Death Note

Estelle was very interested in the improved worsted spinning machine.

The two agreed to go to the factory together after the salon.

Li Mo stood up and gathered his things.

Anna asked, "Going to the observatory?"

"Yeah. Professor Bryce pulled out the observatory's bimonthly observation ephemerides for nearly the past ten years. I'm going to study them."

"Want me to come with you?"

"No need. Take care of Helen, and get to know our new classmate while you're at it."

"Okay."

Anna and Li Mo had known each other so well since childhood that she could tell what he was going to shit just from the way he stuck out his ass.

From a single sentence, Anna knew that Li Mo wanted her to get closer to their new classmate.

And it would be best if she could dig up some information and tell Li Mo when they got back that evening.

Anna glanced at Wayne, intending to give him a hint about it.

But she found that Wayne needed no hint at all...

He was looking at Estelle like a perfect gentleman, pulling out his pocket watch with supreme nonchalance.

One look at his antics was enough to tell that he couldn't wait to make friends with Estelle right this instant.

Anna clicked her tongue, saddened to have a friend like him.

After Li Mo left, Matthew was the first to speak. "Miss Estelle, our Oliver family has been doing business in Mondel Town for over twenty years, and we've never heard of anything this good. If it really saves a fifth of the raw materials like Li Mo said, every textile mill owner in the kingdom should kowtow to him!"

Wayne looked at his watch elegantly beside him and said, "Matthew, did you work out 1729, the homework you were assigned? No? And now you want to bring your father along to kowtow to Li Mo?"

Matthew knew he couldn't outtalk Wayne and couldn't be bothered with him, so he just kept talking to Estelle...

He went on for several minutes straight.

No one answered.

Matthew stopped and looked at Estelle, somewhat puzzled...

Estelle smiled. "Go on. I'm listening."

Matthew was delighted, instantly cheered up.

He didn't know why, but whenever he looked at Estelle, he felt a strong sense of familiarity.

At home, his father often warned him to keep his mouth shut when he was out.

Although Matthew loved the limelight, he wasn't stupid enough to expose all his family's secrets in public.

But today, in front of Estelle, Matthew felt his head grow warm, and the words he had kept bottled up came tumbling out as though he were drunk. He couldn't control himself, and he didn't want to stop.

"Since we get along so well, I'll tell you something a little deeper. I said just now that my father got reliable word of the blockade order three days early. Do you know where it came from?"

Estelle asked calmly, "Where?"

"The deputy director of the Harbor Authority at the docks, and the chief clerk in charge of registering material quotas at city hall!"

"At the end of last month, an encrypted urgent dispatch from the Military Affairs Office in the royal capital had just reached city hall. That very evening, the chief clerk came by carriage to our back door and drank red wine with my father in his study for two hours. When he left, he took a bearer promissory note for fifty gold pounds with him!"

Wayne: "?"

He felt as though Matthew had gone mad. How could he dare talk about something like that in the classroom?

It was so outrageous that it sounded made up...

Matthew kept on committing suicide:

"Let me tell you, there's also that loan from the joint-venture bank. Under the kingdom's wartime financial regulations, large loans were supposed to be approved for military blacksmith shops and grain mills first, and couldn't be used to hoard bulk raw materials. But Mr. Crawford, the bank's credit manager, holds sweat equity in our family's business! My father just put up two empty warehouses as collateral, and Crawford approved the bill of exchange that very afternoon!"

Estelle asked, "You've hoarded so much raw cotton. If the town's mills won't buy it, who are you planning to sell it to?"

"The Quartermaster's Office! Once October comes and the Permafrost Defense Line in the northern frontier freezes over completely, the Third Legion is bound to be short of winter uniforms and cotton tents. The Quartermaster's Office will be desperate to buy supplies then and will have no choice but to requisition them locally at a high price. My father has already established a connection with a military procurement officer. Once we push the price up to four times what it was, we'll sell it to the Quartermaster's Office by passing it from our left hand to our right. After deducting the twenty percent kickback for the higher-ups, we'll net at least two thousand gold pounds!"

After that long spiel, Matthew let out a deep breath, feeling completely at ease.

Estelle took notes as she listened:

[Deputy director of the Harbor Authority]

[Chief clerk at city hall]

[Credit manager Crawford]

[Military procurement officer]

Those in the know understood what this list was; it was basically no different from a death note...

Estelle nodded gently. "I see. You really do know a lot, Matthew."

Matthew was overjoyed and prepared to go on to disclose the details of the account books recording his family's evasion of West District business taxes as well.

He talked, and she wrote.

The notes were gradually growing longer...

Meanwhile, Li Mo arrived at the observatory.

At the entrance, he met Professor Bryce's female assistant, Lydia.

As soon as Lydia saw him, she stood to one side of the door, bowed, and greeted him respectfully:

"Good morning, Mr. Li Mo! You're really early today!"

"Morning."

"Mr. Li Mo, is your bag heavy? Shall I carry it inside for you? The professor was just talking about you. He said he'd put all the ephemeris tables you wanted on the desk."

"It's fine. I can carry it myself."

"Oh! Mr. Li Mo, the wind is chilly this morning. Have some hot tea to warm yourself up first."

"Thanks, but no need."

Li Mo prepared to go inside.

Lydia suddenly called out urgently to stop him:

"Mr. Li Mo, please wait!"

Li Mo turned around. "Something wrong?"

Lydia bit her lip, looking pitiful. "Mr. Li Mo, I... I want to ask you a favor. Before the assessment, I had a moment of stupidity and mentioned buying the questions from you... Please, whatever you do, don't tell Professor Bryce about it, okay?"

Li Mo: "Hm?"

Lydia lowered her head even further.

She hadn't fastened the buttons at her collar properly today.

The movement revealed a snowy-white curve.

"I know I was blind before and treated you poorly. And now you're the professor's partner. If you say just one word to him, I'll definitely be fired on the spot..."

At that, Lydia took half a step forward, looked at Li Mo pitifully, and pleaded:

"Mr. Li Mo, as long as you keep this secret for me and don't expose me to the professor... whatever you ask of me, whatever you want me to do, I'll agree. Even after work... I won't refuse..."

As Lydia spoke, her shoulders trembled constantly, making her look very fragile.

She silently lowered her eyes, but in that instant, a shrewd look flashed through them.

Who in Puxiu Academy didn't know by now that Li Mo had truly risen to prominence?

A sixteen-year-old genius like him was just the right age to be easily manipulated.

Lydia thought, If Li Mo really does make some excessive demands of me, that would actually be a good thing!

As long as they had a secret connection, she could latch onto Li Mo without raising suspicion.

On the surface, she was acting aggrieved, putting on the appearance of someone with nowhere else to turn.

But in reality, the true hunter often struck in the guise of prey...

Li Mo looked at Lydia, her head bowed and her body trembling before him, without feeling a thing.

He really had no thoughts about women at all.

Who would want to fall in love when faced with such an interesting world...?

Those who wanted romance only said so online. If they really transmigrated here, who wouldn't want to throw themselves into research for three days and nights?

Still, there was something Li Mo wanted to tell her.

He said:

"Do you really think the professor doesn't know about this? Is it possible that, to him, this was just another way of screening people?"

With that, Li Mo pushed the door open and went inside.

Lydia remained frozen in place, still wearing her aggrieved expression.

A full three or four seconds passed before she understood what Li Mo had just said. She stood outside the door in a daze for a long while, unable to come to her senses.