Human Nature

"Name?"

"Huai Shi."

"Age?"

"Seventeen... Wait, does the Astronomical Society recruit gigolos too?"

In the silent office, the boy behind the desk scratched his chin, looking at the expressionless interrogator across from him in bafflement. "Come on, mister, you've asked and investigated enough these past few days. I helped the Astronomical Society get rid of a menace, didn't I? Why am I being treated like a traitor?"

"Routine investigation. Please cooperate."

For who knew how many times, the interrogator repeated those words before asking, "Could you describe your battle with Red Glove again?"

"Forgot. Can't remember." Huai Shi rolled his eyes. "Maybe some bald, caped Peiqi Hero passing by killed him with one slap? Seriously, when I went in, I saw him fighting Red Glove..."

"Oh, bald, caped Peiqi Hero... How come that's different from what you said last time?"

"I can't remember!"

"Then could you explain how, as a newly awakened Ascender, you killed a third-rank Red Glove? According to our previous investigation, you seemed to have always been a student specializing in music. You'd never even been in a fight."

Huai Shi rolled his eyes. "I was born super strong!"

"Then the next question..."

Two hours later, the interrogator calmly organized the thick stack of records in his hands, then rose to say goodbye as though it were routine business. "Thank you for your cooperation, and thank you for your contribution to this world."

After a formal handshake, he turned and left.

Huai Shi stood at the door with a blank look on his face.

"Finally done? What the hell is wrong with your Astronomical Society? Sending someone over to ask the same questions again and again these past few days..."

Ai Qing, who was reading, remained utterly calm. "Normal. It concerns Green Sun, so there has to be a detailed record. They're all record officers. Their duty is to write down everything you say, then take it back and archive it."

"Can such superficial records really be useful?"

"It's just procedure." Ai Qing said calmly, "As long as nobody wants to cause trouble during the process, there probably won't be any problem."

"Hm?" Huai Shi looked over. "Cause trouble?"

"Standard procedure. Sit down."

Ai Qing calmly drank the coffee brought over by her maidservant. "Where there are people, there's conflict. The position of inspector is important. There are always more wolves than meat, and it's been taken by a cripple like me who's still a few months short of twenty. Of course people won't be convinced. If stirring up trouble could free up a position, I wouldn't mind doing it myself."

"..."

Huai Shi sucked in a cold breath. "Your Astronomical Society really is a hellhole."

"One last reminder—"

Ai Qing finally raised her head and glanced at the badge on Huai Shi's chest. "Not your Astronomical Society. Ours. Of course, I don't mean you should develop some collective sense of honor. I mean that if something happens to me, you won't get off easy either."

"Ah, I get it, I get it. We're all in the same boat, right?"

Huai Shi sighed. After all these days, he had more or less gotten used to Ai Qing's way of talking, but why could he never hear a single positive word come out of her mouth?

If he was now a machine that manufactured negative energy, then Ai Qing could absolutely open an entire factory—her output wasn't even on the same level.

How had this woman even survived until now?

"By relying on my abilities, obviously."

Ai Qing answered without looking up.

Huai Shi froze, then his heart went cold. Could this woman read minds too?

"I'm not an Ascender, so I can't do that sort of inexplicable thing. If I were you, I wouldn't write every question on my face."

"Uh..."

Huai Shi instinctively touched his face. "Is there something written on it?"

"Yes." Ai Qing, still reading, raised her head again and gave him a pitying glance. "It vividly explains the essence of humanity."

"Hm? Does it say pigeon, or repeater?"

Huai Shi asked curiously.

"..."

Ai Qing simply didn't want to deal with him.

Under Huai Shi's incessant noise assault, she finally showed a hint of impatience. Closing her book, she sincerely wondered whether there had been something wrong with her brain when she recruited someone like him as her secretary.

"What exactly do you want?"

She raised a hand and pinched the bridge of her nose, narrowing her eyes. "If you've finished your report and have nothing better to do, go thoroughly investigate the Ten Most Haunted Houses in New Sea that those busybodies ranked online recently. That way, some other idiot like you won't play ghost-house explorer and drive himself insane."

"Don't even mention it!"

The moment Huai Shi heard that, he angrily slapped the table. "That ranking is complete bullshit! The number one place is my house!

How is my house haunted? It's just a little overgrown and poor! If I had money, would I have left even the front door unrepaired? I've already chased off four groups of lunatics coming to take pictures these past two days!"

"..."

Ai Qing was helpless. "So what exactly are you trying to say?"

"Well... I just wanted to ask..." Huai Shi suddenly became bashful. Rubbing his hands together, he forced out a fawning smile. "Boss, could you pay me an advance on my salary?"

"..."

Ai Qing took a deep breath and resisted the urge to throw her book in his face. "Didn't I already give you more than twenty thousand?"

"It's gone." Holding back tears, Huai Shi looked toward the dead Crow in the tree outside the window, unable to bear recalling the past. "Anyway, it's a long story.

School's about to start, and I still owe more than four thousand on Huabei. Forget tuition, I can't even afford food. Boss, could you pay me something early so I can survive until the New Year?"

"It's only late September. There are still six months until the New Year."

Ai Qing looked at him expressionlessly. After a long while, she took out her phone. "How much do you want?"

Huai Shi's eyes immediately lit up, and he leaned closer. "Hey, five or six thousand would be enough. I'll pay you back when I get my salary."

Beep!

"Four thousand yuan has been credited to your Alipay account."

Ai Qing put away her phone indifferently. "This is your base salary for the month. Keep it safe. Unless there are other temporary assignments, you'll have to live on it until the fifteenth of next month."

"My monthly salary is actually four thousand?"

Huai Shi was almost overwhelmed with joy. Back when he had braved wind and rain playing violin in bars for orphanage charity performances, he had never made this much money.

"Ah, Old Liu is getting discharged tomorrow too. I can even treat him to a meal."

"When did your relationship get so good?"

"Ha, jealous?" Huai Shi began getting carried away. "Friendship between men is just that simple."

"Is that so?"

Ai Qing calmly lifted her coffee and took a sip, asking as though casually, "So, have you figured out how to explain to him that you burned down the car he bought with a loan of over a million?"

"..."

Soon, after watching Huai Shi leave the office looking grief-stricken, Ai Qing finally welcomed a rare moment of peace.

In the silence, she sighed and looked at the bank page on her computer screen, at that sizable transfer amount—three point four million US dollars in total.

Forget it.

For now, she'd better not tell him about the bounty on Red Glove.

"How can such a nice house be a haunted house?"

Huai Shi stood at his front door with his hands on his hips, looking at the lush, towering trees around him, the verdant moss on the walls, and the ivy climbing over them.

Beyond the rust-covered gate, wildflowers and green grass bloomed in the courtyard, while broken statues reflected white light beneath the sun...

"No matter how you look at it, the scenery is beautiful and the sunshine is bright!"

After silently spitting on those people online who randomly made ridiculous rankings, Huai Shi selectively ignored just how eerie his house became at night. Shaking his head, he pushed open the creaking gate.

"I'm home!"

No one answered. Only the sharp sound of the gate slowly closing behind him responded.

See that? How thoughtful! Even the gate was automatic!

Did other places have that? Did they? Did they?

Anyone who called such a wonderful place a haunted house was utterly without conscience.

After snorting coldly, Huai Shi stepped across the creaking floorboards, pushed open the front door, and returned to the dust-covered hall. Then he picked up the cup from the table, drank two mouthfuls of hot water, and went back to his room to pack the things he would need for school.

But for someone like him, who mostly guessed his way through academic subjects, the third year of high school was basically a lost cause. What he needed to prepare more were the materials and textbooks for next month's professional performance examination.

The ABRSM professional performance certificate could serve as a diploma in most countries around the world. With that in hand, as long as his college entrance exam scores weren't disastrously bad, getting an acceptance letter from an arts university shouldn't be a problem.

"So, does that really mean anything to you now?" Crow asked.

"Hm?" Huai Shi was puzzled.

Crow asked again, "Do you think a diploma has any meaning for an Ascender?"

"Ascenders don't need to eat? Ascenders don't need jobs?" Huai Shi rolled his eyes. "Does money just fall from the sky while you sit at home?"

"..."

Crow sighed. "What I mean is, for Ascenders, most people don't have to worry about money. They might not be rich, but they definitely won't lack food or clothing."

"How do Ascenders make money?" Huai Shi looked askance at her. "Murder and arson? How's that any different from robbery? Can't they just live peacefully and earn enough to eat?"

Honestly, although the Astronomical Society did pay him a generous salary, and he could get four thousand yuan in base pay every month even if he did nothing, anyone with a brain could tell how dangerous the work would be when there was actual work to do.

Just look at Liu Dongli.

A gigolo, living a perfectly good life, yet he came to be Huai Shi's bodyguard. Then something happened while guarding him! Not only had he been forced to join old ladies in their sunset square-dance troupe, but he'd also been stabbed in the back by a traitor.

If Huai Shi had gained any impression of the world of Ascenders these past days, it was only one word: danger.

Countless Border Relics scattered throughout the Present Realm, with unknown functions, unknown threats, and unknown purposes; every person's completely different Soul Ability; and the bizarre Stigmata fused into the bodies of high-ranking Ascenders...

Every single one of them could easily kill someone.

Even a face-selling gigolo like Liu Dongli could rely on his peerless beauty—according to himself—to forcibly charm anyone who looked at him until they forgot to breathe and suffocated to death.

And he was merely a weak, pitiful, helpless negative-energy manufacturing machine.

Just finishing off a half-crippled Red Glove had nearly killed him several times already.

Risking his life?

Forget it.

He should find a way to become financially independent as soon as possible, quit his job at the Astronomical Society, and honestly work toward his dream of playing violin in Vienna.

At worst, he could become a music teacher!

"...Although life as an Ascender may be dangerous for most people, some do make an honest living. Don't treat every Ascender in the world like a bandit, all right?"

Crow sighed helplessly and raised a phone in one claw. "Look at this news first."

"What is it?"

Huai Shi leaned over and examined the Tomorrow News article. "Roman auction house sets a new record, Twilight Spectrum's fifth-rank Stigmata Níðhöggr sells for forty-three... one, two, three—holy shit, why are there so many zeroes!"

Thanks for everyone's understanding, I'm finally feeling a little better. I'm still back in my hometown right now. Once I return to Chengdu in a few days, I'll do my best to get back to two updates a day~