Chapter 683: The Ancestor's Gift (72)

Du Zhengyi walked into the main gate of the Calculators, and the dozen or so Calculators behind the door immediately fell silent, a dozen pairs of eyes fixed upon him.

Du Zhengyi had a feeling that he was like a crude farmer walking into a chicken coop on a farm, these clever, dull chickens quietly awaiting their fate. The scene had a hint of the comical, as if he were to actually snatch up one chicken, the others would continue to bury their heads and peck for worms.

The Calculator hall was poorly lit, and workbenches that glowed with fluorescence were arranged in the hall in an orderly fashion, each workbench having its own visualization equipment. Du Zhengyi looked toward the end of the room, where there were corridors, and in the corridors were even more cubicles. He glanced at the screens on their workbenches; countless symbols were scrolling by, and he couldn't keep up at all.

On one wall of the hall was a massive rack, and embedded in each grid of the rack was a crystal. He had originally thought they were decorations unique to the Calculators, but he soon sensed the energy of those crystals; much Magic was running busily between them. He could not see through this Magic, but he could sense some patterns among them, and after a few seconds, he confirmed that these crystals were arranged in parallel to form an array.

He walked slowly between the Calculators and the workbenches, observing everyone's faces, their aura, and their Magic signatures. He leaned over and randomly pressed his hand onto a crystal on a workbench; the Calculator near that desk twitched and nearly jumped up. But the Calculator restrained themselves, only frowning slightly in disgust.

There was nothing wrong with their brains; they were simply better at restraining their emotions and instinctive reactions than Experimental Mages.

Du Zhengyi straightened up and continued walking inward, passing through the entire hall. The Gushan Contract did not produce any more explicit guidance; perhaps the crisis had been resolved, or perhaps the suspect had nothing to do with this place anymore. Just then, the doors to the cubicles deep in the corridor opened, and several more Senior Calculator walked out. They walked out on their own to assemble before the Gushan Guard; no one wasted words with Du Zhengyi, as they all knew who he was and why he had come. Du Zhengyi was like the most authoritative executioner in the Magic World, with the Underworld King using his hands to select who was guilty.

Du Zhengyi's gaze swept over their calm faces; he walked slowly past them and stopped in front of two female Calculators. The younger one seemed to have just started the job, lacking in age and experience; the moment Du Zhengyi stopped, she shivered, and the glass cup of black tea in her hand dropped.

Du Zhengyi bent down and caught the black tea cup; the blood-red liquid could not hide the human bomber engraved on the bottom of the transparent glass cup.

Her gaze followed Du Zhengyi's eyes to the bomber as well, and she jumped in fright, anxiously opening her mouth to explain, "I—I—I am not a Lotus Eater who betrayed the Mages!"

She sensed the young man's deep, dark gaze landing on her face, and she trembled even more noticeably, "And it's not that I'm saying I'm a Lotus Burner, I didn't mean that... I... I am not a Lotus Eater nor a Lotus Burner, I am just... just a Mage..."

"Hold the cup well," Du Zhengyi said.

Another female Calculator nearby used a Floating Magic to help her out of the predicament, and the black tea cup floated from Du Zhengyi's hand to the table beside them. Du Zhengyi looked at her, and she offered Du Zhengyi a smile.

Du Zhengyi watched her for a moment and said thoughtfully, "I need you to come with me."

Several panicked gazes were cast over; someone moved a step toward this side, then stopped dead in their tracks.

"Alright," the female Calculator said. She was a bit nervous, but showed nothing more. Amidst the gazes of the crowd, which were like those watching a death-row prisoner, she calmly followed Du Zhengyi as he walked out.

Du Zhengyi brought her to a stop in the hall and politely gestured to her. She returned a smile, reached out, and took Du Zhengyi's arm, and the two disappeared into the Calculator's underground palace.

In the empty coffee shop, Du Zhengyi and the female Calculator sat on high stools on either side of a small round table. The female Calculator looked around; the operation counter was not far away, and the LaMarzocco coffee machine placed on it looked as if it had just been used, the air still filled with the mellow aroma of coffee. There were more comfortable seats nearby, and the leather of the black sofa looked quite nice.

She lowered her head and curiously examined the wooden tray on the round table, on which a pinecone and an acorn were placed. She picked up a special one from among the acorns; it was a hazelnut that looked very much like an acorn.

"How embarrassing," Du Zhengyi said, looking at the hazelnut in her hand. "A mistake made in haste."

"So... this is your Sandbox? Your interrogation space and temporary prison," she said gently.

What she said could not be considered wrong; this place could generate whatever appearance Du Zhengyi wished for each time he entered. He had set this place to the coffee shop he had visited recently, restoring the scene there. But the last time he was at the coffee shop, he had thought that these decorative acorns looked too much like the hazelnuts Luo Qi often ate; were they some kind of relative? He hadn't expected that thought to be inadvertently left behind.

The thinking of a Gushan Guard should not be so... so divergent; they would not expose too much of their personal traces. Leaking too much personal information, at the very least, would cause their prestige to be greatly diminished. Although the female Calculator looked quite young, it was not hard to see from her eyes that she should already be middle-aged, at least a generation older than Du Zhengyi, which was already an unfavorable situation. However, according to Du Zhengyi's experience, he should still be able to handle this kind of situation, but as it turned out, this interrogation had caused his momentum to be inexplicably damaged from the start.

"Do you have anything you want to say to me?" the female Calculator asked.

Her demeanor was still unexpectedly gentle; Du Zhengyi watched her and realized she was asking this question in earnest.

She was a Mage taken from a crime scene by the Gushan Guard; she was even a Calculator, not one of those ordinary Mages who knew nothing. She shouldn't be playing dumb like this; playing dumb was not a wise move for a Calculator of supreme intelligence.

Du Zhengyi asked her in return, "You should know why I chose you. I would prefer you to give me a reason."

The female Calculator watched him for a while, her pupils shifting slightly; Du Zhengyi knew she was also collecting data from him, although the way she collected data might not be through Magic.

She thought seriously for a moment, as if correcting her train of thought and verifying her results.

"I think... the reason might be because..." she looked tentatively into Du Zhengyi's eyes and said with a hint of uncertainty, "it might be because... because I am Luo Qi's aunt; you know him, and you found some familiar shadows on my face."

Du Zhengyi was stunned, and then he understood the cause and effect. He had never felt so intensely humiliated in his life. He had made a mistake; he had long felt the strong constraints of Gushan weakening, but he had thought that the strange feeling about her was still the guidance of the Gushan Contract... but now that it was pointed out, he realized that the curious way she looked at people was truly too similar to Luo Qi.

"Are you... are you Calculator Chu Jin?" he stammered.

"Yes," Chu Jin nodded. "But I do indeed have suspicions."

Oh, she was truly understanding, much better than Luo Qi, and even gave him a way to step down. Du Zhengyi sat awkwardly on the high stool, truly wishing he had chosen the sofa, as then he could have hunched his back a bit.

"But I think... it might not be because Gushan's Magic caused you to choose me; it might just be because I looked familiar to you," Chu Jin said again. "I'm not saying this to quibble; if you have anything you need to interrogate, I will cooperate with the investigation."

"Just a few small questions," Du Zhengyi said, forcing himself to remain calm and composed, and forcibly asked a few questions. Chu Jin answered fluently, to the point where he could barely listen anymore. He was truly great; he had picked out Luo Qi's aunt at a single glance.