Mental Illness (Part 2)

Lieutenant Colonel Lu was somewhat frivolous, but the caution ingrained by years of logistics work made him doubtful about the situation itself. "The others are one thing, but this kid Ronan is genuinely suspicious. So young, yet he struck so ruthlessly, and his reaction afterward was downright strange."

Zhang Yingying answered seriously, "It's regrettable that something like this happened, but I believe this kind of minor conflict caused by hot-blooded impulsiveness won't interfere with the judgment of the case itself."

"Of course. The military is only responsible for temporary detention and will not express any opinion on the incident."

Lieutenant Colonel Lu had only mentioned it in passing, and soon smiled again. "According to orders from above, Ronan and the others must wait until the search of the scene is complete before screening and records can be conducted. It'll probably take at least another eight hours. They're not allowed to communicate with the outside world before then, so Miss Zhang, you came too early... By the way, the coffee in the officers' Activity Room aboard the ship is quite good. How about I treat you to some and help pass the time?"

Faced with such brazen flirting, utterly lacking in self-awareness, Zhang Yingying did not even blink before refusing outright. "That won't be necessary. My client looks like he's lost all will to live. It's better if I keep an eye on him."

Lieutenant Colonel Lu shrugged. "That damaged soft screen must hold some special meaning for him. Like a birthday gift from his father, perhaps."

Zhang Yingying raised her brows. "A gift from his father? Good idea!"

Lieutenant Colonel Lu was a little baffled. He could not keep up with the train of thought of the young lawyer before him, but in order to achieve his goal, he still smiled and showed off some half-baked philosophy.

"Adults need to carefully decide on a reason to permit themselves weakness. Children are much more spontaneous. Any setback may affect them, but they recover quickly too, because they are still sheltered by their families. Their father will soon make up for it..."

"My client's Old Man abandoned him when he was four, patted his ass, and disappeared."

Was that another rejection?

Lieutenant Colonel Lu was rather embarrassed for a moment. He was unwilling to slink away, but while he was still wrestling with himself, Zhang Yingying gave him a thumbs-up.

"So that's why I'm saying, Lieutenant Colonel, excellent intuition!"

"..."

Zhang Yingying formed a ring with her thumb and forefinger, while the other three fingers made a slicing gesture in the air. "Do you know that in the sixty years since Imitation Paper Soft Screen products appeared, there have been more than two hundred brands worldwide and over three thousand models? Yet the one in my client's hands isn't any model currently on the market."

Lieutenant Colonel Lu was completely lost, but chatting with a beauty was always good, so he worked his brain hard. "Was it privately made?"

"That's right! My client's father was a first-rate industrial designer. Before leaving his job and vanishing, he had an excellent work record in both Quantum Corporation's production and creative departments. Making such a gift for his only son couldn't have been more fitting."

Lieutenant Colonel Lu made a rough calculation. "So it has a history of at least twelve years? Tsk, tsk... But I have to say, it'll be hard for you to demand substantial compensation from the destroyer based on that alone."

Zhang Yingying smiled faintly. Naturally, she would not explain any further to Lieutenant Colonel Lu. In fact, back at the firm, she had already conducted a more detailed analysis based on the Imitation Paper Soft Screen video footage obtained that morning.

Although Ronan's Imitation Paper Soft Screen was not any commercially available product, the materials used to make it had to be. For example, that ultra-thin panel belonged to the "Jellyfish" series, which had launched in early 2090.

That proved Ronan could not have received this gift before Year 90. In other words, it was highly possible that in Year 90, Ronan's father, who had been declared missing or even dead, had still been in contact with Ronan... even if only to this extent.

"Year 90. Lu Hong's incident also happened that year, along with Quantum Corporation's Burners and the Deep Blue Platform. It really does seem crucial..."

Zhang Yingying stared at the silent, stiff big boy on the surveillance feed. She suddenly wanted to know how ten-year-old Ronan had felt on some day in Year 90, when he received this gift mailed by a father whose whereabouts were unknown.

Was he remembering it now?

The surveillance feed could not convey Ronan's thoughts, but it clearly transmitted his movements. After sitting silently for a long time, Ronan finally made a new move.

He stood up, closed the damaged notebook, and placed it on the chair. Then he took a step toward the door.

Because the space was so cramped, when Ronan leaned forward slightly at that distance, his forehead pressed against the heavy, cold metal door. He maintained the pose for several seconds, taking several deep breaths with visibly pronounced movements. Up to this point, Ronan's actions were easy enough to understand. He was trying to calm himself.

But what Ronan did next became incomprehensible.

On the surveillance feed, Ronan moved back slightly and adjusted his distance, his gaze remaining fixed on the metal door. He was focused and earnest, as though the thing before him was an incomparably exquisite work of art.

A full minute later, he closed his eyes again and reached out, letting his fingertips slide across the surface of the metal door, feeling from one end to the other. That was not all. His fingers then traced along the corner of the wall, touching the metal-panel wall on one side and continuing the same motion.

Like that, Ronan walked lap after lap through the cramped space, his fingertips drawing continuous, invisible traces across the metal walls.

"What... what is going on here?" The change was so bizarre and inexplicable that Lieutenant Colonel Lu felt a little dizzy.

Zhang Yingying did not answer, merely watching with great interest.

This lawyer was really something...

Fine. Lieutenant Colonel Lu felt that this could not go on any longer. Ronan was a minor, after all. If he really suffered some kind of shock and went mad from being cooped up here, then once the media got hold of it, his military career would be finished.

He signaled his soldiers to prepare intervention measures. The Confinement Room had sedative spray equipment, specifically prepared to prevent detainees from becoming mentally unstable or even harming themselves.

Yet at that moment, Ronan stopped walking. As though nothing had happened, he picked up the notebook from the chair and sat down again. He turned to a blank page, took out an Electronic Pen, removed its sensing tip, and the rear half became a fluorescent pen that could write on paper.

Under Lieutenant Colonel Lu's astonished gaze, Ronan lowered his pen and sketched a crisscrossing network of faint dark lines across the paper. His strokes were extremely quick, and he was highly skilled at simple sketching. Within a few breaths, a rough outline had taken shape.

Lieutenant Colonel Lu signaled for a close-up from the surveillance camera. The outline on the paper resembled a building. Though it was only a sketch, certain details—the sealed grilles, heavy walls, narrow windows, and so on—combined to give a powerful impression:

It was a prison.

Yet the overall structure had an unnatural sense of displacement, as though some force existing between the intangible and the tangible had intervened and warped the building.

Lieutenant Colonel Lu understood only half of what he saw. At that moment, a faint sound came from beside him. Turning his head, he saw Zhang Yingying staring at the surveillance feed, her toes unconsciously tapping the floor, her expression more focused than ever before.

Hmm, maybe even if I reached out and touched the young lawyer's perky ass now, she wouldn't react...