In most people's minds, anyone called a professor was usually a refined, thin scholar, or perhaps white-haired, bespectacled, and steeped in bookishness...
But none of that was likely to show on a mountain of flesh over two meters tall.
That mountain of flesh now gave Ai Qing a warm smile, his oily face gleaming as blindingly as the sun. His hands never stopped moving as he skillfully arranged instruments far too delicate for his thick fingers.
"Coffee or tea?"
"Coffee," Ai Qing said. "No sugar."
Soon, a steaming cup of coffee in an exquisite cup was placed on the saucer before Ai Qing.
The professor turned around in his absurdly enormous swivel chair, opened the refrigerator beside him, and kept bringing out all kinds of exquisite cakes, puddings, chocolates, macarons, Yingzhou fruit, Roman mille-feuille...
"It happens to be dinner time. Let's eat together."
Chuckling, he tied on his napkin and picked up his knife and fork. "I've been dieting lately, so I don't eat meat at night anymore."
Ai Qing looked at the table overflowing with calories. Rarely, she seemed somewhat tempted, but she quickly shook her head and declined with regret. "Sooner or later, your cholesterol will kill you."
"I've already had cerebral thrombosis several times."
The professor cheerfully raised a finger and tapped the surgical scar on his forehead. "Thanks to the Astronomical Society, the Continuance Institute's medical technology always lets me continue indulging in this hobby."
"Flattering me won't help. No matter what, I'm still only a newcomer who just became official." Ai Qing took a sip of coffee and nodded in satisfaction.
Though she hated to admit it, the professor's coffee really was the best in all of New Sea. She had plenty of rare coffee grounds at home, but her skill could never compare to his.
"You became official at a time like this? You've had it rough too—"
The professor's brow furrowed slightly. "Will the war in the Dragon Triangle affect New Sea?"
"To some extent."
Ai Qing tapped the table and sighed.
This was the perfect example of a city gate catching fire and the fish in the moat suffering.
As one of the world's foremost behemoths, the Astronomical Society possessed immense authority. It was itself the hidden embodiment of the United Nations.
Ninety years ago, in response to threats beyond the border, the International Astronomical Society had been established under the Pioneer Society's advocacy, with the participation of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council: East Xia, Rome, the Russian Federation, the American Commonwealth, and the First Dynasty of Egypt.
And today, the Astronomical Society's ruling body—the Unified Bureau, which had replaced "Utopia"—was itself composed of political leaders from various nations and major monopoly groups.
That was why the First World War had been called the war to end all wars—
Since then, there had indeed been no worldwide wars, but that did not mean war had vanished. It had merely moved to places ordinary people could not see. In order to compete for influence within the Unified Bureau, had there been few proxy wars between nations over the years?
Otherwise, how had Baghdad become a field of ruins?
Dozens of borders had been sunk by four Arch-Enemies fighting each other, plunging into the depths of hell. The aftershocks they caused had yet to settle even now.
Though nations and factions maintained the Astronomical Society under the pressure from beyond the border, internal strife had never been absent...
Just like this border war in the Dragon Triangle.
Over the years, everyone had tacitly acknowledged that the country and organization where a border was located possessed the primary right to develop it—but borders were called borders not merely because they stood at the edge of the Present Realm. It was also because, like borderlands, they were areas where sovereignty was thin.
Especially under special circumstances, they could move...
For years, Yingzhou's public families represented by the Tianjin Faction and warrior families represented by the Kunitsu Faction had constantly fought over the ruins of the former Yamatai Empire—the Dragon Triangle border. It was not their first time fighting until their heads were bloodied. The border's sovereignty changed hands even faster than the country changed prime ministers. In the end, after all that fighting, they had damaged the Boundary Wedge holding the border in place...
They had actually broken the fucking Boundary Wedge!
Were they doing it on purpose?
In any case, according to the Astronomical Society's calculations, the Dragon Triangle had begun drifting. After floating partway toward the Australian Archipelago, it suddenly turned northwest...
That was right. It was drifting toward East Xia.
East Xia was delighted. Taiqing Heavy Industry, the border development conglomerate, was already rubbing its hands eagerly, waiting for this chunk of meat to fall into its pot.
Then Yingzhou became unhappy. But the Dragon Triangle had already drifted into international waters. If they were unhappy, so what? What mattered was whether the people were happy.
Besides, such a huge thing was floating over, and Yingzhou wanted to keep it hidden away without letting anyone interfere. What if there were dangerous items inside?
East Xia thundered, "Come on, let me take a look!"
No one knew whether it was developing normally, but the situation would definitely become increasingly tense.
What gave Ai Qing a headache now was that if East Xia truly intended to take action against the Dragon Triangle, Xin Hai City would become one of the most convenient ports of departure after some time.
In other words, more and more Ascenders looking to make money, seize treasure, earn extra cash, and cause trouble would come here.
And Ai Qing had to worry not only about the Ascender crimes that would inevitably rise by then, but also about the mutual attraction between borders—
What if the Yamatai border within the Dragon Triangle collided with East Xia's coast and crashed into another border?
That would be like a comet striking Earth!
Of course, she would not be the only one worrying about it, but her name would definitely be on the list of people blamed when the time came. Becoming an official inspector for the Astronomical Society at a time like this was truly terrible timing.
Rather, if she wanted to protect herself, she needed to prepare for a transfer within half a year.
The border was not drifting quickly, but judging from the current trend, a major disaster would likely erupt around New Sea within a year at the latest.
"Have you found somewhere to go?"
The professor asked casually, "With the connections behind you, surely even this isn't impossible?"
Ai Qing glanced at him and said nothing.
"Just curious. Purely curious."
The professor gave an honest laugh. After a whirlwind sweep, he had already eaten more than half of the dazzling desserts on the table, and the coffee with so much sugar it was nearly syrup had also gone into his stomach.
He had eaten half-full for dinner.
He wiped his mouth, then pulled out a thick file from beneath the table and placed it in front of Ai Qing.
"This is the investigation you requested, all currently available records and information related to the Savior Society." The professor said, "As you requested, I only organized the basics and removed some useless redundancy. But I didn't add any subjective analysis. I trust these documents won't trouble you."
Ai Qing was fairly confident in her ability to read documents—if she needed to make guesses, she did not need someone else to make blind guesses for her and add their subjective opinions.
The most important reason she had become an inspector through a one-in-ten-thousand selection process was not merely her near-perfect written test scores, but also her "intuition," a talent considered rare even within the Astronomical Society.
Yes, that was right. Intuition.
If she guessed odds and evens without any basis, she would probably be right or wrong half the time. In games involving rolling dice and guessing numbers, she might be far inferior to professional mathematicians.
But only when facing chaotic and complicated situations could that intuition reveal its true value.
In terms of probability, her chances of being correct were around sixty-five percent.
A success rate more than fifteen percent higher than that of ordinary people had allowed her to stand out among countless tests, earning her the highest evaluation of A+ talent.
Such talent was absolutely perfect for a precognitive Stigmata. Even without soul sublimation, it was enough to inspire great expectations.
The Astronomical Society did not care about that thirty-five percent failure rate. In fact, they had sufficient ability to pay the price for it. If Ai Qing had not rejected the Strategy Office's recruitment and chosen a local post instead, the Astronomical Society would probably already have begun specially cultivating her.
That was why she had been mocked among her fellow trainees as the classic example of someone who did not know what was good for her—
As an information broker, the professor knew every detail of this partner's background. He had every written record memorized, but he was more curious about the things that had never been recorded on paper.
Ai Qing was extremely secretive about them and had never revealed even the slightest hint to anyone.
In the silence, she focused on turning the heavy pages. The professor did not speak again to disturb her. He merely turned his swivel chair in another direction and began reading the obscure professional books on his desk.
If Ai Qing had any impression after reading, it was only that the Savior Society ran even deeper than she had expected.
Though it looked like nothing more than a scam organization no matter how she viewed it, there were too many suspicious points to count. Whether it was the origin of that strange Border Relic or the Ascenders who had secretly crossed paths with them...
Wang Hai, identified by his accomplices, had merely been a temporary leader. Before him, when the Savior Society had not yet borne that name, there were even traces of other leaders.
It was true that they had secretly huddled in Old Pond Town and developed in a cowardly manner, but their public shell companies, including Benevolent Charity and many others, had broad dealings with other places.
Not only New Sea—there were even traces reaching elsewhere. They had connections everywhere, across every stratum of society. If the Red Glove had not crossed the river like a mighty dragon and made use of this scam church, no one knew how long it would have taken to discover these foul things quietly growing among the lower classes in rural areas and remote cities.
Now, it looked more like a subordinate branch and a front for some enormous organization.
But whose hand had reached out from behind it?
There were too many suspicious directions.
The Black Sky Cult of India? The Beatific Land beyond the border? The Scientific Deities Society of the American Union? Or Yingzhou's countless Ghosts and Monsters?
Unfortunately, Wang Hai and Nue, the only two who knew the details, were already dead. Otherwise, Ai Qing would not have had to begin investigating again as though searching for a needle in the sea.
She was not worried about what schemes the Red Glove killed by Huai Shi and the Green Sun, the largest terrorist organization beyond the border behind him, might still be plotting.
The power beyond the border ultimately belonged beyond the border. If it wanted to accomplish anything in the Present Realm, it could not bypass the Astronomical Society that enveloped the entire Human World.
What worried her was what those lunatics from the Savior Society, who harvested Source Matter from the elderly, were trying to do. Had they succeeded, or were they still doing it? How did they intend to do it?
Who else was doing it with them?
From the bottom of her heart, she did not believe Wang Hai, a useless piece of trash who only knew how to swindle money, could use Benevolent Charity to infiltrate New Sea's upper-middle class.
One look at the files was enough to tell her that man was destined to scam pensions for the rest of his life.
Then who, exactly, was fanning the flames behind the scenes?
Before long, her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a phone call.
And after she finished the call, she had completely lost the mood to continue thinking.
"Let's leave the preliminary report at that." She gathered the files from the table. "I'll transfer the remaining payment to you, but the investigation into the Savior Society must continue. Please remember to inform me of any new developments."
"Don't worry, I will."
The professor drank tea and studied her expression. "Did another Corrupted Object or Ascender crime appear?"
"No. Something worse."
Ai Qing expressionlessly tapped the armrest of her wheelchair. Recalling the description of Huai Shi from the phone call, she could not help wanting to sigh:
"—Much, much worse."
Before you continue