few breathing techniques, an approximate outline appeared on the paper.

Commander Lu indicated to the monitoring camera to zoom in. Then he was met with the lined sketch; it appeared to be a building. There was quite the detail to it even though it was just a sketch. For example there was the enclosed fence, the thick walls, and the narrow windows. All these combined with other details to give one an intense impression:

This was a prison.

Only, the configuration as a whole had a certain unnatural misalignment to it. It was as if it contained a sort of force that can intervene between the material and the intangible, causing this building to become warped and twisted.

Commander Luo looked half understanding half confused. Then a sound came from the side of his body. He twisted his head to look and was met with Zhang Yingying gazing fixed at the monitoring display. She tapped the floor subconsciously with her foot. Her expression was that of unparalleled concentration.

Oh? Maybe this little miss lawyer wouldn’t react if he were to reach out with his hand and grope her perky b.u.t.t&h.e.l.lip;...