Fourth Perspective

Chapter 13

In the snow, a pair of cold eyes hung down. The black umbrella blocked the yellow light at the intersection, which avoided the man, and fell down on the ground next to him.

He lowered his eyes and glanced at Xiao Jinyu.

The four eyes then met.

He didn’t seem to expect that the young man next to him would also be looking at him and under the two umbrellas, their sights met in midair. Xiu Jiuzhou slightly raised his eyebrows, eyes landing on the mole between the other’s left eyebrow and temple for a second.

It was only a short glance and the two retracted their gaze together.

The signal light changed from red to green and Xiao Jinyu stepped onto the crosswalk. Behind him, slightly to the left, came a sound of stepping in snow, Xiao Jinyu didn’t look back, held his umbrella and kept walking.

Stepping onto the sidewalk, he went right. And behind him, that sound of footsteps turned to the left, and gradually went further and further.

After walking like this for ten meters, Xiao Jinyu counted to three in his head and turned around.

That man had disappeared.

“...It was a user.”

Logic skills attract other logic skills.

This was the second rule Miss Qi Simin had told him in the subway station.

Xiao Jinyu didn’t know if it was always that many Zhongdu users who liked to walk around the streets, just that he wasn’t a user in the past and wasn’t able to sense them. But he saw four of them just today.

He met Qi Simin and Li Xiaotong in the subway station.

He met Zhao Hen at his door.

And this man who’s logical skill stood out way too much for him to ignore. He didn’t even need to use Fourth Perspective to feel the oppressive force from the other.

And this man must have also figured out he was a user as well. Or else he wouldn’t have suddenly looked at him.

This man was definitely, of the four users he had seen today, the strongest.

A user this strong appearing near here…

Xiao Jinyu looked down and hurried home.

While Zhongdu’s first snow of the year was still falling, Xiao Jinyu didn’t know that after separating at the intersection, that man turned a corner, walking towards the subway entrance.

Perhaps it was because it was snowing, there were not a lot of people in the subway, spare groups of two or three exited from the subway station.

Xiu Jiuzhou walked to the overhang on the subway entrance, closed his umbrella, and shook it in the air twice, shaking away the snowflakes on the umbrella.Then he went down the escalator. The long black umbrella was propped up on the steps, like it was crutches supporting an adult man’s body.

After arriving at the subway station, he behaved normally and swiped his card to get into the station.

However, after going down a level through the escalator, he did not walk to the queue of people waiting for the train to enter the station, but instead walked to the most central row of the plastic seats. The umbrella leaned against the seat and he sat down on the central seat.

Time quickly passed.

The number of people in the subway station became fewer and fewer.

Xiu Jiuzhou patiently held his chin in one hand and quietly watched every train pass by.

Finally, the last subway train also left the station. The subway station was empty and the white light shone on the marble floor.

Xiu Jiuzhou made a phone call, and a nice, low voice rang out.

“Polluter 004’s abnormality has nothing to do with White Garden.”

There was a grunt on the phone.

“Since Zhongdu has already been checked, hm… check the contamination area outside.” Picking up the black umbrella, he stood up, “District 19, 67 and 254.”

The subway station cleaners were coming to clean the waiting hall and didn’t think that there were still passengers that hadn’t left yet. The cleaning auntie said, “There’s still five minutes before the doors close, are you not going to hurry up?”

Xiu Jiuzhou slightly stopped, he replied with a smile, “Thank you for reminding me, I’ll leave very soon.”

While walking out, he continued to talk on the phone.

Walking out of the subway station entrance, seeing the snow outside has not stopped, Xiu Jiuzhou shook his umbrella, and casually asked: "The survivor who entered White Garden’s logic skill this morning, awakened his logic skill?”

The Captain Wang on the other side of the phone froze, “How did you know. Yes, Zhao Hen just reported an hour ago that that Zhongdu University student just awakened his logic skill. He was called… Xiao Jinyu. Currently, we don’t know what the effect of his logic skill is, but Zhao Hen said he didn’t detect any danger from Xiao Jinyu, perhaps his logic skill is a support type. I’ll send someone to check tomorrow.”

Xiao Jinyu.

Testing this name out in his mind, Ziu Jiuzhou smiled meaningfully, he opened his umbrella and walked into the dark, snowy night.

***

Xiao Jinyu didn’t sleep for the whole night.

He didn’t think that the temperature would drop overnight, the snow fell too heavily outside, and the house was as cold as an ice cellar. In the empty and desolate room, he carried a chair to the door in the living room, blocking the door, watching his mom tirelessly sitting on the sofa… watching the ‘TV’.

His mother tilted her head, leaned on her shoulder, stared at the ‘TV’ on the wall, and watched it all night.

It's normal for a middle-aged woman in an ordinary family to watch TV all night, but it might be more normal if she wasn't watching a paper TV.

On the yellowing and peeling wall, hung a weird and shoddy paper TV. This was a simple TV drawn on paper and it could be seen with the naked eye that the person who drew it had lousy drawing skills. Even a two year old could see this was a funny paper TV, but after he stuck it to the wall, his mom seriously watched it all night.

Xiao Jinyu sat on the only other furniture in the room. His mom watched TV, he watched his mom.

It was obvious that this wasn’t his house.

This was the house upstairs.

It can also be said that there was no one living upstairs, only a house that was empty for two years.

The house’s owner died two years ago, and without any descendants, so the house was abandoned. There were many empty houses like this in Zhongdu. In the first decade after the Type-A radiation,the ‘Lingering radiation opinion’ was prevalent around the world, many believing they were contaminated by the radiation and would pass it onto their children. They might have survived, but the child might not. So they insisted on not having children.

Xiao Jinyu didn’t know why upstairs didn’t have children, whether they were single or a couple. When the old man died two years ago, the people around him helped bury him, and then the house was given to the government due to laws, so it was empty now.

Last year the house upstairs fell into disrepair, causing a leak in his house ceiling when it rained. The neighborhood committee gave him the keys to upstairs so that he could come up at any time to check on the leak.

Using this house to hide his mom was the best choice. First of all, since it was upstairs, it was very convenient to see his mom’s situation. Second, there aren’t even two households living next to this house. One family moved to Haidu City and the other moved to other areas.

Mom’s situation was… a bit complicated.

When Qi Simin introduced logic skills to him, said unhesitantly, that anyone can recognise a polluter at a glance. Adding on the light dots he saw near his mom;s neck yesterday, Xiao Jinyu was 90% certain that his mom turned into a polluter.

But as for why polluters must be killed, Qi Simin didn’t give an answer. But that boy in the baseball cap, Li Xiaotong said that he’s seen a polluter searching around for prey before.

So that means polluters can go on the offensive.

His mom doesn’t.

Xiao Jinyu couldn’t help but remember that night from a month ago.

That night was no different from any other. He came home after a day at school, and a female upperclassman in the lab was giving out chocolates. Xiao Jinyu never liked eating sweets, but his mom did, and adding on the fact that she gave one to everyone in class, Xiao Jinyu didn’t refuse it.

He held that packet of chocolates, pushed open the door, and called out, “Mom”.

Then he saw his mom bend her neck and twist open her mouth towards him.

……

Not thinking anymore of those things that couldn’t be changed, Xiao Jinyu started analysing.

First of all, the polluter's aggressiveness was not reflected in his mother for the time being. At least for the past month, his mom has never hurt anyone. Everytime Xiao Jinyu goes out, he will lock the doors and windows and his mother did not forcefully go out and has been quietly staying at home watching TV and sleeping.

Secondly, the name polluter causes one to ask if his mom could contaminate others. In the past, he did not know that this contamination was caused by logic skills and Xiao Jinyu was only worried that his mom might hurt people and never thought that his mom's situation could be transmitted to others. Since Type-A radiation is contagious, so was the polluter contagious as well?

After a month, there were no rumors of any abnormal phenomenon. Whether polluters can contaminate others, he does not know, even if they could, a month had already passed and it was too late to think of this any more. But he remembered that the user sent to explore the situation, Zhai Hen said that today, the User Management Department will send someone to teach him how to use the APP.

It looks like he could find an opportunity to get information on polluters from them without causing suspicion.

Then what he needs to do now is to think of what questions he should ask the other, so then he can figure out how to save his mom.

Of course, hiding his mom here was only a temporary matter. The best way is to find a remote place, rent a house, and hide his mom there.

Thinking of all this, Xiao Jinyu’s calm expression from before slowly disappeared. He lifted a hand to cover his face, expression bitter.

No money!

……

Making sure that every window was closed shut and the curtains closed tight, Xiao Jinyu looked heavily at his mom’s back, walked out, locking the door shut.

Taking advantage of the fact that there were less people in the morning, Xiao Jinyu returned to the house below.

He needed to make money urgently!

Xiao Jinyu thought for a while, took out his phone, and found the professor’s name. He was about to make a call when a bullet barrage flew across his screen.

‘Dad!’

Xiao Jinyu froze in surprise inside, but immediately calmed down.

That special monster was back!

Xiao Jinyu calmly asked, “Are you alright?”

‘?’

Xiao Jinyu frowned.

The special monster doesn't seem to talk much today, it was more concise.

Xiao Jinyu explained: "When you left yesterday, you said, a... pervert was coming, so you had to go. And after you left," he added, "I saw a black spear pierce the APP. If this APP was you, were you pierced by a black spear yesterday?”

‘QAQ”

‘Dad, suffering, run’

Xiao Jinyu: “......”

Was it so beaten up that it can’t talk anymore?!

For why this special monster recognised him as a father, Xiao Jinyu had no answer for now. But this monster was very strong, super strong. Such a strong monster trying to get favor from him, Xiao Jinyu didn’t feel at peace. Instead, he thought of it like a bomb, he didn’t know when the monster would change face and blow up on him.

So far, he hasn’t yet relaxed his vigilance against the monster.

But he definitely wouldn't offend the other.

The best way would be…

Xiao Jinyu slowed down his voice and asked with concern, "What's the matter?"

‘Old pervert’

“?”

Two words floated across the screen and Xiao Jinyu patiently waited for a minute, before he finally couldn't help but ask: "Yes? And then?”

‘Has not’

Xiao Jinyu: “?”

Another minute passed.

‘Gone far’

Xiao Jinyu: “......”