Each one of the student representatives was assigned to their respective day school classes during the new week. As there were a small number of people, each class was assigned at most one individual, with a majority of classes not being assigned one at all.
When morning came, an uproar was heard within general studies Year 1 Class 21, with an abnormal rise in the density of female students in the hallways. With Byriel here, the emergence of many female students and seniors from other grades, buildings, and divisions could be frequently spotted in this area, but today’s grand occasion was unprecedented, as if they were a gathering of fan girls the night before a concert.
Inside the classroom of Year 1 Class 2, a brown-haired boy in a black uniform had arrived, a French student of Guam’s Eli Institute, Gerard de Vermont.
Gerard was quite reserved and taciturn, but he would not keep others at arm’s length. Faced with their curiosity, while his answers could not be considered exactly enthusiastic, there was a level of fundamental courtesies in the concise and serene replies he gave, concluding each and every conversation he had.
Such bearings drew a line between him and the others, yet gave him an air of mystery. No longer did anyone take the initiative to chat proactively with him, turning to discuss behind his back instead, secretly forming conjectures to all of Gerard’s conduct with worshipful curiosity.
“Gerard is pretty well-received, huh.” Feng Ping Lan lay over his desk, looking at Gerard, who sat in a corner of the classroom, calmly reading an original text, immersed in his own world. There were many girls outside the classroom currently staring at him, some of them watching brazenly, a few secretly casting sidelong glances at him.
No matter which type it was, their intent was pretty evident. They wished to approach him, but were hindered by that aloof attitude.
“That’s just a fairly refined attempt of putting on an act.” Bai Li Rui replied softly, using his index and middle fingers to lightly lift the thin pages of the book before him, flipping the pages with a natural and elegant demeanor, and after taking two seconds to read the contents, let out a profound sigh, “Heart, my heart, let naught o’ercome you; Bear your destiny and pain. Spring will bring you back again, what the Winter’s taken from you…” With that, he sighed.
Feng Ping Lan lifted his head to glance at Bai Li Rui, “Li Rui, do you have a stomachache? Do you need some Seirogan?”
“No!” Bai Li Rui lifted his book, revealing its timeworn book cover, “It’s Heine’s poem! I’m trying my best to recite a lofty, desolate poem of the highbrow type, you talking to me is making me look like a plebeian.”
Conglong looked at Bai Li Rui, then glanced at Gerard sitting in the other corner, “You’re mimicking him?”
“And here I thought you hated that guy.” Morris raised his eyebrows, “After all, he is your theoretical competitor.”
“What do you mean, theoretical!” Bai Li Rui frowned, “I’m always facing the others in peak condition.”
“You think you’re one of the competitors in the field, but all you are is just one of the staff members that they’ll only recall when they need the location of the restrooms.” Conglong sipped his milk, and with the bottle now empty, he licked off the last drops of milk on the bottle cap.
“It’s called ‘learning merits from the foreign to conquer the foreign’.” Bai Li Rui pushed his glasses up, “I’ve seen through his trick. He’s playing the profound thinker, deliberately expressing a melancholic personality like a veiled poem, brimming with insinuations that can’t be seen through at first glance. Girls like that sort of mysterious thing. It’s a lowly yet ingenious move.”
“If that’s so, Li Rui, why don’t you dress up as Funassyi? Funassyi is friendly and cute, but also a profound mystery! You’ll have the options of both offensive and defensive!” Feng Ping Lan proposed earnestly.
“Mysterious does not equal strange…” Bai Li Rui once again reached out his index and middle fingers to the bridge of his nose, pushing his glasses up in a graceful posture, but it seemed to make no difference at all.
“It’ll be pretty hard trying to win against the person you’re mimicking.” Feng Ping Lan warned him.
Bai Li Rui let out a radiant laugh, extending his fingers to wag them left and right.
This was a new move of his. He called it ‘An Aristocrat’s Grace’, but all Morris and Conglong wanted to do after watching him was to beat him up.
“I’m only on the probationary testing period. That guy is leaving in December, I’ll be sure to succeed in his style.” Bai Li Rui gave a confident smile, “When the time comes, those heart-broken girls will seek out his shadow in me, and I’ll use my poems and apathetic gentleness to comfort their cold and empty hearts.”
Morris clicked his tongue in wonder, “Your level of indecency is worthy of respect…”
“Besides, his emergence didn’t affect me the most.” Bai Li Rui glanced at Byriel, who sat diagonally behind him. In the past, Byriel would always be surrounded by female students after class, but presently he sat in his place scrolling through his phone. “I’ve always found myself in the abyss, but a certain person has been pulled down from his throne.” Women, a truly pragmatic species.
“Byriel, are you alright?” Feng Ping Lan asked in concern.
“Want to become allies with me?” Bai Li Rui proposed with a lofty attitude, “As someone who has experience being rejected and given the cold shoulder by girls, I can exceed you by a hundred lengths. I’ll teach you how to get through the amount of free time you have by yourself, how to take care of the wounds of your heart—”
“Sorry, just wait a moment…” Byriel did not even lift his head, “A lady I met in a hotel just invited me to play polo, and I need to arrange my time for a few dinner parties…” He typed quickly, replying continuously in quite a few dialog boxes, at last taking a breather, placing down his phone with a forced smile, “I really shouldn’t have typed ‘Free at last’ into my social status. What were you saying to me?”
“…Absolutely nothing.”
While the others were trying to conquer Mt Everest, this guy had long-since arrived in outer space.
Byriel spared Gerard a glance, and by chance, the other lifted his head while flipping through his book. Electricity seemed to crackle between their gazes, stopping for an instant, before missing each other.
Byriel raised his eyebrows, smiling, “This new classmate of ours doesn’t seem to be what he appears to be, hehe.”
“Great minds think alike.” Bai Li Rui clapped a hand onto Byriel’s shoulder, “I think he’s deliberately acting quiet and sullen just to gain attention from the girls.”
Byriel smiled lightly, not voicing anything.
What he saw in Gerard’s eyes was a much more underlying, twisted shadow…
Feng Ping Lan stared at Gerard. While there was no shortage of people interested in Gerard, no one interacted with him any further.
Looking at that cold and solitary figure, he couldn’t help but be reminded of Quetzal.
“Perhaps he’s just shy.” Feng Ping Lan propped his head up, “He’s a stranger in an unfamiliar place, so he’s probably a little more overcautious, there’s a possibility he’s really hungry right now!”
“Oh.” Conglong, Morris, and Bai Li Rui answered offhandedly, expressing that it was ‘none of our business’.
Feng Ping Lan stared at Gerard, and a moment later, suddenly stood up.
“What are you doing?”
“Didn’t the teacher tell us to keep an eye on the guests from our sister schools?” Feng Ping Lan spoke smilingly, “Class Rep isn’t here right now, so it’s up to me to make them experience the warmth of friendship!”
The creamy-white pages flipped over.
Flip.
He caught the sound of something astir in the corner of his eyes. Suddenly, a figure sat in the seat before his. Then, a face appeared brazenly before him, glancing at him with fixed eyes.
Gerard slowly lifted his gaze from the pages.
A smiling face with a friendliness off the charts appeared right before his eyes.
“Hi! Nihao!”2
“Nihao,” Gerard replied calmly.
“I’m Feng Ping Lan!” Feng Ping Lan lowered his head to look at the book in Gerard’s hands, “What book are you reading?”
“The Crimes of Love.”
“Oh, that sounds really awesome!” Feng Ping Lan nodded his head, “What’s it about?”
“It is a collection of short stories, thus I cannot summarize it in a few words.”
Faced with Feng Ping Lan’s sudden appearance and rash questions, Gerard would be sure to answer, giving his replies proficiently, with no unnecessary questions nor conventional greetings. Although he did not refuse or reject him, there was a sense of distance between them. Like a piece of machinery, every question that was input could be resolved, but it was unable to make any further exchanges or interactions.
“You’re very cool.” Feng Ping Lan smiled, “Do you have any other facial expressions?”
“I do. But I’m incapable of doing other expressions in the situation I’m currently in.”
“That’s true, I wouldn’t be able to cry out of the blue either.” Feng Ping Lan nodded his understanding, “Do you like this book?”
“Yes.”
“Have you toured around the school compound yet?”
“No.”
“Let’s go on a walk together!” Feng Ping Lan stood up.
Gerard glanced at the clock. There were still three minutes left till the next class.
“The next period is the class advisor’s history class, he’s flexible!” Feng Ping Lan waved his hand smilingly. Before Gerard could give a reaction, he led him by his hand, pulling him out of his seat on his own accord.
“Let’s go let’s go! You’re a student from our sister schools, he won’t do anything to you.” Feng Ping Lan paused for a moment, “I won’t do anything to you either, don’t worry!”
The corners of Gerard’s mouth lifted slightly, so subtle it wouldn’t be considered a smile but instead an effect of his muscles’ movements from speaking.
A glimmer of contempt.
Gerard seemed to give in, he put down his book and let Feng Ping Lan pull him out of his seat.
When the two of them passed the hallway, they brushed past Ivan and Igor who were on the way back.
“Where are you going?” Ivan asked curiously.
“I’m taking our new classmate on an adventure around the school.” Feng Ping Lan, “Does Ivan want to come along?”
“I’d like to, but I better lay low for now. Class Advisor seems to know I was the one who added boobs to the Terracotta Army figurines.” Ivan humphed crossly, “Though the one who drew on the nipples after was definitely not me.”
Igor stood by the side, shaking his head disapprovingly.
“Oh, that was me, hahaha.” Feng Ping Lan scratched his head, admitting readily, “Help me tell Class Advisor I’m bonding with the new classmate!”
“Please show some mercy, the last guy you brought out to bond with still needs a soft cushion every time he sits.” Ivan deliberately spouted some frightening words, at the same time nastily observing Gerard’s reaction.
But Gerard just stood indifferently behind Feng Ping Lan, looking at Ivan and Igor.
It was a tranquil and reserved expression, but those light brown eyes caused Ivan to feel uncomfortable.
Feng Ping Lan hurriedly pulled Gerard away. With only a minute left to the next period, a majority of the students were all walking back to their classrooms, Feng Ping Lan pulling Gerard in the other direction, out the school building.
“Where would you like to go?” Feng Ping Lan said as he walked, “The stores? The dining hall? The club rooms? The dormitories? Or is it Li Rui’s most beloved female changing rooms? Hahahaha!”
“The sickbay.”
“Oh?!” Regarding this reply, Feng Ping Lan was absolutely overjoyed, “That’s great! Why would you think of going there? We don’t have beautiful nurse sisters at our school, you might be disappointed if you’re into that3.”
“I want to know how Zephaniah treats its patients, how many patients it can accommodate. “
“Is that so?” Feng Ping Lan tilted his head to ask, “Is Gerard worried about getting injured during the school festival? Don’t worry, our school has really good facilities, our teachers are really amazing!”
Gerard was slightly surprised, pausing his footsteps, “You’re a Summoner too?”
“I’m a student at the Shadow Academy!” Feng Ping Lan did not admit it directly, saying with a smile, “I don’t look like it, do I? Hahaha! So are Ivan and Igor earlier!”
Much more explicit emotions appeared on Gerard’s reserved features, scorn, disdain.
“You don’t seem like one.” Gerard circled around Feng Ping Lan, strolling unhurriedly with a keen examining look, scrutinizing him carefully.
No matter his temperament or attitude, they were full of flaws. A trained Summoner, even in a relaxed state, would be instinctively on his guard, ready to meet a contingency at any time. Similar to a serviceman, having a distinct acuity and loftiness.
He had known who were part of the Shadow Academy the moment he stepped into the classroom. But he was uncertain which of them were human, which of them were demons, the only Shadow Academy that allowed Contracts to enroll in classes was Zephaniah.
An absolutely ridiculous tactic…
He couldn’t see such characteristics in Feng Ping Lan, and there wasn’t a single trace of incantation residue to be found on him. Even the demonic aura around him was incredibly faint, and it had come from the stray demons, not from his own Contract, which was why he was unable to determine and identify his Contract’s type and capabilities.
As if he was a purely ordinary human.
“Gerard?” Feng Ping Lan placed both hands on his cheeks, saying shyly, “…If you keep on looking at me like that, I might think you’re trying to confess to me hahahahaha!”
Gerard’s expression darkened.
No, he was much more uneducated and ignorant than the ordinary humans…
“I never thought there would be someone like you among the Summoners, your existence is a disgrace to all Summoners.” Gerard looked at Feng Ping Lan, throwing out those hurtful words with a light smile, “Only Zephaniah would shelter second-rate trash such as you. After all, Daniel loves collecting waste the most, he thinks he can alchemize scrap metal into gold.”
As he said this, he observed Feng Ping Lan’s reaction.
He nastily waited for his words to shatter that bright and cheerful smile into fragments, anticipating anger, humiliation, and sorrow to appear on his face.
But a foolish expression was still stuck on Feng Ping Lan’s face, he laughed awkwardly, “Um… Who’s Daniel?“
Gerard was startled.
Looks like this guy’s self-esteem and willpower was much stronger than he expected…
“Zephaniah’s director.” Gerard stared at Feng Ping Lan, taunting coldly, “Don’t you even know what the director of your own school is called? Looks like he’s been sparing no pains to lower the enrollment standard policies.”
“I don’t know the director’s name… But I know the dining hall auntie’s name.” Feng Ping Lan tried his best to redeem himself.
He wasn’t familiar with the director, but he was familiar with the dining hall auntie. Besides, knowing the director’s name had no usefulness in his daily life, knowing the dining hall auntie’s name would win him a few extra pieces of meat at lunch.
Gerard raised his eyebrows, surprised by his calm demeanor.
He didn’t look as if he was deliberately acting big-hearted, but was actually completely unaffected. It wasn’t ignorant slow-wittedness, but uninvolved detachment.
“Are you always this cheerful and optimistic?” Gerard asked instead, “Is this a way of protecting yourself?”
Feng Ping Lan shrugged, completely paying no mind to Gerard’s criticism.
Gerard’s words, he had already heard similar words from the mouths of many others. But he wasn’t originally a Summoner, so such verbal abuse was unable to cause any damage. It was like calling a chef a quack, it didn’t tickle.
Feng Ping Lan laughed foolishly, “Looks like you’re a good talker after all. If you spoke more, you’d definitely woo a few more people, even Byriel will have to admit defeat!”
Gerard raised his eyebrows. He did not comment on Feng Ping Lan’s words.
Feng Ping Lan continued to talk on his own. Gerard looked at his foolish face that kept on making noise, the same question flashing across his mind—
…How do I smash that cheerful face? How do I make dye it in the colors of despair?
What sort of wail would that clamorous mouth make, when he’s in pain…
“Gerard?” Feng Ping Lan realized Gerard was lost in thought, reaching out a hand so that he could pat his shoulder.
Yet, Gerard was like a falcon, roughly gripping onto Feng Ping Lan’s hand with sudden force.
“Aiyo!”
The pain that transferred from his palm caused Feng Ping Lan to furrow his eyebrows, narrowing his eyes. The old wound that had yet to heal was irritated, giving him sharp, incisive pain, making him pull away instinctively.
Gerard’s eyes lit up at that briefly pinched face.
“Sorry, my hand’s injured, hahaha…” Feng Ping Lan laughed foolishly as he explained, waving his hand, trying to wave away the pain coming from his old wound.
Gerard looked at Feng Ping Lan, who was holding down the pain with a smile, a shuddering thrill spreading from the bottom of his heart, for this uncontrollable thirst.
A cruel, sadistic, destructive desire.
He wanted to see, see more of his suffering and desperation…
Gerard breathed in deeply, pressing down the disturbance within him.
Ah, he had to show restraint. Now was not the time…
He wasn’t stupid enough to ask for trouble breaking prohibition on someone else’s territory.
“Are you tired? Want to continue touring around?” Feng Ping Lan asked.
“No.” Gerard turned, heading back on his own, “I look forward to tonight’s classes…”
His handsome, delicate features were twisted by a tyrannical and morbid smile. He reached out a hand to cover his mouth, taking in a deep breath, and returned to his originally tranquil expression with much difficulty.
*
During phys ed, the students were scattered all over the gymnasium, conducting various activities. Excluding swimming classes which had to be carried out in joint classes, they let the students choose the sports they were interested in most of the time. There wasn’t a fixed subject.
Feng Ping Lan entered the ranks of the basketball team as usual, and after finishing the match, he went to the rest area at the spectator’s grandstand to meet up with Bai Li Rui. Bai Li Rui wasn’t good at sports, but he was good at acting like he was good at sports, so that he could hit on the girls in the sports department.
During phys ed classes, after doing his stretches, he would always head directly towards the rest area, or run off to observe the gymnastics team’s practice sessions until he was chased off.
Feng Ping Lan sat down, Bai Li Rui handing him a towel in passing.
“Wipe yourself dry. Don’t pollute me with your sweaty stench.”
“Oh oh! Thanks!” Feng Ping Lan took the towel and wiped his face with it, when the fragrance of peaches wafted over, “So fragrant! It smells like peaches!” He sniffed in a few deep mouthfuls, the sweet fragrance making him want to stuff the towel into his mouth.
“That’s the smell of peach-scented fragrance pouches.” Bai Li Rui frowned, “Hey! Are you secretly keeping it in your mouth? It’s dirty!”
“Why does Li Rui like peaches so much all of a sudden?” Feng Ping Lan was curious.
“I just… think peaches are nice…” Bai Li Rui said evasively, not knowing how he should explain Jiu Shao’s existence. In reality, even now he was still skeptical on whether Jiu Shao had been a figment of his imagination.
“I get it!” Feng Ping Lan clapped his hands together, “Could it be that the person Li Rui likes loves eating peaches, so you’re deliberately covering yourself in the smell of peaches so that that person will long for you?”
“Uh, I guess so.” His little beauty had said he wanted ‘to eat peaches’ before he went to sleep. He had prepared many peach food products, even going as far as to fill up his room with the scent of peaches, but the little beauty still did not wake up.
He didn’t know when Jiu Shao would awaken. Nor did he know what Jiu Shao wanted to do once he woke up. At present, all he could do was to keep watch in silence.
“Do you believe in the existence of supernatural creatures in this world?” Bai Li Rui tried, “The creatures in legends, but not ghosts or phantoms…”
Feng Ping Lan tilted his head, “Are you talking about something like the Devil Fish4?”
“Uh, I’m talking about dem…”
Feng Ping Lan felt someone tap on his shoulder twice. Turning his head, he saw Zong Yu standing by his side.
“Xiao Yu-er, is there something you need?”
Zong Yu nodded his head, sparing Bai Li Rui a glance, then turned to leave.
“Wait for me! Li Rui I’ll come back soon, talk to you later!”
Feng Ping Lan hurriedly chased up to Zong Yu, coming to a corner of the spectator’s grandstand. Zong Yu looked around for a second, then reached his hand into his pocket.
“What’s wrong? Xiao Yu-er.”
Zong Yu took his hand out, his chubby hand tightened into a fist, held out to Feng Ping Lan. Feng Ping Lan held out both hands.
Plump hands spreading out, a transparent circular object fell into Feng Ping Lan’s palms. There was a pipe at one end of the ball-like object, the opening sealed off by wax and a seal, a string tied on top of it, and the hollow interior filled up with a light yellow liquid, as well as a half-white half-black needle and several bits and pieces.
“For you.”
“What’s this?” Feng Ping Lan took up the string, scrutinizing it, “It looks a little like an enema.”
“This is the tracking apparatus you wanted…” Zong Yu explained exasperatedly.
“Oh oh! You completed it so quickly?! Thank you!” Feng Ping Lan stared at the tracking apparatus the size of a ping-pong ball, and looking at it carefully, he could tell that the floating objects inside were fragments of the flowers and card.
“How do I use this?”
“It’ll start when you place your spiritual power into it.”
“Is that so!” Feng Ping Lan nodded his head, “Then, how do I place spiritual power into it?”
Zong Yu glanced at Feng Ping Lan doubtfully, and after confirming that he was serious and not actually making a joke, a trace of astonishment flickered across his eyes. But he did not say anything, taking the tracking apparatus without batting an eye, concentrating and muttering a few incantations before handing the tracking spell back to Feng Ping Lan.
“Thanks!” Feng Ping Lan received it happily.
“It will remain in its mobilized state. The pointer inside will resonate with the culprit, as long as you approach anything related to the Gentleman Thief, the perpendicular pointer will turn horizontal, guiding you into his general direction. If you meet the culprit himself, the entire bottle will light up.”
“That’s great!” Feng Ping Lan praised as he stared at the apparatus, “But Xiao Yu-er, the pointer’s moving around.”
“What?” Zong Yu couldn’t believe it, leaning in to observe.
Sure enough, the needle that was originally submerged perpendicularly was currently rising up to the middle of the globe, swiveling around restlessly, as if it was searching for its target.
“Does this mean it’s broken?”
“Impossible.” He had confidence in his own skills. The tracking apparatus, to him, was as easy as assembling a gacha toy, there wasn’t a possibility of making a mistake.
The two stared at the pointed within the globe, looking at it revolving rapidly within the bottle.
At last the pointer fixed itself, pointing to one direction.
They both gazed into the direction the pointer had indicated.
The black needlepoint was pointed directly at Bai Li Rui, who, currently pretending to read, was actually peeking at the girls.
Both Zong Yu and Feng Ping Lan stared blankly.
“…It seems quite unexpected, but not very surprising either…” It was an incredibly complicated feeling. As if something you would usually joke about had come true.
“So, can I cut him open now?” Zong Yu lightly flung his sleeve, two scalpels appearing in his palms.
“Wait a minute!”
“I know you want to keep him alive…” Zong Yu turned his head, smiling sinisterly, “As long as he breathes, he’s considered alive, I know where to stop, heeheehee…”
“No!” Feng Ping Lan hurriedly went forwards, “The bottle isn’t lighting up! So Li Rui cannot be the Gentleman Thief.”
“Perhaps, he’s an accomplice…” A smile rose on Zong Yu’s face, “Since they are not the same person, we don’t need to hold back. I will keep him intact to the best of my abilities, on the fact that we were once classmates. Heehee…”
“It can’t be true!” How was it possible that Li Rui was linked to the Gentleman Thief? He was just a pure, honest, and shy pervert! “Could we have gotten the wrong person?”
Just as he said this, Li Rui stood up from his sitting position, leaving his seat to move to another corner of the gym, because the female gymnastics team had gathered to the sidelines to rest.
“It cannot be wrong.” Zong Yu was incredibly certain, “If we don’t take advantage while he’s alone, it’ll be hard to take him down later…”
“But—” Feng Ping Lan tried his best to find a reason to defend Bai Li Rui, he stared at the apparatus, and suddenly found a peculiarity, “Look, the apparatus hasn’t changed! Li Rui just switched places, but the needle’s still pointing in the same direction!”
Zong Yu stared at the apparatus, the needle inside was still pointed towards where Bai Li Rui had originally sat. He sighed a little disappointedly.
Feng Ping Lan held the apparatus, slowly stepping towards Bai Li Rui’s seat, circling the empty spot once, at last confirming that the needle was pointing to the poetry anthology that Bai Li Rui had been holding for an entire day.
He picked up that worn Heine anthology, the yellowed pages divulging the book’s oldness. Aside from the Chinese-German poems placed side by side for comparison printed in it, there were quite a few notes written at the top margins and butterfly bindings, of self-composed poems.
When he flipped to the last page, ‘Club property, do not remove’ written at the top.
Feng Ping Lan flipped through the book from start to end, unable to find anything unusual from this ordinary book.
A piece of paper fell out of the pages. Feng Ping Lan bent down to collect it. It was an undelivered postcard that had been used as a bookmark, a lotus flower blooming under the moonlit night printed on it.
“Do you guys want to join the ranks of the depressed hipsters too?”
Feng Ping Lan and Zong Yu turned their heads to see Bai Li Rui heading back to his seat.
“I’m used to operating alone, but since the two of you are novices on matters of the heart, I can guide you in exploring for the time being.” Bai Li Rui raised two elegant fingers, arranging the fringe before his forehead, then pointed at Zong Yu and Feng Ping Lan, “I’ll state the rules first, you’re in charge of taking the lead, go to a girl and tell her a bad joke, make her think you’re simple-minded and foolish, so that my natural quick-wittedness will become prominent; you’re in charge of saying good things about me behind my back, make them think I’m harmless and innocent, upright and honest. When you’ve done all that, it’s my turn to appear, I’ll be in charge of—”
“Drugging them for rape and murder?” Zong Yu interrupted.
”That’s ri— No!” Bai Li Rui retorted sternly.
“Li Rui, where did you get this book from?”
“From my club, you know I’ve always been a ghost member of the Poetry Appreciation Club.”
“But it says here you’re not allowed to remove it.”
“Uh.” Bai Li Rui said a little awkwardly, “I went to the club room this morning, there wasn’t anyone there, so I just took it… In any case, I’ll return it later.”
“Do you know who owns this book?”
Bai Li Rui shrugged, “A former club member? I’ve only gone there once since the start of the term, I’m not sure of the situation there.”
“Why did you stop going?”
Bai Li Rui humphed crossly, “I thought there’d be pure, introverted literature girls in there, but all I found were a few eccentric, fussy, smelly guys who are immersed in their own fantasies.”
Zong Yu was puzzled, “Aren’t you the same?”
“I‘m not that far gone!” Bai Li Rui refuted. He looked at Feng Ping Lan, saying embarrassedly, “If you’re that concerned about me taking something without receiving permission, I’ll return it after school.”
“It’s not that! I just wanted to borrow this book as well, can you lend it to me first?”
“Okay. I wasn’t exactly interested in poetry in the first place, those footnotes on the books were much more interesting.”
“Thanks!” Feng Ping Lan took the book with a smile, “Right, Li Rui, what were you saying earlier? Something about supernatural creatures?”
Bai Li Rui glanced at Zong Yu, smiling forcefully, “Nothing. I was just a little bored, so I rambled a little.”
Below the grandstand, a male classmate waved at Feng Ping Lan, shouting at him to come down for the next match. Feng Ping Lan responded, keeping the tracking apparatus Zong Yu had given him away, and went down to meet up with his teammates.
Just as he was about to pass through the gymnasium’s border, a basketball blew through the air, crashing into the back of his head.
“Aiyo!”
Feng Ping Lan fell onto his butt. Before he could react, the basketball rebounded and attacked a second time, slamming into the side of his face.
Feng Ping Lan lay prone on the ground. He climbed up frenetically, flipping over, missing the basketball’s third strike just in time.
“Oh oh! So close!”
He stood up, seeing the basketball bounce to the side. Just as he thought it was over, the ball that was originally leaping forwards landed in a strange and unreasonable angle, speedily rebounding in his direction at high speeds.
“Ahh!” Feng Ping Lan couldn’t dodge in time, reaching out his hands to block in front of him, planning to doggedly keep off this attack.
Yet, the ball suddenly exploded about two meters away from Feng Ping Lan, falling onto the floor.
Feng Ping Lan blinked, reaching out his toes to poke at the basketball skin, then bent his waist to pick it up.
“Hey, what happened?”
Feng Ping Lan turned his head to see Liu Yi Chen running over to him.
“It… broke!” Feng Ping Lan looked at his two hands in shock, “I never thought I would have this kind of power… Don’t tell me the dark power hidden in my body has awakened?!”
Liu Yi Chen rolled her eyes, “Stop being such a chuuni.” She turned her head, questioning with a frown, “You did that on purpose?”
“Ah?”
“I was merely trying to summon the ball, to reduce the time spent collecting it.”
A tranquil and husky voice came from the back, Feng Ping Lan turned his head to see Gerard heading over to his side.
Gerard was calm and unperturbed as usual, so self-composed as if nothing had happened. He was about to bend down to pick up the ruptured basketball, when Liu Yi Chen beat him to it.
“I’ll sort it out.” Li Yi Chen gave him a polite fake smile, “You are not allowed to use spells during non-Shadow Academy classes.”
“I am not used to the rules here.” Gerard replied indifferently, “I apologize.”
“You’d better get used to it.”
Liu Yi Chen spared the basketball skin in her hands a glance, there was a thin needle stuck on the skin, as well as fine red string, scorched traces of a flame spell, and a cut from a sharp blade.
She turned her head to sweep across the gym, Byriel, Kaido and Dongya scattered across the space in their own activities, acting nonchalant. Su Li Wan, who sat on the sidelines to rest, turned her head away in embarrassment.
“I will.”
Liu Yi Chen gave Gerard a phony smile, then pulled Feng Ping Lan away.
“Class Rep?”
“You really know how to attract attention.” Liu Yi Chen criticized, her face darkening.
“Oh! Really?” Feng Ping Lan looked around left and right in astonishment, “You’re saying someone has a crush on me? Gosh, how embarrassing! Would Class Rep mind telling me who it is? How many characters? What’s the first charact—”
“Please have some awareness!“ Liu Yi Chen glared at Feng Ping Lan, “Gerard has already set his sights on you, he was the reason why the basketball kept on crashing into you!”
“Is that so!”
“What did you do this time?”
“I just gave him a tour around the school compound.” Feng Ping Lan tilted his head to think, “He seems to think I’m very inferior, that I’m not fit to be a Summoner.”
“That classist trash.” Liu Yi Chen cursed, then smiled coldly, “He thinks you’re inferior? Very good, when the school festival comes I’ll use my fist to make him recognize the truth, I’ll beat him up till he spits out his scrotum!” She said this, her palm making a tugging motion in the air.
“C-Class Rep, calm down!” Feng Ping Lan placated hurriedly.
Liu Yi Chen stared at Feng Ping Lan, saying solemnly, “You’d better keep a low profile before the school festival. You’re our secret weapon, we can’t let anyone know you have six Contracts, I don’t want to see the other four schools rallying together to hunt us down. The clumsier and more incompetent you act, the better. Do you understand!”
“Yes yes yes.” Feng Ping Lan replied, laughing inwardly.
He didn’t need to act. Because there wasn’t a single thing he could do originally.
“Right, Class Rep, what did Gerard mean by not being used to the rules here?” Feng Ping Lan recalled Gerard’s words, asking curiously, “Do the other Shadow Academies allow them to openly use their spells?”
“Not exactly. To be precise, only Zephaniah has day and night schools, so there exists the rule. The other schools only enroll Summoners, so there isn’t a need to hide their powers.”
“I see!”
“Didn’t you know?” Liu Yi Chen raised her eyebrows, “Zephaniah has a tradition unlike the other Shadow Academies, the students entering this school would normally know of this.”
“Uh…” Feng Ping Lan blinked his eyes, thoughtlessly coming up with an excuse, “I chose this place because it was close to my hometown, I didn’t put much thought in comparing schools, hahaha…”
Liu Yi Chen explained, there were various purposes the other Shadow Academies existed for, some were hidden in military bases, some in office buildings, or directly concealed the entire school compound behind wards. Only Zephaniah boldly existed in this world with the purpose of being a school, as well as accepted ordinary humans as their students.
Liu Yi Chen humphed adversely, “You have quite the courage. That said, didn’t your family give you any advice on picking your school? Zephaniah has a pretty polarized reputation, conservative clans usually choose traditional academies in the region around the Atlantic Ocean.”
Feng Ping Lan smiled, “They’ll agree to whatever I decide.” Because no one cared in the first place. “I think this place is amazing! I’m really glad to have chosen Zephaniah. It’s a great thing to be able to know everyone here!” He smiled at Liu Yi Chen, saying earnestly, “I like Class Rep, I like every single one of you here, I treasure every minute, every second that I spend here, it’s like a dream come true.”
Even if he was picked on, given a hard time, harmed, right until he woke up from this dream, he would think of it as a good thing.
Liu Yi Chen was slightly surprised, facing such a forthright statement, she couldn’t help but blush bashfully.
“Did Bai Li Rui teach you that? Don’t exhaust yourself spouting passionate words like a pervert, it’ll make me ponder…”
Feng Ping Lan took a big step forward, circling around Liu Yi Chen and staring at her face.
“W-what do you want?”
“Class Rep, are you blushing?” The corners of his lips lifted, “In the light canoe sat we, still the night was, and calm was the weather, as we skimm’d o’er the wide-spreading sea.” He recited the lines he had seen in the anthology.
Liu Yi Chen widened her eyes, various complicated emotions flitting across her face, then roared, “Skim my ass, you idiot!” She then flung the basketball skin in her hands at Feng Ping Lan’s abdomen, angrily stomping away.
*
With Liu Yi Chen’s warning in mind, Feng Ping Lan realized that Gerard seemed to be really paying attention to him. After class, there were numerous times he lifted his head to discover Gerard staring at him.
Each time their eyes met, he would wave or smile at him amiably. He originally figured Gerard would be fed up with him because of this, but surprisingly, Gerard still stared at him with fixed eyes, not a trace of concealing himself or shirking from him.
“Why is he staring at you, what did you do this time?” Conglong muttered under his breath, wrinkling his eyebrows, “Does he want to conduct anal intercourse with you?”
Feng Ping Lan almost fell out of his seat, “What are you talking about!”
“I read it in the forums. One of the members shared her story with us, she personified all the fish in the aquarium, then mating circumstances of the same gender happened. But that person clearly wasn’t good at biology, she wrote a story between a gar and an emperor fish, but as a matter of fact, only the Amazon dolphin engages in same-sex intercourse…”
“Thank you for sharing this with me, I’ve learned a lot.” Feng Ping Lan forced a laugh, “But I think it’s just because he doesn’t like me very much.”
“Why?”
“Probably because I’m incompetent. You don’t need a clear-cut reason for hating or liking someone.” Feng Ping Lan scratched his head, smiling in embarrassment, “But I’d still like to get along with him.”
“That’s true.” Conglong nodded, he turned his head to glance at Gerard, coming to a conclusion, “I hate him.”
“Haha, don’t say that.” Feng Ping Lan smiled, “They’ll be leaving once the school festival is over. Perhaps we’ll realize he’s not such a bad guy after all, when we familiarize ourselves with him.”
Conglong spared Feng Ping Lan a glance, “I don’t hate you, but I don’t like it when you’re good to everyone you meet.”
“Xiao Cong-Cong, are you jealous? Don’t worry, my affection for you won’t lessen just because the denominator has gotten larger.”
Conglong humphed disapprovingly, “Idiot. When the time comes for him to mess you up, you’d better not think he’s playing with you!”
Dongya, Byriel, Morris, and Kaido, who sat in the vicinity, revealed similar expressions of simultaneous agreement.
*
Evening came as the last period of the day school ended, and the pure day school students packed their bags in succession, preparing to leave the school building. The Shadow Academy students would deliberately linger around the classroom, or head over to the empty warehouse on the fourth floor which had ‘students forbidden to enter’ written on it to pass the time, until all the day school students had left before entering the Shadow Academy.
Feng Ping Lan slung his bag over his shoulder, saying to his companions, ”I need to head over to the composite building for a bit, see you in the classroom.”
“I’ll accompany you.” Dongya immediately stood up.
“There’s no need,” Feng Ping Lan turned to glance at Gerard, who was still staring at him. He said in a low voice, “We should keep a low profile for now, don’t be too conspicuous…” Both the class advisor and class rep wanted them to keep a low profile, and although the two of them had different standpoints and reasons for it, the objective was one and the same.
Dongya sighed, “Alright, be careful.”
The moment Feng Ping Lan stepped out of the classroom, Gerard followed suit. However, Liu Yi Chen promptly stepped forward, a professional smile plastered on her face. “Student Gerard, as tonight is the first observatory lesson in Zephaniah’s Shadow Academy classes attended by our sister schools’ students, the teachers worry of your unfamiliarity with the environment, so they have specially instructed the class representative – that is me – to lead you towards the Shadow Academy, and introduce you Zephaniah Shadow Academy’s distinguishing qualities and school aims.”
“No need.” Gerard refused apathetically.
“Student Gerard must not be very well-versed in Chinese.” A smile rose on Liu Yi Chen’s face, “That was not an interrogative sentence, but an imperative sentence.”
Gerard looked at Liu Yi Chen, realizing she would make no concessions on the matter. He glanced out the door, where Feng Ping Lan had already vanished.
“Alright then.” Gerard compromised, rising, glancing at Liu Yi Chen with a smile rising from his indifferent expression, “I’ll be troubling you.”
Gerard’s smile caused the surrounding female students to suck in a breath, as if they had witnessed an angel’s descent.
He did not smile often, but every time he smiled, there would always be someone who believed themselves as special, believed they had occupied a marvelous spot in his heart, and so lowered their guard around him.
But Liu Yi Chen merely raised her eyebrows with slight astonishment, no bashfulness, no infatuation, no sense of getting impregnated through the distance between them.
“Let’s go.” She smiled courteously, leading Gerard away.
Gerard sneered inwardly.
How pretentious…
He knew that this was a means of welcoming him with reluctance. She was taking the opportunity to make her cold demeanor much more prominent, but her heart was more fervent and expectant than anyone else.
He would rip off that deep-seated reserved act of hers…
*
Feng Ping Lan carried his backpack, hurrying towards the club rooms. The Poetry Appreciation Club was an ordinary club under the day school administration, so the club room was situated at Block A.
After school, the entire building was completely empty. All the lights in the classrooms were switched off, the central air-conditioner heating having also stopped operating.
Feng Ping Lan pushed the door open. The door was not locked. When he entered the building, there wasn’t an administrator within either, unlike Aunt Liang, who guarded beneath Block B. The security of the ordinary clubs’ building was clearly relaxed, with the various club rooms secured with a lock, and he was able to freely enter and exit the other areas.
Feng Ping Lan took out the tracking apparatus, staring at the pointer inside. The pointer trembled slightly left and right, seemingly sensing something, but as it was too far from its target, the information was weak. He shoved the tracking apparatus back into his pocket, taking a step forward.
If the anthology had something to do with the Gentleman Thief, there was a possibility the Gentleman Thief was connected to Zephaniah. From the anthology’s exterior appearance and time of the Gentleman Thief’s earliest crime, he surmised that he could have been a student at Zephaniah. Taking in consideration Zephaniah’s system, there was also a possibility he was still a student here.
He hadn’t told anyone this. He intended on surreptitiously gathering evidence in silence, so as not to inadvertently alert the enemy.
He passed through the hallways, coming to the Poetry Appreciation Club’s classroom in the corner of the fifth floor. Most of the neglected clubs were placed on the fifth floor, along with the storehouses of the other clubs.
The Poetry Appreciation Club was situated at the innermost classroom, the club’s name written on a self-printed piece of paper pasted upon the door, its background lined with European flower designs, as well as a French poem. The flowers, which used to have a bright and gorgeous color, had now faded due to dampness of the air, the surface of the paper wrinkling in an uneven tidal mark.
Feng Ping Lan twisted the knob, pushing the door inward.
The room was lit, long and square-shaped, smaller by about a third the size of a classroom, clearly a small space cut up from an actual room. There were a few bookshelves of different sizes, a round table, and a few chairs within. The entire room gave off an air of something messy and outdated, the only considerable thing being that window facing the west. The window seat that was always denounced by the students during summer season, now seized the last evening glow of dusk in winter.
A person stood by the windows, a hardcover notebook held in one hand, a fountain pen in another. They turned their head from enjoying the scenery to look at the unexpected guest’s intrusion.
The person within the room was a man in a plaid shirt and jeans, aged around 25 to 30, a pair of black-rimmed glasses on his face, his old-fashioned short hair drooping down his forehead in a slightly untrimmed length, having seemingly not sorted it out in quite a while.
“…Now isn’t the time for club activities.” After hesitating for a few seconds, the man spoke in neutral tones, his smile a little bashful, clearly not used to interacting with others.
“Oh, I’m sorry!” Feng Ping Lan hadn’t expected anyone to be in here, feeling slightly embarrassed for his impudence.
“So, do you want to join the club?” The man asked uncertainly.
“Uh…” Feng Ping Lan scratched his head, “I’m just here to look around, haha.”
“I see.” The man nodded, his gaze stopping at the anthology Feng Ping Lan held in his hands, “Why is that anthology in your hands?”
“Ah!” Oh no, he had been caught red-handed, “I lent it from a friend, he’s a member of this club…” Feng Ping Lan’s expression as he looked at the man was a little troubled, and hurriedly tacked on, “He knows club property cannot be removed too, but I thought it sounded interesting when I heard him describe this book, so I asked him to take it out secretly for me. I came here specifically to return this anthology.”
“Do you like Heine too?” The man’s eyes lit up.
“Mm, right.”
“Which of his poems is your favorite?” The man asked excitedly, “The Lorelei? Linden Blossoms In Moonlight5? Declaration?”
“Uh, actually…” Feng Ping Lan tried his best to make something up, “Rather than the contents of the book, I think the poems written at the top of the pages are pretty good…”
The man widened his eyes.
Feng Ping Lan saw the tips of his ears very clearly redden in a flash.
“R-really?” The man covered his mouth, and after a moment, finally admitted softly in embarrassment, “Actually… I was the one who wrote them… There’s actually someone who likes my writing…”
Feng Ping Lan was astonished, he didn’t think he would find someone connected to the book so easily.
But the man before him seemed incredibly introverted, just like a simple and honest shut-in, a far cry from the egotistical and narcissistic Gentleman Thief.
“Are you a teacher here?”
“No,” The man scratched his cheek shyly, “I’m just a short-term contracted club advisor. I’m Yue Wang Shu.”
Feng Ping Lan nodded, “Then, is Yue-laoshi an alumnus of Zephaniah?”
“No…” Yue Wang Shu lowered his head ashamedly, “After all, I am just an ordinary human.”
”I see.” Feng Ping Lan looked doubtfully at Yue Wang Shu, saying uncertainly, “Yue-laoshi, have you published your poems anywhere else?”
“I have a personal blog.” Yue Wang Shu coughed lightly, “But the readership has always been low…”
Feng Ping Lan took out the postcard that had been wedged between the pages, “Laoshi, do you know where this came from?”
“I bought it from a creative bazaar, do you like it? You can have it.”
So that’s how it is…
It seemed that Yue Wang Shu was completely unrelated to the Gentleman Thief, just a poetry lover who had just happened to bump into the Gentleman Thief.
“Then do you remember where this postcard—” Feng Ping Lan tried to ask further, but Yue Wang Shu raised a hand, cutting off his words.
“Ah! It’s almost 5:40!” Yue Wang Shu glanced down at his watch, flustered. He hurriedly closed the thin book, shoving it in his canvas bag, “I have to go, my paycheck will be cut if I don’t leave before the off-work time limit runs out.”
Zephaniah Academy had a rule that stated all students and external staff members had to leave the school grounds by 5:40.
This was a rule aimed at day school students and employees unrelated to the Shadow Academy, in order to dispel everyone unrelated before the start of the Shadow Academy classes.
“Oh, alright.” Feng Ping Lan moved sideways to let Yue Wang Shu leave.
Yue Wang Shu nodded in farewell at Feng Ping Lan, saying bashfully, “Let’s talk next time, I hope you’ll join our club…”
“Mm, I’ll consider it seriously.” Feng Ping Lan waved goodbye at him.
Just when Yue Wang Shu passed by Feng Ping Lan, Feng Ping Lan smelled a hint of something. A complicated and familiar scent.
First was a strange and chemical smell, then floury, buttery fragrance.
He knew that the chemical smell was a smell produced by the central air-conditioning malfunction in the Block A building, quite a few people within the school had been carrying that odor around lately.
But he had only ever smelled the floury, buttery fragrance accompanying that weird smell on one individual.
He instantaneously recalled where he had smelled that similar scent.
“Laoshi, what do you work as?” He called out to Yue Wang Shu, questioning as he placed both hands in his pockets, one hand quietly gripping the tracking apparatus, another holding on to his phone.
“A baker.” Yue Wang Shu scratched his hair awkwardly, “Saying this might be a little embarrassing. I originally intended on earnestly opening a shop, but my dream is to be a bard, unable to always stay in one place, so I closed shop, bought a coffee cart, and sold as I traveled, taking up part-time jobs everywhere…”
“Oh.” Feng Ping Lan nodded.
“Are there any more questions? I’m really in a rush…”
“Why didn’t you ask me to come along with you?” The rules stated to all day school students and external employees was that everyone had to leave the school grounds before 5:40.
Why did Yue Wang Shu worry only about leaving himself, yet did not urge Feng Ping Lan to do the same?
“I assumed you lived in the dormitories, so you weren’t in a rush.” Yue Wang Shu smiled as he explained.
“Oh.” Feng Ping Lan nodded once more, and after hesitating for a second, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, “I have another question…”
“Mm?”
“…Earlier, why did you say you were just an ordinary human…” Feng Ping Lan observed Yue Wang Shu’s each and every move, “It seemed as if you knew that Zephaniah wasn’t an ordinary school.”
“Zephaniah truly isn’t an ordinary school.” Yue Wang Shu said serenely, “This is an elite school, and the school fees are very expensive, most students wouldn’t be able to afford to learn here.”
“I see.” Feng Ping Lan nodded his head, “Then, see you later, laoshi.” He gripped the tracking spell tightly, waiting for Yue Wang Shu to turn around before he took it out, immediately verifying the truth.
But Yue Wang Shu did not leave, and just stood there with that bashful smile, looking at Feng Ping Lan.
“Isn’t laoshi leaving? It’s now 5:40—”
“No need to worry, I come and go freely in this school.” Yue Wang Shu smiled, “You’ve asked me many questions, can I ask you something instead?”
“Uh, that might be a little hard, I have to go, I’ll get my name written down if I don’t leave—”
“Just one question.” Yue Wang Shu pointed at Feng Ping Lan’s waistline, “What are you holding in your pocket? Will you let me take a look at it?”
Feng Ping Lan stared blankly, but still calmly drew out his left hand, “It’s just my phone.”
Yue Wang Shu nodded smilingly, his finger hooking upwards in the air.
Feng Ping Lan felt a pull from his right pocket, then, the tracking falling out of his pocket onto the floor.
That was the last thing he saw.
“What a naughty skylark…”
That was the last thing he heard.
Then, his awareness was cut short. The endless, tranquil darkness enveloped him.
*
Cold wind brushed past. The chill pierced his skin, deep into his spinal cord, making him tremble from the bottom of his heart.
“Achoo!”
His nasal cavity was invaded by the cold air, and he reflexively sneezed.
This sneeze pulled Feng Ping Lan from the depths of his consciousness back to reality.
“Uhn…” His heavy eyelids opened slightly before immediately shutting.
The cold wind blew over, and he shrunk in, curling under his clothes.
It was still dark… He’d sleep a little more…
He yawned, flipping around, the hardness coming from under his head roused him instantly.
Wait! Where was he?
Feng Ping Lan sat up violently, looking all around. He recognized his surroundings, these were the flight of steps on the plaza before the club complex.
What… happened?
He started to recall.
After school, he had lifted his school bag and brought the tracking apparatus and anthology to the club complex’s Block A, to look for clues on the Gentleman Thief…
What happened next?
His memories were cut short just before he stepped into the club complex, and he had woken up here right after that.
What had happened in between?
He lowered his head, and discovered his school bag beside him, the anthology lying on the ground a short distance away. He reached into his pocket, where the tracking apparatus lay.
Feng Ping Lan released a sigh of relief. No matter what had occurred in between, it seemed the Gentleman Thief hadn’t discovered the tracking apparatus.
He picked up the anthology to flip through it, it was the same book.
Since the anthology had been left behind, did that mean this clue was completely unrelated to the Gentleman Thief? Or perhaps the one who attacked him wasn’t the Gentleman Thief, but someone else?
He lifted his wrist, but his watch slid up to his arm. He pushed the watch towards his wrist and looked at it.
Six-fifty. It was already past the first period. No matter what, he should get back to class first.
Feng Ping Lan stood.
Slip.
He felt something fall down his lower half, then a bout of chill. Lowering his head, he saw both of his legs exposed to the air, his uniform pants having fallen to his feet.
After taking a closer look, his upper outer garment was slightly disheveled too, hanging loosely on his body, revealing a huge part of his shoulder and neck.
Feng Ping Lan was shocked. “My god!”
He knew that the Gentleman Thief was a pervert, but he never would have thought he was actually interested in young boys too!
Mm… His underwear was still there, just that it had become a little loose. He didn’t feel anything unusual…
Perhaps he was overthinking things, or perhaps he had become numb, no matter which possibility, he had no way to know on his own, he needed an unbiased third party to determine…
“…Feng Ping Lan! Feng Ping Lan!”
A familiar voice rang out from the distance, Feng Ping Lan recognized it as Morris’ voice.
“I’m over here!” He answered loudly, at the same time running over to him, spotting Morris’ tall and sturdy figure in the corner outside the plaza. “Morris!”
Morris turned his head, freezing for a moment when he saw who had come. He did not step forward immediately, just standing at his original spot, looking at Feng Ping Lan running over to him with doubt and astonishment.
“Have you found him?” Dongya sounded not far away. In the next moment, his snow-white figure emerged, and was startled when he saw Feng Ping Lan. “Who is this?”
Morris shook his head, expressing his own bewilderment.
“I was attacked!” Feng Ping Lan carried his clothes, rushing over to the two of them in a weird posture, explaining with gasps. “I came to the club building to investigate the Gentleman Thief, but I didn’t think I would suffer a sneak attack…”
Strange, why would he tire from running such a short distance…
“You? The Gentleman Thief?”
After he stood up, Feng Ping Lan abruptly realized his height only reached up to Morris and Dongya’s thighs, he needed to raise his head to see their faces.
“Child.” Dongya crouched down, getting on the same level as Feng Ping Lan, saying gently, “We’re searching for a senior high school student. He has black hair, and his outer appearance is a little naive and silly, named Feng Ping Lan, have you seen him?”
“…Uh, that’s me…” Why was he calling him a child? Why did he act as if he didn’t recognize him? “Did you get hit by the Gentleman Thief’s spell too?”
“Nonsense! Don’t make fun of adults!” Morris roared.
Dongya looked at Feng Ping Lan, his eyes gazing at his neck, and saw that dark and shiny obsidian necklace.
“Oh, no…” He reached out to take Feng Ping Lan’s hand, and muttered an incantation.
Silvery-white runes rose up Feng Ping Lan’s hand, that was the seal of the contract between them.
Morris, seeing the contract’s seal, widened his eyes, disbelieving.
“He really is Feng Ping Lan…” Dongya miserably came to terms with reality.
“Uh, I’ve always been! Why did you guys act as if you didn’t recognize me!“
Morris raised his eyebrows, “Haven’t you looked in a mirror?”
“No? Is there something dirty on my face?” Feng Ping Lan touched his face.
Dongya sighed softly, pointing at the club complex.
Feng Ping Lan turned his head, looking at glass doors of the dim club complex’s main entrance. Behind the doors stood a disheveled child.
“There’s a kid right there—” Feng Ping Lan pointed at the glass doors, and realized the boy behind had raised his hand as well to point at him. “Uh?”
Something was not right!
That little kid looked a little familiar…
Feng Ping Lan faced the glass doors, waving at the child, and the boy waved at him too; when he made a face at the boy, the boy made the motions of a funny face as well; when he pouted, a finger poking his cheek cutely, the boy did the same movements.
Morris facepalmed, giving a long sigh.
Feng Ping Lan widened his eyes, finally discovering the astonishing truth. “That cute little boy… is me!”
“What keen observation skills you have!” Morris ridiculed exasperatedly.
“How did this happen?”
“That’s what we’re supposed to ask you!”
“I don’t know.” Feng Ping Lan scratched his head, looking at his own reflection in the glass. “I didn’t realize the younger me was quite cute, hehe…”
Morris and Dongya exchanged glances, sighing simultaneously in exasperation.
“We’d better inform Yin Su Shuang. Go tell the others of this situation, but don’t make it known, the others will detect something wrong if everyone leaves the classroom.” Dongya instructed Morris, “I’ll bring him to Quetzal’s office in the sick bay, there are fewer people there.”
Morris nodded, turning to head towards the school building.
Dongya turned, looking at the younger Feng Ping Lan, smiling with a soft sigh. He slung Feng Ping Lan’s bag over his shoulder, helped Feng Ping Lan tidy up his disheveled clothes, then took off his jacket, wrapping it around Feng Ping Lan’s shoulders.
“Thanks, Dongya.”
“No need.” Dongya extended a hand towards Feng Ping Lan, “Let’s go.”
“Oh.” Feng Ping Lan held onto Dongya’s hand.
“No.” Dongya circled his hands around Feng Ping Lan’s waist, carrying him up, “That’s more like it.”
“Oh oh!” Feng Ping Lan laughed foolishly in embarrassment, “I’m like a kid.”
Dongya smiled, lightly summoning a breeze and stepping on the wind, gliding through the air towards the sick bay.
Feng Ping Lan nested in Dongya’s chest, letting him carry him. After a moment’s silence, he suddenly spoke, “Dongya.”
“Mm?”
“Am I naive and silly?”
Dongya stiffened a little, then schooled his expression into a tender and resplendent smile, “Do you want some ice-cream?”
TL Notes
There is quite a bit of inconsistency on the day class Feng Ping Lan is in. In V1, he’s said to be in Year 1 Class 7; in V2, he’s said to be in Year 1 Class 2; and in this chapter, he’s said to be in Year 1 Class 1. As Year 1 Class 2 was the one that was mentioned the most (and made the most sense, because I remember something about combining the first two classes to make up Shadow 1A, or did I?), I went with that, so I’ll keep on using Year 1 Class 2 for consistency’s sake. To this day, I still don’t know which class he’s actually in… ’Hi! Nihao!’: Nihao, as you know, means hi, hello, how are you. As there is already a ‘hi’ before nihao, I decided to leave it untranslated, especially since the ‘hi’ used (嗨) is a loanword from English. Of course, this is just a one-time thing and I will be translating them directly in the future. ‘We don’t have beautiful nurse sisters at our school, you might be disappointed if you’re into that’: Feng Ping Lan originally says ‘如果你是白跑控的话可能会失望’, 白袍空 (bai pao kong/white-robed complex) meaning someone who has a medical fetish. ‘The Devil Fish’: refers to a Taiwanese movie called The Tag-Along: The Devil Fish. ‘Linden Blossoms In Moonlight’: As this is a German title translated to Mandarin translated to English, I’m not quite sure what the title is, or if there really is a title at all. But by the description it seems to be Heine’s poem in New Spring Prologue No 31 with the verse starting with “Linden blossoms drunk with moonlight”. I think.
Each one of the student representatives was assigned to their respective day school classes during the new week. As there were a small number of people, each class was assigned at most one individual, with a majority of classes not being assigned one at all.
When morning came, an uproar was heard within general studies Year 1 Class 21, with an abnormal rise in the density of female students in the hallways. With Byriel here, the emergence of many female students and seniors from other grades, buildings, and divisions could be frequently spotted in this area, but today’s grand occasion was unprecedented, as if they were a gathering of fan girls the night before a concert.
Inside the classroom of Year 1 Class 2, a brown-haired boy in a black uniform had arrived, a French student of Guam’s Eli Institute, Gerard de Vermont.
Gerard was quite reserved and taciturn, but he would not keep others at arm’s length. Faced with their curiosity, while his answers could not be considered exactly enthusiastic, there was a level of fundamental courtesies in the concise and serene replies he gave, concluding each and every conversation he had.
Such bearings drew a line between him and the others, yet gave him an air of mystery. No longer did anyone take the initiative to chat proactively with him, turning to discuss behind his back instead, secretly forming conjectures to all of Gerard’s conduct with worshipful curiosity.
“Gerard is pretty well-received, huh.” Feng Ping Lan lay over his desk, looking at Gerard, who sat in a corner of the classroom, calmly reading an original text, immersed in his own world. There were many girls outside the classroom currently staring at him, some of them watching brazenly, a few secretly casting sidelong glances at him.
No matter which type it was, their intent was pretty evident. They wished to approach him, but were hindered by that aloof attitude.
“That’s just a fairly refined attempt of putting on an act.” Bai Li Rui replied softly, using his index and middle fingers to lightly lift the thin pages of the book before him, flipping the pages with a natural and elegant demeanor, and after taking two seconds to read the contents, let out a profound sigh, “Heart, my heart, let naught o’ercome you; Bear your destiny and pain. Spring will bring you back again, what the Winter’s taken from you…” With that, he sighed.
Feng Ping Lan lifted his head to glance at Bai Li Rui, “Li Rui, do you have a stomachache? Do you need some Seirogan?”
“No!” Bai Li Rui lifted his book, revealing its timeworn book cover, “It’s Heine’s poem! I’m trying my best to recite a lofty, desolate poem of the highbrow type, you talking to me is making me look like a plebeian.”
Conglong looked at Bai Li Rui, then glanced at Gerard sitting in the other corner, “You’re mimicking him?”
“And here I thought you hated that guy.” Morris raised his eyebrows, “After all, he is your theoretical competitor.”
“What do you mean, theoretical!” Bai Li Rui frowned, “I’m always facing the others in peak condition.”
“You think you’re one of the competitors in the field, but all you are is just one of the staff members that they’ll only recall when they need the location of the restrooms.” Conglong sipped his milk, and with the bottle now empty, he licked off the last drops of milk on the bottle cap.
“It’s called ‘learning merits from the foreign to conquer the foreign’.” Bai Li Rui pushed his glasses up, “I’ve seen through his trick. He’s playing the profound thinker, deliberately expressing a melancholic personality like a veiled poem, brimming with insinuations that can’t be seen through at first glance. Girls like that sort of mysterious thing. It’s a lowly yet ingenious move.”
“If that’s so, Li Rui, why don’t you dress up as Funassyi? Funassyi is friendly and cute, but also a profound mystery! You’ll have the options of both offensive and defensive!” Feng Ping Lan proposed earnestly.
“Mysterious does not equal strange…” Bai Li Rui once again reached out his index and middle fingers to the bridge of his nose, pushing his glasses up in a graceful posture, but it seemed to make no difference at all.
“It’ll be pretty hard trying to win against the person you’re mimicking.” Feng Ping Lan warned him.
Bai Li Rui let out a radiant laugh, extending his fingers to wag them left and right.
This was a new move of his. He called it ‘An Aristocrat’s Grace’, but all Morris and Conglong wanted to do after watching him was to beat him up.
“I’m only on the probationary testing period. That guy is leaving in December, I’ll be sure to succeed in his style.” Bai Li Rui gave a confident smile, “When the time comes, those heart-broken girls will seek out his shadow in me, and I’ll use my poems and apathetic gentleness to comfort their cold and empty hearts.”
Morris clicked his tongue in wonder, “Your level of indecency is worthy of respect…”
“Besides, his emergence didn’t affect me the most.” Bai Li Rui glanced at Byriel, who sat diagonally behind him. In the past, Byriel would always be surrounded by female students after class, but presently he sat in his place scrolling through his phone. “I’ve always found myself in the abyss, but a certain person has been pulled down from his throne.” Women, a truly pragmatic species.
“Byriel, are you alright?” Feng Ping Lan asked in concern.
“Want to become allies with me?” Bai Li Rui proposed with a lofty attitude, “As someone who has experience being rejected and given the cold shoulder by girls, I can exceed you by a hundred lengths. I’ll teach you how to get through the amount of free time you have by yourself, how to take care of the wounds of your heart—”
“Sorry, just wait a moment…” Byriel did not even lift his head, “A lady I met in a hotel just invited me to play polo, and I need to arrange my time for a few dinner parties…” He typed quickly, replying continuously in quite a few dialog boxes, at last taking a breather, placing down his phone with a forced smile, “I really shouldn’t have typed ‘Free at last’ into my social status. What were you saying to me?”
“…Absolutely nothing.”
While the others were trying to conquer Mt Everest, this guy had long-since arrived in outer space.
Byriel spared Gerard a glance, and by chance, the other lifted his head while flipping through his book. Electricity seemed to crackle between their gazes, stopping for an instant, before missing each other.
Byriel raised his eyebrows, smiling, “This new classmate of ours doesn’t seem to be what he appears to be, hehe.”
“Great minds think alike.” Bai Li Rui clapped a hand onto Byriel’s shoulder, “I think he’s deliberately acting quiet and sullen just to gain attention from the girls.”
Byriel smiled lightly, not voicing anything.
What he saw in Gerard’s eyes was a much more underlying, twisted shadow…
Feng Ping Lan stared at Gerard. While there was no shortage of people interested in Gerard, no one interacted with him any further.
Looking at that cold and solitary figure, he couldn’t help but be reminded of Quetzal.
“Perhaps he’s just shy.” Feng Ping Lan propped his head up, “He’s a stranger in an unfamiliar place, so he’s probably a little more overcautious, there’s a possibility he’s really hungry right now!”
“Oh.” Conglong, Morris, and Bai Li Rui answered offhandedly, expressing that it was ‘none of our business’.
Feng Ping Lan stared at Gerard, and a moment later, suddenly stood up.
“What are you doing?”
“Didn’t the teacher tell us to keep an eye on the guests from our sister schools?” Feng Ping Lan spoke smilingly, “Class Rep isn’t here right now, so it’s up to me to make them experience the warmth of friendship!”
The creamy-white pages flipped over.
Flip.
He caught the sound of something astir in the corner of his eyes. Suddenly, a figure sat in the seat before his. Then, a face appeared brazenly before him, glancing at him with fixed eyes.
Gerard slowly lifted his gaze from the pages.
A smiling face with a friendliness off the charts appeared right before his eyes.
“Hi! Nihao!”2
“Nihao,” Gerard replied calmly.
“I’m Feng Ping Lan!” Feng Ping Lan lowered his head to look at the book in Gerard’s hands, “What book are you reading?”
“The Crimes of Love.”
“Oh, that sounds really awesome!” Feng Ping Lan nodded his head, “What’s it about?”
“It is a collection of short stories, thus I cannot summarize it in a few words.”
Faced with Feng Ping Lan’s sudden appearance and rash questions, Gerard would be sure to answer, giving his replies proficiently, with no unnecessary questions nor conventional greetings. Although he did not refuse or reject him, there was a sense of distance between them. Like a piece of machinery, every question that was input could be resolved, but it was unable to make any further exchanges or interactions.
“You’re very cool.” Feng Ping Lan smiled, “Do you have any other facial expressions?”
“I do. But I’m incapable of doing other expressions in the situation I’m currently in.”
“That’s true, I wouldn’t be able to cry out of the blue either.” Feng Ping Lan nodded his understanding, “Do you like this book?”
“Yes.”
“Have you toured around the school compound yet?”
“No.”
“Let’s go on a walk together!” Feng Ping Lan stood up.
Gerard glanced at the clock. There were still three minutes left till the next class.
“The next period is the class advisor’s history class, he’s flexible!” Feng Ping Lan waved his hand smilingly. Before Gerard could give a reaction, he led him by his hand, pulling him out of his seat on his own accord.
“Let’s go let’s go! You’re a student from our sister schools, he won’t do anything to you.” Feng Ping Lan paused for a moment, “I won’t do anything to you either, don’t worry!”
The corners of Gerard’s mouth lifted slightly, so subtle it wouldn’t be considered a smile but instead an effect of his muscles’ movements from speaking.
A glimmer of contempt.
Gerard seemed to give in, he put down his book and let Feng Ping Lan pull him out of his seat.
When the two of them passed the hallway, they brushed past Ivan and Igor who were on the way back.
“Where are you going?” Ivan asked curiously.
“I’m taking our new classmate on an adventure around the school.” Feng Ping Lan, “Does Ivan want to come along?”
“I’d like to, but I better lay low for now. Class Advisor seems to know I was the one who added boobs to the Terracotta Army figurines.” Ivan humphed crossly, “Though the one who drew on the nipples after was definitely not me.”
Igor stood by the side, shaking his head disapprovingly.
“Oh, that was me, hahaha.” Feng Ping Lan scratched his head, admitting readily, “Help me tell Class Advisor I’m bonding with the new classmate!”
“Please show some mercy, the last guy you brought out to bond with still needs a soft cushion every time he sits.” Ivan deliberately spouted some frightening words, at the same time nastily observing Gerard’s reaction.
But Gerard just stood indifferently behind Feng Ping Lan, looking at Ivan and Igor.
It was a tranquil and reserved expression, but those light brown eyes caused Ivan to feel uncomfortable.
Feng Ping Lan hurriedly pulled Gerard away. With only a minute left to the next period, a majority of the students were all walking back to their classrooms, Feng Ping Lan pulling Gerard in the other direction, out the school building.
“Where would you like to go?” Feng Ping Lan said as he walked, “The stores? The dining hall? The club rooms? The dormitories? Or is it Li Rui’s most beloved female changing rooms? Hahahaha!”
“The sickbay.”
“Oh?!” Regarding this reply, Feng Ping Lan was absolutely overjoyed, “That’s great! Why would you think of going there? We don’t have beautiful nurse sisters at our school, you might be disappointed if you’re into that3.”
“I want to know how Zephaniah treats its patients, how many patients it can accommodate. “
“Is that so?” Feng Ping Lan tilted his head to ask, “Is Gerard worried about getting injured during the school festival? Don’t worry, our school has really good facilities, our teachers are really amazing!”
Gerard was slightly surprised, pausing his footsteps, “You’re a Summoner too?”
“I’m a student at the Shadow Academy!” Feng Ping Lan did not admit it directly, saying with a smile, “I don’t look like it, do I? Hahaha! So are Ivan and Igor earlier!”
Much more explicit emotions appeared on Gerard’s reserved features, scorn, disdain.
“You don’t seem like one.” Gerard circled around Feng Ping Lan, strolling unhurriedly with a keen examining look, scrutinizing him carefully.
No matter his temperament or attitude, they were full of flaws. A trained Summoner, even in a relaxed state, would be instinctively on his guard, ready to meet a contingency at any time. Similar to a serviceman, having a distinct acuity and loftiness.
He had known who were part of the Shadow Academy the moment he stepped into the classroom. But he was uncertain which of them were human, which of them were demons, the only Shadow Academy that allowed Contracts to enroll in classes was Zephaniah.
An absolutely ridiculous tactic…
He couldn’t see such characteristics in Feng Ping Lan, and there wasn’t a single trace of incantation residue to be found on him. Even the demonic aura around him was incredibly faint, and it had come from the stray demons, not from his own Contract, which was why he was unable to determine and identify his Contract’s type and capabilities.
As if he was a purely ordinary human.
“Gerard?” Feng Ping Lan placed both hands on his cheeks, saying shyly, “…If you keep on looking at me like that, I might think you’re trying to confess to me hahahahaha!”
Gerard’s expression darkened.
No, he was much more uneducated and ignorant than the ordinary humans…
“I never thought there would be someone like you among the Summoners, your existence is a disgrace to all Summoners.” Gerard looked at Feng Ping Lan, throwing out those hurtful words with a light smile, “Only Zephaniah would shelter second-rate trash such as you. After all, Daniel loves collecting waste the most, he thinks he can alchemize scrap metal into gold.”
As he said this, he observed Feng Ping Lan’s reaction.
He nastily waited for his words to shatter that bright and cheerful smile into fragments, anticipating anger, humiliation, and sorrow to appear on his face.
But a foolish expression was still stuck on Feng Ping Lan’s face, he laughed awkwardly, “Um… Who’s Daniel?“
Gerard was startled.
Looks like this guy’s self-esteem and willpower was much stronger than he expected…
“Zephaniah’s director.” Gerard stared at Feng Ping Lan, taunting coldly, “Don’t you even know what the director of your own school is called? Looks like he’s been sparing no pains to lower the enrollment standard policies.”
“I don’t know the director’s name… But I know the dining hall auntie’s name.” Feng Ping Lan tried his best to redeem himself.
He wasn’t familiar with the director, but he was familiar with the dining hall auntie. Besides, knowing the director’s name had no usefulness in his daily life, knowing the dining hall auntie’s name would win him a few extra pieces of meat at lunch.
Gerard raised his eyebrows, surprised by his calm demeanor.
He didn’t look as if he was deliberately acting big-hearted, but was actually completely unaffected. It wasn’t ignorant slow-wittedness, but uninvolved detachment.
“Are you always this cheerful and optimistic?” Gerard asked instead, “Is this a way of protecting yourself?”
Feng Ping Lan shrugged, completely paying no mind to Gerard’s criticism.
Gerard’s words, he had already heard similar words from the mouths of many others. But he wasn’t originally a Summoner, so such verbal abuse was unable to cause any damage. It was like calling a chef a quack, it didn’t tickle.
Feng Ping Lan laughed foolishly, “Looks like you’re a good talker after all. If you spoke more, you’d definitely woo a few more people, even Byriel will have to admit defeat!”
Gerard raised his eyebrows. He did not comment on Feng Ping Lan’s words.
Feng Ping Lan continued to talk on his own. Gerard looked at his foolish face that kept on making noise, the same question flashing across his mind—
…How do I smash that cheerful face? How do I make dye it in the colors of despair?
What sort of wail would that clamorous mouth make, when he’s in pain…
“Gerard?” Feng Ping Lan realized Gerard was lost in thought, reaching out a hand so that he could pat his shoulder.
Yet, Gerard was like a falcon, roughly gripping onto Feng Ping Lan’s hand with sudden force.
“Aiyo!”
The pain that transferred from his palm caused Feng Ping Lan to furrow his eyebrows, narrowing his eyes. The old wound that had yet to heal was irritated, giving him sharp, incisive pain, making him pull away instinctively.
Gerard’s eyes lit up at that briefly pinched face.
“Sorry, my hand’s injured, hahaha…” Feng Ping Lan laughed foolishly as he explained, waving his hand, trying to wave away the pain coming from his old wound.
Gerard looked at Feng Ping Lan, who was holding down the pain with a smile, a shuddering thrill spreading from the bottom of his heart, for this uncontrollable thirst.
A cruel, sadistic, destructive desire.
He wanted to see, see more of his suffering and desperation…
Gerard breathed in deeply, pressing down the disturbance within him.
Ah, he had to show restraint. Now was not the time…
He wasn’t stupid enough to ask for trouble breaking prohibition on someone else’s territory.
“Are you tired? Want to continue touring around?” Feng Ping Lan asked.
“No.” Gerard turned, heading back on his own, “I look forward to tonight’s classes…”
His handsome, delicate features were twisted by a tyrannical and morbid smile. He reached out a hand to cover his mouth, taking in a deep breath, and returned to his originally tranquil expression with much difficulty.
*
During phys ed, the students were scattered all over the gymnasium, conducting various activities. Excluding swimming classes which had to be carried out in joint classes, they let the students choose the sports they were interested in most of the time. There wasn’t a fixed subject.
Feng Ping Lan entered the ranks of the basketball team as usual, and after finishing the match, he went to the rest area at the spectator’s grandstand to meet up with Bai Li Rui. Bai Li Rui wasn’t good at sports, but he was good at acting like he was good at sports, so that he could hit on the girls in the sports department.
During phys ed classes, after doing his stretches, he would always head directly towards the rest area, or run off to observe the gymnastics team’s practice sessions until he was chased off.
Feng Ping Lan sat down, Bai Li Rui handing him a towel in passing.
“Wipe yourself dry. Don’t pollute me with your sweaty stench.”
“Oh oh! Thanks!” Feng Ping Lan took the towel and wiped his face with it, when the fragrance of peaches wafted over, “So fragrant! It smells like peaches!” He sniffed in a few deep mouthfuls, the sweet fragrance making him want to stuff the towel into his mouth.
“That’s the smell of peach-scented fragrance pouches.” Bai Li Rui frowned, “Hey! Are you secretly keeping it in your mouth? It’s dirty!”
“Why does Li Rui like peaches so much all of a sudden?” Feng Ping Lan was curious.
“I just… think peaches are nice…” Bai Li Rui said evasively, not knowing how he should explain Jiu Shao’s existence. In reality, even now he was still skeptical on whether Jiu Shao had been a figment of his imagination.
“I get it!” Feng Ping Lan clapped his hands together, “Could it be that the person Li Rui likes loves eating peaches, so you’re deliberately covering yourself in the smell of peaches so that that person will long for you?”
“Uh, I guess so.” His little beauty had said he wanted ‘to eat peaches’ before he went to sleep. He had prepared many peach food products, even going as far as to fill up his room with the scent of peaches, but the little beauty still did not wake up.
He didn’t know when Jiu Shao would awaken. Nor did he know what Jiu Shao wanted to do once he woke up. At present, all he could do was to keep watch in silence.
“Do you believe in the existence of supernatural creatures in this world?” Bai Li Rui tried, “The creatures in legends, but not ghosts or phantoms…”
Feng Ping Lan tilted his head, “Are you talking about something like the Devil Fish4?”
“Uh, I’m talking about dem…”
Feng Ping Lan felt someone tap on his shoulder twice. Turning his head, he saw Zong Yu standing by his side.
“Xiao Yu-er, is there something you need?”
Zong Yu nodded his head, sparing Bai Li Rui a glance, then turned to leave.
“Wait for me! Li Rui I’ll come back soon, talk to you later!”
Feng Ping Lan hurriedly chased up to Zong Yu, coming to a corner of the spectator’s grandstand. Zong Yu looked around for a second, then reached his hand into his pocket.
“What’s wrong? Xiao Yu-er.”
Zong Yu took his hand out, his chubby hand tightened into a fist, held out to Feng Ping Lan. Feng Ping Lan held out both hands.
Plump hands spreading out, a transparent circular object fell into Feng Ping Lan’s palms. There was a pipe at one end of the ball-like object, the opening sealed off by wax and a seal, a string tied on top of it, and the hollow interior filled up with a light yellow liquid, as well as a half-white half-black needle and several bits and pieces.
“For you.”
“What’s this?” Feng Ping Lan took up the string, scrutinizing it, “It looks a little like an enema.”
“This is the tracking apparatus you wanted…” Zong Yu explained exasperatedly.
“Oh oh! You completed it so quickly?! Thank you!” Feng Ping Lan stared at the tracking apparatus the size of a ping-pong ball, and looking at it carefully, he could tell that the floating objects inside were fragments of the flowers and card.
“How do I use this?”
“It’ll start when you place your spiritual power into it.”
“Is that so!” Feng Ping Lan nodded his head, “Then, how do I place spiritual power into it?”
Zong Yu glanced at Feng Ping Lan doubtfully, and after confirming that he was serious and not actually making a joke, a trace of astonishment flickered across his eyes. But he did not say anything, taking the tracking apparatus without batting an eye, concentrating and muttering a few incantations before handing the tracking spell back to Feng Ping Lan.
“Thanks!” Feng Ping Lan received it happily.
“It will remain in its mobilized state. The pointer inside will resonate with the culprit, as long as you approach anything related to the Gentleman Thief, the perpendicular pointer will turn horizontal, guiding you into his general direction. If you meet the culprit himself, the entire bottle will light up.”
“That’s great!” Feng Ping Lan praised as he stared at the apparatus, “But Xiao Yu-er, the pointer’s moving around.”
“What?” Zong Yu couldn’t believe it, leaning in to observe.
Sure enough, the needle that was originally submerged perpendicularly was currently rising up to the middle of the globe, swiveling around restlessly, as if it was searching for its target.
“Does this mean it’s broken?”
“Impossible.” He had confidence in his own skills. The tracking apparatus, to him, was as easy as assembling a gacha toy, there wasn’t a possibility of making a mistake.
The two stared at the pointed within the globe, looking at it revolving rapidly within the bottle.
At last the pointer fixed itself, pointing to one direction.
They both gazed into the direction the pointer had indicated.
The black needlepoint was pointed directly at Bai Li Rui, who, currently pretending to read, was actually peeking at the girls.
Both Zong Yu and Feng Ping Lan stared blankly.
“…It seems quite unexpected, but not very surprising either…” It was an incredibly complicated feeling. As if something you would usually joke about had come true.
“So, can I cut him open now?” Zong Yu lightly flung his sleeve, two scalpels appearing in his palms.
“Wait a minute!”
“I know you want to keep him alive…” Zong Yu turned his head, smiling sinisterly, “As long as he breathes, he’s considered alive, I know where to stop, heeheehee…”
“No!” Feng Ping Lan hurriedly went forwards, “The bottle isn’t lighting up! So Li Rui cannot be the Gentleman Thief.”
“Perhaps, he’s an accomplice…” A smile rose on Zong Yu’s face, “Since they are not the same person, we don’t need to hold back. I will keep him intact to the best of my abilities, on the fact that we were once classmates. Heehee…”
“It can’t be true!” How was it possible that Li Rui was linked to the Gentleman Thief? He was just a pure, honest, and shy pervert! “Could we have gotten the wrong person?”
Just as he said this, Li Rui stood up from his sitting position, leaving his seat to move to another corner of the gym, because the female gymnastics team had gathered to the sidelines to rest.
“It cannot be wrong.” Zong Yu was incredibly certain, “If we don’t take advantage while he’s alone, it’ll be hard to take him down later…”
“But—” Feng Ping Lan tried his best to find a reason to defend Bai Li Rui, he stared at the apparatus, and suddenly found a peculiarity, “Look, the apparatus hasn’t changed! Li Rui just switched places, but the needle’s still pointing in the same direction!”
Zong Yu stared at the apparatus, the needle inside was still pointed towards where Bai Li Rui had originally sat. He sighed a little disappointedly.
Feng Ping Lan held the apparatus, slowly stepping towards Bai Li Rui’s seat, circling the empty spot once, at last confirming that the needle was pointing to the poetry anthology that Bai Li Rui had been holding for an entire day.
He picked up that worn Heine anthology, the yellowed pages divulging the book’s oldness. Aside from the Chinese-German poems placed side by side for comparison printed in it, there were quite a few notes written at the top margins and butterfly bindings, of self-composed poems.
When he flipped to the last page, ‘Club property, do not remove’ written at the top.
Feng Ping Lan flipped through the book from start to end, unable to find anything unusual from this ordinary book.
A piece of paper fell out of the pages. Feng Ping Lan bent down to collect it. It was an undelivered postcard that had been used as a bookmark, a lotus flower blooming under the moonlit night printed on it.
“Do you guys want to join the ranks of the depressed hipsters too?”
Feng Ping Lan and Zong Yu turned their heads to see Bai Li Rui heading back to his seat.
“I’m used to operating alone, but since the two of you are novices on matters of the heart, I can guide you in exploring for the time being.” Bai Li Rui raised two elegant fingers, arranging the fringe before his forehead, then pointed at Zong Yu and Feng Ping Lan, “I’ll state the rules first, you’re in charge of taking the lead, go to a girl and tell her a bad joke, make her think you’re simple-minded and foolish, so that my natural quick-wittedness will become prominent; you’re in charge of saying good things about me behind my back, make them think I’m harmless and innocent, upright and honest. When you’ve done all that, it’s my turn to appear, I’ll be in charge of—”
“Drugging them for rape and murder?” Zong Yu interrupted.
”That’s ri— No!” Bai Li Rui retorted sternly.
“Li Rui, where did you get this book from?”
“From my club, you know I’ve always been a ghost member of the Poetry Appreciation Club.”
“But it says here you’re not allowed to remove it.”
“Uh.” Bai Li Rui said a little awkwardly, “I went to the club room this morning, there wasn’t anyone there, so I just took it… In any case, I’ll return it later.”
“Do you know who owns this book?”
Bai Li Rui shrugged, “A former club member? I’ve only gone there once since the start of the term, I’m not sure of the situation there.”
“Why did you stop going?”
Bai Li Rui humphed crossly, “I thought there’d be pure, introverted literature girls in there, but all I found were a few eccentric, fussy, smelly guys who are immersed in their own fantasies.”
Zong Yu was puzzled, “Aren’t you the same?”
“I‘m not that far gone!” Bai Li Rui refuted. He looked at Feng Ping Lan, saying embarrassedly, “If you’re that concerned about me taking something without receiving permission, I’ll return it after school.”
“It’s not that! I just wanted to borrow this book as well, can you lend it to me first?”
“Okay. I wasn’t exactly interested in poetry in the first place, those footnotes on the books were much more interesting.”
“Thanks!” Feng Ping Lan took the book with a smile, “Right, Li Rui, what were you saying earlier? Something about supernatural creatures?”
Bai Li Rui glanced at Zong Yu, smiling forcefully, “Nothing. I was just a little bored, so I rambled a little.”
Below the grandstand, a male classmate waved at Feng Ping Lan, shouting at him to come down for the next match. Feng Ping Lan responded, keeping the tracking apparatus Zong Yu had given him away, and went down to meet up with his teammates.
Just as he was about to pass through the gymnasium’s border, a basketball blew through the air, crashing into the back of his head.
“Aiyo!”
Feng Ping Lan fell onto his butt. Before he could react, the basketball rebounded and attacked a second time, slamming into the side of his face.
Feng Ping Lan lay prone on the ground. He climbed up frenetically, flipping over, missing the basketball’s third strike just in time.
“Oh oh! So close!”
He stood up, seeing the basketball bounce to the side. Just as he thought it was over, the ball that was originally leaping forwards landed in a strange and unreasonable angle, speedily rebounding in his direction at high speeds.
“Ahh!” Feng Ping Lan couldn’t dodge in time, reaching out his hands to block in front of him, planning to doggedly keep off this attack.
Yet, the ball suddenly exploded about two meters away from Feng Ping Lan, falling onto the floor.
Feng Ping Lan blinked, reaching out his toes to poke at the basketball skin, then bent his waist to pick it up.
“Hey, what happened?”
Feng Ping Lan turned his head to see Liu Yi Chen running over to him.
“It… broke!” Feng Ping Lan looked at his two hands in shock, “I never thought I would have this kind of power… Don’t tell me the dark power hidden in my body has awakened?!”
Liu Yi Chen rolled her eyes, “Stop being such a chuuni.” She turned her head, questioning with a frown, “You did that on purpose?”
“Ah?”
“I was merely trying to summon the ball, to reduce the time spent collecting it.”
A tranquil and husky voice came from the back, Feng Ping Lan turned his head to see Gerard heading over to his side.
Gerard was calm and unperturbed as usual, so self-composed as if nothing had happened. He was about to bend down to pick up the ruptured basketball, when Liu Yi Chen beat him to it.
“I’ll sort it out.” Li Yi Chen gave him a polite fake smile, “You are not allowed to use spells during non-Shadow Academy classes.”
“I am not used to the rules here.” Gerard replied indifferently, “I apologize.”
“You’d better get used to it.”
Liu Yi Chen spared the basketball skin in her hands a glance, there was a thin needle stuck on the skin, as well as fine red string, scorched traces of a flame spell, and a cut from a sharp blade.
She turned her head to sweep across the gym, Byriel, Kaido and Dongya scattered across the space in their own activities, acting nonchalant. Su Li Wan, who sat on the sidelines to rest, turned her head away in embarrassment.
“I will.”
Liu Yi Chen gave Gerard a phony smile, then pulled Feng Ping Lan away.
“Class Rep?”
“You really know how to attract attention.” Liu Yi Chen criticized, her face darkening.
“Oh! Really?” Feng Ping Lan looked around left and right in astonishment, “You’re saying someone has a crush on me? Gosh, how embarrassing! Would Class Rep mind telling me who it is? How many characters? What’s the first charact—”
“Please have some awareness!“ Liu Yi Chen glared at Feng Ping Lan, “Gerard has already set his sights on you, he was the reason why the basketball kept on crashing into you!”
“Is that so!”
“What did you do this time?”
“I just gave him a tour around the school compound.” Feng Ping Lan tilted his head to think, “He seems to think I’m very inferior, that I’m not fit to be a Summoner.”
“That classist trash.” Liu Yi Chen cursed, then smiled coldly, “He thinks you’re inferior? Very good, when the school festival comes I’ll use my fist to make him recognize the truth, I’ll beat him up till he spits out his scrotum!” She said this, her palm making a tugging motion in the air.
“C-Class Rep, calm down!” Feng Ping Lan placated hurriedly.
Liu Yi Chen stared at Feng Ping Lan, saying solemnly, “You’d better keep a low profile before the school festival. You’re our secret weapon, we can’t let anyone know you have six Contracts, I don’t want to see the other four schools rallying together to hunt us down. The clumsier and more incompetent you act, the better. Do you understand!”
“Yes yes yes.” Feng Ping Lan replied, laughing inwardly.
He didn’t need to act. Because there wasn’t a single thing he could do originally.
“Right, Class Rep, what did Gerard mean by not being used to the rules here?” Feng Ping Lan recalled Gerard’s words, asking curiously, “Do the other Shadow Academies allow them to openly use their spells?”
“Not exactly. To be precise, only Zephaniah has day and night schools, so there exists the rule. The other schools only enroll Summoners, so there isn’t a need to hide their powers.”
“I see!”
“Didn’t you know?” Liu Yi Chen raised her eyebrows, “Zephaniah has a tradition unlike the other Shadow Academies, the students entering this school would normally know of this.”
“Uh…” Feng Ping Lan blinked his eyes, thoughtlessly coming up with an excuse, “I chose this place because it was close to my hometown, I didn’t put much thought in comparing schools, hahaha…”
Liu Yi Chen explained, there were various purposes the other Shadow Academies existed for, some were hidden in military bases, some in office buildings, or directly concealed the entire school compound behind wards. Only Zephaniah boldly existed in this world with the purpose of being a school, as well as accepted ordinary humans as their students.
Liu Yi Chen humphed adversely, “You have quite the courage. That said, didn’t your family give you any advice on picking your school? Zephaniah has a pretty polarized reputation, conservative clans usually choose traditional academies in the region around the Atlantic Ocean.”
Feng Ping Lan smiled, “They’ll agree to whatever I decide.” Because no one cared in the first place. “I think this place is amazing! I’m really glad to have chosen Zephaniah. It’s a great thing to be able to know everyone here!” He smiled at Liu Yi Chen, saying earnestly, “I like Class Rep, I like every single one of you here, I treasure every minute, every second that I spend here, it’s like a dream come true.”
Even if he was picked on, given a hard time, harmed, right until he woke up from this dream, he would think of it as a good thing.
Liu Yi Chen was slightly surprised, facing such a forthright statement, she couldn’t help but blush bashfully.
“Did Bai Li Rui teach you that? Don’t exhaust yourself spouting passionate words like a pervert, it’ll make me ponder…”
Feng Ping Lan took a big step forward, circling around Liu Yi Chen and staring at her face.
“W-what do you want?”
“Class Rep, are you blushing?” The corners of his lips lifted, “In the light canoe sat we, still the night was, and calm was the weather, as we skimm’d o’er the wide-spreading sea.” He recited the lines he had seen in the anthology.
Liu Yi Chen widened her eyes, various complicated emotions flitting across her face, then roared, “Skim my ass, you idiot!” She then flung the basketball skin in her hands at Feng Ping Lan’s abdomen, angrily stomping away.
*
With Liu Yi Chen’s warning in mind, Feng Ping Lan realized that Gerard seemed to be really paying attention to him. After class, there were numerous times he lifted his head to discover Gerard staring at him.
Each time their eyes met, he would wave or smile at him amiably. He originally figured Gerard would be fed up with him because of this, but surprisingly, Gerard still stared at him with fixed eyes, not a trace of concealing himself or shirking from him.
“Why is he staring at you, what did you do this time?” Conglong muttered under his breath, wrinkling his eyebrows, “Does he want to conduct anal intercourse with you?”
Feng Ping Lan almost fell out of his seat, “What are you talking about!”
“I read it in the forums. One of the members shared her story with us, she personified all the fish in the aquarium, then mating circumstances of the same gender happened. But that person clearly wasn’t good at biology, she wrote a story between a gar and an emperor fish, but as a matter of fact, only the Amazon dolphin engages in same-sex intercourse…”
“Thank you for sharing this with me, I’ve learned a lot.” Feng Ping Lan forced a laugh, “But I think it’s just because he doesn’t like me very much.”
“Why?”
“Probably because I’m incompetent. You don’t need a clear-cut reason for hating or liking someone.” Feng Ping Lan scratched his head, smiling in embarrassment, “But I’d still like to get along with him.”
“That’s true.” Conglong nodded, he turned his head to glance at Gerard, coming to a conclusion, “I hate him.”
“Haha, don’t say that.” Feng Ping Lan smiled, “They’ll be leaving once the school festival is over. Perhaps we’ll realize he’s not such a bad guy after all, when we familiarize ourselves with him.”
Conglong spared Feng Ping Lan a glance, “I don’t hate you, but I don’t like it when you’re good to everyone you meet.”
“Xiao Cong-Cong, are you jealous? Don’t worry, my affection for you won’t lessen just because the denominator has gotten larger.”
Conglong humphed disapprovingly, “Idiot. When the time comes for him to mess you up, you’d better not think he’s playing with you!”
Dongya, Byriel, Morris, and Kaido, who sat in the vicinity, revealed similar expressions of simultaneous agreement.
*
Evening came as the last period of the day school ended, and the pure day school students packed their bags in succession, preparing to leave the school building. The Shadow Academy students would deliberately linger around the classroom, or head over to the empty warehouse on the fourth floor which had ‘students forbidden to enter’ written on it to pass the time, until all the day school students had left before entering the Shadow Academy.
Feng Ping Lan slung his bag over his shoulder, saying to his companions, ”I need to head over to the composite building for a bit, see you in the classroom.”
“I’ll accompany you.” Dongya immediately stood up.
“There’s no need,” Feng Ping Lan turned to glance at Gerard, who was still staring at him. He said in a low voice, “We should keep a low profile for now, don’t be too conspicuous…” Both the class advisor and class rep wanted them to keep a low profile, and although the two of them had different standpoints and reasons for it, the objective was one and the same.
Dongya sighed, “Alright, be careful.”
The moment Feng Ping Lan stepped out of the classroom, Gerard followed suit. However, Liu Yi Chen promptly stepped forward, a professional smile plastered on her face. “Student Gerard, as tonight is the first observatory lesson in Zephaniah’s Shadow Academy classes attended by our sister schools’ students, the teachers worry of your unfamiliarity with the environment, so they have specially instructed the class representative – that is me – to lead you towards the Shadow Academy, and introduce you Zephaniah Shadow Academy’s distinguishing qualities and school aims.”
“No need.” Gerard refused apathetically.
“Student Gerard must not be very well-versed in Chinese.” A smile rose on Liu Yi Chen’s face, “That was not an interrogative sentence, but an imperative sentence.”
Gerard looked at Liu Yi Chen, realizing she would make no concessions on the matter. He glanced out the door, where Feng Ping Lan had already vanished.
“Alright then.” Gerard compromised, rising, glancing at Liu Yi Chen with a smile rising from his indifferent expression, “I’ll be troubling you.”
Gerard’s smile caused the surrounding female students to suck in a breath, as if they had witnessed an angel’s descent.
He did not smile often, but every time he smiled, there would always be someone who believed themselves as special, believed they had occupied a marvelous spot in his heart, and so lowered their guard around him.
But Liu Yi Chen merely raised her eyebrows with slight astonishment, no bashfulness, no infatuation, no sense of getting impregnated through the distance between them.
“Let’s go.” She smiled courteously, leading Gerard away.
Gerard sneered inwardly.
How pretentious…
He knew that this was a means of welcoming him with reluctance. She was taking the opportunity to make her cold demeanor much more prominent, but her heart was more fervent and expectant than anyone else.
He would rip off that deep-seated reserved act of hers…
*
Feng Ping Lan carried his backpack, hurrying towards the club rooms. The Poetry Appreciation Club was an ordinary club under the day school administration, so the club room was situated at Block A.
After school, the entire building was completely empty. All the lights in the classrooms were switched off, the central air-conditioner heating having also stopped operating.
Feng Ping Lan pushed the door open. The door was not locked. When he entered the building, there wasn’t an administrator within either, unlike Aunt Liang, who guarded beneath Block B. The security of the ordinary clubs’ building was clearly relaxed, with the various club rooms secured with a lock, and he was able to freely enter and exit the other areas.
Feng Ping Lan took out the tracking apparatus, staring at the pointer inside. The pointer trembled slightly left and right, seemingly sensing something, but as it was too far from its target, the information was weak. He shoved the tracking apparatus back into his pocket, taking a step forward.
If the anthology had something to do with the Gentleman Thief, there was a possibility the Gentleman Thief was connected to Zephaniah. From the anthology’s exterior appearance and time of the Gentleman Thief’s earliest crime, he surmised that he could have been a student at Zephaniah. Taking in consideration Zephaniah’s system, there was also a possibility he was still a student here.
He hadn’t told anyone this. He intended on surreptitiously gathering evidence in silence, so as not to inadvertently alert the enemy.
He passed through the hallways, coming to the Poetry Appreciation Club’s classroom in the corner of the fifth floor. Most of the neglected clubs were placed on the fifth floor, along with the storehouses of the other clubs.
The Poetry Appreciation Club was situated at the innermost classroom, the club’s name written on a self-printed piece of paper pasted upon the door, its background lined with European flower designs, as well as a French poem. The flowers, which used to have a bright and gorgeous color, had now faded due to dampness of the air, the surface of the paper wrinkling in an uneven tidal mark.
Feng Ping Lan twisted the knob, pushing the door inward.
The room was lit, long and square-shaped, smaller by about a third the size of a classroom, clearly a small space cut up from an actual room. There were a few bookshelves of different sizes, a round table, and a few chairs within. The entire room gave off an air of something messy and outdated, the only considerable thing being that window facing the west. The window seat that was always denounced by the students during summer season, now seized the last evening glow of dusk in winter.
A person stood by the windows, a hardcover notebook held in one hand, a fountain pen in another. They turned their head from enjoying the scenery to look at the unexpected guest’s intrusion.
The person within the room was a man in a plaid shirt and jeans, aged around 25 to 30, a pair of black-rimmed glasses on his face, his old-fashioned short hair drooping down his forehead in a slightly untrimmed length, having seemingly not sorted it out in quite a while.
“…Now isn’t the time for club activities.” After hesitating for a few seconds, the man spoke in neutral tones, his smile a little bashful, clearly not used to interacting with others.
“Oh, I’m sorry!” Feng Ping Lan hadn’t expected anyone to be in here, feeling slightly embarrassed for his impudence.
“So, do you want to join the club?” The man asked uncertainly.
“Uh…” Feng Ping Lan scratched his head, “I’m just here to look around, haha.”
“I see.” The man nodded, his gaze stopping at the anthology Feng Ping Lan held in his hands, “Why is that anthology in your hands?”
“Ah!” Oh no, he had been caught red-handed, “I lent it from a friend, he’s a member of this club…” Feng Ping Lan’s expression as he looked at the man was a little troubled, and hurriedly tacked on, “He knows club property cannot be removed too, but I thought it sounded interesting when I heard him describe this book, so I asked him to take it out secretly for me. I came here specifically to return this anthology.”
“Do you like Heine too?” The man’s eyes lit up.
“Mm, right.”
“Which of his poems is your favorite?” The man asked excitedly, “The Lorelei? Linden Blossoms In Moonlight5? Declaration?”
“Uh, actually…” Feng Ping Lan tried his best to make something up, “Rather than the contents of the book, I think the poems written at the top of the pages are pretty good…”
The man widened his eyes.
Feng Ping Lan saw the tips of his ears very clearly redden in a flash.
“R-really?” The man covered his mouth, and after a moment, finally admitted softly in embarrassment, “Actually… I was the one who wrote them… There’s actually someone who likes my writing…”
Feng Ping Lan was astonished, he didn’t think he would find someone connected to the book so easily.
But the man before him seemed incredibly introverted, just like a simple and honest shut-in, a far cry from the egotistical and narcissistic Gentleman Thief.
“Are you a teacher here?”
“No,” The man scratched his cheek shyly, “I’m just a short-term contracted club advisor. I’m Yue Wang Shu.”
Feng Ping Lan nodded, “Then, is Yue-laoshi an alumnus of Zephaniah?”
“No…” Yue Wang Shu lowered his head ashamedly, “After all, I am just an ordinary human.”
”I see.” Feng Ping Lan looked doubtfully at Yue Wang Shu, saying uncertainly, “Yue-laoshi, have you published your poems anywhere else?”
“I have a personal blog.” Yue Wang Shu coughed lightly, “But the readership has always been low…”
Feng Ping Lan took out the postcard that had been wedged between the pages, “Laoshi, do you know where this came from?”
“I bought it from a creative bazaar, do you like it? You can have it.”
So that’s how it is…
It seemed that Yue Wang Shu was completely unrelated to the Gentleman Thief, just a poetry lover who had just happened to bump into the Gentleman Thief.
“Then do you remember where this postcard—” Feng Ping Lan tried to ask further, but Yue Wang Shu raised a hand, cutting off his words.
“Ah! It’s almost 5:40!” Yue Wang Shu glanced down at his watch, flustered. He hurriedly closed the thin book, shoving it in his canvas bag, “I have to go, my paycheck will be cut if I don’t leave before the off-work time limit runs out.”
Zephaniah Academy had a rule that stated all students and external staff members had to leave the school grounds by 5:40.
This was a rule aimed at day school students and employees unrelated to the Shadow Academy, in order to dispel everyone unrelated before the start of the Shadow Academy classes.
“Oh, alright.” Feng Ping Lan moved sideways to let Yue Wang Shu leave.
Yue Wang Shu nodded in farewell at Feng Ping Lan, saying bashfully, “Let’s talk next time, I hope you’ll join our club…”
“Mm, I’ll consider it seriously.” Feng Ping Lan waved goodbye at him.
Just when Yue Wang Shu passed by Feng Ping Lan, Feng Ping Lan smelled a hint of something. A complicated and familiar scent.
First was a strange and chemical smell, then floury, buttery fragrance.
He knew that the chemical smell was a smell produced by the central air-conditioning malfunction in the Block A building, quite a few people within the school had been carrying that odor around lately.
But he had only ever smelled the floury, buttery fragrance accompanying that weird smell on one individual.
He instantaneously recalled where he had smelled that similar scent.
“Laoshi, what do you work as?” He called out to Yue Wang Shu, questioning as he placed both hands in his pockets, one hand quietly gripping the tracking apparatus, another holding on to his phone.
“A baker.” Yue Wang Shu scratched his hair awkwardly, “Saying this might be a little embarrassing. I originally intended on earnestly opening a shop, but my dream is to be a bard, unable to always stay in one place, so I closed shop, bought a coffee cart, and sold as I traveled, taking up part-time jobs everywhere…”
“Oh.” Feng Ping Lan nodded.
“Are there any more questions? I’m really in a rush…”
“Why didn’t you ask me to come along with you?” The rules stated to all day school students and external employees was that everyone had to leave the school grounds before 5:40.
Why did Yue Wang Shu worry only about leaving himself, yet did not urge Feng Ping Lan to do the same?
“I assumed you lived in the dormitories, so you weren’t in a rush.” Yue Wang Shu smiled as he explained.
“Oh.” Feng Ping Lan nodded once more, and after hesitating for a second, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, “I have another question…”
“Mm?”
“…Earlier, why did you say you were just an ordinary human…” Feng Ping Lan observed Yue Wang Shu’s each and every move, “It seemed as if you knew that Zephaniah wasn’t an ordinary school.”
“Zephaniah truly isn’t an ordinary school.” Yue Wang Shu said serenely, “This is an elite school, and the school fees are very expensive, most students wouldn’t be able to afford to learn here.”
“I see.” Feng Ping Lan nodded his head, “Then, see you later, laoshi.” He gripped the tracking spell tightly, waiting for Yue Wang Shu to turn around before he took it out, immediately verifying the truth.
But Yue Wang Shu did not leave, and just stood there with that bashful smile, looking at Feng Ping Lan.
“Isn’t laoshi leaving? It’s now 5:40—”
“No need to worry, I come and go freely in this school.” Yue Wang Shu smiled, “You’ve asked me many questions, can I ask you something instead?”
“Uh, that might be a little hard, I have to go, I’ll get my name written down if I don’t leave—”
“Just one question.” Yue Wang Shu pointed at Feng Ping Lan’s waistline, “What are you holding in your pocket? Will you let me take a look at it?”
Feng Ping Lan stared blankly, but still calmly drew out his left hand, “It’s just my phone.”
Yue Wang Shu nodded smilingly, his finger hooking upwards in the air.
Feng Ping Lan felt a pull from his right pocket, then, the tracking falling out of his pocket onto the floor.
That was the last thing he saw.
“What a naughty skylark…”
That was the last thing he heard.
Then, his awareness was cut short. The endless, tranquil darkness enveloped him.
*
Cold wind brushed past. The chill pierced his skin, deep into his spinal cord, making him tremble from the bottom of his heart.
“Achoo!”
His nasal cavity was invaded by the cold air, and he reflexively sneezed.
This sneeze pulled Feng Ping Lan from the depths of his consciousness back to reality.
“Uhn…” His heavy eyelids opened slightly before immediately shutting.
The cold wind blew over, and he shrunk in, curling under his clothes.
It was still dark… He’d sleep a little more…
He yawned, flipping around, the hardness coming from under his head roused him instantly.
Wait! Where was he?
Feng Ping Lan sat up violently, looking all around. He recognized his surroundings, these were the flight of steps on the plaza before the club complex.
What… happened?
He started to recall.
After school, he had lifted his school bag and brought the tracking apparatus and anthology to the club complex’s Block A, to look for clues on the Gentleman Thief…
What happened next?
His memories were cut short just before he stepped into the club complex, and he had woken up here right after that.
What had happened in between?
He lowered his head, and discovered his school bag beside him, the anthology lying on the ground a short distance away. He reached into his pocket, where the tracking apparatus lay.
Feng Ping Lan released a sigh of relief. No matter what had occurred in between, it seemed the Gentleman Thief hadn’t discovered the tracking apparatus.
He picked up the anthology to flip through it, it was the same book.
Since the anthology had been left behind, did that mean this clue was completely unrelated to the Gentleman Thief? Or perhaps the one who attacked him wasn’t the Gentleman Thief, but someone else?
He lifted his wrist, but his watch slid up to his arm. He pushed the watch towards his wrist and looked at it.
Six-fifty. It was already past the first period. No matter what, he should get back to class first.
Feng Ping Lan stood.
Slip.
He felt something fall down his lower half, then a bout of chill. Lowering his head, he saw both of his legs exposed to the air, his uniform pants having fallen to his feet.
After taking a closer look, his upper outer garment was slightly disheveled too, hanging loosely on his body, revealing a huge part of his shoulder and neck.
Feng Ping Lan was shocked. “My god!”
He knew that the Gentleman Thief was a pervert, but he never would have thought he was actually interested in young boys too!
Mm… His underwear was still there, just that it had become a little loose. He didn’t feel anything unusual…
Perhaps he was overthinking things, or perhaps he had become numb, no matter which possibility, he had no way to know on his own, he needed an unbiased third party to determine…
“…Feng Ping Lan! Feng Ping Lan!”
A familiar voice rang out from the distance, Feng Ping Lan recognized it as Morris’ voice.
“I’m over here!” He answered loudly, at the same time running over to him, spotting Morris’ tall and sturdy figure in the corner outside the plaza. “Morris!”
Morris turned his head, freezing for a moment when he saw who had come. He did not step forward immediately, just standing at his original spot, looking at Feng Ping Lan running over to him with doubt and astonishment.
“Have you found him?” Dongya sounded not far away. In the next moment, his snow-white figure emerged, and was startled when he saw Feng Ping Lan. “Who is this?”
Morris shook his head, expressing his own bewilderment.
“I was attacked!” Feng Ping Lan carried his clothes, rushing over to the two of them in a weird posture, explaining with gasps. “I came to the club building to investigate the Gentleman Thief, but I didn’t think I would suffer a sneak attack…”
Strange, why would he tire from running such a short distance…
“You? The Gentleman Thief?”
After he stood up, Feng Ping Lan abruptly realized his height only reached up to Morris and Dongya’s thighs, he needed to raise his head to see their faces.
“Child.” Dongya crouched down, getting on the same level as Feng Ping Lan, saying gently, “We’re searching for a senior high school student. He has black hair, and his outer appearance is a little naive and silly, named Feng Ping Lan, have you seen him?”
“…Uh, that’s me…” Why was he calling him a child? Why did he act as if he didn’t recognize him? “Did you get hit by the Gentleman Thief’s spell too?”
“Nonsense! Don’t make fun of adults!” Morris roared.
Dongya looked at Feng Ping Lan, his eyes gazing at his neck, and saw that dark and shiny obsidian necklace.
“Oh, no…” He reached out to take Feng Ping Lan’s hand, and muttered an incantation.
Silvery-white runes rose up Feng Ping Lan’s hand, that was the seal of the contract between them.
Morris, seeing the contract’s seal, widened his eyes, disbelieving.
“He really is Feng Ping Lan…” Dongya miserably came to terms with reality.
“Uh, I’ve always been! Why did you guys act as if you didn’t recognize me!“
Morris raised his eyebrows, “Haven’t you looked in a mirror?”
“No? Is there something dirty on my face?” Feng Ping Lan touched his face.
Dongya sighed softly, pointing at the club complex.
Feng Ping Lan turned his head, looking at glass doors of the dim club complex’s main entrance. Behind the doors stood a disheveled child.
“There’s a kid right there—” Feng Ping Lan pointed at the glass doors, and realized the boy behind had raised his hand as well to point at him. “Uh?”
Something was not right!
That little kid looked a little familiar…
Feng Ping Lan faced the glass doors, waving at the child, and the boy waved at him too; when he made a face at the boy, the boy made the motions of a funny face as well; when he pouted, a finger poking his cheek cutely, the boy did the same movements.
Morris facepalmed, giving a long sigh.
Feng Ping Lan widened his eyes, finally discovering the astonishing truth. “That cute little boy… is me!”
“What keen observation skills you have!” Morris ridiculed exasperatedly.
“How did this happen?”
“That’s what we’re supposed to ask you!”
“I don’t know.” Feng Ping Lan scratched his head, looking at his own reflection in the glass. “I didn’t realize the younger me was quite cute, hehe…”
Morris and Dongya exchanged glances, sighing simultaneously in exasperation.
“We’d better inform Yin Su Shuang. Go tell the others of this situation, but don’t make it known, the others will detect something wrong if everyone leaves the classroom.” Dongya instructed Morris, “I’ll bring him to Quetzal’s office in the sick bay, there are fewer people there.”
Morris nodded, turning to head towards the school building.
Dongya turned, looking at the younger Feng Ping Lan, smiling with a soft sigh. He slung Feng Ping Lan’s bag over his shoulder, helped Feng Ping Lan tidy up his disheveled clothes, then took off his jacket, wrapping it around Feng Ping Lan’s shoulders.
“Thanks, Dongya.”
“No need.” Dongya extended a hand towards Feng Ping Lan, “Let’s go.”
“Oh.” Feng Ping Lan held onto Dongya’s hand.
“No.” Dongya circled his hands around Feng Ping Lan’s waist, carrying him up, “That’s more like it.”
“Oh oh!” Feng Ping Lan laughed foolishly in embarrassment, “I’m like a kid.”
Dongya smiled, lightly summoning a breeze and stepping on the wind, gliding through the air towards the sick bay.
Feng Ping Lan nested in Dongya’s chest, letting him carry him. After a moment’s silence, he suddenly spoke, “Dongya.”
“Mm?”
“Am I naive and silly?”
Dongya stiffened a little, then schooled his expression into a tender and resplendent smile, “Do you want some ice-cream?”
TL Notes
There is quite a bit of inconsistency on the day class Feng Ping Lan is in. In V1, he’s said to be in Year 1 Class 7; in V2, he’s said to be in Year 1 Class 2; and in this chapter, he’s said to be in Year 1 Class 1. As Year 1 Class 2 was the one that was mentioned the most (and made the most sense, because I remember something about combining the first two classes to make up Shadow 1A, or did I?), I went with that, so I’ll keep on using Year 1 Class 2 for consistency’s sake. To this day, I still don’t know which class he’s actually in… ’Hi! Nihao!’: Nihao, as you know, means hi, hello, how are you. As there is already a ‘hi’ before nihao, I decided to leave it untranslated, especially since the ‘hi’ used (嗨) is a loanword from English. Of course, this is just a one-time thing and I will be translating them directly in the future. ‘We don’t have beautiful nurse sisters at our school, you might be disappointed if you’re into that’: Feng Ping Lan originally says ‘如果你是白跑控的话可能会失望’, 白袍空 (bai pao kong/white-robed complex) meaning someone who has a medical fetish. ‘The Devil Fish’: refers to a Taiwanese movie called The Tag-Along: The Devil Fish. ‘Linden Blossoms In Moonlight’: As this is a German title translated to Mandarin translated to English, I’m not quite sure what the title is, or if there really is a title at all. But by the description it seems to be Heine’s poem in New Spring Prologue No 31 with the verse starting with “Linden blossoms drunk with moonlight”. I think.