Ch42 - Flowered Glass

TN: Sorry for disappearing for.. uh… five months… as an apology there’s gonna be five chapters released today T-T please forgive me

“Teacher Lin was thirty four this year and had been teaching at our school for ten years. He had always been very popular with the students.” Zhong Xiao took out the key from his pocket and opened the large rusty door outside the stairs of the first floor of the office building. “Mr. Xiao, we can go up to the second floor from here.” 

The two went upstairs together.

“After Teacher Lin was diagnosed with bone cancer, our whole school raised a hundred thousand yuan for him. Originally, he had recovered pretty well and I had even heard that the bone cancer was completely cured. No one thought that last week, he would suddenly…” Zhong Xiao showed a complicated look and didn’t finish his sentence.

“Creak—”

“This is the office where Teacher Lin worked on the night of his death. That’s Teacher Lin’s desk.” 

Xiao Jinyu nodded, walking forwards.

Lin Hao’s information was already memorized by him before he came to Kangxin Middle School. Kangxin Middle School was nothing special compared to the other schools in the city. Lin Hao as well. Except for getting bone cancer at such a young age, his life was very simple.

Zhongdu’s User Committee had collected the whereabouts of Lin Hao in the past three years and he had always been in Zhongdu, his most visited place being the school. He didn’t have a girlfriend, his parents had died early, and usually lived in worker’s dormitory of the school. He was also very thrifty and rarely went out. He wasn’t a user and his daily life didn’t look like he had access to logic skills.

Xiao Jinyu walked to Lin Hao’s desk, stopping.

The office was about ten square meters and had nine desks arranged into two columns. There were four desks in a row near the door and five against the wall on the inner wall. Lin Hao’s desk was the last of the five against the wall.

His right hand seemed to have casually brushed over his eyelids. Xiao Jinyu opened his eyes again.

The world instantly turned black and white. The sunlight shined through the glass windows into the room, the grey dust drifting slowly in the air.

After becoming a level three user, Xiao Jinyu’s ability to control Fourth Perspective was slightly stronger. It wasn’t because he had become a level three user that his use of his logic skill became more skilled and powerful, but because he thoroughly understood his logic skill and so his control over the logic factors were more skillful. This was also recognized by the Grow Some Brains APP, making him a level three user. 

If there was a second Fourth Perspective standing on the side at that moment, then by observing Xiao Jinyu’s eyes, they would find that the logic factors in his eyes were no longer moving at the same speed or pattern—

The logic factors in Xiao Jinyu’s eyes would stop moving from time to time, suspended in his clear pupils. They would wait until he needs them, then immediately continue spinning.

This was the new ability that Xiao Jinyu had found after he reached level three.

After reaching level three, the usage time for Fourth Perspective was still five minutes. Once he used his logic skill for more than five minutes continuously, his eyes would start hurting. However, logic skills were made from countless logic factors moving in high-speed. The only difference between logic skills were the number of logic factors and the way they moved. 

White Garden’s moved in groups of three, rotating in a counterclockwise direction at a certain angle. The way Holy Sacrifice worked was completely different.

Then what was Fourth Perspective’s movement pattern?

Xiao Jinyu once looked in the mirror and carefully observed the trajectory of the logic factors in his eyes. However, he wasn’t able to see them clearly. Just like how he couldn’t clearly see the trajectory of Zhao Hen and Xu Qi’s logic factors. As for Wang Tao, Luo Sheng, and Su Jiuzhou, when these strong users used their logic skills, unless they decided to actively expose their logic skill, Xiao Jinyu wasn’t even able to see their logic factors, let alone attempt to imitate them.

However, he could control the movement of logic factors. 

There are three drawers on each side of the desk. Xiao Jinyu opened them one by one, using Fourth Perspective to observe whether there were any logic factors inside. Once it was confirmed that the drawer he was observing had no logic factors, the colored dots of light in Xiao Jinyu’s eyes would stop abruptly until he opened the next drawer.

Not being able to see them clearly didn’t mean he couldn’t control them.

This was Fourth Perspective, his logic skill. Fourth Perspective was also composed through the movement of logic factors, so if the logic factors stopped moving, then it would be equivalent to pressing the pause button on the logic skill. Once he needed it, he would allow these logic factors to move again, letting him use his logic skill intermittently. To some extent, it also increased the amount of time Fourth Perspective could be used for.

It took five minutes for Xiao Jinyu to carefully examine Lin Hao’s desk and confirm that no a single logic factor existed. If it were before, then he would need to rest for a long time before he could use Fourth Perspective again. 

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

This time, he raised his head and continued to search the entire room without pause.

Kkfcas wlceafr ijafg.

Ktf sbeat atja tjv yffc rfjgmtlcu obg j ktlif aegcfv tlr tfjv abkjgvr atf afjmtfg rajcvlcu ys atf vbbg. Lf qbcvfgfv obg j wbwfca yfobgf rjslcu: “Kfjmtfg Itbcu, P rjk atja sbe tjv j glcu bo xfsr lc sbeg tjcv. Gb sbe tjnf atf xfsr ab atf gbbwr Olc Ljb ajeuta lc jcv tlr vbgw?”

Zhong Xiao had looked in confusion as Xiao Jinyu ‘searched’ the office. Mr. Xiao’s way of searching was very strange, he didn’t check for fingerprints or suspicious information, he simply examined every corner before looking away, as if he knew some important clue and now all he had to do was to find where that clue was. 

Zhong Xiao froze for a bit at the sudden question, before nodding: “Yes, I purposefully brought the key for the second year’s third class’ and Teacher Lin’s dorm. Teacher Lin often went to these two places other than the office.”

Xiao Jinyu slightly lowered his head, thinking for a moment before asking: “After Teacher Lin died, nothing has been moved in this office right?”

Zhong Xiao: “No, the teachers in this office have always had a good relationship with Teacher Lin. Teacher Lin had just passed, so they haven’t moved anything of his arbitrarily.”

Xiao Jinyu: “Then have the other teachers deliberately taken anything?” 

Zhong Xiao thought for a moment: “Other than daily necessities they shouldn’t have taken anything. Today is Sunday, so all the teachers and students aren’t here. If you want to ask about their situations, then I can give you the teachers’ contact information. Or you can come back to the school tomorrow when there’s classes.”

…Tomorrow.

Xiao Jinyu’s expression turned weird. He quietly said: “I’ll bother you to give me the other eight teacher’s contact information then. There isn’t anything else to search in this office, let’s go to Teacher Lin’s classroom.”

“Ok.” 

Although the teaching buildings and the office buildings of Kangxin Middle School were separated, the floors of each building had a corridor that connected an office building with a teaching building. Lin Hao’s office was on the second floor of the fourth building and his classroom was in the third.

Xiao Jinyu and Zhong Xiao soon arrived at the third class of the second year’s classroom through the corridor.

The classroom was a lot bigger than the office, but other than the desks and chairs, there were less miscellaneous items compared to the office. It only took Xiao Jinyu twenty minutes to confirm there were no logic factors in the room.

Then the only place left was Lin Hao’s dorm. 

According to the information from the User Committee, in the ten days before Lin Hao’s death, he had gone to three different hospitals for examinations. All three hospitals had confirmed that there were no more cancerous cells in his body. So the cancerous cells disappearing had nothing to do with a mistake in his examinations.

The miraculous recovery of a terminally ill patient, followed by his strange sudden death was very likely related to a logic skill.

Lin Hao is the ‘victim’ who was most exposed to this logic skill.

Lin Hao’s corpse was cremated three days after his death. Since his corpse could no longer be examined, they could only search the places he went before his death, which would be the places the logic factors would most likely remain. 

Under Zhong Xiao’s guidance, the two of them walked to Lin Hao’s dorm. However, halfway there, Xiao Jinyu stopped.

“Teacher Zhong,” The youth’s voice was quiet, “Are we going to the second office building?”

Zhong Xiao turned his head around: “Yes. It’s the office building that was converted from the orphanage. The first and second floors of the office building are for the first year teachers’ offices and the third to the fifth floors are the teacher dorms.”

The two walked through the long corridor. 

Unbeknown to them, it was almost dusk. The round sun slowly faded into to the western horizon and the yellowish sunlight surrounded the long shadow of the old, five story building. The building’s western walls were covered with lush creepers and from the corridor, they were able to see the thick and wide green leaves and the thick greyish-brown branches under them.

In the middle of summer, the corridor connected to the western wall of the building should be a good place for students to escape to.

However, now, as the sharp wind blew through the lush clumps of creepers, Teacher Zhong couldn’t help but shiver. Xiao Jinyu calmly looked at the greenery filled wall before averting his eyes, continuing forward.

Finally, they arrived at Lin Hao’s dorm. 

They called it a teacher dorm, but it was similar to an ordinary college student’s dorm. The only difference was that there was only one peson living in a ten square meter room. There was an iron frame bunk bed along the wall which had many miscellaneous things on the top instead of a bed. The bottom bunk was where Lin Hao slept. He didn’t have many things compared to the other teachers in his office. The thing he had the most of was medicine.

Activate Fourth Perspective.

In the black and white world, Xiao Jinyu raised his head towards every corner of the room.

He was very patient. 

The space between the bed and the cabinets, the cracks in the wooden tables, every piece of clothing in the drawers…

The logic factors in his eyes didn’t stop the cycle of moving and stopping. Finally, Xiao Jinyu’s eyes stopped and he walked over to the mosaic window next to the nightstand.

Zhong Xiao stood in the doorway and upon seeing this, began to explain: “That’s a window from the orphanage. It’s pretty good looking so when we renovated the place, we kept it.”

“En.” Xiao Jinyu quietly responded. 

Lin Hao’s dorm was on the west side of the building and the wall his bed was against was the wall full of creepers.

Pieces of colorful glass were pieced together on this window and the sunset yearned to shine into the room from it, yet it illuminated the coiling branches of the creepers first. The shadows of the twisting branched swayed quietly with the wind on the glass when suddenly, a fierce wind hit it.

“Whoosh—”

“Bang—” 

The glass trembled and at the same time, the leaves rustled in unison.

Xiao Jinyu immediately froze, his eyelashes fluttering slightly, looking at the mosaic window in shock…

“Mr. Xiao? Mr. Xiao?”

Returning from his memories, Xiao Jinyu first took a deep breath before shaking his head: “It’s nothing. I just thought of some things.” 

Zhong Xiao didn’t ask any more.

Xiao Jinyu calmed his mind, then looked at the window surrounded by the creepers.

—He was sure that he had come here before, heard the wind blowing through the creepers, and seen the colors reflected from the glass.

He had lived here before! 

Zhong Xiao: “Do you need to open the window? The creepers are outside, the window opens outwards, but you might not be able to open it too far out…!!!”

The young teacher’s eyes widened in horror and he ran to the open window in panic, looking down in disbelief.

“Mr. Xiao!”

Just now, the youth suddenly opened the window, the huge strength directly shattering the branches of the creepers outside. The next second, he held onto the old, wooden window frame with one hand before jumping down smoothly. 

By the time Zhong Xiao rushed to the window, all he could see was Xiao Jinyu’s distant back. His entire body froze, stammering: “This… this is the third floor…”

Xiao Jinyu naturally had no time to care about Zhong Xiao’s reaction.

Just now, as he was about to open the window, he noticed a strange feeling.

[Logic skills will attract each other.] 

Just outside this building was another user!

Xiao Jinyu jumped out the building while sending a message to Zhao Hen, asking him to quickly send someone to Kangxin Middle School. While he activated Fourth Perspective, his gaze skimmed over the scattered logic factors in the air. He swiftly followed the residual traces of the logic factors to the mysterious user.

On the west side of the dorm building was a long corridor, but if you head ten meters past that, you would meet the school’s walls.

That person was snooping from outside the school. 

Xiao Jinyu traced the logic factors in the air to an alley. Two logic factors were dispersed in the air, slowly drifting to the ground before disappearing. Xiao Jinyu didn’t enter the alley, but instead looked up at the surveillance camera hanging outside it before he turned around and walked towards the school. He directly took out his phone and made a call.

“Zhao Hen, please check the surveillance of the alley on the west side of Kangxin Middle School when you bring someone here.”

“Alright, I’m almost there.”

“En.” 

After hanging up, Xiao Jinyu looked up at the wall full of greenery.

“Crunch, crunch—”

His shoes stepped on the rocky path. Xiao Jinyu’s hands were in his pant’s pockets as he steadily walked towards the school. However, just as he was about to walk to the west wall, a clenched fist suddenly flashed through the air.

The shadow hiding behind the wall didn’t seem to expect the youth to suddenly attack, pausing for a moment from surprise before he smoothly dodged the flying fist that seemed as if it had teleported itself. 

The flying fist didn’t intend to let him go however.

Xiao Jinyu retreated while attacking the other party. The ferocious fist formed a cluster of fists from it’s speed, ramming into the shadow. Yet the shadow’s figure was faster than the fist, dodging it as if he was just idly walking.

Xiao Jinyu’s heart stopped.

He immediately retracted his fist and ran away without another word. 

Behind him, a powerful sense of oppression between logic skills followed him. Xiao Jinyu’s expression slightly twisted and without any hesitation, he took out the sharp dagger from his pocket. But instead of attacking the enemy behind him, he quickly slid it along his arm.

“Eh…

“Wait.”

A low and surprised male voice came from behind. Xiao Jinyu’s movements stopped, but he didn’t turn around. Instead, his fist attacked the other party again. 

The fist instantly appeared in front of the man, his eyebrows slightly raised. He was just about to turn his head to avoid it when suddenly, his body froze for a brief second. In half a second, the fist brushed past his hair, leaving a dark red mark on his right cheek.

Xiao Jinyu retracted his fist, turning around.

The youth looked at the man, his voice calm, lightly saying: “Colonel Su.”