The Underlying Reasons I Chapter 7

Unexpectedly, Jason was not joking when he said he wanted to go and take a look. That night, Jason really went to the door of the Vampire Club with Sean and Felix.

This is a small shop located on a bar street not far from the university town. The shop is not big, with black wooden doors and windows that are deliberately made old, with dark marks on them, which look like bloodstains. The brown glass blocks a lot of light, and it is difficult to see what is inside. There are some fake bats hanging above the doors and windows, and a bat-shaped wooden doorplate, which is painted with the logo that the two saw in the paper manuscript.

Sean and Jason looked at each other - it seemed like this was the place.

After pushing the door open, it suddenly became much darker inside. Thanks to the brown glass, the interior of the store was quite dark. The dark decorations and Gothic style added to the sense of mystery and oppression. The items in the store all had distinct vampire characteristics, such as white candles, long dining tables, and even a gorgeous coffin on the inner side of the hall. There were some young men and women sitting at some tables, all wearing non-mainstream clothes. When some children started talking and laughing, you could see their sharp canine teeth.

Just as the three were still scanning the interior, a waiter-like man came up to them. He was about 20 years old, wearing a tuxedo and white gloves. He looked at the two with a smile and asked, "Excuse me, what can I do for you?"

"We are here to look for someone." Felix said.

Hearing Felix's words, the young man made a polite but rejecting gesture: "I'm sorry, this is the territory of the vampires. If humans come here, they will be treated as food." After saying that, he showed a deliberate smile - two fangs.

Jason looked at the fangs in the young man's mouth with interest, as if he was studying what material the dentures were made of. However, Sean obviously had no sense of humor. He directly took out his police ID and held it in front of the young man with an expressionless face: "Police."

"Ah?" The young man was surprised when he saw the police ID and was stunned.

"What's wrong? What happened?" At this time, a young man in his twenties came over.

"Oh, manager, these three people said they are...policemen..." The waiter seemed to have not fully recovered his saneness and spoke stutteringly.

Hearing what the clerk said, the store manager seemed a little surprised. He looked at Sean's police ID card and then said, "Three officers, I am the store manager here. What can I do for you?"

"We want you to know something about the situation. Is there a quiet place?"

"Oh, yes, please follow me."

The three of them came to the bar in the middle of the room. It was also in European style. What was more noticeable was that there were small glass bottles hanging on the wall behind the bar. Each bottle was about the size of a little finger and was filled with red liquid. This style was undoubtedly in line with the theme of vampires.

"What is this?" Jason asked curiously, pointing at the small bottles.

"Oh, this is our blood wall. When each member comes in, they squeeze out a little blood and put it in this bottle, and then put it here. This can be regarded as our initiation ceremony. The shop owner explained it briefly and then turned to the main topic: "Officer, my name is Hua Letang, I am the boss here. I wonder what the officers want to see me about?"

Felix said, "We want to learn something from you. I heard that you have many college students coming here frequently?"

"Well, yes. We are a theme club, mainly targeting college students..."

"Are there any medical students who come here often?"

Hearing Felix's question, Hua Letang was slightly stunned: "Well... there are some, many medical school students are very interested in vampires..." Hua Letang looked at the expressions of several people and asked tentatively: "Are you looking for someone?..."

"Well, we want to know which medical school students often come to your place." Sean said.

"Well..." Hua Letang was a little embarrassed: "I don't know their names..."

"Hmm?" Felix pointed at the wall full of small bottles and asked, "Don't you have members here? Don't you register your name when you sign up as a member?"

When Hua Letang heard this, he smiled awkwardly: "We registered, but we registered the English names..."

Alias? Shen Fang and the other man looked at Jason, who was closer to the wall. The latter nodded to them - that was indeed the case.

"Why don't you use your real name but a pseudonym?" Felix asked.

"Officer, vampires are Western things after all, so English names make more sense. So everyone registered with English names, and usually calls each other by English names. So I really don't know what their names are."

"I don't know his name, but I should know his appearance, right?" At this moment, Jason suddenly spoke up, pointing to the monitor in the corner of the ceiling: "You should have surveillance video here, right?"

"Oh, right! How could I have forgotten this!" Hua Letang slapped his forehead and suddenly realized: "Please wait a moment! I will go check the surveillance video."

The surveillance video is stored in the server system, and if you want to view the previous ones, you need to export them. So, while waiting for the export, Jason began to chat with Hua Letang with great interest.

"There aren't many vampire clubs in China. How did you come up with this idea?"

"Haha, not really. I've been studying abroad since junior high school, so I'm relatively familiar with the legends and culture of vampires. Plus, I joined a similar club in college. When I first came back to China, I just wanted to do it for fun, but I didn't expect that there are so many vampire enthusiasts in China, so I got into it by accident." Hua Letang smiled.

"Well, you have a unique vision." Jason said, "And I think you did it quite professionally. The blood wall you just did was an imitation of the First Embrace, right?"

"Yes! I didn't expect you, officer, to know all this!"

"Haha, I was dragged by my college classmates to watch Bram Stoker's Dracula, so I know some common sense." Jason smiled and pointed at the small bottles on the wall and asked: "Is there a particular arrangement of the heights?"

"Well, they are arranged in the order of the first embrace, which indicates your status here." Hua Letang smiled: "The blood race is very particular about status."

"Is there your blood here?"

"Yes." Hua Letang pointed to a small bottle near the top.

"The second row, this must be considered the elder level, right?" Jason squinted at the name on the small bottle: "Leon..."

"Yes, it's the homophone of my Chinese name."

"By the way, your Chinese name seems quite unique. What are the characters in it?"

"Oh, happy Le, the Tang of the pomegranate flower."

"Oh, Hua Letang, well, it's a good name indeed." Jason smiled and nodded.

As the two of them were talking happily, the video export was finally completed. Hua Letang operated the machine and called up a surveillance video, then stood up and said, "This is the video of our party a few days ago. You can take a look and see if there is anyone you are looking for."

Felix nodded and sat in front of the computer. The monitor played the surveillance footage of the day, which was full of boys and girls dressed as vampires. The heavy makeup almost completely concealed their true identities. The three of them stared at the screen carefully, struggling to identify any familiar faces.

"Wait!" Sean suddenly shouted.

"Huh?" The others were stunned.

"Back up a little."

Felix rewound the video a little according to Sean's order.

"stop!"

The camera stopped. Sean pointed at a young man wearing medieval European clothes on the screen and looked at Felix: "Do you think this student looks familiar?"

Felix stared at the camera and identified it carefully, and suddenly said in surprise: "It's him?......"

The man in strange clothes and with fangs in the camera turned out to be Li Yuzhong’s student, Lu Yiqiao.

In the interrogation room of the police station, Lu Yiqiao looked around the room nervously. Seeing that he was trembling slightly, Felix handed him a cup of hot coffee.

"Thank you..." Lu Yiqiao thanked him and took it, but did not drink it. He just kept rubbing the paper cup, as if he was using it to warm his hands.

"Why did you go to that place?" Felix asked.

Lu Yiqiao looked up at Felix and said softly, "There is a vampire cosplay party there tonight. I'll go over and take a look..."

"You like vampires?"

Lu Yiqiao shook his head: "I can't say I like them, but it's more convenient to get in touch with them and learn some information."

"Then, were these things in the paper also written by you?" Felix said as he placed a paper draft in front of Lu Yiqiao.

When Lu Yiqiao saw the document in front of him, he was shocked. He raised his head and looked at Felix in disbelief.

"We compared this manuscript with the final paper, and found that nearly 7,000 words in the first chapter of the paper overlapped with it, almost copying it verbatim. More importantly, the treatment plan in the main body of the paper also overlapped with that mentioned in this article, but it was improved. It can even be said that this article is the prototype of that paper."

Hearing this, Lu Yiqiao's hands began to tremble violently.

Felix saw Lu Yiqiao's reaction and continued, "We checked Li Yuzhong's computer. The original author of this manuscript was Yiqiao Lu, that is, you. You are the one who proposed this treatment plan, but the final document did not have your name on it." Felix looked directly at Lu Yiqiao and said, "Your teacher plagiarized your research results."

Bang! The paper cup in Lu Yiqiao's hand was crumpled into a ball, and the coffee inside splashed out, all over the place. But Lu Yiqiao seemed to be completely unaware, and his hands were still tightly holding the paper cup.

Sean handed over the tissue box on the table and said, "Go ahead."