In the blink of an eye, the next day arrived.
At 8 o'clock in the morning, in Class A, Grade 12 of St. George's College in London.
Victor Black stood on the podium and spoke earnestly to the students filling the classroom. He truly enjoyed the teaching process. For every class, every knowledge point, and every question, he would treat them seriously and strive for perfection.
He was a responsible teacher, and all the students were well aware of this. Additionally, being young, only 25 years old, tall, and having a handsome appearance, he was deeply loved by the students.
Therefore, whenever it was time for a math class, Class A, Grade 12 was always particularly lively, and there were especially many students who took the initiative to ask questions.
"Does anyone still have questions about the chapter on sequence combinations?"
Seeing the students all shake their heads in unison, Victor smiled with satisfaction. As per the usual practice, after finishing the textbook content, he would talk about some additional knowledge. So he asked, "Does anyone know what the subject of mathematics was called in ancient times?"
Soon, a student raised his hand.
"George, you can answer."
"Arithmetic."
"Very good."
Victor motioned for George to sit down and then swept his gaze across the whole class. "The reason it was called arithmetic lies in the character (calculation). In ancient times, there was a saying that when arithmetic, that is, mathematics, was studied to the extreme, it could measure all things in the universe. Simply put, when a person studies mathematics to the extreme, he can understand the mysteries of the universe and be almost all-knowing and all-powerful. Students, do you believe this statement?"
This time, without the need to raise hands, almost all the students shook their heads. "No, we don't believe it."
Victor smiled but remained silent, neither affirming nor denying. After a few seconds, he continued, "Let's put aside whether it's possible to measure the universe for now. Then, if someone has extremely high mathematical attainments, do you think he can predict the future in a short time?"
As soon as this question was asked, the students all fell into deep thought. After a moment, a boy raised his hand.
"Tyler, you can answer."
The boy named Tyler stood up. "I think it's possible."
Victor smiled. "What's the reason?"
"For example, for a math problem, if the thinking is correct and as long as there are no calculation errors in each step, the final result must be correct. By analogy, for an event, if every development node is calculated clearly, then the final result will also be as expected. This should count as predicting the future, right?"
As soon as he finished speaking, another boy stood up. "Theoretically, that's the case, but there's a problem, which is that there can't be any interfering factors. Otherwise, the result will be uncontrollable."
Upon hearing this, Victor looked at this boy with an approving gaze and nodded slightly. "That's right, that's indeed the case."
Then, he changed the subject. "However, what if these interfering factors are also part of the calculation?"
As he said this, his eyes were extremely profound, and the depths of his pupils seemed to be filled with countless stars, like a galaxy, like a chessboard, a chessboard for measuring the universe!
At the same time, in the case analysis room of the Serious Crime Unit of Scotland Yard.
"At 1:28 last night, a person who claimed to be the Ghost called and said that he was going to kill John Wilson. After receiving the call, Emily, who was on duty, reported this matter to me and Captain James at the first time. Shortly after, James gave instructions. First, he sent people to John Wilson's residence, and then he ordered me to investigate this matter. After the investigation... Finally, this person claimed that he would commit the murder in three days and asked us to be prepared."
After making clear the entire sequence of events, Thomas Wilson looked at James Morrison.
James nodded slightly at Thomas and then looked at everyone in the meeting room. "That's the situation. Judging from the current situation, we can basically conclude that this is not a prank. We've encountered a madman, and he's a smart one.
First, the other party called twice, both using anonymous numbers with no information at all. Moreover, it seems that both numbers are for one-time use and won't be used again in the future.
Second, the signal sources for both calls were from remote areas, and there aren't many surveillance cameras in those locations, so we can't find this person through the surveillance cameras.
Based on these two points, we can conclude that this guy is very cautious in his actions and also knows a lot about our police's criminal investigation technology."
"Something's not right. Since this guy is so careful, why did he make this murder prediction? Wouldn't it be better to secretly get rid of the target?" A certain police officer asked in confusion.
James nodded. "This is indeed very unusual. Moreover, this isn't the only unusual aspect of the whole thing. However, now isn't the time to discuss this. The top priority is to discuss how to protect John Wilson well. On this basis, we also need to find a way to catch that guy. As long as John Wilson doesn't die, everything will be fine. But once he's dead, every single one of us here will be in big trouble."
Everyone nodded. James was right. Protecting the person was the top priority.
"Let's invite that John Wilson to the police station. It's just three days. As long as he's in the police station, no matter how powerful that Ghost is, he won't be able to succeed." A tall police officer suggested.
Thomas shook his head. "No way!"
"Why not?"
"First of all, if we really bring John Wilson to the police station for protection, then that Ghost will definitely not find any chance and will have to give up. In this case, the three-day agreement will pass, but what about in the future? Do we have to protect him for the rest of his life?
Secondly, we've already asked, and John Wilson himself doesn't agree either. His thoughts are similar to mine. He wants to wait for the Ghost at home and completely solve the crisis. After all, there's no such thing as guarding against thieves for a thousand days."
So that's how it is! Now, everyone understood that whether they liked it or not, they had to play this offensive and defensive game with the Ghost.
Therefore, everyone expressed their opinions on how to protect John Wilson.
"During these three days, apart from us, John Wilson can't meet any outsiders. If he has anything to do, he should make a phone call."
"Regarding the defense around John Wilson's house, I think..."
"We also need to pay attention to the food and water. I think there's a high possibility that the Ghost will use poison."
"We also need to guard against sniper rifles. All the possible sniping locations near John Wilson's house must be under surveillance."
Almost all the dozen or so people present were experienced veteran detectives. In just three hours, they had clearly arranged everything about protecting John Wilson.
In their opinion, with such tight protection, if the Ghost could still succeed, they might as well bang their heads against a piece of tofu and die. In fact, with the layers of protection provided by the police, it was almost impossible to commit a murder.
After discussing the protection matters, everyone didn't leave but instead discussed how to catch the Ghost and formulated a plan to deliberately leave a flaw to lure the other party into the trap.
Finally, the meeting lasted until the afternoon, and everything was arranged.
After the meeting ended, the Serious Crime Unit became extremely busy. Except for James who stayed in the central command, almost everyone else left the police station.
At the same time, the first day of the three-day agreement came to an end!