Lin Xia’s gaze swept around the room through the window. It was clearly this very window, yet even the dust inside lay still, and it didn’t look at all as if someone had been standing there just moments ago.
Meng Yun was standing very close to Lin Xia. Noticing his probing, he followed his gaze and glanced at the floating spirits in the room. Had Lin Xia’s senses become more acute?
Lin Xia found nothing. He scratched his head and got back to the matter at hand: “Brother Meng, I lost my wallet. I need to go to the Security Office.”
There were no security cameras around the White Building, but there were some at the Astronomy Memorial Hall and the observation deck.
The barbecue delivery was real, the information about the student ID card was real, the incident actually happened, so the surveillance cameras were bound to capture something.
“Alright.” Meng Yun nodded again and walked alongside Lin Xia.
The two headed straight for the Security Office. Lin Xia told Meng Yun to wait for him outside the office while he went in to look around. He called out, “Brother Liu!”
Meng Yun was at the door, and his eyes flickered slightly when he heard this form of address.
Liu Quan’an looked up and saw Lin Xia, and smiled, “Xiao1In Chinese, adding Xiao (小, meaning “little” or “small”) before a person’s surname or given name is a very common way to create an affectionate, casual nickname for someone younger, a junior coworker, or a close friend. Lin, why are you running errands during the holiday?”
Liu Quan’an was tall and burly, his security uniform clinging to his well-trained muscles, giving him a powerful and reliable appearance. He was sitting in front of the monitor, the numbers above his head slowly increasing by +1, +1, +1, +1, +1.
Lin Xia worked many different jobs at school and was familiar with people from all over. Plus, he had a naturally cheerful and trustworthy face, so he got along well with everyone, even in the Security Department.
“Brother Liu, I lost my student ID card. I want to check the security footage to find it.”
The Security Office frequently helped students locate lost items, and Liu Quan’an had become quite experienced at reviewing surveillance footage—he could tell at a glance whether something was there or not. He casually pulled out a form and handed it to Lin Xia, “Time? Location? Fill out the form first.”
Lin Xia dutifully began filling out the “Surveillance Footage Request Form”: “I don’t remember exactly, but it was the road leading up to the Observatory.”
“The Observatory, huh?” Liu Quan’an pulled up yesterday’s surveillance footage. “There aren’t many cameras on that road. If we can’t find it, get a replacement. It’ll only take a few minutes.”
“It belongs to my roommate. I’m too embarrassed to say. I’ll tell him if I really can’t find it.” Lin Xia lied, but then realized his mistake and quickly took out his phone to check.
It’s still “0”.
Lin Xia breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, it was still 0. What would he do if it turned into a negative number?
Wait a minute—he lied to help solve the case. It was a white lie!
White lies don’t count against you—what a smart processor for good and evil.
“Alright, I’ll help you look.” Liu Quan’an pulled up the surveillance footage near the observatory and was just about to start searching for Lin Xia when someone else arrived at the security office. With graduation season in full swing, students had started moving their luggage downstairs early, and someone had snatched a few items. They came to the security office to file a report and request the surveillance footage.
Liu Quan’an went to check on another computer, while Lin Xia seized the opportunity to fast-forward through the footage.
He first “located” himself.
Lin Xia saw himself running up the mountain with a barbecue bag in the surveillance footage. He immediately switched to the camera at the observation deck, which showed half of his back. For the next forty minutes, the footage didn’t change at all.
Lin Xia’s eyes were sore from staring for so long, but he finally spotted a figure on the monitor.
The figure drew closer, and he zoomed in on the screen—it was that girl! She wasn’t dead either!
Although the night-vision cameras couldn’t clearly see the girl’s face, they showed her wearing a dress, carrying a canvas bag, and walking slowly and steadily from the top of the hill to the bottom.
She didn’t look like she had just gone through a life-or-death experience at all.
Lin Xia’s hand gripping the mouse tightened suddenly. How could the girl’s walking speed and the distance between her steps be the same?
Every step felt like copying and pasting.
The surveillance cameras on the campus at the foot of the hill were more densely packed. Lin Xia switched between cameras along the girl’s path, watching her take one step, then another, then another, as she “walked” into Building No. 5.
Until dawn, no one else came down the mountain except for the girl, not even Lin Xia himself.
Lin Xia had just thought the girl might no longer be “human,” and now he was starting to doubt whether he was still “human.”
A strand of Meng Yun’s divine sense followed behind Lin Xia. Seeing Lin Xia switch between monitors showing footage from last night, Meng Yun raised his eyebrows slightly, somewhat surprised.
He was the one who “sent” Lin Xia back to his dormitory.
……
When he arrived in this small world, Lin Xia was already lying among the tall grass, golden light continuously spilling from his body and scattering in all directions, attracting countless floating spirits.
Meng Yun hovered in mid-air, his robes fluttering, and the floating spirit that greedily devoured the golden light instantly turned into smoke.
He assumed the Stele Spirit’s physical form was already dead and intended to wait for the Stele Spirit’s primordial soul to leave its body so he could guide it back to its rightful place.
This physical form, so painstakingly attained through spiritual transformation, had met an untimely end before reaching the age of twenty. The Stele Spirit must surely be very unhappy.
But before the Stele Spirit’s primordial soul could emerge, a dense swarm of golden light gathered at the human vessel’s wound. The lost blood flowed back into his body, and the wound healed on its own.
The eyelashes of the person lying in the tall grass trembled slightly; he was about to awaken.
Meng extended a finger and gently pressed it against Lin Xia’s brow, lulling him back into a peaceful sleep, then picked him up in his arms.
Just as he stood up to leave, the female corpse stirred.
A speck of the golden light surging from Lin Xia’s body landed on the wound on the female corpse’s chest.
Because of that speck of golden light, the female corpse’s life force returned.
Meng Yun furrowed his brow but did not intervene to take back that “life force”. He simply carried the Stele Spirit’s physical form away.
……
Seeing that Lin Xia had been sitting in front of the computer for quite a while without moving, Liu Quan’an asked from across the desk, “Xiao Lin, have you found it? Do you know how to operate it?”
Lin Xia quickly turned off the surveillance video and said to Liu Quan’an, who was still busy, “I couldn’t find it. Never mind, Brother Liu, I’ll just have my roommate get a replacement.”
After saying that, Lin Xia walked out of the security office. The blazing sun of the Dragon Boat Festival made him sweat profusely. His mind flashed back to anime, movies, and TV series with ratings from 6 to 9, where the protagonist’s “human” character was transformed into a “non-human” character.
Vampires, zombies, ghouls, slimes…
If he’s really not human anymore, how can he continue to live?
Seeing Lin Xia standing frozen in place, Meng Yun expertly pulled out another can of soda.
After running around all morning and receiving one piece of “bad news” after another, Lin Xia’s mental and physical energy were completely drained at that moment. He took a deep breath, “Brother Meng, are you hungry?”
His experience watching anime told him that the transformation usually begins with the type of food one eats.
Since things had come to this, they might as well eat first.
Meng Yun didn’t need to eat human food, so of course he wasn’t hungry, but he asked, “What do you want to eat?”
Lin Xia has a meal allowance for himself. He has a long-term partnership with Aunt Liu’s breakfast shop, where he eats breakfast for free. Fruits, drinks, and bread are included in the breakfast allowance, all of which are “employee” benefits.
He also kept a detailed meal plan to ensure his combined lunch and dinner expenses didn’t exceed thirty yuan, while still enjoying a well-balanced meal with both meat and vegetables at every sitting.
Today he was supposed to go eat some delicious and affordable beef noodle soup, but right now he wanted something better. “Brother Meng, let me take you to our school’s CBD2n China, CBD most commonly stands for Central Business District..”
Lin Xia took Meng Yun to the most expensive restaurant on campus, Magnolia Building, and ordered a large table of dim sum at the tea restaurant on the second floor.
When placing the order, Lin Xia acted like a high-spending gamer, ordering every expensive and delicious item on the menu. He even generously skipped the free tea and ordered two glasses of iced lemon tea instead.
This single meal cost him seven days’ worth of food expenses.
Meng Yun looked at the table full of dishes but didn’t pick up his chopsticks right away, “Are these the kinds of things you usually like to eat?”
A very, very long time ago, the Spirit of the Stele had once asked him what the flavors of everyday life on earth were like.
Meng Yun couldn’t answer, but since the Spirit had asked, he managed to come up with a solution, “There’s plenty of culinary creations in the Kitchen God’s Hall. Shall I fetch some for you to see?”
The Spirit was speechless; even if it were to bring those culinary creations, it wouldn’t be able to taste them.
Meng Yun lowered his gaze slightly. Was it because of these earthly delights that it had wanted to be reborn in the mortal realm and take on human form?
“I don’t usually eat this stuff. It’s too expensive,” Lin Xia said as he picked up a shrimp dumpling with his chopsticks and munched on chicken feet, making sure to serve Meng Yun some food while he ate. “Try this shrimp dumpling, then try these chicken feet in purple-gold sauce, and then try this taro…”
He’s eating human food! He’s at least eighty percent human!
The fruit ice cream was free, and Lin Xia, determined to get his money’s worth, took two plates of fruit and one ice cream of each flavor, laying them out in a row in front of Meng Yun.
Eating human food put Lin Xia in a great mood. “Brother Meng? Which one do you like?”
Meng Yun glanced at the small paper cups; each cup contained a small, round ball that felt cool to the touch.
“This one.” He chose the white one, picked up the small spoon, and took a bite. His tongue detected several flavors, but since he’d never had it before, he was at a loss for words to describe it.
“You like vanilla too? I also think this is the best. It’s creamy, and the sweetness is just right.”
Meng Yun looked at the ice cream cup in his hand. So this was what a creamy, sweet flavor tasted like.
Lin Xia was both delighted and touched during the meal. He even temporarily forgot about the changes in his body until a group of professors and students sat down at the next table.
One of the students asked the professor, “Professor, what would you like to eat?” +5.
The middle-aged man smiled and said, “I’m treating you all to dinner. Order whatever you’d like.”
Another student said, “Professor, we want to eat whatever you want to eat.” -5.
Lin Xia paused in his act of gnawing on chicken feet. They were saying almost the same thing, so why were the values different?
He looked closely and quickly noticed that the first student had a clear gaze, his eyes brimming with respect as he looked at the professor, while the other’s smile was a bit sycophantic.
The middle-aged professor picked up the menu and handed it to the first student who had spoken: “Xiao Song just arrived. You order for us today.”
Xiao Song looked flattered and overwhelmed. The student who had been sucking up glanced at Xiao Song with a somewhat subtle expression.
Lin Xia spat out two chicken feet bones and glanced again at the professor’s head, where the numbers kept decreasing: -100, -100, -100, -100, -100…
Lin Xia figured out that the points deducted or added for committing minor evils and doing minor good deeds are completed immediately. Conversely, if points are constantly being deducted or added, it means that the evil or good deed is still “in progress”.
What would he see if he went to look at Xiao Yu right now?
Lin Xia swallowed a bite of taro and spare ribs and quickly looked up the building where Xiao Yu lived. It wasn’t difficult at all; someone on the forum had even posted Xiao Yu’s class schedule.
Xiao Yu lived in Building 8, while the victim lived in Building 5, which was separated from Building 8 by a large lawn.
Lin Xia munched on pork ribs and ate a custard bun. Just as he was about to pay the bill, he remembered that Old Feng had given him some chocolate (+5) out of concern that his blood sugar might be low.
If two pieces of chocolate could add +5, wouldn’t treating Meng Yun to a meal like this earn him +100!
Full of anticipation, he pulled out his phone—only to find that “0” still hovered above his head.
As if mocking him, it flashed twice.
Lin Xia refused to accept this!
On the way back, he voluntarily picked up trash twice—still a “0.”
He guided a person asking for directions to their destination—still a “0.”
He moved three bicycles that were parked haphazardly in front of an accessible ramp—still a 0!
No matter what he did, the 0 remained steadfast.
Meng Yun didn’t know what Lin Xia was up to, but seeing him bustling about like that, he thought to himself, “It seems he really does enjoy being human.”
……
Lin Xia walked up to Building 8 with “0” on his head. He knew all the dorm supervisors in this area by name. He approached Aunt Xu with a smile, “Aunt Xu, which floor and room does Senior Xiao Yu live in?”
Aunt Xu was in the middle of watching a TV series when she spotted Lin Xia and smiled, “Still delivering food during the break? That’s for Xiao Yu? Which girl ordered it?” Quite a few girls didn’t know his room number or phone number, so they left their takeout orders on the rack in the hallway, and Auntie Xu had to notify him every single time.
Auntie Xu waved her hand. “Everyone in their dorm has gone home for the holiday. No one’s there.”
Lin Xia was taken aback. That made sense—staying on campus after committing murder would be pretty stupid.
He then asked, “Aunt Xu, does Senior Xiao Yu have a girlfriend? A friend of mine asked me to find out.” A white lie won’t get you any points deducted.
Aunt Xu had just caught up to an infuriating part of the TV series and was ready to rant about the blindly filial son who neglected his wife and children and only cared about subsidizing his parents and brother. She replied bluntly, “How would I know? I’ve never seen him accept anything from a young girl.”
People always say handsome men are womanizers, but she’d never seen Xiao Yu accept gifts from girls. He wouldn’t even take the food delivery they ordered for him; his roommates always ended up eating it.
The number on Aunt Xu’s head remained unchanged.
Lin Xia once again came up empty-handed. He crossed the lawn to try his luck at the entrance of Building 5 and saw a slender girl in sportswear carrying a canvas bag walk into the building.
The girl’s clothes, shoes, and backpack were completely different from those in the surveillance footage, but she, too, had a “0” on her head.
———– End of Chapter ————–
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted”
– Aesop
