Chapter 31
Chapter 31
When Shi Xuan greeted Qin Shiyu, Xu Changjiang and Leng Qingyan were both mildly startled. They began sizing her up as well.
So this was the S-class anomaly wielder who controlled the Sovereign Seal? She was so young-and beautiful, too.
“You know each other?”
Li Que was surprised as well.
He did not know Shi Xuan’s identity, but anyone accompanied by Zhu Jiayan, Leng Qingyan, and the others had to hold a fairly senior position!
No wonder Qin Shiyu had simply announced that she wanted to work at the school. It turned out she had connections!
Now he understood. Qin Shiyu had not come here solely for her younger sister. She wanted to familiarize herself with the environment in advance too.
“You must be… Teacher Li?”
Shi Xuan turned to Li Que with an exceptionally genial smile, all while secretly studying him.
As expected of an SS-class anomaly wielder. Not a trace of an anomaly wielder’s aura escaped from his body.
Even if someone like this brushed past him on the street, Shi Xuan would never notice a thing!
“Miss Qin and I have indeed met a few times. I simply never expected to run into her here,” Shi Xuan continued.
He had assumed Qin Shiyu would have been destroyed along with Frost. Yet here she was, sitting in Li Que’s office. Could the unfathomable Teacher Li be planning to spare her life?
Li Que answered frankly,
“As it happens, Miss Qin just told me she wanted to work at our school. Since you two know each other, you can discuss it between yourselves.”
All he wanted was to focus on teaching his classes. He had no interest in involving himself in the twists and turns of personal connections and office politics.
At those words, both Qin Shiyu and Shi Xuan tensed!
Qin Shiyu understood immediately. It seemed Li Que was backed by… the authorities!
He was one of them!
That was why Li Que was leaving the question of whether she could stay to Shi Xuan.
Shi Xuan, meanwhile, was thinking just as rapidly.
Since Li Que had said as much, he clearly intended to keep Qin Shiyu here.
Qin Shiyu was a core member of the Hall of Anomalies. Could Teacher Li be trying to turn her and plant an agent inside the Hall of Anomalies?!
With his deep experience and calculating mind, Shi Xuan instantly saw the logic and believed he had grasped Li Que’s intentions.
He nodded to himself in admiration. What a brilliant move.
The Hall of Anomalies had always been shrouded in mystery. It was extraordinarily difficult for an outsider to investigate it.
Qin Shiyu was the perfect opening!
Naturally, an SS-class anomaly wielder like Li Que would not waste time on such trivial details. The Provincial Anomaly Suppression Department would have to handle them for him.
At that thought, Shi Xuan smiled.
At the very least, this proved that Li Que… trusted the Provincial Anomaly Suppression Department!
“I understand.”
Shi Xuan spoke at once.
“In that case, Miss Qin, shall we discuss this somewhere else?”
Qin Shiyu understood perfectly and nodded.
Zhu Jiayan hurriedly led the way. Qin Shiyu, Shi Xuan, and Xu Changjiang turned and left for another conference room.
Leng Qingyan remained behind. With a complicated expression, she asked,
“Everything at the school… is all right, isn’t it? Qin Shiyu didn’t make things difficult for you?”
Li Que smiled. “Everything’s fine.”
“And it wasn’t difficult. Like I’ve always said, I only want to focus on teaching and nurturing my students. I don’t involve myself in anything else, so why would I feel troubled?”
“Dean Leng, I’m heading home.”
He placed his teaching notes and other materials into a document pouch, then turned and left.
Leng Qingyan stared after him, momentarily lost in thought.
He had destroyed an anomaly like Frost with a casual wave of his hand, thwarted the Hall of Anomalies’ plot, and saved millions of lives across Mingjiang City.
Such an achievement could easily have brought him unimaginable fame, wealth, and status.
Yet he seemed not to care in the slightest. He would not even mention it!
Other than teaching those anomalies how to read, did he truly have no other desires?
It was said that when anomaly wielders reached a certain level, their personalities and temperaments were often influenced by the anomalous entities they controlled. Could the side effect of Li Que’s anomalous entity be an obsessive love of teaching?
The idea inexplicably made her want to laugh. Then she murmured,
“What a pure and noble man.”
…
Inside another conference room.
Shi Xuan and Xu Changjiang sat across from Qin Shiyu.
“Master Xu Buzhou’s finest disciple and the rising talent most valued by the Hall Master wants to remain here?”
Shi Xuan calmly exposed Qin Shiyu’s background and origins.
“Why?”
Qin Shiyu answered frankly,
“Li Que can give anomalies humanity.”
“My teacher tried and failed. That’s why I want to see how he does it.”
Shi Xuan jolted and instinctively glanced at Xu Changjiang.
Li Que could give anomalies humanity?
Why had Xu Changjiang never told him something this important?!
Xu Changjiang was speechless.
He drew a deep breath, kept his composure, and said,
“Master Xu Buzhou did indeed accomplish a great deal in anomaly research. I’ve heard of his work. It was a pity.”
“But you’re betraying the Hall of Anomalies merely because Teacher Li can guide anomalies toward humanity? That doesn’t make sense. As far as I know, quite a few research institutions have achieved something similar to one degree or another.”
Shi Xuan would never feel comfortable leaving Qin Shiyu here until he understood her true purpose.
Qin Shiyu glanced at him, seemingly surprised.
“First, many research institutions have made progress in studying humanity within anomalies. But Teacher Li is the only person who has given humanity to three or four anomalies above S-class-and even awakened a trace of emotion in an A-class Wraith-Mother of the Vengeful Infant that had yet to develop sentience. Isn’t he?”
Shi Xuan was stunned yet again. He stared blankly at Xu Changjiang beside him.
You never told me that either?!
There were three or four anomalies above S-class inside this school?!
Li Que had even awakened emotions in the Wraith-Mother of the Vengeful Infant?!
What the hell was going on here?
Shi Xuan could tolerate Xu Changjiang keeping a few minor secrets, but this was far too shocking!
Any one of those revelations could shake the entire country, perhaps even the entire world.
Especially the ability to awaken emotions in an A-class anomaly with no sentience. A research breakthrough like that… might actually change the world!
Shi Xuan was furious. He had believed he was completely open and sincere with Xu Changjiang, only to discover that Xu had treated him like an outsider all along!
He had kept everything locked down tight!
How did Shi Xuan know less than Qin Shiyu of the Hall of Anomalies?
Shi Xuan could barely keep his composure.
“Some of this… is news to me too,” Xu Changjiang said awkwardly.
He was not lying. The idea that Li Que had awakened emotions in the Wraith-Mother of the Vengeful Infant sounded absurd even to him.
Qin Shiyu continued, “Second, I have no intention of betraying the Hall of Anomalies.”
Her voice was calm and resolute. “I want to remain because, if Teacher Li truly can reach the end of this path, it may mean that some of the things the Hall of Anomalies has done… were wrong.”
“I want to find another possibility for the Hall of Anomalies and bear witness on my teacher’s behalf. Nothing more.”
Shi Xuan drew a deep breath, suppressed the turbulence inside him, and considered her words carefully.
Put that way, her reasoning did make sense.
He had heard bits and pieces about Qin Shiyu’s teacher, Master Xu Buzhou.
“But how does letting you stay benefit Teacher Li or us?” he asked.
Qin Shiyu answered softly,
“You’re not the only ones who want to destroy the Eclipse Organization. The Hall of Anomalies believes they deserve death as well.”
“If I’m not mistaken, the Eclipse Organization has already arrived in Mingjiang City and is watching from the shadows. I can help you fight them. What do you say?”
“That is an interest both our sides share.”
After a brief pause, she added,
“And as a gesture of good faith, I can tell you that the Water God’s Scale has probably fallen into their hands.”
She took out a specialized detector. “This device was designed specifically to track the Water God’s Scale.”
A faint route was displayed across the map on its screen. The trail began at the school’s public restroom and extended through the city. At a tobacco shop, a distinct line continued toward the Anomaly Suppression Bureau, while a fainter line returned to the area outside the restroom.
Shi Xuan stared in surprise. “The Water God’s Scale… Teacher Li didn’t keep it?”
That object was tied to the Water God’s Authority. How had it been allowed to fall into the outside world?
Qin Shiyu’s expression grew complicated. “Perhaps the Water God’s Authority simply isn’t worth much in Teacher Li’s eyes.”
Judging by the Water God’s Knot now around Lin Xiaoyu’s wrist, Li Que very likely controlled another, even more powerful manifestation of the Water God’s Authority.
“I made a few inquiries. Apparently, one of Teacher Li’s students accidentally swallowed the scale… and afterward, somehow, it ended up in the Eclipse Organization’s hands,” she explained.
Shi Xuan frowned. “Could this be part of Teacher Li’s plan?”
“No.”
Qin Shiyu continued, “I think… Teacher Li simply doesn’t consider the Eclipse Organization worth his attention. He wouldn’t waste his time planning around them.”
In plain terms, they were beneath his notice.
Shi Xuan studied Qin Shiyu again. His curiosity about Teacher Li was only growing!
What exactly had happened inside the school to make this favored daughter of the Hall of Anomalies hold Li Que in such reverence?
By then, Xu Changjiang had carefully examined the detector and begun reconstructing the sequence of events.
“The Eclipse Organization’s agents lying in wait outside the restroom acquired the Water God’s Scale, then handed it to the mole inside the Provincial Anomaly Suppression Department. The mole carried the scale toward the Anomaly Suppression Bureau, while the remaining agents returned to keep watch on the school?”
Shi Xuan’s expression gradually turned grave.
They had hoped to observe from the shadows and identify the mole. Frost’s swift death had disrupted their plan.
But Qin Shiyu’s specialized detector had unexpectedly revealed the mole’s route in a single stroke!
“A very sincere gift.”
Shi Xuan spoke slowly. “As long as Teacher Li has no objection… we have a deal.”
“However, there is one additional condition,” he added. “While you remain at Mingjiang No. 7 Special School, you may not do anything that harms the school or Teacher Li.”
Qin Shiyu smiled. “Director Shi, you think far too highly of me.”
“Even if I wanted to do something here, I wouldn’t have the ability.”
She thought of the monsters in Li Que’s class.
She could not handle even one of them.
Cause trouble in a place where even the cleaner was an A-class anomaly? She was not that stupid.
“Very well. You may stay. But Teacher Li never wants anyone to know what happens here, so you’ll need an ordinary identity and an ordinary occupation.”
Shi Xuan thought for a moment. “Where would you like to work?”
Qin Shiyu had already decided. “As long as I can remain here and observe this class at close range… I’ll do anything.”
…
Meanwhile, outside the school wall, Sun Cheng and Liu Ying crouched in a corner, watching the public restroom’s septic tank with grim expressions.
“What could possibly be hiding in a septic tank? This is ridiculous,” Sun Cheng muttered.
The Water God’s Scale, coveted by powerful figures from every faction, had flown out of a public restroom?
The more he thought about it, the less plausible it seemed.
“Stop overthinking it. Keep watching. Didn’t Lord Hidden Dragon say we’d rendered a great service? Once the Water God’s Authority is reconstituted, we… won’t have to turn into monsters anymore.”
Anticipation filled Liu Ying’s eyes.
…