by Feng Yue
“What does it matter to you?” The worker glared at him. “Report me if you can! I hate you annoying people, the problems never end!”
“I don’t mind, but the manager behind you seems upset.” Ye Qingxuan pointed behind her and she froze.
She turned around stiffly. “Mr. L-Leo?”
Leo glared at her. “Look at your attitude! You don’t need to come in for work tomorrow.”
“I—I…” She panicked. “Didn’t you tell me to make things hard for them? I was just—just…”
Crack! Leo’s expression changed and he slapped her face. “Are you crazy? When did I ever order that?”
“I—I…it was clearly you!” The woman stared at Leo in panic, speechless. When she saw the coldness and annoyance in his eyes, she screamed in hysteria and pounced on him. “I’m going to kill you!”
The hall instantly fell into chaos.
237 Tough Small Figures
“What happened? Why is it so loud?” Leo came out of the office on the second floor and glared at the guard. “What did you do?”
“It’s not us.” The guard shook his head in confusion and gazed at the crazed woman below held down by many people. “Jennifer suddenly went crazy. She started screaming and yelling your name for some reason…”
Leo froze. He suddenly had a bad feeling. When he rushed downstairs, he was met by the messy workspace and an unruly fat woman forced to the floor. She was glaring at him and cursing him out.
Amidst the chaos, a white-haired youth sat on a chair with a leg propped up. He looked into the distance as if this had nothing to do with him and whistled in satisfaction.
“She went crazy, Mr. Leo…” The guard helplessly came over and showed the bite mark on his arm. “This b*tch bites so hard, f*ck!”
When Leo saw Ye Qingxuan, he finally understood everything. After checking Jennifer, he was sure that this woman had sunk into an illusion.
A silver ring shone dimly on the youth’s hand. He had his leg propped up as if he was enjoying the show and he hummed, “Ah, I saw three suns in the sky. They looked at me as if they knew me…”
Even though he was furious, Leo felt mockery toward the kid. He was just some kid who had not experienced the real world and had made such a commotion for a small thing. He had broken the Musician’s Union’s rules and used a music score here!
Leo was just waiting for an excuse to kick him out!
“Enough!” Leo looked down on him coldly. “Do you know the consequences of using a music score in the Musician’s Union?”
“To be honest, I’d love to talk about rules with you. After all, I know the rules better than you.” Ye Qingxuan was still nonchalant. He looked up at Leo, but his eyes seemed to be looking down on the man.
“Using music scores in the Musician’s Union can result in fines from thirty-thousand to four-hundred thousand pounds, depending on the seriousness and revocation of the musician license. If a death occurs, it will be handed over to the Sacred City. But I don’t have a license so you can’t revoke it even if you want to. As for the fee, no one was injured or died. I caused some ruckus, so I suggest you follow the previous cases and just fine me thirty-thousand pounds. If it’s too high, I can report you to the Sacred City. Oh, you don’t look happy? Don’t worry, I’ll pay the money.”
With that, the youth pulled out a sacred emblem. Leo’s expression grew even uglier and slapped the emblem away. “You think it’s that simple? You think you understand our rules well?” His expression darkened. “Don’t forget that I make the rules here!”
“No, no, no,” Ye Qingxuan said, smiling and waving his hand. “Neither I nor you make the rules here. It should be Mr. Bayer, the man in charge of this branch of the union. Where is he? I’m kind of excited to get my fine from him…”
Leo’s expression changed at the youth’s words; he had finally realized the youth’s true purpose. He had used the music score just to get past all the levels of the Musician’s Union and see Bayer directly! When he had realized that the workers were purposely holding him back, he had decided not to follow their rhythm.
Throughout history, wherever one went, it was all the same—the higher-ups were easy to see, but the lower figures were hard to get past. If he could not see Bayer through the regular process, he would just have to use special ways.
Leo’s expression turned panicky for an instant before darkening again.
“Guards!” He glared at the youth. “Drag this b*stard out for disrupting the order! Blacklist him and make sure he can never enter the Musician’s Union!”
“Really?” A confused voice rang out behind him. “What happened that made such a commotion? I could hear the noise from my office.”
Leo froze as his expression changed quickly and he spun around. “Mr. Bayer?” He felt as if he was hallucinating, but the smirking and dirty blond youth leaning against Bayer caused him to understand everything.
“I was told what had happened.” Bayer patted Leo’s shoulder, telling him to move aside. He walked toward the youth. “There’s a fine of five-thousand pounds for purposely disrupting the order.” He did not mention the usage of music scores and just used Leo’s words for categorizing the crime.
“I know, I’ll pay up, I’ll pay.” Ye Qingxuan pulled out an emblem from his pocket and gave a sneaky smile, similar to Charles’s. “But would you have the time to chat with us?”
Bayer looked down at them and sighed. “Come to my resting room on the second floor. I hope you two didn’t make a mess of my lobby just to drink tea with me.”
-
Five minutes later, Bayer sat in his resting room, his face a ghastly pallor.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“I’m sure.” Ye Qingxuan pushed the suitcase to him. “All the resources, documents, and related evidence are here. Ingmar thought that we wouldn’t have the original documents and wouldn’t be able to do a chronology test if he burned down our house, but he doesn’t know that I’ve already seen the originals and copied them last night. Not even a punctuation mark is wrong. If you need it, I can also provide a comparison to Ingmar’s version.”
“No need.” Bayer shook his head. “His papers…I’ve already seen them.” With a dark expression, he picked up the papers and flipped through the pages. In the end, he set them down and lit a cigar, inhaling sharply.
“You two really didn’t come just for f*cking tea, huh?” he muttered, feeling close to a breakdown. “How am I so f*cking unlucky? I was unlucky just to get sent to somewhere like Anglo, and now something this big just happened without me even doing anything?”
He was in pain; of course he was in pain and he wanted to die. He was the one who went to Hermes to verify Ingmar’s papers; he was the one who sent it up. If news of this problem spread, it would definitely be a scandal in the entire academic world. How did this giant drama just occur so suddenly?
“Ye Qingxuan, Charles,” he said, smoking and looking at them gravely. “Once you report this, it’ll become huge. There might be another solution. Please consider carefully, are you sure you want to report it?”
“No need. I already considered it for five minutes last night,” Ye Qingxuan said nonchalantly. “There aren’t many things that are worth five minutes of my consideration ever since I turned sixteen.”
Seeing the determination in his eyes, Bayer felt his tooth ache. “Okay.” He reached out for Ye Qingxuan’s papers. “I…”
“Wait!” Leo, who had been standing to the side quietly with a livid expression, suddenly held down the papers. He looked at Bayer with a professional look. “This is an internal conflict of the Royal Academy of Music. If the Musician’s Union wishes to intervene, they must file a case and at least have the principal’s signature with paper documents.”
Bayer instantly grew helpless. Why would they come if they had the principal’s permission? Why would they not do things through public negotiations? Leo was clearly forcing them out.
But before he could speak, Ye Qingxuan
revealed that creepy smile again. “I’ve said many times for you to tell me what else I need at once so I don’t have to keep running around.” Ye Qingxuan looked at him with a genuine expression. “Are you sure I don’t need anything else?”
With that, he pulled a piece of paper from the briefcase and placed it before them. Maxwell’s signature was on it—it was clearly a certificate of permission. This was the inside of the Musician’s Union and right before Bayer’s eyes. Ye Qingxuan did not dare to use illusion tricks so this certificate was definitely real.
Leo froze. He had just randomly thought of an excuse but did not expect Ye Qingxuan to really have the principal’s signature. Charles was shocked too; he did not think Ye Qingxuan would be so well-prepared.
“Now, you don’t have to be like that worker and require something from the Avalonian police department to prove that I’m myself, right?”
The youth’s question was like a slap to Leo, causing his features to twist. He left angrily.
Bayer glanced at his furious backside with pity and shrugged at the youth. “To be honest, he annoys me too, but I can’t do anything. There are all kinds of people in the world. It would be difficult for the Musician’s Union to work here without his family either.”
Ye Qingxuan smiled but did not reply. Bayer sighed helplessly.
“I will represent the union and process the case.” He sighed and gathered the files. Rising, he said, “This case involves many parties. You’ll need to wait a while.”
Grinning, Ye Qingxuan waved at him. “Okay, come back soon.”
Bayer’s facial muscles twitched; he sighed and left.
When the resting room fell silent, Charles glanced to each side. Confirming that there was nobody watching, he moved closer with a curious face and asked quietly, “You’ve been with me since last night. Where did you get the principal’s signature?”
Ye Qingxuan smirked. “Do you still remember when he gave Old Phil special approval as the history department’s honorary member?”
Charles was dazed. “No way.”
“I just copied it then, just in case.” Ye Qingxuan shrugged. “It’s not like he’ll actually go ask the principal, right? Oh, and I secretly carved the academy’s seal too…”
Charles was speechless.
There was a saying that the world was as large as your guts, but he had never expected that his junior had even copied the academy’s seal!
238 I am Ashamed
In the silence of the dark room, silver light converged out of thin air. The shining silver light soon formed an old man’s face. Wrinkles covered the face that was pale and bloodless as if it had not seen the sun in years. And yet, his eyes were like the vast sea. They were awe-inspiring by themselves.
“Doctor Norton, I am Bayer, in charge of Avalon.”
“Emergency line?” Norton recognized the signal and furrowed his brows. “Has sign of Leviathan awakening appeared again?”
“No, there’s something else.” Bayer sighed and stammered out, “A few days ago, I submitted something related to the Voynich Manuscript’s interpretation. Do you still remember?”
“Of course! The Revelation musicians of Trinity College went crazy arguing over what you submitted. If not for Hermes’s vouch, they’d still be arguing now. What’s wrong? Is it fake?”
Seeing Norton’s seriousness, Bayer’s expression instantly grew troubled. “It’s not fake but…alright, Ingmar’s research results may possibly be plagiarized.”
There was a long silence.
After a long while, Norton sucked in a cold breath and massaged his temples. “If that’s the case, then it’s a big problem. F*ck, we’ve already requested to ring the Philosopher’s Bell. Who filed the case?”
“Professor Abraham Wilson from the Royal Academy of Music.”
“Abraham?” Norton thought for a bit and shook his head in doubt. “I’ve never heard of a Revelations musician skilled in deciphering ancient texts. Am I mistaken?”
“Uh, actually…he’s a musician from the School of Abstinence. His status is sensitive.”
“Is he reliable?”
“That’s the problem.” Bayer sighed. “I already had Nibelungenlied check the identity of the student who had come to report it. Guess what happened?”
Norton furrowed his brows. “Just f*cking say it! Stop being dramatic.”
“Oh, okay.” Bayer shrugged. “He doesn’t have household registration or a place of birth. He doesn’t exist in Anglo. Even though he has white hair, there is no report of Eastern Dragon bloodline entering Anglo within the past two years. Isn’t it strange? This youth seemed to have jumped out of a rock. In the end, I used the Church’s archive to find his identity…”
Norton froze. “He’s a member of the Church?”
“Not exactly. He’s not part of the clergy but his background is scarily interesting. I could not even dream it up.”
“How interesting? Is he the b*stard child of some archbishop?”
“From his status, it’s pretty much like that.” Bayer scratched his head. “His godfather is Bann Randle, commander of the Knights Templar. He is the manager of Heaven’s Door and the swordsman personally appointed by the pope. I can’t say anything if you still find this kid untrustworthy—if you don’t fear the Fourth Corps coming to your home with swords tonight.”
Another long, long silence.
Norton also lit his pipe and inhaled sharply. After blowing out a long breath, he said, “Okay, no matter if the plagiarism is real or not, I’m just happy that we haven’t rang the Philosopher’s Bell yet.”
“So this passed?”
“It passed.” Norton sighed. Frustration was written in his features. He had lived long enough and seen enough to become so pessimistic. How many more arguments would happen over the Philosopher’s Bell that had not been rang in close to a century?
-
The tension was almost tangible in the large conference room in the afternoon. None of the professors present spoke. In the stiff atmosphere, they looked at Abraham in the corner. Abraham sat in his seat as always, staring at his steel hand without a word. He had no presence as if he was insignificant. But today, the eyes looking at him were filled with troubled pity.
News of Ye Qingxuan going to the Musician’s Union had spread in the morning. The school board had grown furious because this action had jumped past their zone of control and furthered the doubt of their ability to solve matters.
This would be a scandal to the academy if news spread, no matter what the result was. Before this meeting, Abraham’s duties had been halted, and the disbandment of the history department had gone into consideration.
Everyone understood that this time, the school board was really going to act. In an instant, the rising history department of yesterday was now on the verge of collapse.
“I’m sure everyone has already heard of what I will speak about today,” Ingmar said coldly at the front. “These past days, I’ve been thinking of the big picture and hoping for a compromise. I’ve taken many steps back and was even willing to hand out the position of a second author to solve this mess. But I can’t believe others saw this and thought I was weak! I never thought that they would blow things up to this level for their unspeakable goal!” His voice was like nails smashing into stone with each word, creating cold echoes.
“Now, this is no longer about my personal defamation, but an unprecedented scandal for the Royal Academy of Music. Our academy has followed a glorious and serious guidance for five-hundred years, but nothing like this has ever happened! Abraham, do you bear to ruin the school for your own desires?!”
The conference room was silent.
Abraham continued to sit in silence. Though he looked forward, his eyes did not focus on anything, as if he was looking into another world. As always, he did not fit in, as if he was participating in something that did not pertain to him. He could not understand and did not want to participate—he was just standing outside the crowd, gazing in from afar.<
br />
They could talk and he would continue on. He seemed slow but his attitude was so arrogant it made one annoyed of him involuntarily. How could someone like him be here?
“It seems that you’re determined to report to the Musician’s Union,” Ingmar gritted out coldly from between his teeth. “I advise you to stop daydreaming. Do you really think they’ll care about your unfounded tomfoolery? Your two troublesome students have probably already been kicked out!” He paused, coldness flashing past his eyes. “Abraham, you can still turn back now before it’s too late! Otherwise, the school board will not overlook what you’ve done for the academy’s reputation…Don’t forget your status, Abraham! If the academy could save you from Tower Green, it can send you back too!”
Tower Green…A chilly wind seemed to suddenly blow through the conference room. Everyone felt the temperature drop and tensed involuntarily. This time, the school board was going for blood.
If anything else happened next, Abraham, a classified criminal vouched for by the principal, would be sent to the military’s jail and never see the sun again. This was a tower built four-hundred years ago on a barren island to the side of Avalon.
Countless criminal musicians had spent their last moments in this tower and had died in the gallows, or behind the bars of the underground prison. There had been no wails or howls for centuries, only the waves of the sobbing sea.
Perhaps this was his final destination.
Abraham suddenly looked up as if he had woken up from his daydream and finally reacted. Ingmar chuckled coldly as if sensing his fear.
“It’s not too late for regret now, Abraham. Your students are the same as you, but there’s no need to make them end up like you, right? The academy has given you all too much freedom. Otherwise, this wouldn’t happen! Especially that Easterner who doesn’t know good from bad and acts so evilly. He even went to the Musician’s Union to defame me…”
“Yezi is a good child,” Abraham interrupted him. His voice was neither angry nor panicked; it was calm as if stating a fact.