Old-time musicians

"...I know. Search on Google and read." Julius only delayed a very short time before answering.

Fan Ning just nodded, indicating that he understood.

The police were busy around, and she continued to observe Fan Ning's every move, but she did not see any feedback from the other party's words and deeds, and she could not predict what questions Fan Ning would ask next.

The sense of security and solidity that I had maintained in my heart for a long time was always absent in front of Fan Ning tonight.

She couldn't help but continue to add details: "We had a few brief exchanges... After all, we are the daughters of a professor. We are both old people from the music school. We have never met each other or heard about very few... I am still here I have heard her play the violin on a few occasions and her level is extremely high.”

Unexpectedly, Fan Ning didn't pay attention to what she was saying next.

Instead, he turned sideways and looked at the various objects on the office table.

Julius breathed a sigh of relief at first, and then gradually, an imperceptible strangeness gradually appeared in her eyes.

Then, just like when the two entered the factory before, they continued to follow Fan Ning step by step, showing that they were waiting for questions at any time.

The tabletop, which was originally used as an altar, has become riddled with holes after various twists and turns. Stacked books and various objects are scattered on the floor.

Fan Ning's eyes suddenly caught sight of a black object that fell among the books on the ground.

It was the frame-like object that Erlov had placed in the center of the altar, but it was still tightly wrapped in a black curtain.

"Mr. Fanning, are you reading this?"

Seeing this, Julius quickly walked forward very considerately, bent down to pick it up, and handed it to Fan Ning while unwrapping the curtain.

Fan Ning stretched out his hand to take it, but he didn't notice at the moment that Julius raised her eyes specially, and her eyes fell on his face.

"Caron, don't look!"

Dupont, who was four or five meters away, was instructing the police to take pictures with their cameras. He accidentally glanced at Fan Ning, and suddenly his expression changed drastically and he shouted loudly!

But it's too late.

Fanning saw that it was a painting.

A portrait, the composition and colors are very standard, but it seems to be painted with crayon, and it has a weird mixture of maturity and childishness, refinement and roughness.

He has a black top hat, auburn hair, and a pale boy's face, with a few bruises on his skin, his cheeks are swollen and ulcerated, his nose and lips are black, and his eye sockets and brows are twisted together.

…am I dead?

…Is this what I’ll look like after I die?

…When did it happen?

…Why am I holding a dead portrait of myself?

Fan Ning was in a trance, and then he saw the twisted eye sockets of the dead self in the portrait suddenly moved, and then his eyes popped out, the corners of his mouth were torn, and he grinned at himself.

Fan Ning felt that his mind was defeated by some information or knowledge, because there are two names of witnesses, born from a lost and unknown source, one is "born in eternal death" and the other is "dead in eternal existence" ", entangled with each other, creating paradoxes, one's own cognition tends to collapse, constantly praising the beauty and greatness, and constantly being frightened by why it is so.

The colors of the crayons on the painting began to squirm, like living creatures like nematodes. At first they were fragmented, chaotic, and non-whole, but later they became densely packed, and uncontrolled twisted embryos grew freely from the gaps, decaying and dancing. .

At this time, he recalled the sound of some bow strings stretching and rubbing in his mind. It was "String Quartet in D minor "Death and the Maiden"". The music was not complete, but just one that surprised him one by one. He would play it back in his mind from time to time on weekdays. fragment.

He suddenly understood why a safe flow direction expressed in the "Law of Implicit Knowledge Transmission" was "from high to low", because the strange artistic perception during the rehearsal the day before yesterday turned out to be a spiritual refuge from the pollution of implicit knowledge. Highlands.

When certain acceptance and rejection of "how could this be like this" become "so normal" habitual calmness, the world view and self-perception that are about to collapse continue to linger until the last moment.

The twisted crayon lines were peeled off, and the vision returned to the mess of the room. In front of him, Monroe was pointing a short-barreled shotgun at Julius's chest.

The other people standing around looked at him.

The painting was put back on the desk by his teammates and wrapped in a dark curtain.

"Carolen?" Dupont asked in surprise. He had just seen Fan Ning's eyes become blurry and unfocused at first, then he seemed to have deliberately closed his eyes under control, and finally opened them now.

"I'm fine." Fan Ning said calmly.

Then he looked deeply at Julius: "Did you do it on purpose?"

"I saw you were looking at that thing, so I handed it to you. What I thought was that you should cooperate with the investigation." Julius's voice seemed flustered and innocent.

Fan Ning changed the subject again: "You told the school investigation team about the encounter at Prudence Auction House, right?"

"On Friday, right? That's right. This is considered cooperating with the investigation at that time."

"Then you knew that I didn't go home that night?"

Julius's pupils shrank slightly: "Mr. Fan Ning, you were taken away by the school investigation team in the classroom because of Professor Lorraine's incident. Too many people knew about this matter, and it was indeed spread immediately. In my ears... However, I don’t know what you experienced next.”

"So, it was Team Leader Cecil who told you?" Fan Ning gently stroked the revolver in his hand.

"I don't quite understand what you mean." Looking at the movements in Fan Ning's hands, Julius smiled a little reluctantly, "Cecil and I do have a close relationship on weekdays, but we can't stay together all day long. His teacher passed away. Yes, he is a party involved... But how could he come here at night and tell me such a trivial matter as "You didn't come home."

At this moment, the female classmate's heartbeat and breathing became slightly faster.

"Why are you nervous?" Fan Ning suddenly said with a warm smile, "You just said that the news about me being taken away by the school immediately reached your ears. By the way, I would like to ask if Cecil told you about this... "

"Why do you keep mentioning what happened tonight, Julius-san?"

"I'm sorry, you made me a little overly restrained." Julius lowered her head and looked at the toes of her leather boots.

Fan Ning gently weighed the revolver in his hand, then raised his head: "Dupont, under normal circumstances, what is the next process?"

"Take these two people back to the South Pier District Police Security Bureau first." Dupont ordered the leading police officer. "Interrogate them according to the prescribed actions, and then report to the Special Patrol Office as soon as possible."

Julius let out a long breath, and then she felt that her underwear was soaked with cold sweat and clung tightly to her skin.

After the crowd dispersed from the steel supports high in the workshop, the disposal of the ground site also entered the finishing stage.

"You just wanted to kill her." Dupont said at this time.

"Is it so obvious?" Fan Ning glanced at him.

"Actually, you can." The guitarist's voice was more melancholy than usual, "At this time, shooting will be a big trouble, but it's not that the school can't solve it. Now that I think about it, there are some things I did when I was a teenager. Not impulsive enough”

Fan Ning said: "You told me about the operating style of the Special Inspection Office at that time: you can't feel its presence on weekdays, but once it takes action, things often progress extremely quickly, and there is no room for recovery."

"Yes, what?"

"I don't know enough about the Special Patrol Office, but this style is worth learning." Fan Ning smiled lightly, "I often use similar methods to adjust my sensitive personality."

"The behavior pattern of an artist." Lawyer Monroe commented casually.

"But that kind of impulsive youthfulness that Dupont talked about can be practiced next time." Fan Ning changed the topic.

"Artists sometimes need to try different styles." Attorney Monroe continued to comment.

"I am responsible for what just happened." Dupont raised his hand to stop the two of them from straying from the topic, and then said seriously: "When investigating such incidents, you must always be careful to avoid looking directly at the hidden carriers you may be searching for. I forgot before taking action. You have not yet established a sense of vigilance in this regard.”

"How do you feel now? What happened next?" Monroe also asked at this time, "When I first saw your reaction, I thought you were in big trouble. I have never seen such a dangerous hidden consciousness. Generally speaking, the contamination effects of carriers are subtle and rarely visible immediately.”

"I have understood similar hidden knowledge before in my migration, and I tried to express it in my new works." When Fan Ning explained, he polished the details and transposed the causal relationship.

"...So I have some cognitive expectations in advance. Without collapse, I know the names of the two witnesses, or an important clue. Do you want to try to listen to it?"

"Okay." "It's not a big problem." Both of them nodded.

A simple name of the Lord of Witnesses, if there is no related secret history or other secret transmission, is just a code name, which belongs to low-level hidden knowledge. With the stability of these two souls, even if the first type of transmission form is directly used, the risk is still at a reasonable level. Acceptance range.

In contrast, prayers carry a higher risk because they involve the mystery and even the origin of the Lord of Witness, with richer descriptions and more precise directions. When recited or listened to, there will inevitably be a strong sense of prayer, triggering Staring is more likely.

Fan Ning picked up the candle lying on the table, looked at its peculiar elliptical column shape and the candle wick divided into two clusters, and said to the two of them:

"One of them is called 'contemplation of death' and the other is called 'flow'."