Die Reise einer Wahnsinnigen durch die Song-Dynastie

Kapitel 19

"Subconscious judgment? What do you mean?"

"The information received by human sensory organs such as eyes, ears, and skin is far more than a person is consciously aware of. However, this information cannot all be directly transmitted to the brain for judgment at once, otherwise it would be an information overload, and you would be unable to do anything. Therefore, all information that is too weak or judged as unimportant is automatically filtered out, and your conscious mind has no idea that you have seen or heard those things. But the large amount of information that is filtered out does not disappear into thin air, but enters a person's subconscious."

Liu Er nodded and said, "I've heard that some witnesses can't remember the details of the crime scene, but with the help of a hypnotist, they can completely reconstruct the scene, just like a movie replay. Does this mean that many things the witness saw at the time were filtered out as invalid information, and although they can't remember them, they exist in their subconscious?"

“That’s right. Scientists have different opinions on how much potential the human brain still has to be explored, but there is definitely a huge space. There is a lot of ignored information in the subconscious, and perhaps intuition is the result of the subconscious synthesizing this information. However, the human brain is not a computer after all, and information is not always complete, so intuition is sometimes accurate and sometimes not. If we use this as a theoretical basis to describe your situation…” I took out my key and opened the door, deliberately pausing to whet Liu Er’s appetite.

"Because my senses are much sharper than the average person's, and my subconscious judgment has inexplicably improved, take the books in Old Wang's house as an example. My subconscious automatically analyzed the angle at which each book was stacked, and even considered subtle factors such as indoor airflow, and judged that the pile of books would collapse in a few seconds. This judgment was transmitted to my conscious mind in an intuitive way," Liu Er continued.

“That’s right, you are indeed much more perceptive than before, both in terms of feeling and thinking. But when it comes to unexplained reasons, do you really think they are unexplained?” I turned on the air conditioner and sat on the sofa to ask Liu Er.

Liu Er stroked the fine black hairs that were starting to grow on his arm and said, "Perhaps this is the new ability that will replace them. I am still different from ordinary people after all."

While waiting downstairs at Wang Maoyuan's place, I couldn't help but yawn.

I really got up very early today, before 6:30. I had arranged to meet Wang Maoyuan at 7:20. Thinking back on all these years, I can count the number of times I've gotten up that early on one hand.

"Young man, you rarely get up this early, do you? This old man can't sleep, how wonderful." As we walked along, Wang Maoyuan noticed my drowsiness not long after.

I smiled sheepishly and said, "It'll be fine in a bit."

On the other hand, Liu Er was quite energetic.

It was the first time for both Liu Er and me to visit Tilanqiao Prison. The thick, high walls oppressed the mood of everyone who passed by, and my drowsiness immediately dissipated.

The prison was still full of inmates, but the area we were going to had been cleared out and renovation work had just begun. Liu Er and I showed our ID cards, filled out visitor forms, had our belongings checked, pinned our visitor passes to our chests, and followed Wang Maoyuan into the high walls.

During the inspection, I noticed that Liu Er had brought the prison uniform Wang Maoyuan had given him the day before in his bag, which struck me as odd. After we were let go, I quietly asked him, "Why did you bring this uniform?"

Liu Er chuckled: "It might be useful later."

What's he up to? I wondered to myself, I'm finding it increasingly hard to figure out what this kid is thinking.

The spacious courtyards between the outer and inner walls of prisons depicted in Hong Kong movies do not exist in Tilanqiao Prison, nor are the tall guard towers with armed sentries and searchlights hidden anywhere. However, the security of this prison is beyond doubt. This "回"-shaped complex, built by the British in the early 20th century, was once known as the "largest prison in the Far East."

After passing through the large iron gate, we entered a four-story prison building; our destination was Section C. We walked along narrow corridors, passing one iron gate after another. Now, most of these gates were empty; the prisoners had finished breakfast and gone to work in the factories inside the annex.

Building materials were piled up in the corridor of Section C. As we walked, Wang Maoyuan told us that the British buildings were very sturdy, so this was just a surface renovation. Tilanqiao Prison has now become a window for Shanghai's judiciary to the outside world, and people often come to visit. It can't be too dilapidated, so it is being renovated in stages according to plan.

The iron gates of Block C were ajar, and the rooms at the beginning of the block had already started to be painted. Wang Maoyuan stopped in front of cell number 5.

“Back then, from room 3 in section C to room 27, most of the prisoners were convicted of the ‘April 23’ case. Wu Yuzhu, the owner of that pen, was imprisoned in room 5, and Zhang Jinlong was in room 13.” As he spoke, he pushed open the iron door and went inside.

Cell number 5 is a relatively large cell, about ten square meters. This cell only has a small window on the iron door, and even with the iron door fully open, the lighting is not very good. You can imagine how dark it would be if someone were locked up inside.

That said, those who were imprisoned inside back then probably weren't in the mood to complain about the lighting.

The floor is terrazzo, so if Wu Yuzhu's steel pen was worn out in the prison cell, the marks would only be on this terrazzo floor.

I bent down to examine the ground more closely, and Wang Maoyuan and Liu Er did the same. I was stunned after only a few glances and couldn't help but sigh.

It's not that we can't find any traces, but rather that there are too many traces left on the ground.

This prison has been around for nearly a century. Hundreds of prisoners have been held in cell C5, and in their boredom, they have long since turned the hard terrazzo floor into a mess.

Although it wasn't covered with all sorts of messy scratches, there were at least three deep scratches in the two square meters around me, and at least a dozen in the whole cell. How could I possibly know which one was made by Wu Yuzhu?

Disappointed, I straightened up, only to see Wang Maoyuan and Liu Er still bending over to examine the matter closely.

I find it a bit strange. I can't believe these two are so unpredictable.

After a while, Wang Maoyuan also sighed, straightened up, and said, "It's really impossible to identify them. I've seen three marks that might have been made by a steel pen, and there are six or seven possible marks in the whole room. I was hoping to find something, but after all these years, the original marks are impossible to find." I thought to myself that Wang Maoyuan was trying to distinguish them from various scratches. Very fine scratches could be ruled out, but unfortunately, there were too many similar scratches in this room.

But Liu Er still kept moving around with his back bent, refusing to give up.

"Do you have any way of distinguishing them?" I asked Liu Er.

He gestured for me to wait. Wang Maoyuan looked at him, then at me, a puzzled expression on his face, and bent down again to examine the ground. He must have been wondering what Liu Er was using to make his distinction.

I followed Liu Er's gaze, but I couldn't discern anything.

“Found it,” Liu Er suddenly said.

Wang Maoyuan and I immediately went over to them.

There was a scratch there, about the size of two palms.

"How did you know it was this one?" I asked.

"Don't rush, take a look at what this looks like first," said Liu Er.

I squatted down with Wang Maoyuan and squinted to take a closer look.

This is definitely not a Chinese character; it must be a pattern.

The scratches are deep, and the edges are quite blurry. This blurriness appears to be caused by repeated engraving.

Wang Maoyuan stood up, stepped back a few paces, looked around, and said, "This seems to be where Wu Yuzhu used to sleep."

He walked over again, pointed, and said, "If he slept with his head facing this way, his right hand, when stretched out, would be about this spot. Hmm, very likely, he might have drawn it while sleeping at night, day after day. It's a pity the mark is quite difficult to discern."

“Na Duo, don’t you think this pattern looks familiar?” Liu Er said to me.

"Familiar?" Now that he said that, I did feel like I'd seen him before.

"Look, there's a circle in the middle of this scratch. What's inside the circle?"

It is indeed a circle, and inside it...

The traces were rather blurry, and the more I looked at them, the more familiar they seemed, but I just couldn't remember them.

Liu Er also squatted down, used his hand as a pen, drew a circle, and then drew a series of connected patterns inside it.

Wang Maoyuan hadn't figured out what it was yet, but I was immediately enlightened.

"It's a picture of three rabbits, a picture of three rabbits!"

The six-eared figure depicts the core circular pattern of the Three Rabbits picture—a rabbit with three connected ears.

Comparing the scratches left by Wu Yuzhu, it's clear that it's the Three Rabbits design. The curves that were originally difficult to discern outside the circle are vaguely the arcs that resemble clouds swirling around the core circle of the Three Rabbits design.

"What Three Rabbits Picture?" Wang Maoyuan didn't understand.

"Yes...yes..." I wanted to explain, but I didn't know where to begin.

“It’s a picture of a rabbit with its ears connected, like this—” Liu Er took out paper and pen and quickly drew it. “Like this.” Liu Er handed the drawing to Wang Maoyuan.

"You were actually able to draw it completely?" I asked Liu Er in surprise.

A rabbit with three connected ears can be drawn with a little attention, but the irregular, circular clouds surrounding it are very complex and difficult to draw. Didn't he only see Six-Eared Rabbit once, at the Twin Saints Temple? Back then, he didn't yet possess the ability to remember everything he saw.

Wang Maoyuan took the drawing and exclaimed, "It's this drawing!"

"You've seen that news report too?" I asked.

"What news?" Wang Maoyuan asked unexpectedly.

I briefly explained, and Wang Maoyuan said: "I didn't expect it to have such an origin, but I saw it in the diary of a prisoner named Guo Chao. He was also a perpetrator in the '4.23' case. He would sometimes write in his diary, and I would occasionally see such a drawing in his notebook. I asked him about it at the time, and he just said that he drew it casually, so I didn't pay any attention to it."

Wang Maoyuan held up the diagram and compared it to the image on the ground, then slowly nodded and said, "That's right, it looks like the image drawn on the ground is the same one."

He looked up, somewhat puzzled, and asked Liu Er, "You can reconstruct this picture based on such blurry traces?"

“I’m quite good at this,” Liu Er chuckled. His explanation put me at ease. Based on my intuitive theory, he could quickly reconstruct the original appearance from the marks he saw.

"Besides, I've seen the original, clear image before," Liu Er added.

After he finished speaking, he squatted down next to Wang Maoyuan, took out the prison uniform from his bag, and laid it face up next to the three rabbits painting by Wu Yuzhu.

“I wasn’t sure yesterday, but now it seems my guess was right,” he said.

I squatted down too, and the three of us squatted together, heads facing inwards and buttocks outwards. This posture would probably look a bit ridiculous if others saw us.

“Look at the wear marks on this garment. These marks are much harder to spot than Wu Yuzhu’s, but the circular wear band in the center should still be visible.”

Liu Er is right, there really is a circular wear mark in the middle.

"You mean this garment also has a three-rabbit pattern? But the wear inside the circle has completely blurred together, as has the outside. You can't see any pattern similar to the outside of the three-rabbit pattern," I said.

“You’re right, but if you look at the direction of the wear band outside the circle, you can vaguely see that it’s going in eight directions, just like the Three Rabbits pattern.”

"Your observation skills are truly remarkable!" Wang Maoyuan looked at Liu Er with newfound respect. "Judging from this, it's highly likely that it's a Three Rabbits Picture."

I ran my fingers over the prison uniform and frowned, asking, "What were those marks made with?"

“I think it’s like what you’re doing now,” Wang Maoyuan said, looking at my hand. “It’s drawn with your fingers. It’s the wear and tear from drawing it hundreds or thousands of times over time.”

"I just don't understand why they keep drawing this diagram. I feel like there's something there, but I can't quite put my finger on it. This diagram must have some meaning," Liu Er said.

"But where did they see this picture? Before that news report, nobody paid attention to the Three Rabbits picture. Even now, only a very few people know about it. Mr. Wang, have you seen this picture before? Apart from in Guo Chao's diary?"

"I don't think so." For some reason, Wang Maoyuan's denial sounded uncertain.

“That’s strange. Now we can be sure that at least three of the perpetrators in the ‘4.23’ case had a serious obsession with the Three Rabbits picture. If we boldly extend this to all the perpetrators, this is another common point after what you, Mr. Wang, said about ‘uncontrollable desires,’” I said.

We squatted together and talked for a while, and soon our legs started to feel numb, so we all stood up.

We understood that such a discussion was fruitless, so we followed Wang Maoyuan to cell C13 again. This cell, where Liu Er's biological father had been imprisoned, was smaller, about six square meters. We searched the floor for a little while longer, but to no avail, and then left.

When we parted ways with Wang Maoyuan, we thanked him repeatedly for his help.

"I'll be able to find out about You Fang's matter by tomorrow at the latest," Wang Maoyuan said to Liu Er.

"Thank you. I guess you'll still be investigating the '4.23' case, right? Could you let me know if there's any progress?" Liu Er said.

"You noticed that? I was planning to go through each cell one by one to see if anyone else had drawn this three-rabbit picture on the floor."

"I don't think this matter can be resolved," I said to Liu Er on the way.

"how?"

"The new breakthrough in the '4.23' case is based on the bold hypothesis that all the perpetrators were familiar with the Three Rabbits picture. But how did the thousands of perpetrators in those provinces come across the Three Rabbits picture? And why did it leave such a deep impression on them that they would draw it even after being imprisoned? It's absurd enough. More than 20 years have passed, how can we investigate?"

"I saw the Three Rabbits picture back then, but now I only remember the Twin Saints Temple," Liu Er said.

“It’s not just the Twin Saints Temple. I remember reading in that news report that the British expert team mainly went to Dunhuang, and maybe there were other places as well. But most people wouldn’t care about the Three Rabbits picture, but Wu Yuzhu and his group’s attitude towards the Three Rabbits picture is like that of a cult’s totem…” I suddenly stopped talking, and Liu Er turned to look at me.

What I said so casually actually has a very high probability of being true.

Religious fanaticism is terrifying. If there is anything that can make thousands of people shut up about something, even in the face of death, religion is definitely one of the most likely forces.

Could this rampant rape be part of the doctrine of a cult?

Since the Three Rabbits image can be used by the world's three largest religions simultaneously, why can't other smaller sects use it?