Chapter 66 : Chapter 66
Chapter 66
The next day, Ji Qing met the investigators from Central City. There were two investigators in total: one was a middle-aged man with black-rimmed glasses and a scholarly air about him; the other was a young woman seated beside him, dressed in a three-piece suit.
Both investigators looked like polished elites, the sort of experts who often appeared on television interview programs.
“Hello.”
Ji Qing casually knocked on the door panel and nodded in greeting to the two people inside the conference room.
The middle-aged man gestured with his hand. “Please, come in.”
So Ji Qing walked into the conference room under the two pairs of watchful eyes. The female investigator smoothly flipped the documents at hand to the corresponding page. When her gaze focused on the words on the form, a trace of astonishment flashed through the depths of her eyes.
The female investigator immediately leaned over and whispered into the middle-aged man’s ear.
The male investigator’s gaze, as he looked Ji Qing over, instantly shifted from calm to amazed.
“Student Ji Qing, correct?” the middle-aged man asked with exceptional warmth. “Please, have a seat. We need to ask you a few questions, and we hope you’ll cooperate.”
“Understood.” Ji Qing sat down with an indifferent expression.
Although he felt somewhat uncomfortable with the change in their gazes, he still maintained good manners. He had already asked Li Xuehua about them that morning. Both investigators were Ability users, but their Abilities had nothing to do with telepathy or any other powers that required caution.
The Federation had sent them only because both of them were members of the Inspectorate under the Federal Council.
The questions revolved around what Ji Qing had seen and heard on the island.
Because Ji Qing had already anticipated the flow of the questioning the day before, and because most of it had been his own firsthand experience, dealing with the whole process was fairly easy for him. As for the story he had previously fabricated about “being held up by a few Aberrants,” he brushed it off with the excuse that he “didn’t want to bring danger to his teammates.”
That was also the explanation given by the manga forum.
Overall, although some of Ji Qing’s actions during his time on the island had been a little unusual, they could still be counted as the sort of behavior a high school student who had never been through anything major might display.
Click—
The sudden sound of a fountain pen cap being removed rang out.
The male investigator took the document the female investigator handed him and passed his own file back to her. He picked up the conspicuous red fountain pen, his attitude still warm. “Student Ji Qing, could you tell us why you didn’t apply to the First Ability Academy?”
“Hm?” Ji Qing lifted his eyes in surprise.
That question had not been within his expectations at all, nor did it have anything to do with the island incident. Ji Qing’s gaze toward the two investigators immediately gained a few traces of wariness.
“Please don’t mind it.” The middle-aged man chuckled. “It’s only out of my personal curiosity. I used to be a teacher at the First Ability Academy, and after seeing your personal file, I became quite curious. With your aptitude, you should receive the best resources available.”
“…”
Ji Qing’s expression turned peculiar.
Was this openly trying to poach him?
But under their bright and obvious stares, Ji Qing could only speak and break the silence in the room. In a deliberately troubled tone, he pointed out, “This has nothing to do with the island, does it?”
“That’s right.”
“Can I choose not to answer?”
“No.”
Seeing that there was no dodging the question, Ji Qing nearly rolled his eyes.
This was a blatant abuse of public authority for private purposes. The middle-aged man was clearly using his identity as a Federal investigator to pressure him, but what did this have to do with the island? Shao Huayu had also enrolled in the Third Ability Academy.
Was he going to ask every single student in Class S the same question?
So Ji Qing replied coldly, “The teaching philosophy of the Third Ability Academy is more in line with my expectations.”
“So you want more freely disposable time?”
Ji Qing said coolly, “Yes.”
“Sigh… but the First Ability Academy—”
Just as the middle-aged man was trying to save the reputation of his alma mater, the female investigator hurriedly stuffed the file bag against his overly restless mouth. Her face flushed red, and she said rapidly, “Teacher, please stop embarrassing our school!”
So the two of them were in a teacher-student relationship. Ji Qing thought calmly.
“All right, all right.” The middle-aged man gave a hurried bitter smile.
When his gaze returned to Ji Qing, he asked gently again, “Student Ji Qing, then could you tell us whether you noticed anything unusual about your teammates or the surrounding area at the time?”
What was meant to come would always come. Ji Qing instantly understood.
But Shao Huayu had already made it clear to him what he could not say, so naturally he would not deliberately court trouble. In a steady voice, Ji Qing said, “Aside from the unusual scenes I saw, I was indeed somewhat curious about Song Xiaoran’s team.”
“Song Xiaoran’s team?”
“Yes. I was quite curious about how they ran into the Mutated Octopus.” Without the slightest guilt, Ji Qing repeated the doubts You Xingluo had voiced afterward. Since they were teammates, having similar questions was easy enough to justify.
“Did you investigate it afterward?” The middle-aged man’s curiosity immediately rose.
“…I did.” Ji Qing felt awkward.
Please do not make him recount what happened afterward. He did not want to stay in the conference room too long. The more he said, the more he would expose.
“You’re very proactive.”
Hearing Ji Qing’s increasingly perfunctory answers, the middle-aged man praised him sincerely. His gaze toward Ji Qing immediately took on appreciation, and then he asked again, “May I ask what you were doing before you enrolled? I believe with your aptitude, you—”
But before he could finish the question, the female investigator hurriedly covered his mouth again. “Teacher, you can’t ask that either!!!”
This time, Ji Qing completely gave up.
He folded his arms across his chest and watched the bickering pair with utter indifference before rolling his eyes.
How else was he supposed to answer? Ji Qing thought expressionlessly. If he absolutely had to answer, he could answer. Wasn’t there already a commoner student in Class S whose life experience he could borrow? He could just briefly recount Song Xiaoran’s background.
The enrollment records did not require one to provide a permanent city of residence or one’s life history.
On his own enrollment file, the field for permanent city of residence was still blank to this day. Of course, Song Xiaoran was the same. Neither of them had provided a permanent city of residence.
Ji Qing thought that if the person sitting here right now were Song Xiaoran, he might well have turned hostile and walked out on the spot.
This was simply rubbing salt into a student’s festering wounds.
If the Federation’s law and order were not chaotic, and if the lower strata were not so unstable, would people like them from the bottom really have needed to drift from place to place?
Then Ji Qing’s thoughts shifted, and he suddenly realized that Shao Huayu’s vigilance was justified. If his past had been rough, and if he felt nothing at all toward the Federation, then from the very beginning he would have been easy prey for a cult. In this world, not everyone possessed the mindset of a manga protagonist.
That said, Xie Chang’an’s personality was not all that positive either.
The positioning of a cult leader was still too false and too far away, but a dark fall and defection really was a rather good path to avoid trouble.
Ji Qing thought about it in silence.
Ji Qing’s individual questioning ended amid the noise of the two investigators’ quarrel.
At this moment, he was still in Xicheng.
Because the individual questioning was being conducted according to the student list provided by the school. Ji Qing did not doubt at all the fact that the school had placed him first on the list. That was the troublesome part of being the Valedictorian—everything always put him in first place.
When he left the conference room, Ji Qing deliberately glanced at the clock on the wall.
The time now was [8:07].
By the time the investigators fully pieced together the entire chain of events on the island, it would probably already be evening. Ji Qing let out a lazy yawn and prepared to return to the temporary dormitory to kill time. He had already gone around Xicheng yesterday, so he had no plans to go out today.
In any case, according to Li Xuehua, they still needed to remain available for prompt response during this period.
That left only watching the Terminal in the dormitory as a form of entertainment.
However, the Terminals in the wasteland did not offer many entertainment games to choose from. The once dazzling variety of virtual games had been reduced to puzzle mini-games like Tetris and Snake. Ji Qing casually tapped open Tetris and began passing the time.
By the time he reached Level 37, Shao Huayu returned.
DUN-DUN-DUN—GAME OVER!
The Terminal played the sound effect of a failed run.
Shao Huayu looked at him in surprise, while Ji Qing appropriately stopped his game and shifted his gaze onto Shao Huayu. Shao Huayu’s expression was displeased, as though he had just heard something extremely offensive.
Seeing that, Ji Qing immediately understood and teased with a smile, “Did they ask you too?”
“…” Shao Huayu said nothing.
He pulled out a chair and sat down in a foul mood, saying in an annoyed tone, “They did. They even asked me what I thought of you.”
Why had it circled back to him again?
Ji Qing raised a brow after hearing that and shook his head as he complained, “Isn’t this just openly trying to poach people?”
“Heh.” Shao Huayu let out a cold laugh first, then commented expressionlessly, “I think they’re dissatisfied with this year’s admissions quality. After all, neither Xingluo nor I enrolled in the First Ability Academy, and yet they’ve actually taken their recruitment efforts this far…”
“I am absolutely going to file a complaint against them.”
A smile from watching a good show instantly appeared on Ji Qing’s face. Unhurriedly, he said, “You have my full public support.”
Although, because of the investigators’ inexplicable curiosity, Ji Qing had not been asked any particularly sensitive or sharp questions, the male investigator’s conduct had undeniably soured Ji Qing’s impression of him. Which school a student wanted to enroll in was clearly the student’s own business.
“Oh, right—” Shao Huayu suddenly seemed to remember something, and with a dark gaze he said, “They’re very curious about you. I suspect the next few people will be asked about you too. Ji Qing, you’d better think carefully about whether you’ve said anything to anyone that you shouldn’t have.”
Ji Qing raised a brow. “…Again?”
Were there really so few geniuses who could suppress Shao Huayu? Was this deliberate targeting? He had even intentionally tried to steer the topic toward Song Xiaoran, and yet it turned out to have been useless after all?
Shao Huayu nodded heavily, his gaze drifting toward the sky outside the window.
The sky was deep blue, and the drifting clouds were light.
In his brilliant golden eyes was reflected a flock of wild geese flying south. He murmured softly, “That much, at least, I can understand about them. After all, no one wants another accident to happen…”
Suddenly, silence fell over the room.
Ji Qing, who had been waiting for Shao Huayu to continue, blinked oddly.
How could someone stop talking halfway through a sentence like that?
What accident? Had there already been another extraordinarily gifted Ability user who fell into darkness and defected before he ever could?
That feeling of not being the first was rather unfamiliar to Ji Qing.
“Speaking of which…” As if suddenly thinking of something, Ji Qing propped his chin up and sighed in feigned distress. “Student Shao Huayu, how many people in Central City are stronger than you? Don’t tell me I’m the only one right now?”
Shao Huayu: “…”
Shao Huayu suddenly laughed. “You really do know the answer and ask anyway.”