Shiller shook his head. He went to the door but did not go in, just stood there and said, "There must be someone else involved."
"Who?"
Shiller didn't directly answer, but instead turned back and continued, "Fanny isn't just lacking a sense of boundaries. Her various transgressions are essentially attempts to oppress others by overly encroaching on their territory. This phenomenon is quite common; surely, you've seen it before."
The others agreed with his statement. Often, among strangers, taking advantage may just be simple opportunism, and lack of consideration might just be thoughtlessness.
But within relatively close and familiar intimate relationships, it's more than that. Many people gain social advantage by excessively encroaching on others' territory.
For example, among roommates, some people will use others' things without permission, repeatedly and even after being confronted. Many might think they just have bad habits or love small gains, but that's not the case. They establish dominance through these actions.
This is analogous to a wolf pack, where the alpha wolf has the ultimate power to allocate prey resources. After a successful hunt, he may eat first or let wolves close to him eat first. If a disliked wolf approaches, he will drive it away. The same applies to human relationships.
In relatively enclosed relationships, like family, roommate, or office relations, the power to allocate resources must be contested. Whoever gains this power can exert social pressure. Essentially, it's not about those few tissues or bites of snack, but about showing "I can allocate your resources as I wish, so I'm above you."
Some people acting this way may not even realize it. They just find provoking others amusing, so they never change. But this, too, is an instinctual manipulation behavior, not just to save money or indulge.
"The urge to control stems from feeling someone has escaped control." Shiller spoke again, "This struggle for dominance usually targets those they subconsciously feel they cannot overpower by natural advantage.
This is understandable. If you feel someone is inferior to you in every way, you won't see them as a threat to your status. Especially in social settings, you will feel you are superior in all aspects. This security can actually help build your relationship, like an alpha wolf to a regular wolf.
However, an inherently inferior subordinate wanting to vie for the alpha position must take the initiative. Using exquisite hunting skills and ferocious tactics to compensate for natural disadvantages. In a wolf pack, the alpha isn't necessarily the largest but the fiercest.
"Fanny is very jealous of you." Shiller looked at Jenna and said, "She feels she's not as good as you, but wants to surpass you. So she uses constant encroachment on your territory as a means to suppress you."
"Perhaps," Jenna said, "I can actually feel that. But there's nothing I can do to stop it. I want to break away from this circle, but I still have to study at school and occasionally stay in the dorm, I can't completely extricate myself."
"This can be described as a long-term behavior pattern. However, any behavior pattern, when subjected to short-term stimulus, can also have a short-term stereotypical outbreak." Shiller glanced at the bed, then said, "When you came to get your things, the bed hadn't been disturbed, right?"
Jenna nodded and said, "No. Although I didn't stay here last night, I can be certain Fanny didn't sleep in my bed last night. Things hadn't been moved."
"Not sleeping on your bed yesterday, but suddenly sleeping there today, indicates she's been stimulated. This led to a short-term compulsion in stereotypical behavior, namely suppressing you by invading your territory."
"But when I returned, no one was in the dorm." Jenna frowned and said, "Fanny shouldn't have known I came back. I hadn't seen her all day yesterday and hadn't spoken to her. What could possibly have stimulated her?"
"That's why I said there's someone else." Shiller said, "This person plays an important role in it all."
"Pelota." Jenna said thoughtfully, "The two of them always stick together to badmouth me. And Pelota often likes to use Fanny as a pawn, constantly inciting her to trouble me. But even if Pelota did badmouth me, there must be a reason, right? Lately, I haven't offended them."
Barry, however, seemed to have thought of something and said, "It might not have been Milo who saw you, but Pelota. This can explain why she could recognize you at first glance. Although it's possible that Pelota described your features to Milo, it makes more sense that she saw you herself."
"I understand," Gordon said, "Pelota saw you go out at night, so she told Milo you might have seen him going out to commit a crime. Meanwhile, she also told your roommate Fanny that you were dressed beautifully today or that you had a tall and handsome boyfriend, something like that. This provoked Fanny, making her want to retaliate by encroaching on your territory, so she slept on your bed, which led to Milo coming in the middle of the night to kill the wrong person."
"Why would Pelota want to kill Fanny?" Barry frowned and asked, "Isn't Jenna the one she's most jealous of?"
"That's true. However, Jenna already shows a clear intention to break away from this circle, and no one can stop her. Jenna obviously won't threaten Pelota's real interests." Shiller said.
"Rodriguez's words made me untimely think of a joke: when a bear is chasing you, you don't need to run faster than the bear, you just need to be faster than your companion. The principle here is you don't need to run faster than the fastest companion, you just need to surpass the one closest to you. Jenna's relationship with her two roommates is clearly like this. She is the fastest runner, obviously not in any danger. But Pelota and Fanny are evenly matched. So while they have complaints about Jenna, they see each other as threatening rivals. The principle I concluded was confirmed by Rodriguez—of course, after things ended."
"I don't understand," Gordon said again, "what kind of competition between the two of them can reach the point of murder. Could it be that they both like Milo?"
"That's too melodramatic," Victor remarked with a frown.
"I haven't heard that she likes anyone," Jonathan spoke up, "Fanny is a hard-working girl who often spends time in the lab and is quite talented in chemistry..."
"Which department is Pelota in?" Shiller asked.
"Uh, she's in the Computer Science major," Jenna thought for a moment before saying, "but she wants to change her major."
"Why?"
"Because of Brainiac," Jenna said, "Who in the field of computer science can surpass Brainiac? Of course, she's not trying to be a master, mainly because this major has a higher probability of going to Krypton. They need talent to optimize the computer system there, but she seems not to want to go, thinking it's too far away, and the conditions aren't good."
"What major does she plan to switch to?"
"Not too sure, but it's not up to her, since each department has strict enrollment numbers, and it depends on whether the professors have spots. She asked me if she could switch to Psychology. I said the Psychology Department definitely doesn't have spots, so she gave up."
"Psychology Department indeed has no spots," Xile said, "but the main reason she gave up is that the career prospects of this major aren't good. And the medical school assessment is too strict; if she can't successfully enter medical school to study clinical psychology or psychiatry but just holds a bachelor's degree, the employment situation is even more severe."
"But chemistry is different." Shiller turned his gaze towards Jonathan and said, "With Brainiac, the employment prospects in chemistry have gotten better. Because the chemical and pharmaceutical industries are no longer driven by capital interests, the market development decreases while academic development increases. The subsidies offered by various project groups are high, making it a good time to produce results. Otherwise, Brainiac wouldn't have released Professor Crane…"
"Shiller!" Jonathan glared at him.
Shiller merely glanced at him and said, "If it weren't for your recent achievements, Brainiac wouldn't have let you come here to argue with me."
"...you're saying it's for the sake of my mood?"
"No, it's to scold you and remind you not to get too arrogant."
Jonathan shut his mouth, choosing not to argue further with Shiller, as it wouldn't be wise to ask for trouble.
"So, Pelota and Fanny's real conflict isn't about romance. Pelota wants to switch departments, but Brainiac has the spots so tightly controlled, one spot for one person. If the old stays, the new can't come in. In this scenario, the best way is to kill Fanny, creating a spot, giving her a chance."
"Sounds too ridiculous," Victor commented, "I can't imagine someone killing over such matters."
"Then what do you think one should kill for?"
"For example, he suddenly gets inspiration from a certain computer program, thinking executing a death ritual can raise his soul into a great electronic system. Thus, he selects Fanny as the sacrifice..."
Brainiac suddenly emitted a noise that covered Victor's subsequent words. Gordon disdainfully said: "Why are you making noise? Do you think anyone here can still be influenced by such words? Which idea that casually pops into their minds isn't a hundred times more shocking than this?"
He then turned to Victor and said: "You've become rusty without practice for a long time. This kind of heresy ritual belongs to the old mob era. In my opinion, Pelota uses Fanny's death as a symbol, to announce the beginning of another crazy serial murder case..."
Victor and Gordon both looked at Shiller, seemingly seeking his judgment on who's right. Shiller seemed quite speechless and said: "Is there a possibility that the murder cases you talked about are outdated? Present-day Gotham is already a normal city. Killing for tangible benefits is the most common type of murder in ordinary society."