by Feng Yue
However, sympathy was useless.
Sympathy could not be used as food to eat, water to drink, or blankets when it was cold. Sympathy was just sympathy; sadly, anger was not just anger. It could give birth to much more.
“You’re going to the Musician’s Union?” Cullen asked. The next president of the student council finally caught up to them at the square with a bitter expression.
Ye Qingxuan could not help but laugh. “Senior Cullen, since you’re so enthusiastic, we can change and go to the student council.”
Cullen’s expression grew even bitterer. “The school board set more regulations yesterday. Modifications and Summoning became a mess from the business. Some teachers from the School of Royalty also talked to me…sorry, we can’t help you.”
“Really? That’s a pity.” Ye Qingxuan shrugged ‘regretfully.’“We’ll go find the Musician’s Union then.”
“Why go to that step? Once you report to the Musician’s Union, this will become magnified.” Cullen instantly became more troubled. “You’re all too extreme. If each side took a step back, the problem can be solved. Why make it so extreme?”
Ye Qingxuan just patted his shoulder and said genuinely, “If Bench Guy was here, he’d definitely not say something like that. You know why?” Cullen blanched, causing Ye Qingxuan to chuckle. “Because he knows that the world is never as beautiful as he thinks.” He walked past the stunned Cullen and continued toward the school’s main entrance.
Each take a step back? Forgive each other? What a joke! These seemingly fair solutions were the biggest mockery towards fairness.
Why make things so extreme? The moment the history department was burned to ashes, Ye Qingxuan no longer thought about keeping an exit open for himself—there would no longer be any exits. Otherwise, he would abandon himself as well.
The sunlight rose gradually in the morning, and the youth’s smile disappeared gradually. All that remained was indifference, like a vast field of ice. Before him, the school’s main door opened slowly. The copper branches and rusted iron roses entangled around the large iron door scraped against the ground. Behind him, the last bell rang from within the school’s bell tower. The bell was like a tide, washing away the last shred of mist.
The early morning sunlight scattered about, illuminating the youth before the door, and his white hair with a metallic shine.
In an instant, Ye Qingxuan’s muscles pulled taut. He felt the hair on the back of his neck rise as if something cold was pressed against him and spread through his limbs. The mysterious premonition immobilized him, rooting him to the spot. The feeling of danger echoed within him, intensifying.
A hand pressed down onto his shoulder, pressing down the unsettledness in his heart. Charles stared at the busy street across from the academy and the people drinking their morning tea in the café. Finally, his gaze fell on the figure before the window and grew serious.
“Yezi, it’s Ingmar.”
The figure in the café’s window had his back to them, leaning against the chair. The server arrived with a silver platter and handed him coffee. It was high-grade coffee shipped from Asgard by sea, and steamed warmly. There was also a newly received newspaper.
Ingmar opened the newspaper and looked down, reading the news. He did not notice the academy’s door in the distance behind him and the two youths. The bad premonition became more and more obvious in Ye Qingxuan and Charles’ hearts.
Sugar cubes dropped into the coffee—one, two…Each drop of a cube was like a giant rock falling into their hearts, suffocating them. They were only a step away from the school door but in this moment, they suddenly, unreasonably, inexplicably…felt fear.
The world outside the school was filled with danger. There was nothing there, save for a warning: this is it.
Ye Qingxuan fell silent. He understood what Ingmar meant: if they still had any space for turning back in this controversy before this, then it would be over the moment he stepped forward and went to the Musician’s Union. It would be life or death from now on.
Ingmar would use all of his power to kill Ye Qingxuan—to strangle this Eastern concertmaster that had been in his way for so long. Maybe it would be immediately, maybe it would catch him by surprise, maybe a black carriage would fly past when he stepped out the school and crush him on the road…So he should not be so blindly determined.
He must turn back immediately.
“Turn back?” Ye Qingxuan seemed to understand Ingmar’s message and sneered.
“You’re too scared to kill me and too scared to admit your plagiarism. You think that I’ll fall down with just a threat and retreat obediently? Sadly, the world isn’t as beautiful as you think,” he thought.
“In your dreams!” Ye Qingxuan stared at Ingmar’s back and gritted his teeth. In the almost glue-like air, he raised his foot and stepped toward the world outside the Academy.
Thud! The light sound was like a hallucination.
The moment the youth stepped out, the danger and pressure on his heart vanished like a hallucination. Nothing happened as if nothing before had happened either.
But in that instant, Ingmar looked down. There was the reflection of a black starry sky in his icy blue eyes. The stars rotated, bringing with it a chilling murderous intent. As the stars rotated, it reflected the image of the two walking into the distance. Countless invisible threads were tangled in them, connecting to their fatal spots.
It seemed as if a casual tug could cause them to fall apart like a broken puppet. The murderous intent shot out from his eyes, but he pushed it down and did not act until the two youths walked out of the proximity of his senses.
“Tsk, just a sheep in wolf’s clothing,” came the youth’s soft scoff in the wind.
The originally smooth newspaper had become a crumpled mess in Ingmar’s hands.
“Sir? Sir…” the server asked timidly beside him, “Does the coffee not suit your taste?”
Ingmar raised the coffee emotionlessly and tasted it. He furrowed his brows and set it down. “It’s too sweet,” he said. “Give me another cup.”
The server picked up the cup and fled as if finally freed.
Ingmar folded up the newspaper again. In just a few seconds, the ink had become a faded yellow like centuries had passed. He squinted as if he was communicating with it.
“It’s me, Ingmar. Yes, there’s something I need to ask of you…”
-
One hour later, someone leaned on the railing of the Musician Union’s second floor and looked at the long line below. He saw two youths and a mocking smile appeared on his face.
“Don’t worry,” he said quietly to the alchemy communication tool in his hands. “I’ve prepared it already. Those two kids can’t do anything. I’ll make them leave obediently tonight.”
Behind him, the guard of the Union’s main lobby went up and stood politely behind him, rubbing his hands. “Mr. Leo, did you call for me?”
“Yes, I need to ask something of you.” Leo patted his shoulder and pointed at the two youths in line on the first floor. “Keep an eye on them. Kick them out if they make a scene. Mr. Bayer is busy today, so I don’t wish anything to disturb our meeting later, understood?”
“I understand.” The guard smiled understandingly. “If they make a scene, they won’t be able to enter for three months.”
-
Thirty minutes later, the long wait on the first floor finally came to an end.
“It’ll be done very quickly. Senior, if you don’t want to wait, just wait for me for a bit.” Ye Qingxuan patted Charles’s shoulder. Charles sighed and relaxed his annoyed expression. Squeezing out a smile, he handed his form to the worker behind the table.
The worker seemed to be telling a joke to his coworker. They talked quietly for a long time and the two could not help but laugh. After they finished, he carelessly took their forms but quickly tossed them back.
“Your forms are all incorrect. There should be additional resources, but why did you just writ
e it directly on the form? And here and here are for me to fill in.” He pointed to various spots on the form with annoyed eyes. “Did you two listen to what I said or not? You’ve filled this in three times incorrectly. Not only are you wasting your time, you’re holding others up.”
Charles’s muscles twitched, but Ye Qingxuan held down his shoulder and smiled at the worker. “I’m sorry, we’ll fix it now.”
“No, you must start over.” The worker glanced at him. “You can’t have any signs of revisions on the form and be careful of your handwriting too. Your writing is clearly not standard. Who taught you how to write?”
Ye Qingxuan looked down at the flowing calligraphy style of the Sacred City on the form and nodded, pushing down his anger. “Yes, yes, we’ll start over now.”
“This is your own matter. You should be more careful instead of having people remind you all the time. Do you want to get anything done with that attitude?” The worker threw a glance at them and waved at the next one in line.
Ye Qingxuan practically dragged Charles to the side and comforted his nearly exploding emotions. At the form-filling location, someone perceived their situation and revealed a sympathetic expression.
“You’re new here, right?”
236 Easy to See the King
“You’re new here, right?”
“Huh?”
“It’s obvious you’ve never been here,” the guy lamented. “The other places are okay, but only this section is annoying. You won’t have to come here if you have a musician license. You can just let them know and go to the special resting room for tea and talk. Otherwise, you can only wait in line obediently and mind their attitude. It’s not just fixing things three or four times. If you don’t come from a good background, you might even have to fix it ten times, wait three to four weeks, and then start all over again…”
Charles was stunned. “What should we do?”
“Just bear it.” The man shrugged. “Or do you want to hit him and never get this done?”
Charles’s instantly grew depressed. The emptiness he felt came from wanting to go crazy but not knowing where to vent his anger.
“Senior, sit here and rest. I’ll fill out the form and call you when I’m done.” Ye Qingxuan picked up the pen and quickly began writing.
The youth’s speed attracted much attention. The middle aged man saw his frustration and shook his head helplessly. “There’s no point in hurrying. You have to start over if you mess up one word. Take your…”
Before he could say the word “time,” he saw the youth’s writing clearly. He swore that he had never seen someone able to write the complicated and inhumanely strict Sacred City text so smoothly in his life. Ye Qingxuan’s speed was so fast his pen was a blur.
Within one minute, he had filled out the thick stack of forms, without any mistakes. His writing speed was faster than his speech. Ignoring the other’s shocked eyes, Ye Qingxuan put down his pen, blew the ink dry, and began waiting in line again.
This time, the line was abnormally long for some reason, and the speed was so slow it made one’s heart itch. It was not Ye Qingxuan’s turn until three in the afternoon.
The worker had changed to a fat middle aged lady. She seemed to be talking about her kids with her coworkers. Excited, her laughter was loud and high as she showed the other her child’s picture.
“He’s starting school this year. I heard that Kelton Public School’s has high quality education.”
“But the tuition is expensive, right?”
“It’s okay.” She pretended to be nonchalant. “His father made a lot of money from business recently. He brought back a lot of things for the child a few days ago.”
“When will you bring your son over?”
“Ah, when there’s time. He’s in his naughty years and doesn’t have any manners. It’ll be so embarrassing if he’s impolite…”
“It’s normal for kids to be naughty.”
“Ahem!” At the table, Ye Qingxuan coughed many times before the worker finally realized he was there.
The worker glanced at him unhappily. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, my throat hurts. Sorry.” Ye Qingxuan smiled and pushed the form over. The woman sneered and lifted the form with her pinky finger. After scanning it, she tossed it back.
“Your documents aren’t complete. Come back when you have them all.”
Beside Ye Qingxuan, Charles’s expression stiffened instantly. “Not complete? Why didn’t you say that earlier? The last person didn’t tell me.”
“How would I know? Go ask him. Anyway, your documents aren’t complete.”
Charles felt his tooth ache and his fists clenched under the table; he wanted to beat someone up. Ye Qingxuan held down his wrist and squeezed out a smile. “Which documents do we need?”
“Complainants Ye Qingxuan and Charles?” the worker picked up the form and pronounced the names with difficulty. She coughed and mumbled something along the lines of ‘what kind of f*cking names are these?’ causing the two to darken their faces. “Ye something? Where’s your household registration number? And a copy of your Anglo household registration?” She glanced at Charles. “And you, what’s your full name? Your surname? Do you only have one name? No parents?”
“That’s my full name, it’s just one word,” Charles muttered without emotion. “Sorry, I don’t have surname and don’t have parents.”
The worker blanched and glanced toward Ye Qingxuan. “And you?”
“I’m not from Anglo and don’t have the Anglo household registration.” Ye Qingxuan shrugged and pointed at his hair. “Sorry, I’m an Easterner…”
The worker furrowed her brows and put on a professional expression. “Then I’m sorry. You must be a citizen, those are the rules. Come back when you have citizenship.”
Ye Qingxuan handed over another document emotionlessly. “I have a passport and code from the Church.”
The worker glanced at him. “No, you need household registration documents! Can’t you understand the rules? If you can’t, don’t hold other people up.”
“What kind of stupid rule is that?” Charles could no longer hold down his anger. “So Anglo citizens can’t come to the Musician Union if they don’t have household registration?”
Seeing him lose his temper, the worker seemed to have experienced this many times and scoffed. “Complain to the higher ups. What’s the point of yelling at me?”
The guard waiting in the back of the crowd finally saw something happening and approached them with his baton. He was ready to kick these guys out as soon as they started protesting.
But Ye Qingxuan pushed Charles down and held him down. He forced a smile at the worker. “Sorry, we’ll come back once we have the documents.”
“Hmph.” The woman glanced at him and scoffed loudly before ignoring them.
But she would never have guessed that the white-haired youth was sitting before her one hour later. “Sorry, I’m back again.” The guy’s smile was extremely annoying as he pushed over the form and papers. “Everything you want is here. Please tell me if anything else is missing.”
The worker looked at them in shock and furrowed her brows. “I hope you won’t waste any time.” But soon, she tossed the form back with an annoyed expression. “Why didn’t you fill this out?”
“Oh, really?” Ye Qingxuan glanced at the form and it suddenly dawned on him. “Ah, sorry, this is the wrong one. It should be this one.”
He took another form from his suitcase and handed it over. The worker froze before snatching it. After scanning through it, she tossed it back. “Sorry, this doesn’t have a stamp from the Avalonian police department. We can’t accept it.”
“Really?” Ye Qingxuan smiled and handed over another form. “Then check this one.”
“You!” The woman’s face changed as if she was going to lose her temper, but Ye Qingxuan pointed at the sign on the wall that reminded her to work with a smile. Her expression slackened and she grabbed the form, gritting
her teeth. This time, she discovered that it really did have the police department’s stamp. This guy had prepared everything!
Gritting her teeth, she scanned it again and tossed the form back in annoyance. “We can’t take care of this. You’re in the wrong place. Go to the next department.”
“No way.” Ye Qingxuan chuckled again. “They said you could do it here. Are you sure?”
“You’re the one who’s wrong,” the woman retorted. “This is not our responsibility.”
“That’s strange. Then why did they give us a certificate that we can come here?” Ye Qingxuan scratched his head and took out a certificate signed by the other department. The worker’s expression twisted.
The stamp could not be faked and she was unable to find fault. She glanced at Ye Qingxuan and sneered as she took the form. She had worked here for more than a decade. She could definitely take care of him.
After checking carefully, she smiled mockingly. “Sorry, but we can’t be sure if it’s you or someone using your identity. We need proof from the police department.”
“Really?” Ye Qingxuan casually asked in reply. “Please tell me everything I need at once so you don’t waste my time. Your time is not valuable but mine is. It can’t be wasted.”
“Ha.” The woman smiled thinly. “Take care of that and we’ll see what else is missing.”
“Alright.” Ye Qingxuan reached into his pockets, causing her expression to stiffen. Then, that guy actually took out a f*cking certificate stamped by the d*mn Avalonian police department, proving that he was Ye Qingxuan.
F*ck, why did the police have so much on their hands?!
“Anything else?” Ye Qingxuan smiled for the third time. The smile was like a fuse that ignited the gunpowder in the worker’s heart.
“Sorry but I’m getting off work now. Come back tomorrow.” The worker stood up abruptly and began organizing everything.
“The Musician Union closes at six but it’s only 4:45 right now…” Ye Qingxuan glanced at his pocket watch and eyed the woman. “Does it count as leaving early if you get off now?”