Silent Crown

by Feng Yue

  Ye Qingxuan just felt his scalp go numb. He had not even accepted the award yet, but already felt the strong resentment.

  “Come, youth. Come to my side.” The principal made a show of dragging Ye Qingxuan over. He took a once-over of the youth as if studying some rare treasure. After a long while, he suddenly sighed in regret. “I can’t believe you wore a Western suit. What a pity. Your hairstyle is horrible too. Your hairstylist must be lucky that he isn’t killed yet.”

  Ye Qingxuan shook his head and sighed again. Embarrassed, he glared at Charles, who was hiding behind the curtains.

  Maxwell patted the youth’s shoulders and lamented, “To be honest, I was anticipating your Eastern clothing—the wide robe and big sleeves, the aura of a junzi, the intoxicating exoticness! An Eastern silkworm caretaker gave me a black lan robe. Would you like to try it?”

  Here, he fluttered his lashes and gazed at Ye Qingxuan expectantly, wishing the youth would nod right away.

  “Uh…” Ye Qingxuan did not know what to say. “It’s okay. I came to Anglo when I was young and probably won’t look like it even if I put it on.”

  “Really? What a pity.” Maxwell shook his head in regret and said seriously, “The East is a great place. You should go visit.”

  Behind them, Ingmar coughed, reminding the principal to stop dragging things on and get it over with. Either because it worked or that the principal was done bullsh*tting, he cleared his throat and finally stopped. He clapped and stately music began playing.

  Beside the podium, two girls in long white dresses walked over with a silver plate. The youth’s award and certificate were on the plate.

  One must admit that the old pervert had good taste. As the two girls walked over elegantly, their curves could vaguely be seen under the white dress, attracting many eyes.

  After putting on makeup carefully, their cheeks had a fine texture, flawless like Eastern porcelain. Their red lips were like fire and moved hearts. As Charles would say, one could not help but get a little excited.

  As the music played, the principal smiled and took the lead in clapping. Soon, the audience began clapping as well. Of the coaches in the background behind the principal, Ludwig clapped happily as if nothing was wrong. Egor was a bit unwilling, but he also managed some claps, giving Ye Qingxuan recognition.

  Seeing that everyone was clapping, Ingmar glanced at Ye Qingxuan. He could not help but sneer, smiling without moving his facial muscles, and clapped as well.

  But just as the youth was about to accept the award, the principal suddenly stopped. He whacked his forehead, as if suddenly remembering something. “Ah, my memory is so bad! There’s more big news I need to announce!”

  The mood suddenly dropped. The music stopped as well. Everyone gaped at the principal, who was fluttering his eyes animatedly, as if he had found gold on the road and was overjoyed. Seeing how happy he was, everyone instantly had a bad feeling. What was going to happen now?

  God bless…

  Perhaps God did bless them, because this time, his words did not seem like bad news. In fact, everyone was caught by surprise by this amazing news. He said, “This morning, I received news that one of our highly renowned professors found inspiration in his teaching and decoded the hardest question of our profession—the last part of the Voynich Manuscript!”

  Everyone fell into a long silence. The students who did not know about the Voynich Manuscript, which had troubled Revelations musicians for decades, looked around in confusion. The students who did know were speechless from shock.

  The last part of the Voynich Manuscript had been decoded?

  There had been no progression made for centuries, other than bits and pieces. Even Miss Lola Caput, known as the new grandmaster, had stated that the last part was impossible to decode within a few decades if there was no development in music theory. But it had been decoded now?

  If this news was spread, all Revelations musicians in the world would be ecstatic. The Voynich Manuscript not only contained ancient history; the decoding method was a big step forward for their music theory! This would undoubtedly create a new storm in the world—they could practically see a theoretic revolution!

  But in the dark corner behind the principal, Ingmar’s heart sank. He was completely confused—he did not understand how Maxwell had known this news that would be published in the Sacred City Conference in two months, whereas he had just found out before coming here. He looked into the crowd subconsciously. Seeing that the d*mned fellow did not appear, he let out a breath in relief.

  “Please rest assured that I am not joking this time.” Under everyone eyes, Maxwell took a thin booklet from his pockets and waved. “This accomplishment has been recognized by the Sacred City. The scholars of the evaluation committee commented that it’s a brave and revolutionary decoding method that has opened a whole new path. A shining star has risen! The last section of the Voynich Manuscript has undoubtedly been decoded!

  “In a few days, the Philosopher’s Bell of the Sacred City will be rung and announce this giant breakthrough of music theory to the world. Ah, he’s really so low-key. If not for my friends in the Church, even I wouldn’t know that he’d made such fruitful findings! Let’s bring our hands together to congratulate this professor.” He paused and abruptly dragged an unprepared coach from the back. “Let us congratulate Mr. Ingmar!”

  Caught by surprise, Ingmar was dragged under the spotlight. His face was slightly pale. In the silence, he only had time to force a hurried smile onto his face, before thunderous applause sounded. The clapping and cheers that sounded like a tsunami practically overturned the auditorium.

  It must be more than ten times louder than before!

  In the warm applause, Ingmar’s heart slowly stabilized. Calming down, he smiled and waved reservedly, nodding his head. He did not notice the quiet white-haired youth behind him. Deep in thought, the youth looked at Ingmar’s trembling calves and furrowed his brows. Dark clouds slowly appeared in his eyes.

  -

  “My apologies,” the youth opened his mouth and murmured soundlessly. Without anyone realizing, he slightly lifted his foot and stepped onto the dress of the girl beside him. He pulled back forcefully.

  The shoulder of the girl smiling gracefully on the stage suddenly trembled. She stumbled back and involuntarily retreated. Following that, her heels scraped against the floorboard and she lost balance. The silver plate flew out of her hands and she fell backward.

  The audience stared and cried out in shock. She had lost balance instantly, and she shrieked when she realized she was falling. She squeezed her eyes shut, but then she felt someone step forward and grasp her waist.

  Her falling stopped abruptly.

  The falling motion transformed into a spin under the gentle push, like a dance move. Her white dress flew as she spun. The silver thread reflected the light with a dazzling shine. It was pure white as a peony flower. She was stunned.

  She felt a hand supporting her so that she did not fall onto the floor. As if she was flying, her cheeks pressed against the suit, against that foreign chest. A steady heartbeat and heat traveled from the chest so that she was no longer terrified. Her shriek died off.

  In the awkward silence, she forced her eyes and was met with the white-haired youth. The youth held her tiny waist with one hand, the other holding the silver plate and award that had fallen from the sky.

  The young but defined face looked down on her; her panicked expression reflected in his eyes. His slightly scratchy voice was gentle. “Are you alright?”

  Blush tinted the girl’s face as she shook her head. Putting her weight on him, she stood up and regained her elegant posture. However, her eyes could not recover its indifference and grace.

  As they spun, Ingmar had been pushed forward. He stumbled and looked back, glaring at Ye Qingxuan. He was angry that the clapping had been interrupted. Ye Qingxuan did not care about this. He just looked down and picked up the booklet that he had “accidentally” swept from the principal�
��s hands. He brushed off the dust on it. “Ah, I’m sorry, your notes were knocked down too.”

  Ingmar’s expression stiffened. He reached over to take the notes away, but Ye Qingxuan casually flipped it open, scanning the pages. Ingmar tried to take the notes, but realized that he could not. It was as if the pages had been embedded in stone.

  The youth’s movements stopped too. He looked at the papers in his hand and froze. As his hands loosened, the bent pages opened. The pages flashed past his eyes, the quickly disappearing words barely leaving any shadows. One page, one page, another page were so familiar, as if he had seen it before.

  In the end, the youth looked up, but his eyes had changed. There was only blackness in those orbs. There were neither reflections nor any fury. It was as if everything had been swallowed by something hiding in the darkness, and so only pure blackness remained.

  Stared at by those eyes, Ingmar blanched. He stepped back involuntarily, but his eyes soon darkened as he forced himself to remain calm.

  “Hey, Ingmar.” The youth suddenly asked quietly, “Don’t you get scared walking at night when you do something guilty?”

  “What do you mean?” Ingmar furrowed his brows.

  “I mean…” The youth clenched his fists in his sleeves, the muscles pulling taught like a bow, producing furious cracks. Then he raised his fist and slammed it down on that d*mned face. “You b*stard who lost all dignity as a musician!”

  226 Questioning

  Boom!

  The whole auditorium sank into silence in an instant. Below the stage, before anyone could respond, the youth propped up the girl on the ground, but the next second, suddenly punched Ingmar.

  Amidst the yells, Ingmar’s eyes shifted, mingled with both panic and wrath; his mouth subconsciously recited a spell, but his face became pale and had almost lost control of the aether.

  Luckily, his protective shield was stimulated and the repulsion field blocked the young man’s fist, but the power to reverse the quake also staggered him. With a crisp sound, a gash cracked open across Ye Qingxuan’s fingers. He completely ignored it and stepped forward, hysterically pounding Ingmar’s shield without stop.

  Under the shield, Ingmar sat on the ground. Frightened by Ye Qingxuan’s madness, he forgot to fight back.

  Boom!

  Boom!

  Boom!

  In silence, only the broken sound of a hammer pounding on the shield could be heard. He was not pulled away by the people beside him until the fourth time that Ye Qingxuan tried to break the shield.

  “Enough!” Egor frowned, and grunted angrily.

  The young man flinched; a pair of huge shackles and stone rings suddenly appeared on his limbs, immobilizing him. But he glared at Ingmar who was climbing up from the ground, and roared hoarsely, “Say something, Ingmar! You’re a b*stard!”

  Looking at his helpless situation, Ingmar’s panicking heart settled down. He could not help but scoff and patted the dust off his body. “Please be a gentleman, Mr. Ye! Don’t act like a mad dog. How can you not have basic manners?”

  “Yezi, calm down.” The stunned Charles rushed up from backstage and pulled Ye Qingxuan away. “What’s wrong?”

  “What’s wrong?” Ye Qingxuan was angry enough to laugh. He threw a piece of paper bloodied by his hands to Charles. “Look for yourself.”

  Charles took the manuscript and scanned it faster than Ye Qingxuan had. But before he finished half, Charles suddenly raised his head. “No, Is this…the interpretation method?” He finally realized something and the smile on his face disappeared. He just glared at Ingmar, “Mr. Ingmar, where did you get the theory?!”

  “Enough!” Ingmar cried. “Is it your place to question me? I haven’t charged you with assaulting a professor yet! Someone come and drag these two scums away…”

  “Why, are you afraid?” Ye Qingxuan sneered and raised his voice, “You’re afraid that I’ll expose the truth about you? Or…”

  “Enough! Shut up!” Ingmar was nearly roaring.

  He interrupted Ye Qingxuan’s words, but Ye Qngxuan’s voice was louder than his. It was like iron scraping against each other, with almost tangible fury. “Or are you afraid of everyone knowing that your so-called academic achievements, your great breakthrough, was plagiarized?!”

  Dead silence.

  In a twinkling, everyone looked at Ingmar, and then the two furious youths. They thought of their professor and seemed to understand something, but also sank in a greater confusion.

  Plagiarism? Did Ingmar really copy the results from others? If this was true, then it was definitely one of the biggest scandals ever made in the Royal Academy of Music!

  Feeling the subtle changes in their eyes, Ingmar’s face instantly turned livid. The maliciousness in his eyes was spewed out.

  “Ye Qingxuan, this is the auditorium, not somewhere for your nonsense!” He gritted his teeth and said in a low voice, “I’ve never heard of anything called the interpretation method!”

  “Is that so?” Ye Qingxuan chuckled gently, but it was inexplicably chilling.

  He raised his hand, and Charles unfolded the manuscript in his hands. He towed the shackles and stone rings which were heavy enough to bend over his back and moved forward, his eyes staring at that face full of wrath.

  “Then please explain to me, how did you organize the connections in the last chapter of Voynich Manuscript, when the written language of the Dark Ages hadn’t been sorted out yet?”

  He stepped further and asked, “In the language, how did you distinguish whether the nouns are feminine, masculine or neutral? How did you find the rules of conjugations? What music theory do you use to explain the man-made language of Dark Age? And what is the important logic of this text known as the coded language?

  “What are your references? Where did you get the inspiration? When was the breakthrough made?”

  While Ye Qingxuan was approaching step by step, Ingmar gritted his teeth and kept silent. However, Ye Qingxuan’s voice was getting louder and louder, until finally, he was practically roaring and hurting everyone’s eardrums. “Why did you declare it to the Sacred City secretly? Were you afraid that others would know about your achievements before the convention? Were you afraid that others discover your so-called results were actually stolen from others’ efforts!

  “Ingmar, why are you retreating? Why are you silent? Why don’t you even dare to fight back against me, a student? Why don’t you dare say a d*mn word?!”

  Ingmar’s face twitched. He glared at Ye Qingxuan with his eyes widen enough to crack apart. What he feared most had finally happened.

  If it was two months later at the Sacred City Convention, his achievements would have been published. Everyone would be informed and he would naturally take the position of a grandmaster. Then, both Abraham and Ye Qingxuan would just be some clowns to people. What they said would mean nothing.

  But, but…Why was there such a neurotic principal who got insider information in advance? And why must it be announced at such an occasion? Why did he have to get caught by this f*cking white-haired b*stard? Why was he being questioned by this f*cking guy?

  It was really…really…D*mmit!

  At the moment, he was too nervous to deal with such a situation. He was being forced by Ye Qingxuan too tightly to win his face back. “What’s your status?” he squeezed out from between his teeth. “You are just a kid who knows nothing. You aren’t even a formal musician. How dare you question me like this?”

  “Well, how about a qualified one?” Ye Qingxuan smiled. “For instance, let the Musicians Union judge this?”

  Ingmar’s face instantly lost color. A hint of murder flashed in the eyes full of malice. “You have offended enough rules today, Ye Qingxuan…”

  “Gee, why are you arguing all of a sudden?” Suddenly, a figure stood out from the side in the perfect place to block him. His face seemed to have genuine loss and confusion.

  It was the principal who had ‘disappeared’ for a long time.

&nbs
p; “Alas, it is my fault, I lacked consideration. I didn’t expect that it would cause such a fierce quarrel. It seems that there are some controversies about the achievements of Professor Ingmar, but we need friendly discussions and friendly exchanges. Yes, be friendly.”

  As he said these unapologetic words, he suppressed all aetheric fluctuations quietly, and took control of everyone.

  “This matter will be discussed later. We will carefully, seriously and thoroughly find a solution at the teacher’s meeting tonight.”

  The principal did not say a word about Ingmar’s plagiarism or Ye Qingxuan’s offensive attack. He pretended to be blind, smiling affably without mentioning Ingmar’s gloomy face or the blood on Ye Qingxuan’s fingertips. He was like a kind parent who tried to reduce the tension between the two.

  “Well, Ye Qingxuan, time to stop making a fuss.” Maxwell patted his shoulder, which seemed to be meaningful. “You can’t always bother the Musicians Union with school affairs, can you? That is too much. If it’s like this, what will the school board do?”

  As he spoke, he put the badge on Ye Qingxuan and forcibly put the certificate into his hand, as if the award ceremony was completed.

  “Tomorrow morning, remember to come register at the library. There’s a big reward waiting for you.” He patted Ye Qingxuan on the shoulder and whispered in his ear, “I promise, it will be great enough to surprise you.

  “As to Mr. Ingmar…” He paused for a moment, and gloatingly looked at Ingmar’s expression. “I think he must have a lot of things to explain to the board.”

  227 Before it Rains

  At dusk, the school board’s conference room was silent. Other than some representatives, the only faculty members who had arrived on time were Sydney and Ingmar. Everyone else was absent, for some reason.

  The empty seats added to the suffocating atmosphere of the room. After the representatives of the school board of directors finished reading the report, they sank into silence.

  After a long time, the old housekeeper took off his monocle. He had thought for a long while, but still could not help but sigh. “The principal had restrained himself for so long. Is he finally going to act against the school board?”