64. Privacy and Portrait Rights (Thanks to sevencat for the diamond gift)

  So seductive, this must be the highest state, and I was completely unaware. By the time I came to my senses, I was holding a copy of "Behavioral Crime Psychology", and Kōjō said: This is a required reading course, ask him if you don't understand anything.

  So I sat on the only chair in his room, close to his bedside, and buried my head in reading. The person who said "you can ask if you don't understand" was lying on the bed surfing the internet. In the quiet atmosphere, I almost didn't pay attention to him, because the book that I thought would be very boring turned out to be so engrossing after opening it. Especially the series of cases cited in the middle, it felt like after reading them, there was a vague framework outline in my mind, unclear but existing.

  Unbeknownst to me, the white light had seeped through the curtains and it was already daytime, yet I was still engrossed in my book. It wasn't until I looked up and saw that the room was bright that I froze for a moment, then turned my head to look at the person on the bed - he had fallen asleep at some point, sleeping soundly. The laptop was teetering on the edge of the bed, and I hastily reached out to grab it, but was startled when the screen flipped over!

  A full-screen photo: a headless corpse lies on the ground, with its entire body charred black, and what appears to be scattered limbs nearby.

  I couldn't help but click on the screen, and behind it was another photo of a murder scene: two people with their limbs cut off, also completely charred, except for their heads which were intact, showing the victims' last terrified expressions frozen on their faces. I looked at the next one, paused, the body was intact, not charred, but... why did I feel a sense of discord? I felt that something was wrong, and when I clicked again, it was already the last one. I thought for a moment and flipped back to take another look, and suddenly realized.

  The last corpse in the photo is made up of the limbs of the three people in front, which makes the proportion of the body look distorted and eerie. In other words, this is the fourth person, and his head and limbs are those scattered remains in the first two photos.

  Bloody, brutal, ritualistic. These three photos give me the most intuitive feeling. Also, I feel eerie, how did the murderer manage to synchronize: dismemberment, burning, and preserving some limbs intact? This seems to be contradictory in itself.

  I glanced sideways at the sleeping person, their eyelashes closed, breathing shallow and regular. What was his brain made of? How could he sleep after looking at such terrifying and bloody photos? And as soon as this thought crossed my mind, I suddenly realized why I wasn't afraid. I had never been a brave person, that night following Gao Cheng to Mr. Wu's floor, I had several times wanted to retreat; the photos of Yu Xiuping's death scene also made me feel suffocated and oppressed. But now it was as if I had completely changed, not only was I not afraid, but I would even go on to analyze the underlying principles.

  Just as I was lost in thought, my hand inadvertently clicked on the photo and minimized it to the bottom corner of the screen. My gaze was drawn to a text labeled "Case Closed" and I couldn't help but double-click to open it. There were only a few short lines: (Charlie Arson Case) Using a chemical agent similar to sodium silicate solution, apply it to the human body to isolate the fire. The behavior imitates Michelle, wanting to express a strong sense of ritual, but it's too crude and rough.

  This seems to be Gao Cheng's analysis and summary of the case. I stole a glance at him, wondering how many such case photos and analyses there were, and it was rare to have the opportunity to access his computer, which was the fastest and most effective teaching material after all. Unable to resist the temptation in my heart, I quietly clicked on the cross in the upper right corner, planning to flip through other folders.

  I was completely stunned when I closed the file. I saw myself on the computer screen! It was a scene of me working in the studio, shot from his usual corner. In the studio, I always tied my hair back and had a strand of hair falling from the tie, hanging down beside my face. For the first time, I saw myself from an outsider's perspective, and it turned out that when I was immersed in painting, I looked like this: my eyebrows were slightly furrowed, my lips were lightly pursed, and my eyes were serious.

  At a glance, I saw the familiar two characters "Xia Zhu" in the lower left corner. The name of the folder.

  I already had a premonition, but I still got surprised when I clicked in. There were dozens of photos with me as the main character, all taken at the art gallery, just from different angles. And judging by my clothes, they weren't even taken on the same day. My cheeks flushed, heart racing, being noticed by a guy like this, and it's Gao Cheng, I don't even know how to describe my emotions.

  When the eyes fell to the bottom, a nameless text was found. After clicking in and reading it, all the emotions that had been accumulated before disappeared without a trace.

  Xia Zhu, female, small illustrator, opened a gallery, introverted personality, likes to interfere with others' business.

  Slow reaction, brain often rusty.

  Finally, there's a clue: she has a special intuition about the scene and grasps the emotions of the deceased very accurately.

  Although a bit stupid, it's still not rotten wood, waiting to be carved.

  She scolded me this morning, a common problem with women: being unreasonable and making trouble for no reason.

  What is this? An analysis of my various behaviors? Is he taking me as a case study for his research? It's clear that this document has existed for a long time, not to mention every day, at least it's updated intermittently. Moreover, this person adheres to his consistent concise style, each record is brief and to the point.

  I have a feeling of being treated as a lab rat in research, very uncomfortable. I dragged the entire folder named "Summer Bamboo" into the recycle bin, including the screensaver photos, and also deleted and cleaned up the recycle bin.

  "Have you ever gotten my consent when deleting any files?" A low, nasal voice suddenly emerged from the side, startling me. I turned around to see Gao Cheng half-closing his eyes, his gaze cold and piercing.

  I'd rather face that sarcastic tone than see him like this, frozen in frost. My heart skipped a beat, but I'm not in the wrong here. I puffed out my chest and calmly said: "Taking photos of someone without their permission and saving them is an invasion of their privacy and portrait rights."

  He calmly admitted, "Yes, I did infringe on your portrait rights." I didn't let my guard down, knowing he had more to say. Sure enough, with his eyes cast downward and in a very soft tone, he said: "But first, you have to go to the judicial authorities to report me, obtain relevant restraining orders and legal means, seize my computer for examination, and provide written explanations afterwards. On the premise that I am unwilling to pursue it."

  "I was speechless, with the corners of my mouth twitching. He meant that I deleted his own photos from his computer, and had to go through so many legal procedures, and then still had to ask him not to pursue it, and if he did, it wouldn't be easy to get out of it?"

  Just thinking of this, he saw the tall city above raising the corner of his mouth: "I can counter-investigate you for the crime of invasion and theft of information. You should know," he deliberately paused, "the messages stored on this computer belong to international confidential files. So, more severely, you will be treated as an international spy."

  I stared at him, already unsure of how to refute, turning black and white was nothing more than that, but damn it, I clearly understood in my heart that he wasn't intimidating me, but stating facts.

  Gao Cheng has one advantage, which is that he never speaks deceitfully.

  The three murder scene photos flashed through his mind, and he barely found his voice, but it was weaker: "It's your computer that's about to fall off, I helped you pick it up, and the photos were opened there..."

  Facing that enigmatic smile, I couldn't explain anymore.

  The corners of his mouth converged into an arc, and his eyes deepened: "One of the most common mistakes people make is called 'assuming'. They think that unintentionally seeing something doesn't constitute theft, but they don't realize that in the instant their gaze sweeps over it, the crime of stealing knowledge has already been committed."

  I gritted my teeth, "So you're saying I should have let you smash your computer on the ground back then?"

  "What's wrong with that? Throwing it on the ground has nothing to do with you?"

  I couldn't catch my breath, and it got stuck in my throat, so I started coughing. The unspoken grievances and regrets made me cough even harder, until tears were forced out of my eyes. A hand landed on my back, first slapping me hard, then easing up a bit, patting me gently but awkwardly, with an unnatural tone: "I was just joking, I wouldn't really report you, why are you crying?"

  The doorbell rang at the worst possible time, I was still coughing uncontrollably here. Someone got up and went downstairs, "Takeout? I'll go get it, you... don't cry." As he disappeared from the doorway, I had a feeling that he seemed to be fleeing in disarray, but the tears on my face were just an uncontrolled physiological reaction after being choked, where was I crying?

  Although I was very upset and coughed up tears, I still remembered that I didn't order takeout over the phone this morning. It seemed like someone's voice came from outside, so I immediately walked out and rang the doorbell, which must be for me.

  As I stepped out of the room, a tall figure stood in front of the door, blocking the person outside. Just as I was about to step forward, a familiar voice came: "Are you... Xiaozhu's boyfriend?" Gaicheng paused for two seconds before responding: "You could say that..."

  "Landlady!?" I looked at the person outside the door from a slanted angle, if it wasn't the landlady then who was it? But... turning to Gao Cheng in shock, wasn't he her son? Why did the landlady have an expression as if she didn't recognize him.

  "Little bamboo? You're home, I thought you went to the gallery." The landlady saw me and immediately smiled and greeted me, but soon turned her gaze to Gao Cheng, full of surprise: "Is this young man your friend?"