Chapter 4468

"Professor Rodriguez? Why are you here?" Savant stood on a ladder by the bookshelf, turning his head to look at the doorway.

"I came to get the notes from today's board work, and there are also some things I need to discuss with you." Schiller stood in the doorway, took off his coat, and hung it on the coat rack nearby. He walked to the desk and sat down, and Savant walked over as well.

"You can just ask Brainiac for photos of the board work. Did something happen?"

"Have you been at the Magic Academy lately?"

"Yes, Christmas is almost here, and the school is holding a dance. We want to make it lively, so there are many things to handle."

"A student at Cat Getan University is threatening suicide." After a brief pause, Schiller explained the cause and effect simply.

"That's not a suicide threat," Savant said. "People who truly want to die don't make such a loud noise. He's just using this method to force you all to compromise."

"That is indeed true. We can all see that he doesn't want to die, and I'm afraid he can't die either. However, the matter must be resolved, right?"

"In that case, Professor Fries is unwilling to compromise?"

"Mr. Headmaster," Schiller said, looking into Savant's eyes, "Victor Fries may look like he has a good temper, but that doesn't mean he's easy to bully. He is a scientist with principles; you cannot ask him to concede on professional matters. Besides, the cryogenic controller that Chick burned out due to an operational error is worth seventy thousand dollars..."

"Very well, I'll have someone sue him right now," Savant said, gritting his teeth. Cat Getan University's financial situation was not optimistic to begin with, and he had secured almost all the investments and experimental projects himself. He could not allow anyone to burn his money in such a way.

"I'm afraid you can't. This involves a love triangle between two men and one woman..."

"Shit, when will these damn kids finally take their eyes off what's in their pants?!"

"I'm afraid that's difficult," Schiller said. "If this gets out, it will definitely be a scandal that affects enrollment. Moreover, even if he doesn't succeed in dying, the attempted suicide could still trigger widespread attention."

"How strange," Savant said. "Since when does a student committing suicide in Cat Getan make the news?"

"It's precisely because it's suicide that it can make the news. If it were a bombing, perhaps no one would be willing to report it."

"They'll say we drove him to it, right?" Savant opened his mouth and slammed the table. "Describing Cat Getan University as a man-eating den of demons, saying how we pressured and abused him..."

"It also involves persecution of homosexuals."

"God." Savant slumped backward, scratched his head, and then said, "Why not just find someone to murder him? That way the case will become very common and won't attract any attention. If you pose the body, that's even more of a cliché."

"Brainiac is watching you."

"No, it's mainly because he's watching you. Otherwise, this matter would have been resolved long ago."

Schiller turned his head helplessly and said, "Why would I murder a student?"

"He's being so unreasonable, aren't you angry?"

"That's not being unreasonable; there's a reason for it. Although he is agitated and completely irrational, I can understand why he is like this."

"Didn't you try scolding him?"

"I've already exposed him," Schiller said. "That was already a huge mental blow to him. If I continue, it really would become murder."

After complaining, Savant thought seriously for a moment and then said, "You said he comes from a single-parent family and has a mother who is very strict with him. I'll find a way to communicate with his mother."

"That would be best," Schiller said. "Try to resolve it by tomorrow. If Victor loses control of his emotions, we'll all be spending Christmas in the refrigerator."

After leaving Savant, Schiller returned to Cat Getan University. It was already lunchtime for the students, and the cafeteria was too crowded. Schiller ordered takeout to eat in his office.

He turned his head to look at the weather and opened the weather forecast app on his phone. "Continuous snowfall..."

"Will it last until tomorrow morning?" Schiller asked.

"It will stop for a while tonight, then continue until tomorrow morning," Brainiac replied. "You'd better go home while the snow has stopped, otherwise you might not be able to get back."

"I really need to go back," Schiller said. "If the snow continues like this, the temperature will drop very low. I don't have thick clothes in the office, so I have to go back and get some."

"Understood. The itinerary has been changed. Destination: Nature Reserve... I mean, your cozy home."

Schiller spent the whole afternoon preparing his lessons. After finishing his last extension class in the evening, he got into his car. The snow had indeed stopped. He drove all the way home. It wasn't too late yet. Schiller packed some of his thicker clothes, including high-weight suits and thicker overcoats, as well as some cashmere sweaters, preparing to take them to school tomorrow.

After lighting the fireplace, Schiller went upstairs to sleep. However, in the early hours of the morning, he was woken up by a phone call. Outside the window was heavy snow, and the light from the streetlamps swayed in the distance.

"Schiller." When Nora's voice came from the other end of the line, Schiller had a bad premonition.

"Chick is dead. Victor has lost control of his emotions, and I'm worried he might freeze someone into ice."

"Where are you now?"

"The hospital."

"... What's wrong with Victor?"

"It's not Victor. Billy got caught in the heavy snow on his way home from school. He got soaked and developed a fever. For the sake of his immune system's health, Brainiac doesn't recommend he use his superpowers to recover, and I can't leave right now."

"Don't worry, Lady, I'll go take a look right away." Schiller sat up from the bed and got dressed as quickly as possible. He got into his car and intended to drive to Cat Getan University. Brainiac, however, alerted him that Chick had died in the South District.

"What?"

"There is surveillance everywhere at Cat Getan University; he couldn't have died there. He lived in some old shared villas in the South District. That is exactly where he died."

Schiller's heart sank. For a professor, not dying at school was certainly good news. However, the situation at the South District villas was a bit complicated. He had a premonition that this would be a very tricky case.

As expected, when Schiller arrived, several police cars had already surrounded the villa. The light from the police sirens illuminated the night sky, the snow-covered ground was plated with bright red and blue, and the yellow of the police tape was even more glaring.

Schiller saw Gordon's police car but didn't go over. Because in Cat Getan, no police officer would stop him. Schiller got out of the car, tightened his trench coat, and walked toward the police tape. The officer opened the barrier as soon as he saw him, and Schiller nodded at him.

Gordon had just walked out of the crime scene. Schiller couldn't remember how many times this was that he had seen Gordon walk out of a crime scene. This scene had been playing out constantly and had never stopped.

Gordon's hair was dusted with snow, and the overcoat he wore over his uniform was soaked through. His lenses were covered in water droplets. Seeing Schiller, Gordon was not surprised. He said, "Brainiac told me you and Victor had contact with him during the day."

"More than that. We talked to him for quite a while," Schiller sighed and said, "I regret that we were unable to prevent the tragedy. But whether things are as imagined remains to be seen after taking a look."

"That's not the point," Gordon shook his head and said, "You need to go persuade Victor first. He has already frozen the body with dense ice."

Schiller frowned slightly: "He wouldn't vent his anger in this way."

"He's not venting. He thinks there's something suspicious about this student's death and is worried that someone might tamper with the body. He's probably waiting for you to arrive."

Schiller didn't ask any more questions and walked into the villa. The reason the situation here was complicated was that this place was considered a deserted wealthy district.

Most of the wealthy people in the South District had moved to the Inner World, and many villas were left vacant. But due to previous inertia, many people preferred to choose small apartments in the East District. There was heating there, the rent wasn't expensive, and the surveillance facilities were complete; there hadn't been a homicide for over a year.

However, there was never a shortage of gamblers in this world who wanted to win big with a small stake. Some people thought that by taking this opportunity to occupy a villa, they might have a chance to get Brainiac to acknowledge their property rights, or at least occupy a portion so they could get a share of the money when it was developed in a few years.

Thus, a group of people began to flood into the wealthy district of the South District. Brainiac had implemented controls, but he only managed the average living area—meaning not too many people could squeeze into one place, and one person couldn't occupy a whole villa—but he didn't care much about the rest. This group of people just lived on like that.

Chick and his mother were among them. They were originally poor people from the East District docks, but because they were worried that the East District would return to its former chaotic state after Brainiac left, they simply came to the South District to settle down.

The model here was that many people shared a villa, but it wasn't one room per person. Some people occupied the hall, some occupied rooms, and others occupied the kitchen and bathroom together.

They each opened their own doors; some built stairs down from the second floor, and some added extensions to the top floor. As long as it didn't affect the structural safety of the building, Brainiac didn't care. This led to some security blind spots where surveillance cameras hadn't been installed in time.

Chick died in one such blind spot. A rope was hung on the railing below the balcony of the extended second floor, and Chick was hanged between the second and first floors. At this time, the body had already been frozen by Victor, but it still maintained the expression from the moment of death.

Victor stood against the wall, looking very unwell. The moment Schiller approached him, Victor raised his gun. Schiller quickly stretched out both hands and said, "It's me."

Victor was dazed for a moment, but quickly sobered up, put away his gun, and said, "God, you're finally here! I'm really going crazy!"

"Don't worry, Victor. Since a homicide has occurred, Brainiac will definitely find a way to investigate it clearly. It won't be like before, where it was linked to you based solely on his one-sided story."

Victor was not comforted at all. He said, "I shouldn't have let him go home. I should have kept an eye on him the whole time and not given him any chance to commit suicide."

Victor looked at the sky, sighed, and said, "I didn't even know his home was here. I knew his family situation wasn't great, and I thought he lived in the East District. I've been to the East District, and I know the security there is fine. I thought Brainiac wouldn't let him commit suicide at home..."

Schiller could see that Victor was still feeling mostly guilty. Chick was very young, only a freshman this year. And under Brainiac's screening mechanism, those who could get into university were considered talented. Although Chick was careless, it wasn't a major flaw, otherwise he would have been expelled long ago.

First, he made a mistake himself, causing expensive equipment to be burned out and being scolded by his mentor. Then he was dumped and betrayed by his crush, and immediately after that, the headmaster contacted his parents. Under such multiple emotional stimuli, it was indeed possible for him to lose hope.

However, Schiller still didn't think this was a suicide case. If he had seen even the slightest possibility of suicide in Chick's emotions, he would have had Victor keep an eye on him.

The fact was, although Chick was very angry and resentful and completely unable to control his emotions, he had never really thought about suicide. Making a scene in the lab was just to vent his emotions and demand an explanation for the grievances he had suffered.

Schiller looked up at the crime scene.