A lively figure caught my eye. Jenna placed two cups of hot tea in front of us. She was dressed in a red dress and had put on makeup. Sitting on the single sofa in the middle, she said somewhat sheepishly, "Sorry, I didn't know there was a murder. Should I go change my clothes?"
"What time did your rehearsal end?" Shiller asked.
"Past one." Jenna said, "Amanda approached me earlier for something, so I was delayed by a few hours. By the time I got back, they were almost done practicing. I had to hastily squeeze some extra practice in. Luckily, my dance partner was willing to cooperate."
"What did Amanda want from you?"
"It was strange," Jenna said, "She said Bruce suddenly wanted to work on his parents' gravesite. I can't think of any reason why he'd entrust this to the Federation Shield. But he was determined to have Amanda help."
"What's your responsibility?"
"Security work," Jenna said, "For people like that, even moving graves requires ceremony, to comfort the spirits or whatnot. I need to be there for the entire process. They say I'm responsible for security, but it feels like I'm just there to make it look grand. Having more people makes it more solemn."
"Is that worth contacting you alone for?"
"It's not exactly alone. People from the Federal Bureau of Investigation were called in too, they're supposed to go together." Jenna paused, closed her makeup mirror, then said, "Though we privately say Amanda is crazy, if Bruce gives her a large sum of money, maybe we could get a bonus. Moving graves is moving graves."
"What about Barry? Has he gone back?"
"No, he's still working overtime. Should I call him over?"
Shiller nodded. Jenna sent Barry a message. Shortly, Barry arrived. After taking off his coat, he was also in formal attire. The color of his tie clearly matched Jenna's dress, but Shiller didn't say anything.
"Good evening."
Barry waved, declined the tea Jenna offered, and said, "I've already had two cups of coffee, can't drink any more."
"There's a case..." Shiller mentioned Chick's suicide and then looked at Jenna and said, "Tell me about your roommate."
"Pelota is very biased," Jenna said, "To put it bluntly, she protects her own excessively. As long as it's someone she likes, she'll believe whatever they say. So I can only say, she thinks what she knows is true, but in reality it's not necessarily."
"Chick's dance partner actually is very suspicious." Barry chimed in, "Does he have an alibi?"
"Not really," Shiller said, "Chick died in the early hours. Most people were at home sleeping by then. Brainiac said Milo never left his room. The security camera didn't capture him going out."
"Isn't that pretty solid evidence?"
"Provided he's an ordinary person without superpowers," Shiller said. "Moreover, if he's smart enough, he wouldn't necessarily be unable to conceal this from Brainiac. You should know."
Barry nodded. After working at the Federal Bureau of Investigation for so long, he understood that even in the Brainiac era, it's only possible to prevent most ordinary people from committing crimes. There are always loopholes for some criminal geniuses who have moments of inspiration.
However, it's unlikely to pull off a serial killing like before and then vanish without a trace. Since Brainiac came to power, those serial killers who had been rampant for over half a century have mostly been caught. Maybe if they stay insidious it's fine, but as soon as they act, even if this case succeeds, they'll inevitably be caught afterward.
That means, most cases appearing now are the last dance of serial killers. Even if they're newly emerged evil geniuses, once they can't resist acting, getting caught is the inevitable consequence.
"It could be him." Jenna spoke up, "Milo is not a good person. He's long wanted to break up with Chick. But he also knew doing this on the eve of the dance would be quite improper. So, he used Chick being reprimanded by the Professor as an excuse to propose breaking up. Essentially, he also wanted to shove the blame onto Professor Fries. Or you could say he led Chick to act out, so he could remain uninvolved."
"Undoubtedly, Pelota is an accomplice too. Before they broke up, she was already in cahoots with Milo. She urged Milo to break up at this time to humiliate Chick. Because she heard Chick had stood up Milo multiple times, she used this method to retaliate against him."
"So who do you think is most at fault in this relationship?" Shiller asked Jenna.
"I still think it's Milo," Jenna said, "He's fickle and acts inappropriately. No matter what, they should've waited until after the dance to break up."
Shiller shook his head and said, "The biggest problem is Chick's mother. Her control over Chick is too strict."
He then turned to Victor and said, "I don't know if you've noticed. When Chick is talking with you, he's full of shadows of other people. More precisely, it's the shadow of a strong, domineering, and even unreasonable woman."
Victor was taken aback. He hadn't noticed it before, but now that Shiller mentioned it, there seemed to be something off.
As Chick's mentor, Victor knew the boy. Normally, he's somewhat careless, very shy, not good at socializing, and definitely not the assertive and outgoing type.
When Chick was so determined and agitated, Victor thought he was just provoked and lost his emotional control, which made him act differently than usual. However, his state didn't seem like something he could burst out himself, but rather some kind of unconscious mimicry.
"When people have emotional outbursts, there are traces to follow," Shiller said, "There are usually two sources: cognition and mimicry. Or you could say cognition and non-cognition."
"Some people, when they are emotionally agitated, are able to recognize their situation. Or rather, it's because they deeply understand their situation that they feel emotionally agitated. Their emotional outbursts come from their cognition."
"But some people are just the opposite. It's because they cannot recognize their situation that their emotions become lost, showing an unprovoked waywardness, like craziness without any reason."
"This might not necessarily be two types of people; it could also be different states of the same person. They might feel overwhelmed because they cognize something; they could also have an emotional outburst because they exhaust themselves trying but fail to cognize something."
"In a cognitive state, people's emotional outbursts usually express themselves. They use their own methods to express their breakdown. This is because the things they cognize input tangible things into their consciousness, giving them material to express."
"For example, when you find out someone has lied to you, you feel angry. You might reason with them or find ways to point out their errors in front of others. Even if you cry and make a fuss, you will find ways to express their maliciousness and your innocence."
"However, in a non-cognitive state, because they can't recognize what things are, no tangible things are output to the brain. They can't blame anyone and therefore have no way to express their sadness in their own way. At this time, they usually choose to mimic."
"In other words, only the cognitive state of emotional outbursts is genuine, while the non-cognitive state of outbursts is more like a performance. They don't know what's happening, only that they feel sad. But because they don't know what's happening, there's nothing to output, yet they want others to know they're sad, so they can only engage in a series of performances. And the essence of performance lies in mimicry."
"Without the inner drive that cognition brings, they can only more exaggeratedly display their emotions by mimicking others' emotional outbursts. And Chick's behavior clearly bears an exaggerated, theatrical nature."
"Whether it's hanging himself in the lab or adamantly demanding an apology from you, it's not because he really has a reason to output to you. He just wants to show you and others how miserable he is. And such a performance does not come from his own personality, but must be a mimicry of others."
"To make their performance more real and impactful, people usually choose certain beneficiaries to mimic. That is, someone has previously used certain emotional outbursts to oppress or gain benefits from them. Having been forced back this way before, they learn this method. Because they know better than anyone what can be obtained this way. So they will of course learn it."
"This is why many times people lament that the dragon slayer also becomes an evil dragon. A portion of victims of violent behavior will use the same violence to harm others. And this transmission usually occurs within families. Many people explain this as a genetic curse, but in reality, it's the non-cognitive mimicry behavior that naturally selects nearby beneficiaries for imitation. Chick is exactly like this."
"He has been long subjected to his mother's strict control. His mother may have used methods like suicide threats or forcing him to apologize publicly more than once to manipulate him. So when he wants to use an emotional outburst to manipulate others, he will prioritize this method. Because he knows how powerful it is. Because under such pressure, he has always chosen to retreat. So he assumes we would do the same, hence the performance."
"But you didn't." Jenna said, "He will find that you are entirely different from his previous experiences."
"No," Shiller said, "It's actually the same. When he attempted suicide, his classmates and professors still tried to save him. Mrs. Edison sympathized with him and kept defending him. This proved that this trick worked."
"Even including Victor and me, we made concessions to a certain extent. We didn't even pursue compensation for the equipment. Victor was willing to apologize to him privately. Although I exposed him and clarified the stakes to him, I didn't overly criticize him. At least up to us, his performance was successful."
"There must be times it doesn't work," Barry said, "If I were him, I wouldn't pay him any mind. If he breaks equipment due to his operational error, it's already good not to make him pay, let alone expecting more. Who does he think he is?"
"Of course, he quickly hit a snag," Shiller said, "because I went to see Principal Xi Wana. He absolutely will not compromise with this kind of person."
Victor looked at him, somewhat surprised, and said, "You went to see the principal? Oh my god, my annual review is completely out of the picture."
"Only Principal Xi Wana can deal with them." Jenna nodded and said, "He has a psychological shadow about this and will not accept such blackmail."
The others all turned to look at her.