Archimedes and cryptography

  As they came out of the police station, Owen pulled the lawyer aside to brief him on things.

  Yan Yu and Zhen Ai stood side by side on the roadside, gazing at the tire tracks in the snow-covered field, not saying a word to each other. At first glance, they looked like two parallel trees by the road, growing separately, with no intersection.

  Zhen Ai had completely dispelled the idea of taking the initiative to talk to him after what happened during the day.

  He was used to being quiet and silent, and he didn't think it was inappropriate. His legs were straight, his hands were inserted into the pockets of his windbreaker, and at night, the cold wind blew, but he still stood upright, like a white birch tree that was not afraid of wind and frost.

  Compared with him, Zhen Ai was not so comfortable. She curled up into a ball, shivering with cold, occasionally turning her head to glance at him.

  In the winter nights of the Northern Hemisphere, his profile became whiter and more defined in the darkness, as if carved with a knife. His forehead was full, and his eye sockets were deep.

  His eyes are very beautiful, quiet and yet with a ripple of water, reflecting the neon lights across the street, shining brightly. The bridge of his nose is perfect, thin lips pursed, and the curve of his chin is also clean and neat, reminding her of the Western figurine plaster models she saw when she was young.

  He didn't notice Zhen Ai's gaze at all, and was intently staring across the street, gradually, a faint, almost imperceptible curve rose from the corner of his lips, as if he had seen something interesting.

  Zhen Ai followed his gaze and saw nothing. She turned her head back to him, wondering what he was looking at.

  He suddenly lowered his eyelids, sensing her gaze, and slowly turned to look at her. His eyes, dyed deep brown by the night, seemed both very deep and very shallow. A pair of eyes as clean as a snowy moonlit night, seemingly pure, yet seemingly mysterious.

  He was silent and still, but his speaking eyes were saying: What are you looking at?

  Zhen Ai was caught off guard by him, awkwardly twitching the corner of her mouth, and hastily asked: "What are you looking at?"

  "That billboard is interesting." He nodded in the direction across from them, tilting his chin slightly.

  Zhen Ai just realized he was looking at Walmart's outdoor billboard, which had a discounted promotional advertisement written on it.

  Oh my god, big discount, all on March 1st

  It is an abbreviation of North Yearfield Township where they are located.

  There was a picture of an orange on the billboard, and the bright yellow color looked especially good in winter, but she didn't know where the fun was.

  He looked at her quietly for a moment, seemingly in a good mood. After a second or two, he realized she hadn't reacted and unexpectedly explained patiently: "That string of text is quite interesting."

  This sentence basically didn't serve as an explanation...

  Zhen Ai opened her mouth, wanting to take over his words, but she was tongue-tied and had no idea what to say.

  His world is really hard to understand.

  Or maybe she's just never had friends before and is too clumsy with words?

  She listlessly lowered her head.

  He looked at her for a few seconds as she lowered her head and didn't speak, pursing his lips, then asked: "Have you ever played an anagram game?"

  Zhen Ai raised her head and met his gaze with a puzzled expression.

  She knew anagrams, rearranging the letters in a word or sentence to form new words or sentences. But she didn't understand what this had to do with what they were saying earlier.

  "Do you need four or five seconds to think about this kind of question?" Yan Suo turned his head and gazed into the distance, commenting lightly, "Your reaction speed is shockingly slow."

  Zhen Ai pursed her lips and whispered hastily: "I haven't played it before, I've only heard of it."

  She slightly turned her body and faced her, starting to ask: "For example, what word can 'eat' be replaced with?"

  He suddenly asked, she was stunned for a moment, then said: "Tea!"

  "How slow!" He didn't hide his contemptuous expression and continued, "I've lived."

  "Uh-huh, not bad." Xian Yu lowered his head, and there seemed to be a hint of a smile in his eyes as he asked, "Continue playing?"

  She had never played any kind of game that tested visual memory, spatial imagination and reaction speed before, it was novel. A inexplicable thrill flashed through her mind, she quickly nodded.

  She blushed at the slightest excitement, and in the dim light of night, her small face was pale and transparent, with a faint pink hue. His voice somehow softened: "Are you ready?"

  The low inquiry made Zhen Ai's heart inexplicably like a drumbeat, as if she were a contestant in a knowledge contest for the first time: "Ready to go!"

  "When listening to others speak, it's best to remain quiet, because..."

  "Because 'listen' spelled backwards is 'silent'!" Zhen Ai replied immediately.

  It's easy for Yan Yu to say the words out loud.

  "Don't be too sad when attending a funeral, why?"

  "The funeral is... " Zhen Ai's eyes lit up, "real fun!" How interesting.

  "Why are all daughters-in-law afraid of their mothers-in-law?"

  "Mother-in-law is mother-in-law." She furrowed her brow and thought for a moment, then asked in a low voice, "Because she's woman Hitler, female Hitler?"

  "Yes." Xian Yu seemed very satisfied with her speed and coordination, a rare look of ease on his handsome face, "Last one, why do so many people like Tom Cruise?"

  Tom Cruise? His name can be rearranged into... "I'm Cut Loose"

  Zhen Ai bites her lip, a flash of inspiration, "Ah! So I'm cuter, I'm the most lovable!"

  She raised an eyebrow slightly, seeming to smile but not quite: "You really think so?"

  Zhen Ai was taken aback, wondering if he was being serious or not at this moment.

  Her cheeks suddenly flushed with a strange burning sensation, she lowered her head and rubbed her hands together, explaining in a low voice: "I meant that his name can be spelled out as 'I am most loved', not that I love myself."

  He nodded in agreement and looked at the Walmart promotional billboard with a pile of oranges: "Then try it, scramble the letters in that sentence and reorganize them."

  The 21 letters can be divided into several independent words, with each letter used exactly once. How can they be rearranged to form a sentence that is grammatically correct and semantically complete?

  Zhen Ai stared intently at the multicolored words on the billboard. In an instant, these letters all jumped out in her mind, one by one, piecing together - sea, rest, m, year, tale, or, tally, total...

  None of them is correct.

  No matter which word appears, the remaining letters cannot form meaningful words, let alone a complete sentence.

  What is this sentence actually saying?

  Zhen couldn't help but clench her fists tightly, when she suddenly saw a large advertisement for oranges.

  In an instant, everything became clear, all the English words flew around and recombined into a sentence.

  "An alien stole all of my tangerines." A big pile of yellow-orange promotional tangerines on a sale billboard are about to be stolen by an alien, haha!

  She couldn't help but smile, yes, what Yan Suo said was right, this advertisement is quite interesting.

  So he was like this, immersed in his own world full of creativity and thoughts?

  This kind of person is really amazing.

  She excitedly spoke out the answer, didn't get praised, but heard...

  "The game is over." Yan Sui said faintly, his eyes drifting towards other outdoor brand advertisements and phone numbers.

  Zhen Ai's words were left unspoken, and he returned to his usual calm demeanor, the brief exchange when giving her the topic earlier seemed like it never happened. Perhaps in his world, there was only data, password cracking, and behavioral analysis, only these things could spark his interest in conversation.

  He won't know that the little game just now, for this lonely and quiet girl beside him, is like a golden orange with a sweet fragrance in the dull winter.

  Rare fragrance, rare color.

  Zhen Ai took a deep breath, feeling the chill and coolness. She had been distracted earlier and hadn't noticed it before, but now she felt cold again. She hugged herself tightly, thinking for a moment, then asked: "Do you suspect me of today's case?"

  At that time, Yan Sui was trying to decipher a string of phone numbers in his line of sight. After hearing Zhen Ai's words, he slowly turned his head and said, "None."

  Zhen Ai's "thank you" was only half spoken, and he continued: "I only believe in objectivity. 'Doubt' is a subjective emotion that is taboo for rational people."

  "Is it objectively evident that I am the murderer?"

  "Insufficient evidence." He added, "However, I think that if you were to kill someone, you should choose a more elegant method, such as poisoning. Of course, you wouldn't use something easily available, but rather something rare and deadly."

  Zhen Ai: "...... I ...... should say thank you?"

  "You're welcome."

  Zhen Ai fell silent, staring blankly into space.

  At that moment, it seemed like a small snowflake floated by. I perked up and looked carefully, but there was nothing. Looking up at the sky, it was still pitch black.

  The snowflakes just now were an illusion.

  The cold wind blew, and it got even colder.

  Her teeth chattered incessantly, and for a moment she couldn't help it, making a "chirp" sound. She was extremely embarrassed and immediately clenched her jaws tightly.

  Yu Shu naturally heard her teeth chattering and looked down at her: "Cold?"

  "Uh-huh."

  He let out an "oh" and stopped, continuing to stare at the numbers on the distant light box. After a while, he didn't know who he was talking to: "From a traditional Chinese medicine perspective, being afraid of cold is due to kidney yang deficiency; from a Western medicine perspective, it's because of iron deficiency in the blood, thyroid hormone secretion not..."

  He saw her pale face, eyes wide open as if looking at an alien, so he shut up and remained silent for a moment before saying: "It seems that this is not the right time to say these things."

  He looked up at the sky again, after two seconds——

  "What I actually mean is that you should go to the hospital for a check-up."

  “……”

  Who would go to the hospital because they are afraid of the cold?

  Zhen Ai was speechless, and suddenly felt a warmth behind her back. The next moment, she was wrapped in something warm that blocked the cold wind. Owen had walked over at some point and put his windbreaker on Zhen Ai.

  Zhen Ai saw that he was only wearing a thin sweater and wanted to struggle free, but he pressed down on the collar of his coat and quickly fastened the buttons. Next, he quickly buttoned up the other buttons, wrapping Zhen Ai tightly like a small dumpling.

  He patted Zhen Ai's shoulder and smiled indifferently: "I'm good at producing heat, I'm not afraid of the cold." As he spoke, the hot air he breathed out was blown away by the wind like cotton.

  Zhen Ai no longer refused and walked with Owen to the parking lot.

  After walking a few steps, they found that Yan Suo hadn't caught up, and both of them turned back in surprise.

  He stood upright on the spot, frowning and staring at Zhen Ai with a thoughtful expression.

  He suddenly strode forward, taking big steps towards Zhen Ai. As he walked, he unwrapped his scarf and in two or three steps, he stood before her and wrapped the thick scarf around her neck.

  The action was too sudden, Zhen Ai didn't react at all, only feeling a warmth on the back of her neck for an instant. It wasn't until he was close enough to start circling around her for the second time that Zhen Ai came back to herself and reflexively shrank backward:

  "It doesn't matter."

  "Don't move."

  He gave a low command, and his slender white fingers lightly pulled the scarf back, pulling Zhen Ai back.

  She almost crashed into his arms, barely standing upright in a flustered manner, but he was extremely focused, staring at the thick and long grey scarf in his hands, looping it around her neck circle by circle.

  The scarf was soft and comfortable, intimate and warm, carrying the man's hot body temperature, with a faint scent that Zhen Ai had never smelled before, like the sky at the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, not too passionate, but slightly intoxicating.

  Zhen Ai is no longer cold, Nai Nai raises her eyes to look at him, seeing that he is slightly frowning, his expression serious and solemn, as if facing a string of numbers, passwords or logical problems.

  His ambiguous actions were surprisingly elegant and refined, with a pure and arrogant gaze from head to toe, without any hint of vulgarity, clean and neat, just like him.

  Zhen Ai was moved by his pure and calm demeanor, secretly pursing her lips in her heart, not feeling embarrassed or blushing, and naturally accepted his kindness.

  He nodded in satisfaction, then placed his hand on Zhen Ai's shoulder and patted it awkwardly, saying: "I'm also good at generating heat, not afraid of the cold."

  Zhen Ai: “......”

  He is good at European languages and kind to people...

  At this moment, she felt that he was like a kind of spiritual long-class animal following humans, and also like an infant in the cognitive stage learning from adults.

  Zhen Ai took over again, thought for a moment, and was about to say thank you. But...

  Looking at her pale little face wrapped in his thick scarf, the visual effect was very strange. He calmly commented: "You don't suit gray, it's really ugly on you, like a withered bamboo insect."

  He actually used a bamboo joint insect to describe her? Zhen Ai completely lost the thought of thanking him.

  Owen walked alongside and suggested: "Recently, brightly colored scarves are popular. With AI's pale skin, wearing red would definitely look good."

  As soon as he heard it, he seemed to have let out a faint "hmm".

  Owen turned his head and saw that Wen Yu was obviously disapproving, raising an eyebrow and asking, "What's wrong?"

  "It's nothing."

  But that expression made Owen very uncomfortable and also twisted: "I guess, your strange imagination has flown to where again? What does red remind you of? Cows?"

  "Yan Yu Bei Yi: 'Cows are colorblind, associating red with cows is unscientific.'"

  Ouwen was speechless for a long time, and finally couldn't help but ask: "Then what did you think of?"

  Adrenaline.

  This is unscientific!!!!!

  Yan Sui's thinking is quite incomprehensible to ordinary people, a bit strange, and I hope everyone won't think he...

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