HLnovel Chapter 367 The corner has 9 degrees
Chapter 367 The corner has 9 degrees
Qiong was extremely excited. He snatched the raw stone and Xingqiong from Xing's hand and threw them back into the trash can almost roughly, then slammed the lid shut.
"elder brother?"
Xing was startled by Qiong's reaction, and the excitement on her face turned into astonishment, with a hint of grievance.
That was a treasure she had found, one she planned to share with Sora! Just like the precious baseball bat Sora had given her last night.
"That's not a treasure—okay, maybe it is? But!"
Qiong's voice carried a tension that Xing had never seen before. He even grabbed Xing's shoulder with such force that Xing felt slightly uncomfortable.
“Listen, Little Star, never, ever conjure anything from ‘there’ again! And never use them to fight. Your brother will protect you, understand?”
Xing nodded, not quite understanding—Qiong was always right. Putting everything else aside, would her brother ever harm her?
Since that's the case, let's abandon further thought and trust our blood relatives' advice... for now.
"Qiong, it's been a long time! And this is..."
Arvit's voice came from the side, and the nervous Sora turned around, her tense facial muscles not yet fully relaxed.
Arvit and Susana were standing to the side, looking at them with blank expressions.
"It's Alvitt and Susana."
Feeling that he wasn't doing a good job, Qiong quickly let go of Xing's shoulder and turned to the side to block Xing from behind—in his memory, Xing was a cold and introverted younger sister who wasn't good at talking and couldn't talk to strangers... provided they weren't familiar with each other.
"It's been a long time."
Aylvit's gaze swept lightly over Qiong and landed on Xing, who was peeking out slightly behind him: Qiong had released Xing's shoulder, and now Xing was grabbing Qiong's trench coat in return, with a hint of confusion still lingering in her big eyes.
Even if Qiong didn't say anything, Alvette could tell the relationship between the two: their identical gray hair, golden eyes, and clothing made it obvious to anyone that they were related by blood!
"Yes, this is my sister, Xing. Little Xing, this is your brother's cheap master, and..."
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck Qiong: she knew that the girl in front of her, the "tool person" and the naive and sweet girl, were easygoing and chatty people. Since Xing had lost her memory, why not try to change her quiet nature?
My sister's makeover project starts from scratch!
Thinking of this, Qiong gently pulled Xing forward a little, "Little Xing, this is Alvitt, and this is Sister Susana. They are all my brother's... um, friends."
As Qiong had expected, both Alvit and Susana smiled warmly. Seeing Xing being pushed forward to make friends, Qiong smiled with satisfaction.
Hmm... does it seem like I've forgotten something?
Looking at the gray-haired, red-eyed Alvitt in front of him, Qiong suddenly thought of Asakura Miyuki—but it seems that this is not what he forgot?
Qiong's smile faded, replaced by a thoughtful expression.
He did forget something important... and it seemed important, but isn't the most important thing right now the stars? What else could be important?
"Qiong, do you want to go have lunch together later? It's on me!"
Out of gratitude for what happened at the library yesterday, Susana planned to treat the brother and sister to something nice, but her invitation went unanswered by Qiong.
"Qiong, are you alright?"
A scene flashed through Qiong's mind—that afternoon, in a room with the curtains drawn, only he and Lao Yang were there.
"Excuse me, you two! I suddenly remembered something urgent!"
Qiong's voice carried a hint of urgency.
"Could you please watch over Xiaoxing for me for a little while? I'll be right back!"
Before Alvitt could answer, Sora had already turned and dashed back the way she came—since boarding Rita's Eos, he hadn't contacted anyone else. Walter had said to contact them once every half day, and if they didn't contact him three times...
Hopefully, it's not too late.
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St. Freya, Teachers' Office.
Walter Young sat at his desk, holding a book on fluid mechanics (used to assist in designing mechs), but his gaze was fixed on the Anti-Entropy special communication terminal, which had been disguised as an ordinary cell phone and had been silent for a whole day.
The agreed-upon time was approaching for the third time, and there was still no news from Ai Yin. According to their agreement, three periods of no contact meant…
No, how could Otto have captured Qiong without making a sound? If something really happened, why didn't Qiong use the boundary anchor left by the Starry Sky Train to escape?
Walter frowned slightly and adjusted his glasses. He tried to convince himself that the always jovial child might have just encountered some accident or been held back by something insignificant—after all, the place where Qiong was now might be under surveillance…
But what if! What if things go wrong? What if Otto really sets a trap for Sora, or what Sora fears suddenly happens?
Unable to contain himself, Lao Yang picked up the terminal and sent a short message to Einstein.
"Any news about that child?"
The success notification light flashed once. Walter stared at the communicator, expecting a reply—but considering that Ai-in had recently been studying the semi-destroyed train carriages with Tesla, it was possible that Ai-in was so engrossed in the research that she forgot what he had asked her to do.
Forget it, I'll just contact them myself!
"Professor Walter!"
Just as Walter's finger hovered over the dial button, Kiana's voice came from outside the door. The office door was pushed open again, and to avoid being discovered, Old Yang immediately put away his communication terminal and picked up his fluid mechanics book instead.
The door opened, and Kiana, Mei, Bronya, and Seele burst in from outside.
"Mr. Walter! About the book about the dead gray hair—Mr., did you hold the book upside down?"
"Ok?"
Walter looked closely and saw that it was indeed true.
"So, teachers make the same mistakes I did!"
Old Yang blushed and quickly straightened the book.
"Ahem, I was engrossed in what I was reading... no, actually I was pondering a philosophical question!"
“But Professor Walter, if Bronya isn’t mistaken, those are physics-related books…”
Not wanting to lose face, Lao Yang immediately straightened up and began to defend himself.
"Students, what do you think philosophy is?"
"What is it?"
Kiana looked at the three people around her; Mei and Seele both looked bewildered.
"What your teacher is telling you is the truth! And the most direct manifestation of truth is physics! As long as you master all the physical laws of the world, you can say that you have mastered the truth! Therefore, the essence of philosophy is physics!"
Kiana and the others: ?
I couldn't understand it, but I was deeply moved.
Only Bronya nodded: Welt is the leader of the Anti-Entropy Alliance, the Herrscher of Reason. So Welt means... to investigate things and attain knowledge? Is this Herrscher of Reason also a philosophical master?
"Let's not talk about that anymore. What brings you here?"
Old Yang, who was just trying to fool the kids, put the book away and started to change the subject.
“Professor Walter, regarding the dead gray hair, my aunt said that Bishop Otto said he is fine, but if he is fine, why didn’t he call back?”
"Yeah, Qiong didn't answer my calls last night... nor today! Qiong isn't usually like this!"
Mei wasn't worried at first, but after hearing other people's stories about "Sora and Rita having a conflict and Mei winning the battle, only to be taken away by Rita," she couldn't help but become anxious.
For example... what if Sora got bullied because he offended Rita? Or what if they saw how outstanding Sora was and got him into some secret special forces project, so his family can't contact him at all afterward...?
"Uncle Yang, Seele heard from Kiana and the others that you are a Schicksal agent. Could you tell Seele and Bronya how Brother Qiong is doing now?"
Walter rubbed his temples—to be honest, he was more used to being called "Mr. Walter" than being called Uncle Yang by Seele and Qiong Xiaosanyue. But that didn't matter. What mattered was that he hadn't been able to contact Qiong either. How was he supposed to tell the children?
"I'm not sure either. Maybe something happened to hold Qiong up?"
Mei looked disappointed.
"but--"
Seeing Mei like this, Walter added another comment.
"Perhaps Teacher Bai knows something?"
"But we've already been to Mr. Bai's place, and he's not here today."
"Not here?"
Walter frowned slightly. After all, it's a workday today. Where did Baiji go?
Have you reported the work progress to Otto yet?
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At the entrance of St. Freya, there is a "light".
In the empty and quiet shop, a discordant sound of hurried footsteps suddenly rang out. A girl with white hair and purple eyes quickly passed through the door, a hint of worry appearing between her brows.
Besides worry, there was also an air of accusation.
In the pitch-black shop, the girl immediately spotted the glowing jellyfish head standing deep inside, intently staring at its phone—and the lazy dog lying idly at her feet.
"lamp!"
Serim practically charged forward.
"Is what Little Sparrow said reliable? Have you found an opportunity? What exactly is Qiong—"
Serem's question came to an abrupt halt as she noticed something at Donegal's feet—an overturned coffee cup, its dark brown liquid staining the carpet, and several books scattered nearby, clearly knocked over.
The only person who could concentrate on reading in this place would be Serapem. And now, is little Serapem so upset that she doesn't even care if her book falls to the ground and gets stained with coffee?
"Serem".
Deng looked up, her gray eyes calm, but those who knew her well could see the urgency beneath. She turned her phone towards Serim; the screen displayed a message from Pine Sparrow.
“They’ll be here soon. Let’s talk one last time. If we can’t reach an agreement, we’ll go together—no matter the cost, as long as we succeed.”
Serem looked at Shafulai, trying to understand her thought process.
"You mean, just pin him down on the bed and get it done? We don't care about anything else?"
Hearing the two loudly plotting, the little dog named Donegal couldn't help but shudder—although there was no hierarchical relationship between the Seven Arts in theory, the "non-art" Lantern, codenamed "Abandoned," was genuinely powerful... and there was also her colleague Serim, who truly possessed the power of shadows; if they really wanted to use dirty tricks against that kid...
Even if Lithost were to rise from the dead, it would be impossible to stop him.
Donigor's thoughts suddenly drifted back to the past, to the time right after they had finished fighting "Awakening," when most of the shadow power had dissipated, and only the three of them, including Dome Lamp Serim, were able to stay active on the front lines and clear out the remaining shadow monsters.
At that time, it had been tricked by Serim into taking Star and Sparrow to do some rehabilitation exercises (throwing frisbees), and happened to see something on the way back with the three of them...
"Little Qiongqiong, I'm so tired! The lamp and I are both a little cold..."
Donegal clearly remembered the pine tree's face, which was almost distorted with anger, and the star's clear eyes. Originally, the pine tree was so angry that it was about to explode when it saw Serim pulling the lamp and sticking to the sky. It was ready to drag it and the star to fight "pleasure" and "abandonment" to the death, but the sky stopped the pine tree's idea by taking a step.