Chapter 1199: The Lamb's Cry (11)_1

Gordon looked at the blood-covered but calm Jonathan being lifted onto the ambulance, shaking his head at the entrance of the police station. When he turned around, he found that Batman had vanished into thin air. Sighing, he muttered to himself:

"Whatever could have happened? What kind of madness is this?"

Gordon glanced down at his bloodied hands. He had just been applying pressure to Jonathan's wounds, staining his hands, cuffs, and the edges of his shirt with blood.

Turning around, Gordon was about to return to the station restroom to wash his hands when he noticed the soles of his shoes were also stained. Each step left a bloody footprint behind.

Gordon thought he shouldn't burden the cleaning lady with unnecessary chores. So, he planned to scrape his shoe soles on the carpet. But as soon as he stepped on the carpet, he found it was also stained with blood, only making things worse.

Gordon held up his hands, noticing that a couple of extra newspaper editions were conveniently resting on the umbrella stand next to him. He leaned against the door frame with his elbow, grabbed a newspaper with his other hand, and began cleaning his shoe soles.

However, as he was wiping, it seemed he remembered something. He stepped back, shook open the blood-stained newspaper, and stared at the small scribbles of text, mumbling to himself: "Full-width separator..."

Gordon stared at the newspaper for a long time. But he could not figure out the difference between full-width and half-width characters. From a typographical point of view, nothing seemed abnormal.

Gordon realized that he was not very skilled at textual and graphic reasoning. He needed to find someone who excelled at this.

In the dimly lit corridors of Arkham Mental Hospital, Harley pushed an IV rack with one hand, holding a prescription in the other. She was reading the prescription as she walked, stooping forward. As she rounded a corner, she ran into Mrs. Miller.

"Harley, what are you doing here? Come with me, Chief Gordon wants to see you." Mrs. Miller waved at Harley.

Harley raised her eyebrows and showed a somewhat impatient expression. She rolled her eyes, rather petulantly pushed the IV stand aside, crossed her arms and said, "What's with Gordon? Can't he see I'm about to go insane from the workload?"

Mrs. Miller hesitated for a moment, then gently patted Harley on the back and said, "If you're too tired, I can help you get out of it."

"What does he want?" Harley asked.

"Something to do with solving a case... or finding clues, I think. I didn't fully understand what he was talking about, but it sounds dangerous. If you don't want to go, I can decline for you." Mrs. Miller tilted her head to look at Harley.

However, Harley's eyes lit up. She quickened her pace to match Mrs. Miller's, then said, "No, I'm not tired at all. Let's go there quickly!"

In the office on the first floor, Gordon was deeply frowning at the newspapers and magazines spread out before him. From his serious expression, it was evident he hadn't made any progress. When Harley arrived, he immediately waved her over and said, "Come quickly, Harley. Help me look at this. Is there anything wrong with the symbols in these articles?"

Harley walked over, knelt half-way and began to study the newspapers spread out on the ground. Before she got a chance to ask, Gordon gave her a brief rundown of what had happened at the police station.

Harley's eyes widened, her voice rose in disbelief, "You mean Batman has updated the Serial Killer Club's secret code? That's impossible!!!"

After saying this, she turned her attention back to the newspaper on the floor. Guiding her gaze with her finger like a skimming dragonfly, she began to examine the layout and content of the newspaper. A few minutes later, Harley stood up, shaking her head, and said in a disbelieving voice:

"They are really using a new cipher – the full-width separator..."

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

Harley glanced at him, opened her mouth to speak, then closed it, seemingly unwilling to explain. She hesitated for a moment, but decided to speak.

"Natural-born killers have a common trait, they are extremely sensitive to information involving blood and violence. This excites them, even if they don't show it."

"The first time I discovered anomalies in the newspaper was when the Gotham Daily reported the tragic news of a street vendor crushed by a truck. The reviewer simply put the photograph of the mangled, bloody corpse on the front page headline. It was impossible to miss."

"The moment I saw this picture, my heart began to beat rapidly. An indescribable excitement rose within me, and I eagerly unfolded the newspaper to start reading the contents."

"There was nothing much to the report; merely an unfortunate accident. The writing was dry, simply recounting the causes and consequences without any specific details. It did not satisfy my desires."

"From then on, I began to pay deliberate attention to gruesome murders in newspapers. Whenever I read beautifully written articles detailing the criminal processes of killers, it was as if I was right in the scene."

"Having read many of these reports, I noticed that while some writers had good literary styles, they didn't seem to be very particular about grammar. Some sentences were written so poorly they didn't make sense. And they kept getting the symbols wrong."