Chapter 372: The Wonderful Adventures of Whale Whale (III): Kesuye, the Little Mute
Kesuye was always happy to follow any instruction Everly gave him. But when an unfamiliar person tried to order him around, he wasn’t nearly as cooperative.
For example, faced with the two officers’ request for him to cooperate with their investigation, Kesuye merely gave them a cold glance before reverting to his usual policy of ignoring them. He stood motionless like a statue, staring straight at Everly as though only her words could make him budge even slightly.
The two officers waited for a while. Seeing that Kesuye refused to cooperate, they prepared to use force.
But they clearly had no chance against him.
For the officers’ own safety, Everly quickly stepped in to stop them.
“Sorry, sorry, it’s all a misunderstanding, Officer. I’m his family member. He had an accident some time ago, and something’s a little wrong with him now. He might not be able to understand what you’re saying. Can I accompany him?”
As she spoke, she pointed a finger at her own temple.
“But he doesn’t look like he has an intellectual disability…” one of the younger officers muttered.
Before he could finish, the older officer beside him gave him a shove.
“I understand, ma’am. Please provide your identification, as well as documentation proving that you and Mr. Everly are related,” the older officer said.
Old John was a retired detective, so Everly had naturally picked up enough knowledge from him to recognize that the older officer’s request was completely legitimate.
Everly had actually prepared Kesuye’s identity in advance.
On the way there, with nothing better to do and thinking it might come in handy, she’d asked Orff to Photoshop several ID photos for Kesuye. Then she’d used Bitcoin to purchase a fake identity for him on the dark web.
She’d bought the most expensive package.
According to the seller, these fake identities were “perfect identities” created using the Social Security numbers of deceased people—dead infants and deceased individuals. As long as the person didn’t commit any major crimes, get arrested for DNA genealogy testing, or undergo cross-checking against the national death records, there was basically no chance of the identity being exposed. It was more than sufficient to get through an on-the-spot check by police officers.
As for proof of their familial relationship and Kesuye’s medical diagnosis, there simply hadn’t been enough time to forge those documents. After all, before coming here, Everly could never have imagined that Kesuye, who had somehow grown human legs, would not only inexplicably enter an ultramarathon but also become involved in a homicide case and end up as a major person of interest to the police.
What on earth had he been doing when she wasn’t around…?
Since she couldn’t provide proof of their relationship, the police declined Everly’s request to accompany him and insisted on taking Kesuye alone.
There was no way Everly could let Kesuye be questioned by himself.
He didn’t even have a kindergarten diploma, and all the basic knowledge in his head came from early-childhood educational software. What could he possibly understand? If he started rambling and somehow talked himself into prison, there’d be no way to argue his innocence!
Left with no choice, Everly secretly gestured “shut up” to Kesuye while loudly instructing him, “Kesuye, go with them for now. I’ll come find you right away. Be good, and remember, don’t hurt anyone!”
At Everly’s words, Kesuye’s bright expression immediately fell.
His brows drew together slightly, his smile disappeared, and his thick silver-white eyelashes drooped, covering half his eyes. He looked both aggrieved and melancholy.
What made him especially endearing was that, because Everly had gestured for him to “keep quiet and don’t say anything,” Kesuye, despite being deeply unwilling to do so, actually bit his lips tightly and didn’t say a word. He merely gazed at her longingly with his moist, blue-ringed eyes.
Even the most hard-hearted person would probably find it difficult to refuse someone with such expressive eyes.
Everly took a deep breath and reassured Kesuye again.
“I’ll come find you very soon. You’ll wait for me at the police station and be good, okay?”
Kesuye blinked and obediently nodded.
This time, when the police indicated that they were taking him away, he didn’t ignore them again. He obediently followed them.
The distance from the open ground to the police car was only five or six meters, yet Kesuye looked back seven or eight times. Even after the police car’s flashing lights disappeared around the bend in the road, Everly could still seemingly feel the weight of his lingering gaze.
Kesuye’s one-sided attachment filled Everly with a powerful sense of responsibility.
After watching the police car leave, Everly and her companions withdrew first to avoid being surrounded by the fans nearby and returned to their vehicle.
Old John hadn’t used the Fountain of Youth yet. It was already very late, and they were worried that the elderly man might not have the stamina for the journey ahead. So from the wilderness to the Gilosha Police Department, Misha would be driving while Old John rested in the back seat.
Misha drove, while Orff wasn’t idle either. Holding his tablet, he was responsible for monitoring public opinion online.
Everything that had just happened—including Kesuye approaching Everly to talk and the police taking Kesuye away—could very well have been captured on camera. If anyone posted the footage online and it sparked negative discussion, Orff would deal with it.
As for Everly, she picked up her phone and began contacting her associates.
Kesuye had been taken away by the police. If she wanted to intervene, she would need to enlist the help of another organization whose status and authority were on par with—or even higher than—the police department.
If the people who had come to arrest him were from the local police department in Dwight State, Everly could have used Old John’s connections to pull some strings and smooth things over. Unfortunately, they were from Gilosha, which meant they’d crossed state lines. Old John’s influence wouldn’t be of any use.
In a situation like this, the first people Everly naturally thought of were Remia and Gregory at SAI headquarters.
Kesuye’s identity was sensitive, involving the Black Goat cultists and the secret experiments conducted by the Megan Medical Group. In the past, she would never have dared reveal his identity.
But now, with Grant Megan’s “ascension,” the criminal forces behind the Megan Medical Group had already fallen apart, while Remia and Gregory had spent the past few years wiping out the Black Goat cultists almost completely. The forces capable of threatening Kesuye had essentially ceased to exist.
Under these circumstances, even if she revealed Kesuye’s identity, it shouldn’t be much of a problem. At the very least, Everly had absolute faith in Remia and Gregory’s character.
Besides, Everly wanted to resolve Kesuye’s identity problem once and for all.
The great whale had only just grown legs and was already eager to come ashore to play with her. Clearly, he quite liked the human world. She couldn’t exactly keep sending him back into the sea to live as a wild fish, could she?
Giving him a flawless identity would require the full support of the two agents. If she wasn’t completely honest with them, there was a good chance things would go wrong.
After weighing her options, Everly called Remia and explained the entire situation from beginning to end.
“Kesuye isn’t very familiar with human ways, but he’s very gentle by nature and doesn’t like violence. As long as no one provokes him, he won’t hurt anyone,” she defended Kesuye over the phone.
The police suspected that Kesuye had killed someone, but Everly didn’t believe he could be the culprit.
Even if he was, the other person must have provoked him first!
Because Kesuye really was one extraordinarily carefree, oblivious fish.
According to Everly’s observations, his daily life in the ocean consisted of swimming around looking for food, rolling onto his back to bask in the sun, terrorizing small animals, and, after getting an iPad, browsing the web and playing Snake…
Compared with the monsters in other horror movies, Kesuye was genuinely quite peaceful.
“I understand the situation. But Everly, you need to be prepared. Since you want us to help resolve your non-human friend’s identity problem, we’ll inevitably have to evaluate his character. If he proves problematic, we can’t rule out the possibility of eliminating him humanely. We can’t simply take your word for it on this matter. Even knowing that, do you still want us to get involved?” Remia asked over the phone.
Everly thought for a moment, then nodded.
“Yes. I trust Kesuye’s character.”
“All right. Gregory and I happen to be in Taiyu State, so we’re not too far away. Wait a little while. We’ll contact you in two hours.” With that, Remia hung up.
With Remia’s promise, Everly felt somewhat reassured.
After more than an hour on the road, they followed the route from the wilderness and finally stopped outside the Gilosha Police Department.
Now all they had to do was wait. Once Remia and Gregory arrived and helped smooth things over, Everly and the others would be able to meet Kesuye.
The four of them rested in the car for a while. About an hour later, Everly received a message from Remia.
“SAI has successfully taken over the case from the police. However, there’s a problem. Your non-human friend isn’t cooperating very well. No matter what we ask him, he refuses to say a word. Gregory and I have no way to make any progress.”
“Ah!”
Only then did Everly remember that she’d hinted to Kesuye before they parted that he shouldn’t speak. She hurriedly replied:
“Sorry, that’s my fault. I was worried he’d reveal something sensitive, so I told Kesuye to remain silent… Please hand the phone to him. I’ll talk to him.”
“No need to go through all that trouble. I’ll send you an address in a moment. Just come over.”
Remia sent Everly the location. Everyone in the car perked up at the reply, turned the vehicle around, and hurried toward the investigators’ location.
It was an ordinary-looking apartment building from the outside. Once inside, however, the corridors twisted and turned, and they had to pass through several doors protected by special wards.
Remia, who came to open the door for them, explained to Everly that these were simply the safe house’s standard security measures and didn’t mean anything. Even so, the long trek through the building made Everly increasingly anxious.
She maintained a calm expression on the surface, but her footsteps unconsciously grew faster and faster.
Finally, after making their way through a long corridor, the living-room door opened, and she saw Kesuye sitting on the sofa.
He looked perfectly human. He hadn’t suddenly sprouted another tail or grown gills or anything like that. His human form was completely stable. Sitting upright on the sofa with perfect posture, he stared blankly ahead, his expression vacant. A faint aura of living-dead melancholy surrounded him, making him look like a beautiful young widow who had lost her husband at an early age.
Kesuye was spacing out.
Before Everly entered the room, he’d been sitting there quietly the entire time, staring at a fixed point in empty space and letting his mind wander. Remia and Gregory’s questions had gone in one ear and out the other. The only time he ever reacted was when they mentioned Everly, at which point he’d give them a tiny glance.
At first glance, he seemed easygoing. In reality, he didn’t take a single person in the room seriously, and anyone who tried to deal with him was bound to run into that infuriating wall of passive resistance.
This was an abnormal being with both extremely low cooperation and extremely poor socialization skills.
Yet the moment he saw Everly, the entire person suddenly came “alive.”
Whoosh!
Without paying the slightest attention to anyone else, Kesuye sprang up from the sofa, crossed the space between the furniture, and ran straight toward Everly.
Everly hadn’t told him he could speak, so he kept his lips tightly sealed and dutifully continued playing the role of the little mute.
But happiness was like breathing, like a heartbeat, like the breeze stirred up as he passed. It poured wildly from Kesuye’s shining eyes, from the ends of his hair bouncing with every movement, and from the corners of his mouth lifted high into a radiant smile.
Anyone could see how happy he was. It was an incredibly pure emotion, completely free of any ulterior motives or impurities, and that purity made it all the more infectious.
For some reason, the way Kesuye charged toward Everly made her picture the great whale sprinting through the ocean.
He was moving fast. The distance between them rapidly shrank, yet Kesuye showed no sign of slowing down. Just as he was about to run straight into her, Everly didn’t even know what possessed her, but she suddenly raised her right hand, palm facing downward.
The next moment, as though she’d triggered some kind of conditioned response, Kesuye abruptly came to a halt.
Just as he’d done countless times in the ocean, he slightly arched his body and tilted his head back, stretching his neck and shoulders into an elegant curve. Like a devout pilgrim, he half-closed his eyes and gently bumped his forehead against Everly’s palm.
Afterward, a familiar shyness welled up inside him, and a faint blush instantly appeared across his pale cheeks.
The habit he’d developed back when he was a whale made Kesuye instinctively want to hide somewhere and blow bubbles. But he was on land now, with no seawater for him to hide in.
So, after looking around helplessly, he tugged up his racing shirt and awkwardly used the hem to cover his burning face.