Phoo—
Professor Yao took a loud pull on his pipe and exhaled a thick cloud of smoke. In the void, it first coalesced into a little white cat, then became a fox with four tails, and finally formed a tree—or rather, a small tree in front and a large one behind. The smaller tree stood less than ten feet tall, its trunk about a foot thick, with dense aerial roots and a crown like two arms reaching upward. The larger tree gleamed metallic gray all over, with thick, cylindrical branches. Each cylinder split into six flattened, rounded structures, arranged in a regular circle at the top of the trunk. Zheng Qing recognized the larger tree at a glance. After all, he had only parted ways with the Queen of Shaggai a short while ago.
Likewise, he immediately recognized the other figures the smoke had formed.
The old man hadn't said a word, yet somehow seemed to have said all sorts of things. It felt rather rude.
But Zheng Qing neither grew angry nor blushed.
Instead, his smile faded, and he frowned.
He wasn't quite sure what Old Yao was getting at.
"—What does this mean?"
He spoke without any embarrassment. After all, he really had nothing to do with the Queen of Shaggai; he had only met her for the first time today. There was no reason to feel uneasy over an old man's nonsense.
"When I said just now that you'd returned so quickly, you didn't find anything odd about it, did you?" Professor Yao asked him in return.
Zheng Qing paused briefly, then slowly nodded.
"How long do you think that trip with Mister Ruo Yu took?" Professor Yao asked again.
"About..."
Just as Zheng Qing was about to answer offhandedly, something stirred in his mind. Hidden inside