Yes Or No

"Officer Song, I couldn't hear very clearly over the phone. You came to find Bai Cangshu this time because...?"

The counselor surnamed Zhang was nearly forty. Between her nerves and the stifling heat, the sweat on her face had washed her foundation into awkward streaks.

But she merely wiped at it carelessly. In truth, she had long expected that her student would eventually face this situation. It was just that now... wasn't it a little too soon?

She had thought it would at least wait until after graduation.

The man addressed as Officer Song looked to be in his thirties or forties. His dark skin suggested that he often worked in the field, making him completely different from the fair-skinned, meticulously made-up policewoman behind him.

"Teacher Zhang, don't worry. We're just here to understand the situation."

Teacher Zhang, the counselor, merely smiled and did not fully relax. As they walked, she said,

"Bai Cangshu is not a bad kid at heart."

"Well... although he doesn't get along very well with his classmates, and there are some issues with his personality, I've also heard quite a few frightening rumors around the university town..."

The counselor only felt that the more she spoke, the worse it sounded, and hurriedly stopped herself.

"But overall, he's still a good kid, haha..."

It was Luoshui's first time realizing that a teacher could add so many qualifiers when speaking up for a student.

Teacher Zhang led them to Room 1314 at the end of the corridor. She knocked on the door and only opened it after hearing a response from inside, then led the two of them in.

It was a four-person dorm room, but three of the beds were empty. The furnishings were simple, yet everything was neatly arranged. It was so clean that Luoshui found it difficult to believe it was a male dormitory.

The person inside stood by the window. Hearing them enter, he happened to turn around.

His short black hair stirred slightly in the breeze blowing in through the window. He wore a clean white shirt, and his face, illuminated by the sunlight outside as if it carried its own halo, featured sharp brows, bright eyes, and dark pupils.

A graceful young gentleman, his cleverness sudden as a god's.

Luoshui was beautiful herself, but she had never imagined that a man would inexplicably bring such verses to mind.

This student named Bai Cangshu truly had a face that drew the eye.

Officer Song raised his brows as well, but he had seen all sorts of people and quickly returned to normal. He examined the books on the desk. One was a hardcover copy of Complete Legal Code: Criminal Law.

"You're Bai Cangshu, right? I'm from the Binhai City Bureau. We have a few questions today and hope you can cooperate with our investigation."

Bai Cangshu nodded, wearing a gentle smile that made Teacher Zhang feel deeply unaccustomed. He brought over chairs from in front of the other beds and invited them to sit.

"Ask away. I'll tell you everything I know."

Officer Song held out his hand but received no response. When he turned around, he found that his apprentice was still staring at the student's face. He coughed, and only then did Luoshui hurriedly pull out a photograph from her bag.

Song Xian handed the photograph to Bai Cangshu and asked,

"You know this person, don't you?"

The photograph showed a young man with a baby face. He wore black-framed glasses, his lips pressed together, and his expression looked rather cold, somewhat at odds with his childlike appearance.

Bai Cangshu looked at the photograph and nodded.

"Yes, I know him. Chu Qi. We grew up together when we were little. We used to get along pretty well."

Song Xian nodded. He had been watching Bai Cangshu's expression all along. Though the other man's features were handsome, Song Xian always felt that something was missing from his smile.

"He died yesterday. Did you know?"

Teacher Zhang let out a short cry of surprise.

Bai Cangshu sighed, shook his head, and pinched the bridge of his nose as though saddened.

"Really... He died..."

Seeing that the atmosphere had grown heavy, Luoshui took the initiative to change the subject.

"Did Chu Qi contact you before this? I mean, recently."

Bai Cangshu raised his head and smiled at the kind-hearted, beautiful policewoman, then shook his head.

"He transferred schools midway through ninth grade. After that, I never heard anything about him again."

Luoshui nodded and wrote everything down. She already felt that there was probably no issue here.

Song Xian, however, looked around the dormitory. To be honest, he had never expected a male dormitory to be so clean and orderly. Looking at the empty beds, he asked,

"Why are there three empty beds? Such a big room, and you live alone?"

Teacher Zhang, a counselor in her thirties, let her gaze drift. Rubbing her hands together, she considered how best to phrase it.

Bai Cangshu scratched his head and smiled naturally.

"Hehe, they're all locals. They have money, and they all have partners. It's normal that they don't want to live in a dorm with a single dog like me."

Luoshui put away her notebook, amused by Bai Cangshu's self-deprecation. Teacher Zhang coughed and vaguely added a few words.

Song Xian smiled as well, put on his hat, and stood up. He was about to leave the dormitory when an idea suddenly struck him. He turned back and said,

"By the way, I haven't told you how Chu Qi died yet, have I?"

"He suddenly went berserk on Binhai City's busiest commercial street and used a specially made, sharpened Tang Dao to stab eight people to death and seriously injure two others..."

"In the end, the special police officers who arrived on the scene shot him dead after attempts to persuade him to surrender failed."

Bai Cangshu seemed to freeze for a moment, then touched his nose and said quietly,

"Then it seems he got what he deserved."

Song Xian watched Bai Cangshu, whose emotions had barely fluctuated upon hearing of such a horrific crime. The strange feeling in his heart grew stronger. After thinking for a moment, he suddenly asked,

"Have you heard of Infinite Dimensional Adventure?"

Song Xian stared into Bai Cangshu's eyes, but there was no flaw in his gaze. Bai Cangshu merely frowned, puzzled.

"What's that? A new game?"

Song Xian watched the back of Bai Cangshu's hand from the corner of his eye. At last, he relaxed inwardly, shook his head, and smiled.

"Hehe, I heard someone say some game has been pretty popular lately. Maybe I remembered the name wrong."

"Thank you for your time today, Student Bai and Teacher Zhang. If you remember anything later, you can contact me."

With that, Officer Song took out a business card and placed it on the desk.

By the time Song Xian reached the first floor, he realized what that strange feeling had been. Wasn't Bai Cangshu a little too emotionally stable? Even while being questioned by the police, he had shown no nervousness or discomfort whatsoever.

Still troubled by this, he asked the female counselor beside him.

"Teacher Zhang, from what I can see, Student Bai's mental state and emotions are quite stable. Why does his file have those kinds of records?"

Even a veteran detective like him, who had seen it all, found it hard to imagine that a student who had been involved in more than ten cases of "self-defense" over four years could look so refined, clean, and emotionally stable.

Teacher Zhang thought, That's what I thought at first too. After considering it, she explained,

"Bai Cangshu is quite normal when he's normal."

Luoshui frowned and looked at Teacher Zhang, her face full of question marks.

"What about when he isn't normal?"

Song Xian pressed.

Teacher Zhang opened her mouth, hesitated, and ultimately, out of an instinct to protect her student, softened her wording a little.

"When he isn't normal, he looks a bit... crazy..."

"Crazy?!"

Luoshui simply could not connect that word with the clean, gentle person she had just met.

"What kind of crazy?"

Teacher Zhang's expression changed several times. In the end, she held up her index finger and thumb, leaving only a tiny gap between them.

"The kind that's just a teensy bit crazy."

From the window, Bai Cangshu watched them talking in the small plaza outside the dormitory. He even waved to them from afar before closing the window and returning to the seat beneath his bed.

He took out his phone and looked again at the string of text messages from different numbers. Yet it was obvious that they had all been sent by the same person.

Cang Shu, I don't know whether you've recovered from your illness, but I have no other choice. This game may have always been a stage for lunatics like you...

I left something that many people are fighting over, a hot potato, in the old place known only to the two of us.

Cang Shu, go crazy in that world. Let those self-righteous people feel what a true freak is like.

Haha, after I die, who cares if the floodwaters rage...

Hey, Chu Qi, how could you only tell me about such a fun game now? Look... without me, you got yourself killed playing it, didn't you...

The smile on Bai Cangshu's face became increasingly obvious. He felt that Chu Qi was still the same as ever—fairly lucky, but a little foolish. Well, though he was already dead.

And this thing...

Bai Cangshu rummaged through his pocket and pulled out a black card. This was what he had retrieved from the "old place."

One side of the card appeared completely black, but when he held it up to the sunlight outside the window and changed its angle, the character for sin appeared.

The other side was covered in intricate patterns. Golden lines formed an Ouroboros-like symbol against the black surface.

At the bottom center were two white characters in neat script—Infinite.

Pfft.

As he stroked it, Bai Cangshu's fingers suddenly paused. A wound appeared out of nowhere. He looked at the character for sin on the back of the card, and his pupils suddenly contracted. The character had actually seeped through the card and appeared in his palm.

Special Item bound

Sin Karma Sequence activation begins...

Activation failed. Reincarnator ID not detected.

Correcting...

Every muscle in Bai Cangshu's body tensed instantly, but he quickly relaxed again.

He reached out and tried to touch the words before him, but nothing happened.

Suddenly, the white words vanished, and scarlet bloodstains began to appear.

Arrogant by nature, born a freak, you have never fit in with anything. You have long grown weary of the mundane routine of everyday life.

Now, a new stage has been set.

Will you wager your life and begin Infinite Dimensional Adventure?

Yes Or No