Chapter 1182: The Cry of the Lamb (Part 11)

Watching Jonathan, who was covered in blood but calmly lifted onto the ambulance, Gordon stood at the entrance of the police station and shook his head. When he turned back to look, he found that Batman had disappeared at some point. Gordon sighed and muttered to himself:

"What on earth is going on? Why are you suddenly going crazy?"

Gordon looked down at his hands. Just now he helped Jonathan press the wound, and his hands were covered in blood, even the cuffs and the edges of his shirt were stained with blood.

Gordon turned around, wanting to return to the bathroom in the police station to wash his hands, but just as he stepped into the door, he found that the soles of his shoes were also stained. Every step he took forward, he would leave a bloody footprint.

Gordon felt that he shouldn't add unnecessary trouble to the cleaning lady who cleaned the hygiene, so he planned to rub the soles of his shoes on the carpet. But as soon as he stepped on the carpet, he found that the carpet was also covered in blood, and it would only get dirtier the more he stepped on it.

Gordon held his hands and looked left and right, and found that there happened to be two extra newspapers on the umbrella rack next to him. He leaned his elbow on the door frame, took the newspaper with his other hand, and started to wipe the soles of his shoes.

But as he wiped, he seemed to remember something. He stepped back two steps, shook open the blood-stained newspaper, stared at the dense text on it, and muttered to himself: "Full-width separator..."

Gordon stared at the newspaper for a long time, but he actually couldn't understand the difference between full-width punctuation and half-width punctuation at all. From the layout, there was nothing abnormal.

Gordon understood that he wasn't good at text and graphic reasoning, and he had to find someone who was good at this.

In the corridor of the dimly lit Arkham Asylum, Harley pushed the infusion stand with one hand and held the prescription list with the other, looking down at the prescription while walking forward. Just after turning a corner, she met Mrs. Miller.

"Harley, why are you here? Come with me, Sheriff Gordon wants to see you." Mrs. Miller waved to Harley and said.

Harley raised an eyebrow, also revealed an impatient expression, pursed her lips, pushed the infusion stand aside like a temper tantrum, hugged her arms and said: "Why is that Gordon so troublesome? Doesn't he know I'm almost busy crazy?"

Mrs. Miller hesitated, patted Harley's back gently and said: "If you feel too tired, I'll help you push it away."

"What is he looking for me for?" Harley asked.

"Seems like solving a case... or finding clues or something. I don't understand what he is saying, but it should be a dangerous thing. If you don't want to go, I'll help you decline him." Mrs. Miller tilted her head and looked at Harley and said.

Harley's eyes lit up. She walked two steps faster to catch up with Mrs. Miller's pace, and then said: "No, I'm not tired at all, let's go over quickly!"

In the office on the first floor, Gordon's brow was furrowed, looking at the newspapers and magazines spread out in front of him. From his serious expression, he hadn't made any progress. And after Harley came in, he immediately waved to Harley and said: "Come over quickly, Harley, help me see, what's wrong with the punctuation in these articles?"

Harley walked over, half-knelt on the ground and looked at the newspapers spread out on the ground. Before she could ask, Gordon simply told her about what had just happened in the police station.

Harley slowly widened her eyes. She raised her tone and said: "You mean, Batman updated the secret code of the serial killer club?? This is impossible!"

After saying this, she cast her gaze on the newspaper on the ground again. She was like a dragonfly touching the water, guiding her gaze with her fingers, and started to search between the layout and content of the newspaper. A few minutes later, Harley stood up, shook her head, and said in an unbelievable voice:

"They are really using a new secret code, full-width separator..."

"What on earth is going on?" Gordon asked very puzzled: "How does this club operate? How could Batman get involved?"

Harley glanced at him, opened her mouth, but closed it again, as if she didn't want to say. She paused somewhat hesitantly, but still said:

"Serial killers have a characteristic: they are extra sensitive to bloody and violent information, which will make them excited, although they may not necessarily show it."

"At first, I noticed the abnormality in the newspaper, also because the Cat Getan Daily reported the news of a vendor who was unfortunately crushed by a truck. The person who wrote this report directly put the picture of the blood-fleshed corpse on the front page headline. I wanted to not see it but couldn't."

"The moment I saw this picture, my heart started to beat violently. A kind of indescribable excitement rose up. I almost couldn't wait to open the newspaper and start reading the content inside."

"There is nothing to say about this report. It was completely an accident. The person who wrote the article had a very dry writing style, just simply explained the cause and effect, without any detailed description. This couldn't satisfy my desire at all."

"Since then, I started to pay attention to bloody murder cases in various newspapers intentionally or unintentionally, and every time I read the process of killers committing crimes written by writers with beautiful writing styles, I felt as if I were on the scene."

"I saw too many reports like this, and I found that the writing style of some writers is good, but I don't know why, it seems they don't pay much attention to grammar, some sentences are not smooth at all, and the punctuation is used wrong."

"At that time, I was taking a grammar class, so I was extra sensitive to this... well, well, I feel I have a bit of obsessive-compulsive disorder. A thing that was originally perfect suddenly appeared with a stain, making me feel uncomfortable wanting to hit the wall."

Harley pressed her lips tightly, turned her mouth down, and revealed a very unhappy expression. The muscles between her brows and eyes were all wrinkled, just like eating a fly.

Although Gordon didn't specialize in serial killers like Angela, he had been a police officer in Cat Getan for so many years and had some experience in this, so he nodded and said: "Indeed, many killers I know have cleanliness and obsessive-compulsive disorder."

"Discovering their grammar and punctuation errors, I couldn't help but correct the correct grammar and punctuation in my mind. Every time it was like this, I developed a habit. But gradually I found that this is a bit wrong. These grammar and punctuation errors have patterns."

Harley frowned tightly, staring at the newspaper on the ground and said: "After I discovered this, I started to study what patterns these punctuation and grammar errors have, and why there are patterns."

"Then, I discovered a shocking fact. There is an organization I don't understand that uses grammar and punctuation errors in various text contents of newspapers and magazines to communicate."

Harley shook her head and said: "This is actually not difficult at all. The wrong way corresponds to a certain word in the sentence with errors, and extracting the words pointed to by the errors in all sentences can constitute a sentence. And arranging these sentences according to the number or position of grammar errors in the sentences can form an article. These are all simple text puzzles."

"And when I formed the article, I discovered that a world that ordinary people don't understand at all is hidden under the calm appearance. That is the crazy world belonging to killers."

"Killers use this method to write their own articles, narrating their own thinking of committing crimes, including what kind of theme they established for their own cases, and why they established such a theme."

"Wait a minute!" Gordon shouted to stop, looked at Harley very surprised, and said: "What does this mean?"

Harley sighed. She thought about how to explain it, but finally decided to use the method of giving examples to explain to the ordinary person Gordon how this crazy club operates.

"For example, a person committed a skinning case. He peeled off the victim's skin and performed some kind of treatment. He would first draft a title for himself, and then determine the theme of this case."

"For example, he might call himself 'Human Skin Hunter', and the theme of his crime is 'What is under the human skin?'"

"Of course, a description of one sentence is not enough. He must fully expound why he wants to do this theme."

"Perhaps it is because he was sexually assaulted by a relative or friend who looked kind on the surface when he was a child, or it could be that he went hunting when he was a child and saw the painful struggle of animals being skinned alive."

"He must fully explain what made him interested in conducting this research."

"Wait, the academic research you mentioned is actually murder?!" Gordon raised his tone. This kind of thing is cruel enough even in Cat Getan.

But Harley didn't show any guilt. She nodded easily and then said: "Next, they have to write about their own crime process. According to my observation, when I first discovered the existence of this club, many killers were describing the victim's pain, proud of their means of abusing others."

"But later, a secret scholar with the code name Professor published an article, criticizing this superficial academic research, and wrote several papers far exceeding other articles in content, wording, grammar, innovation, etc., expounding a completely self-consistent logic, showing unparalleled dark charm."

"These papers shocked the academic world. His philosophical thinking full of depth, the logic that forms a closed loop with reasons and evidence, and the rigorous and beautiful wording simply raised a chaotic third-rate circle to the height of the academic industry."

"Since then, the vast majority of killers who published articles started to become more academic and introverted."

"They no longer pursue abusing victims, no longer focus on describing the pain of others, but start to expound their own thoughts and views as rigorously as possible, showing their thinking and soul to everyone, telling their pain."

"If everyone in this world had to take a philosophy exam, then it would be easy to distinguish who is a fool. A person's view of this world, and whether he can express this view clearly, largely explains whether he is a smart person."

Harley's way of speaking was not like a child of this age at all. Her ability to express herself shocked Gordon.

"After the academic style changed like this, those butchers with chaotic thinking, low taste, and very boring were rejected by everyone. All killers started to chase the Professor's style."

"I still don't quite understand, what is this Professor's style?" Gordon asked.

Harley revealed some look of recollection, with a hint of fanaticism on her face, just like being fascinated by her own fantasy. She opened her mouth in an excited tone:

"Compared to focusing on others, this Professor prefers to dissect himself. This is also the reason why all serial killers crazily obsess over him. He showed us through his words how a pathological soul survives in this world, and this is precisely the stimulation we need."

"He let us discover that the pleasure we get from abusing others comes from a soul that cannot be self-consistent, comes from the pathology we have suppressed for many years. Everyone who understands and accepts this theory wants to know how he coexists with another self."

Harley sighed gently and said: "The recent serial killer carnival is not an academic discussion at all, but those butchers who were expelled from the academic industry thought they had won and celebrated for this."

"And those souls who truly feel pain because of their pathology and talent are all waiting for a new savior."

Harley's eyes fell on the newspaper on the ground again, and then she turned to look into Gordon's eyes and said: "And now, they have accepted a new secret code, a secret code formulated by Batman. Do you know what this means?"

Gordon looked at her silently. Harley's eyes became somewhat moist, like a gem soaked in rainwater.

"This shows that the theory Batman expounded in the article he published convinced the vast majority of people."

"He will inherit the Professor's mantle, soothe these restless souls, control them, lead them, accept their sacrifices, and tell them the answer."

"And we will also listen to him, follow him, love him, respect him, regard him as the savior and father... becoming his tame lambs."

"And we, too, shall listen to him, follow him, love him, revere him, and view him as our savior and father... becoming his docile lambs."