CH 95

Did people have such sharp observation and memory abilities nowadays?

Yan Suizhi actually found it a bit astonishing. 

A middle-aged man was walking with the blue-eyed doctor. His hair was neatly swept backwards, not a single strand out of place, his entire attire giving off an air of affluence. He was going through his smart device while talking to the blue-eyed doctor, but his words, covered by the background music of the bar, were indistinct in Yan Suizhi’s ears.

“There’s nothing much else to brief you on. I’m going to the port. Do you need a lift to the hospital? It happens to be on the way.”

Apart from Area E which was specially set apart for pedestrians, the other regions were for ‘insiders’. There probably weren’t many romantic partners among them—at least, these two weren’t. It was easy to tell with a glance that they were here to talk business.

Not hearing a response, the middle-aged man raised his head, puzzled, only then noticing the blue-eyed doctor’s line of sight. 

“What are you looking at?” He followed the blue-eyed doctor and looked over, his expression abruptly turning vigilant.

Only people with psychological shadows in their hearts would be so sensitive.

However, it was apparent that he possessed considerable status in this bar. At the faintest change of his expression, two waiters passing by stopped in their tracks.

It was conversely strange to act as if nothing was wrong at this time. Whether it was out of confusion because of the other party or wondering if there was something wrong with themselves, a normal person would always have a reaction to being stared at by a stranger.

As reality had it, when Professor Yan really wanted to strut his stuff, his acting skills were very on point.

He turned a more mistrustful gaze onto that middle-aged man, lowered his head to give himself a once-over, then looked back at the blue-eyed doctor with some doubt and bafflement.

What was someone supposed to do if they were recognised?

They could only pretend that they didn’t remember the other party at all. 

The blue-eyed doctor averted his gaze, telling that middle-aged man, “It’s nothing, occupational hazard.”

The vigilance on the middle-aged man’s face went slack. He smiled, saying, “What kind of occupational hazard can you have here?”

“A red strobe light flashed on his face just now, I thought it was a rash from the infection,” the blue-eyed doctor said.

“Oh, I see.” The middle-aged man snorted. “Then did you hear what I said just now? I asked if you’re heading back; I can drop you off in passing.” 

The blue-eyed doctor shook his head. “I’m returning to District B. Take care.”

His voice was muffled by the mask. Moreover, he also seemed to be deliberately keeping it down, concealing his actual voice.

After saying this, he didn’t seem to plan to linger here any longer. He waved at the middle-aged man, turning to walk along a side alley to District B. Only, in the fleeting moment he turned around, with his back to the middle-aged man, he glanced towards Yan Suizhi once more.

This time, his face was expressionless. His gaze flitted over like a dragonfly skimming water, cast for only a split second before it shifted away and he walked into the distance. 

Yan Suizhi lowered his head and took the coat and scarf draped over his seat, deep in thought.

The middle-aged man didn’t stay much longer either. He flapped a hand at the two wary waiters to indicate that it was nothing, then put on his coat as he walked towards the entrance of the bar. When he raised his hand to turn up the collar of his coat, his cuffs drew back a little, exposing what he wore on his wrist.

Gu Yan, while waiting by the table for Yan Suizhi to gather his things, coincidentally swept a glance at it.

It was a bracelet, of ebony or suchlike polished into beads. A red metal charm in the shape of a rhombus was strung amidst those large black orbs. 

When the middle-aged man was done turning up his collar, the bracelet was once again tucked away behind his cuffs, hidden from sight.

Gu Yan’s expression never changed, but he’d already committed the appearance of the metal charm to memory.

Po atlr kjr yfobgf, tf wluta tjnf vlrwlrrfv atja jr j rlwqif jmmfrrbgs. Lbkfnfg, ja atlr alwf, tf lcrajcais cbalmfv atja atlr rtbeiv yf j wfaji ‘Gljwbcv’.

Ca atja wjc’r juf, atf jmmfrrbglfr atfs kbgf afcvfv ab mjggs rbwf rluclolmjcmf. 

Vagjcufis, atf vfrluc bo atlr ygjmfifa ujnf Xe Tjc j rfcrf bo vfpj ne.

He seemed to have seen it somewhere before, and it should have been rather recent.

Did anyone wear a similar accessory?

He swiftly sieved through his memories of the people he’d recently met, but he was certain that none of them had worn a bracelet like this. After all, the people that he came across in the past few days were colleagues, friends, or clients, all of whom he dealt with on a regular basis, thus his impression of them wouldn’t be vague. If someone had worn it, he would have thought of them at the first moment. 

If it wasn’t a person, then what could it be…

Apart from people, what he had the most contact with would be cases.

Did he see it in an article?

Some articles or detailed case files would have accompanying photos attached to them. It was possible that it had appeared in them, but hadn’t left a deep impression on him as it wasn’t the main focus of the report… 

The black market was still bustling with activity when they came out of the bar. The middle-aged man just happened to get into a luxury car and drove out of the street, accompanied by two other cars. He obviously had plenty of experience with warding against being tracked.

Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan also got into a car, turned on autopilot mode, and had it take them towards the city garden.

“What was that just now?” Gu Yan asked. “Did you see the man in the hat and mask before?”

“I previously came to the black market to look for the clinic that conducted the genetic modification surgeries. At that time, there were too many plainclothes police about, so everyone was keeping low profiles. While I wasn’t able to find any clear leads, I saw that man in the stairwell. He should be one of those from the clinic; he’s a doctor.” 

“Doctor…” Gu Yan considered it for a moment then asked, “What other characteristics does he have?”

Yan Suizhi, “Blue eyes.”

Gu Yan, “Other than that?”

Yan Suizhi, “Male.” 

Gu Yan, “…”

A blue-eyed male doctor.

Such defining characteristics.

If there weren’t a million, there were minimally a few hundred thousand that met these prerequisites. 

While Gu Yan went mute, Yan Suizhi abruptly reached a hand towards him.

His long fingers were relaxed and slightly curled, covering the lower half of Gu Yan’s face. The light, clean scent of the hand soap he kept at home lingered on them.

Gu Yan wasn’t able to understand what he was trying to achieve for some time.

But he only froze for a moment before Yan Suizhi withdrew his hand. 

“What?” Gu Yan questioned.

Once he asked this, Yan Suizhi’s hand came back again.

Gu Yan, “…”

“Doing an experiment,” Yan Suizhi said. 

After going back and forth like this several times, Lawyer Gu’s patience finally wore thin, catching hold of his wrist. “Are you done?”

Yan Suizhi tch’ed. “The interference is too strong.”

Seeing Gu Yan’s chilly expression, he smiled, saying, “Student Gu with exceptional memory, let me ask you a question.”

“Say it.” 

“Pretend I’m a stranger to you.” Yan Suizhi covered the lower half of his own face this time, revealing clear and attractive eyes and a portion of his nose bridge. “The lighting was very dim and you only saw the upper half of my face.”

He recalled it for a while, then corrected, “To be precise, you didn’t look at me, you only took a glance. If, many days later, out of the blue, you see me again under similar lighting, this time without anything blocking my face, would you still be able to recognise me at once?”

“…”

Let alone blocking the face, he could recognise him even without a face to go on. 

Gu Yan angled his face away, saying, “It’d be easier to pretend with a random passer-by instead.”

However, be it a hypothetical scenario or an experiment to confirm, in actuality, they could do without these and already have a general idea—

Would a glance under dim lighting be enough to form an impression? Naturally, yes.

“If wearing similar clothes during the second encounter, with a mask like the previous time, then the possibility of being able to instantly recognise under similar lighting does exist. However, without the mask, the chances of that are slim,” Gu Yan said. 

This was because what was remembered weren’t the specific details of the facial features, but the scene. When over seventy percent of the scene was reproduced, it was easy for people to form associations.

It was just like how that doctor was wearing a mask and a hat both times, only revealing a pair of eyes, yet Yan Suizhi was able to swiftly recognise him.

Were those blue eyes particularly distinctive? No. People with blue eyes accounted for a third of people on the street. It couldn’t be considered a defining trait at all.

Yan Suizhi was able to recognise the other party only because he was attired very similarly to before. 

“I guessed it wrongly at the bar earlier,” Yan Suizhi said. “When that blue-eyed doctor looked over, I unconsciously thought that he had formed an impression of me from the stairwell and recognised me. But when I gave it more thought, it didn’t feel right. He might not even have seen me clearly that day at the stairwell, which means that whether or not he formed an impression is irrelevant. He was startled just now because he knew me in the first place.”

“He knows me. I might know him too or have seen him before.” Yan Suizhi said with confidence, “But not to the extent that we’re familiar with each other.”

If they were familiar, Yan Suizhi would definitely have been able to recognise him just by his eyes.

So, it was possible that they could have only crossed paths once or twice, and thus hadn’t studied each other’s face in detail before. 

A blue-eyed doctor that he had seen before but wasn’t familiar with.

This largely narrowed down the scope from just now, but it still wasn’t very helpful to these two lawyers. Leaving aside the courthouses, police stations, and detention centres, the hospital was likely to be the place that they frequented the most. They had interacted with countless doctors, and just as many with blue eyes.

As luck would have it, the middle-aged man did say something that they could work on—

He had said, “I’m going to the port. Do you need a lift to the hospital? It’s on the way.” 

They projected the road map; three routes were automatically plotted leading from the black market to the port.

Yan Suizhi had seen the direction the blue-eyed doctor took when walking out of the black market last time, so he was immediately able to eliminate two by rough gauge, leaving one.

“Hospitals along this road…” Gu Yan tapped twice, marking all the medical facilities on both sides of this map route.

There were a total of three health centres and a hospital. 

“District Central Hospital,” Yan Suizhi recited the name of that hospital and his brows lifted. “That’s odd.”

If it were Spring Ivy, Central Hospital, Summer Blossom, or other similar hospitals, he could find some answers. But it just had to be this District Central Hospital.

He really hadn’t dealt with this hospital much.

The trail of clues seemed to turn cold here, the path ahead obscured by mist. 

Moreover, going through a sequence of events this fragmented made it easy for one to lose track of the date, such that Yan Suizhi gave a start when receiving a communications request from his landlord that night, only realising that the seven-day rental trial period was almost up after a while.

“What do you think?” His landlord said, “It should be a pretty good place, right? I won’t hide it from you; I’ve already prepared the follow-up contract.”

Yan Suizhi said, “My apologies, I probably won’t be renting anymore.”

Gu Yan was holding a glass of water. He had initially only come up to say goodnight to Yan Suizhi. 

But the moment he heard the word ‘rent’, Lawyer Gu immediately changed his mind, leaning against the door frame without budging, as if he would wait for however long the duration of the call was.

Yan Suizhi simply took off his earpiece and changed it to speaker mode.

His landlord’s voice rang clearly throughout the room, and even sounded a bit aggrieved. “Why? It’s such a nice place and the rent’s inexpensive. Where can you find a better deal?”

“…” Gu Yan’s face was frosty, apathetically sipping his water. 

Yan Suizhi said, “Yeah, but I’m really sorry to say that I might not be able to fulfill your conditions.”

His landlord was unable to react. “What conditions?”

“Have you forgotten those two bans?”

“Oh—those two, you mean not raising pets and not bringing girlfriends over?” His landlord was puzzled. “Why? Did you suddenly change your mind and want to raise a pet?” 

Yan Suizhi, “No.”

The eternal bachelor landlord was abruptly on his toes. “Don’t tell me it’s because of the second condition. Weren’t you stag like me just a few days ago; you found a girlfriend so soon?”

“Not exactly.”

His landlord astutely latched on to the crux of it. “What do you mean by ‘not exactly’?” 

Yan Suizhi glanced at Gu Yan, then airily shifted his gaze away, saying with a smile, “It means that I don’t have a girlfriend, but I might… have gotten a boyfriend.”