Archimedes and cryptography

  Although countless times witnessing his ability to see through things that others found obscure, although countless times wanting to strangle him when he said it was obvious, Owen still wanted to know how Yan Suo had figured it out.

  He leaned against the piano and made a beckoning gesture.

  She slid back in her wheelchair, her long legs neatly arranged on the piano bench, crossed over each other.

  The light from the stained glass window cast a faint blue glow in his pale eyes, paired with his Western facial features, he looked like a prince from the Middle Ages.

  "You and I introduced her situation, which is the same as this resume. Sorrel Fraser Uy (Xiamen University), Master of Journalism and Mass Communication. But in fact..."

  "It's so cold outside but I don't wear gloves because they reduce finger sensitivity and in case of an emergency, it would leave me at a loss."

  The indoor temperature was very high, she sweated but didn't take off her coat and scarf, because she felt insecure and was ready to leave at any time.

  The pant legs were loose and wrinkle-free, the outside was very cold with thick snow, but she wasn't wearing boots. Moreover, there was something hidden in her pant legs, judging from the outline it seemed to be a gun. Would students carry guns? No way. But if she's a key protected target, that's a different story.

  More than an hour from downtown, there was no crease on her coat where a seatbelt would have pressed.

  She didn't wear a seatbelt because agents on duty need to maintain the fastest reaction speed, and wearing a seatbelt takes time and sometimes gets stuck. She wasn't taught by you, worried about sudden situations.

  "All of the above indicates that she has mild paranoid delusions. This is the most common reaction when a witness changes their identity at the beginning."

  She glanced over the books on the bookshelf as she came in, her eyes scanning the news media books without stopping, just like looking at other books. She was not interested.

  She could see the cell biology pharmacology section, her gaze stayed for more than five seconds, and her right hand unconsciously tapped on the envelope. She was not only looking but also memorizing the book title. This is a habitual knowledge intake and supplement of her own profession.

  She stands with her right hand on top of her left hand, not a southpaw.

  But handing me things and later picking up books all used his left hand, was to cover the electric shock cuff scars on his right wrist.

  "Right, she's wearing a very masculine wolf-tooth bracelet on her hand, which should be a keepsake. The wolf tooth is quite distinctive and wouldn't be something her father would give her; she's very reserved in front of me and not good at getting along with men, so it's possible she doesn't have any romantic experience, so it's probably not from a boyfriend. Most likely, it's from a brother."

  Owen was tongue-tied and speechless, the inference was too much, when he took over Zhen Ai as a witness, the materials he got were not so comprehensive.

  "Also, her hands smell of medical beeswax oil and talcum powder. Beeswax oil is used by people who frequently disinfect their hands and need to protect their skin from dryness, while talcum powder is used by those who wear rubber gloves for flexible work. Is she a surgeon? No. Because doctors require 12 years of professional study, and she's at most 22 years old;

  Combining previous ideas, she is a laboratory researcher in cell biology and pharmaceuticals."

  "The girl who suddenly appeared beside you, I don't know her, but you're very concerned about her safety, which is enough to explain the problem."

  He picked out the first page of his resume, tilted it against the light, and a transparent mark floated up on the white paper.

  "Before printing, she had written something on the previous sheet of paper. Students studying mass media remember a phone call, will use Morse code?"

  "As for her parents' information, it was only after I saw your expression and confirmed that she is a witness protection object that I thought of it."

  "She is still doing relevant experiments, which shows that she has mastered the core knowledge or technology in this field. However, in biological research and pharmacology, there is no such thing as genius, it's all about experience and accumulation. She is so young, it's only possible if her parents passed it down to her. And there is another most important point,"

  He looked at Owen with suspicion and inquiry.

  "A girl I don't know suddenly appears beside you, not your girlfriend, but you're extremely concerned about her safety and even ask me to explain some childish password to her. What a waste of great talent!"

  He snorted disdainfully and concluded:

  "A scientist couple who possessed crucial knowledge and their young daughter, the most likely scenario is that the parents defected from their original organization and were murdered, passing on all the secrets to their daughter before they died. The daughter then traded this for witness protection."

  In the empty and quiet library, Owen's astonished face was written with four words "beyond his wildest dreams".

  "Of course, there are other possibilities." Yan Yu smiled strangely, his dark eyebrows staring at him, "For example, she works part-time in a candle shop, has a wide range of hobbies, likes to buy men's accessories, likes to study cryptography, and is interested in pharmacology. She has a rebellious personality, doesn't wear seatbelts, and carries fake guns to scare people. At the same time, she has strong paranoid delusions... Contradictory? The conclusion I drew is that the possibility is greater."

  He inadvertently revealed his arrogant and proud self, "Your expression has told me the answer. Thank you!"

  Owen's face turned black.

  He also added indifferently: "So, rich expressions, more harm than good."

  Owen is angry, can't friends who grew up together since childhood still make a poker face?

  He put down his hands, and put back the white book on the bookshelf wall.

  Owen bowed his head and poked at the piano keys with his fingers, the notes were discordant: "You're great, but there's one thing you said wrong."

  She turned around and looked at him.

  "She wasn't an initial witness under the Witness Protection Program, but five years ago." Owen took a deep breath. "The previous agents assigned to protect her were all killed in action."

  She gazed at him quietly for a while, her voice low and husky: "Owen!"

  "Huh?"

  "Let me give you some advice."

  Owen pricked up his ears and listened.

  "Don't die!"

  “……”

  After finishing speaking, Owen picked up the paper on the piano rack and looked at the card sent by Yan Ai, asking: "Don't you want to take a look?"

  "Maybe next time." Yan Mo carelessly stuffed the card back into the envelope, he wasn't very interested.

  Owen leaned over to take Ye Ai's resume, high school and before in China, college and after in the United States, very monotonous and plain. He tilted the paper slightly, following the light, and indeed saw a mark on it.

  Although the symbols have variations, it is undoubtedly Morse code.

  "This is a phone note, quite clear." Owen muttered unconsciously: "The name is Delf Ben Agust, the number is 150-250-0441-2! Hmm, still a Chinese mobile phone number?"

  Isn't it clear?

  He paused for a moment, his eyes drifting to the paper in his hand. From this angle, he could clearly see the printed characters. A string of symbols flashed through his mind as he stared at it: "This isn't a name and phone number, but a death threat."

  Owen's face turned slightly pale and he said: "Although some witnesses have no respect for life and will intentionally kill, Ai wouldn't do that..."

  Yan Yu interrupted him: "Does she write with her left hand or right hand?"

  "Right hand."

  "She had injured her right hand and didn't have enough strength, how could the characters she wrote leave such a deep impression on the second sheet of paper?" Yan Suo furrowed his brow. "This password wasn't written by her. Ha, I was careless," he said with a mix of anger and laughter at himself. "With her cautious nature, if it were really her who wrote it, how could she have left an impression?"

  Yan Suo raised an eyebrow and looked at Owen: "She has a roommate who knows Morse code, didn't you guys investigate the people around her?"

  Owen's first reaction was not to investigate further, but to quickly call Zhen Ai, no one answered and it went straight to voicemail.

  He immediately set off walking outwards.

  "You should pray now, this threat wasn't sent to her." Yu Ru's tone was light, seeing Owen about to breathe a sigh of relief, he added indifferently, "The possibility is small."

  Zhen Ai's phone was silent for a while, and when she took out her card in the school library, she found more than a dozen missed calls.

  He called Owen back, who let out a sigh of relief and asked a bunch of questions before saying that he and Yan would come over right away to get more information. As they hung up the phone, Owen could be heard whispering tensely to someone else that everything was okay and they could cancel the tracking now.

  A detached voice on the other end of the phone responded to Owen: "If you want to die, die early."

  Zhen Ai returned to the student dormitory with others. As it was approaching dusk, the campus was filled with classmates driving home or dating, and the snowy ground was a colorful silhouette.

  Zhen Aili stood beside a short and chubby little snowman, and soon saw Yan Suo walking from the vast white winter.

  The first reaction was surprise.

  He didn't sit in a wheelchair, his legs were fine and very straight and slender.

  When sitting in a wheelchair, the head is not small, now it looks even more tall and thin, black long windbreaker, gray scarf, straight and slender figure, low-key but unforgettable, pleasing to the eye like a British movie noble gentleman.

  Zhen Ai saw him approaching, gave him a polite smile, and the air she breathed out condensed into a white mist in the cold air, which was quickly blown away by the wind. Yan Suo obviously wasn't prepared for her smile, his already dull expression became even more stiff, as if frozen by the cold wind; only his light brown eyes were quiet like stained glass illuminated by sunlight in a church.

  Zhen Ai's hands were inserted in the pockets of her coat, and the long wait had chilled her to the point where she was stamping her feet. Her smile was also trembling. They didn't know each other well, so they felt especially awkward facing each other. Zhen Ai saw that he looked calm and collected, so she tried to make conversation: "Did Owen drive you here?"

  This is undoubtedly a meaningless sentence, just like "Have you eaten yet?" on a fine day, but it's a good way to make small talk.

  But he obviously does not agree with the value of this sentence.

  He silently looked at her, his light-colored eyes appeared even lighter under the reflection of the snow, with a hint of mockery: "A giant bird picked me up and brought me here." Original sentence was: "I hitchhiked a giant bird."

  Can't tell if it's typical American dry humor or sarcasm towards a boring question.

  Zhen Ai thinks it is closer to the latter.

  Is he having interpersonal difficulties?

  Zhen Ai found it difficult to continue the conversation, and after a long time, she finally changed the subject: "Did Owen go park the car? Are we waiting for him here?"

  "Go ahead and wait." He stepped out with his long legs, walking towards the apartment, with a cold indifference on his face that showed he didn't want to chat, "The cold can weaken people's psychological defenses. This might explain why you suddenly have so much to say, chattering away like a bird."

  Zhen Ai looks up at the sky, and their conversation ends in complete failure.

  This person's thinking is too erratic, she racked her brains and didn't know how to respond. (Many readers like this paragraph very much, so I won't delete it.)

  He had just entered the building when he suddenly stopped in his tracks, and Zhen Ai almost bumped into his back, hastily braking.

  She turned her head to look at him, her eyes as clean as the snow outside: "Owen said that when you saw my business card, you said I was a person who seemed low-key but was actually very arrogant and proud inside?"

  Before she could retreat, Zhen Ai stopped in her tracks and found herself very close to him. She looked up at his handsome and calm face, feeling an inexplicable sense of pressure.

  Although embarrassed, she still admitted: "Yes."

  "Arrogant and haughty," he recited slowly, "although I personally like these two words, you should disagree." He continued walking forward.

  Zhen Ai said calmly: "It's not that I don't agree, it's just that humility is always good."

  He went up the stairs with his back straight and his eyes fixed on what was in front of him:

  "I do not think that humility is a virtue, and I have found the nearest approach to it in the logician who holds that all our knowledge is of truths which are themselves true independently of our knowledge of them."

  Zhen Ai was taken aback and reflexively said: "Holmes' 'The Greek Interpreter'."

  "A Holmes fan?" He raised an eyebrow slightly, and a hint of something elusive flashed in his clear eyes, but the next second, the words that came out still sounded somewhat flat, "Obviously just a casual glance."

  Zhen Ai calmly asked, "Owen said he'd take me out for a birthday dinner later. Are you going too?"

  "He faintly replied: 'The magical decryption journey turned into a warm birthday dinner. The word warmth is so suitable for me, perfect!'"

  Zhen Ai lost her smile, she had never seen anyone who could say reverse words to this extent, awkward like a little kid.

  He suddenly realized she was smiling, her expression cleared up, and a string of analysis popped out in his mind.

  Her smile is unreasonable.

  It doesn't make sense logically; from a behavioral analysis perspective, there is no hidden meaning either.

  Why is she laughing when it's clearly not funny?

  Something illogical made him feel uncomfortable. He slightly furrowed his brow.

  Zhen Ai turned around in the corridor: "I take your words as a happy birthday."

  He remained silent for a while and replied mechanically: "Happy birthday!"

  She walked to the door and unlocked it, then turned back to him. "Owen said you deciphered a death threat code from my resume. Can you explain? I'm very interested in codes..."

  The door opened automatically before he could finish speaking, and a strong smell of blood rushed into his nostrils.

  Zhen Ai's hand trembled, and she had an ominous premonition. She slowly pushed open the door to see her roommate Jiang Xin lying in a pool of blood, with a shocking knife wound on her neck, and blood splattered everywhere.

  He walked in with a normal expression, "I guess you won't be able to eat dinner tonight."