Scene 3: The Dictator (2)

“The white king rebellion is the largest rebellion in the history of the dragon race. A third of the dragon race became rebels. After the black king suppressed the rebellion, he recorded the fate of the rebels in a huge bronze pillar that we found in Greenland.” Manstein said, “This means that the Frozen Bronze Table is the history of Nidhogg’s lineage. If the dragons have political considerations, there’s no doubt that the black king will emphasize the rebel leader has been completely destroyed. But as the first generation with the purest dragon lineage, was the soul of the white king destroyed easily? Perhaps it is still alive and resting somewhere, like other dragon kings.”

“We have not yet found any white king generations! The white king was close to human, if Lu Mingfei is the white king blood descendant, it’s not necessarily a bad thing.” Guderian said.

Manstein took the pipe out and took a few breaths, smiled with a wry expression. “Guderian, don’t lie to yourself, both you and I don’t believe that the white king will help mankind. Three principles of the dragon race: First, the dragon race and human beings are completely different, the gap between us and the dragons are far more than the hatred between the black king and the white king. On the Frozen Bronze Table, it says that the white king ‘dyed the silver throne with the blood of untouchables’, implying the violence of the white king. The white king may only use human beings to make up for their own shortcomings. He was created by the black king. Although there is a gap between them, he was always an outlier, and could not really sympathize with humanity.”

The old clock on the wall was ticking, Guderian’s face grew pale and silent.

“We are not whole human beings either,” he said in a low voice after a long time. “Is that important for us, black or white king’s lineage? Do you really want to impose the doctrine of blood on children?”

Professor Manstein was smoking with his pipe vigorously. “Have you considered the consequences of protecting your students? If the white king is what Nidhogg calls an “evil king”, who knows what the descendants of the white king will do to mankind? After bloodline was awakened, Lu Mingfei may become our enemy. The golden dragon pupil of Chu Zihang cannot suppress him, he might have incomparable potential. Who dares to let him live in this college?”

“What are you trying to say?” Guderian looked up sharply and yelled.

“Write a report and send it to the principal.” Muttered Manstein.

Guderian felt a chill in his heart. “What is the result of submitting such a report?”

“Isolation. We will research this student, he cannot be a student and he cannot leave this college. Until the identity is verified. Don’t hesitate, do it now, don’t involve yourself.” Manstein reached into his pocket for the phone and handed it to Guderian.

Guderian was silent for a long time, grabbing Manstein’s hand and closing the phone slowly and forcefully.

“Lu Mingfei…” Professor Guderian paused, and finally uttered the line he had thought of, “Is a very nice boy.”

For a moment Manstein was puzzled. He can’t compare with Guderian on academic researching. From the beginning of the university, he always had to let Guderian help his homework until doctoral graduation. He knows that what his friend says randomly may be loaded with meaning. At this time, he should never be timid.

The ancient clock on the wall “ticked” as Manstein bent his head thoughtfully, time was ticking away.

“You mean… Will the goodness of his human side resist the call of the white king’s blood?” Manstein wasn’t so sure. “Well, I give up. Tell me about your answer.”

Guderian scratched his head. “I… Nothing special. I just remember Nuo Nuo told me that he cried his eyes out in the washroom when he heard the letter from his parents.”

“Does this have anything to do with the white king?”

“No. As a child, I thought he was lonely and kind and a good boy. We can’t take away his chance, can we? Who wants to be a specimen?” Guderian looks into his friend’s eyes. “We all remember our childhood, right? We had been specimens. When the two of us trying to reach out to grasp together across the iron railings… Were you sad?”

Stunned, Manstein lowered his head. He looked at the phone in his hand silently, and the shouted voice came back to his ear through decades:

“Pull away those two mad children! What are they doing?”

“Damn it! Loosen the hand! I warn you not to get yourself into trouble!”

“It’s time for electric treatment! Pull them away! Take him to the therapy room!”

He remembered the pain of the electric shock as if it had been a blade cutting through his body. After every therapy, he would smell the faint smell of burning and felt like he’s going to cry. At that time, he was always looking at the only square window in the brig, longing to fly like a bird, longing for something to drop from the sky and change his life.

Fingel threw the goose’s leg back on the plate, burped and leaned forward. He looked straight at Lu Mingfei, “Do you want the… secret?”

“Secret?” Lu Mingfei stunned.

Fingel lowered his voice. “All tests are questions, questions are invented by people, there must be flaws if it’s invented by people!”

“Senior brother!” Lu Mingfei felt refreshed and changed to the most cordial address. “Do you have a good idea?”

“Mind cheating?” Fingel’s eyes sparkled.

“No… Not at all!”

“You are worthy to be taught!” Fingel praised Lu Mingfei’s resoluteness. “Remember, to get on in this school, we have to have the limit!”

“Limit?” Lu Mingfei could not believe that such a virtuous word would come out of Fingel’s mouth.

“The limit must be minus three meters!” Fingel put his hand on the ground. “That’s it. Three meters down, that’s our limit!”

“That makes perfect sense!” Lu Mingfei was moved by his roommate.

“In a place where there are so many talented and crazy people, we must have a limit, but it can’t be more than minus three meters, or we will be done.” Fingel said with a secrecy look,” A handy tool makes a handyman. If we must cheat, we must have a deep understanding of the object of cheating! Do you know how many dragon language’s sentences have been deciphered so far?”

“Isn’t it in words?”

“Wrong! There are only seventy-six sentences!” Fingel showed the attitude of teaching a lesson. “Language is divided into words and grammar, and when you combine the two, you get an infinite number of sentences. But dragon’s language is a dead language, so far there are only words, but no grammar. The last person in history to understand its grammar was Nicholas Flamel… “

“Ni… Ni what?” Lu Mingfei didn’t remember.

“You idiot. Never mind, don’t remember, just call him… Old Ni! We call him Old Ni!” Said Fingel, waving his hand.” Old Ni lived in Paris, where he was a scribe and an alchemist. He is the only one in recorded history who has refined the ‘philosopher’s stone’!”

“The philosopher’s stone? It sounds so cool.” Said Lu Mingfei.

“Super cool! It’s a little bit more complicated to explain, but to put it simply, ‘the philosopher’s stone’ is the fifth element, the purely spiritual element, that you will learn in the course of ‘Introduction to Alchemy’. Alchemy and Speaking Spirit are the two supports of the dragon’s technology. In the age without science, dragons have performed many miracles through alchemy and speaking spirit. Old Ni was very interesting, he was a scribe but suddenly learned alchemy, the dragon technology. The reason is he found an alchemy manuscript, which records the dragon language’s grammar. Old Ni learned this set of grammar but did not pass it on to others. Instead, he summed up 76 sentences of obscure dragon’s language and passed them on. These are all the sentences we can decipher now. You get the idea? At most, there are only 76 questions.”

“You mean there is a question bank?” Lu Mingfei suddenly understood.

“Right! Let me tell you how to do it. When you enter the examination room, they will only give you a blank sheet of paper and a pencil without any hint. They will play a recording with the recitation of the dragon language. For the dragon blood descendants, it will resonate with them and produce a ‘Spiritual Vision’ effect. Dragon Language is a hieroglyphic, you will ‘see’ amazing scene.”

“See what?”

“Different people are different, often messy lines, tangled snakes, wild plants and so on, you just follow what you see and draw it down.”

“Is this an art exam?” Lu Ming was a little dumbed, “I’m not good at drawing.”

“Stick people level is ok. They don’t test your painting good but see your ‘Spiritual Vision’ effect. The purer of student’s pedigree, they can see more vivid things.” Fingel took out a piece of white paper and drew a quick outline on it with a pencil. It was hard to see that Fingel was a good sketcher. Lu Mingfei watched the pencil lines gradually forming a picture. The picture is extremely abstract, with countless waveforms overlapping, which looks like an ocean at a distance.

“There are a lot of curves in this painting, and if you take parts of it from the curves,” Fingel said, drawing some lines heavily, “it’s the ‘word’ in the dragon language. The person who’s marking it is Norma. She will analyze the thing you draw and find the dragon language in them. This is one of the questions I painted before.”

“Wouldn’t that say… There are seventy-six paintings. Are there any variations base on the seventy-six paintings? I can’t remember it!” The hope of Lu Mingfei that had just been raised was dying.

“Don’t worry. Now, let me reveal the ultimate secret for you!” Fingel giggled, “The biggest flaw in Cassel’s 3E system is that they recycle old papers!”

“Recycle?” Lu Mingfei did not understand.

“A total of eight sets of papers, recycling for eight years and it never changes!”

“Are the professors out of their minds?” Lu Mingfei can’t believe it.

In the domestic Chinese school, the teachers and students, all have the innumerable fighting experience. Chinese university entrance exam will only test a few books, but every high school teacher can give thousands of model examination questions for students! What Chinese teachers practice is like Huang Yaoshi playing Jade Flute Sword Method, there are always a hundred ways; these Cassel college professors seem to practice the Eighteen Dragon Strike with fierce force, but after a set of strikes, they have to start from the beginning. 1)

Fingel struggled. “There are only a few dozen or a hundred people who take the 3E exam every year. They are all geniuses. They graduate in four years and then they must join the Executive Department to explore the relics of the dragon all over the world. How could they remember the test and tell the new students? So an eight-year round is actually safe, but there are always exceptions to the rule,” he said, raising his eyebrows, looking lewd. “Remember? I’ve been in school for eight years!”

“Ahhhh! “Lu Mingfei inspired himself and became extremely excited, “This year and the year you entered Cassel’s exams are exactly the same!”

“3000 dollars of one price, you may pay afterwards. Deduct the 497 pieces that you have already entertained me and cola in Chicago train station for 3 dollars, you still owe me 2501 dollars. I will wipe out oddments, so that’s 2500 dollars to buy this set of examination questions. Do it or not, I will count 10 seconds!” Fingel’s voice was as quick as a bullet, as firm as a drawn sword. “10! 9! 8! …… “

“Wait a minute… Hello! What’s going on here?” Lu Mingfei was surprised.

“7! 6!”

“At least I have to see the goods, dude? You can’t just force me to buy!”

“5! 4!”

“What if the goods are not right? Do you have guarantees? Do you make a receipt?”

“3! 2!”

“Hey, dude! Are you listening to me? Damn it… Done!” Lu Mingfei felt that he was about to collapse. He sat down and gasped for breath.

“At this time only I can help you, you have no choice. Why do you resist?” Fingel drained the sparkling wine in his glass at one gulp and spat out a mouthful of carbon dioxide leisurely. “I knew I had worked hard for eight years for something, today I finally got money for the first time with my knowledge!”

“Bah! Shame! You profiteer!” Lu Mingfei was very angry, “I thought you were the kind of idiot senior wearing depth glasses with knowledge but no girlfriend!”

“Ha! I was once an ‘A’ student as mighty as Caesar! In those good old days, I also had a lot of adoration from schoolgirls, leaving loving emails in my school mailbox!” Fingel patted his thick chest, this Teutonic smiled as the Jewish merchant finished the deal.

“Bachelor uncle will always brag about his debonair history when he was young!” Lu Mingfei was distressed about his $2500 that flew away, and he fought back fiercely.

Fingel lowed his head with depression. “But I thought I was going to graduate with three years of credit and be the youngest executive, so I ignored them… By the time I wanted to talk to them, they had all become executive birds and flown all over the world.”

“A failing dog who keeps repeating grades shouldn’t say that. Even if they don’t fly all over the world they will just say I was blind before and fell in love with Fingel.”

“Dude,” said Fingel, patting Lu Mingfei on the head, “the first lesson you learn in college is that girls like us because they are stupid, and they are more likely to be stupid when they are young than when they grow up, so Lolita is better than big sisters!”

“All right, stop teasing. 2500 dollars right? Now I don’t have them. Can I pay you after I get the scholarship?” Said Lu Mingfei. “And what’re the 497 dollars? How come I don’t remember treating you to such an expensive treat?”

“No problem with late payment. And for $497,” Fingel tapped the goose leg bone on his plate, “it’s half in you and half in me.”

“Isn’t it the college supper service?” Lu Mingfei stunned.

“But they take money! Do you think you can eat free with sterling silver? The most you’ll get for a free meal is a plastic fork!”

“We didn’t pay at all, senior brother!”

“We used your student id card.”

“Student card?” Lu Mingfei did not get it.

“Your student id is also a credit card guaranteed by Citibank. As an ‘S’ noble, your credit limit is as high as $100,000. So pay me, who has only 80 dollars in credit limit, for a meal of 497 dollars, do you think it is very generous?”

“That means… I’ve already owed money?” Lu Mingfei’s heart was bleeding.

“It’s not terrible to owe money,” Fingel reassured him. “you see, my financial situation is more than thirty thousand dollars in negative, and I’m still living pretty well.”

Lu Mingfei covered his face. For this roommate’s calm shameless, he despairs.

At midnight, in the library basement, the red light of the entrance guard flashes at a general frequency, which is the sign of the normal operation of the security system.

It’s very quiet, there’s only the sound of high-speed rotation of the hard disks occasionally. The huge central server is located here, from the ground floor to the underground six, if it exposed to the ground, the central server has the same size as a small building. The highest level of security is enforced here, with the eye mask, voice print and fingerprint identification systems. The outer walls are made by alloy that can resist explosives. Infrared lasers are scanning every area, even the space that can only be drilled by rats.

Footsteps came from far and near, like the sound of iron-shod boots. The flashing frequency of the red light started to rise. As the approaching of the footsteps became higher and higher, the security system failed to identify the identity of the person from the footsteps, and the danger index gradually rose to the threshold value of the alarm.

The footsteps stopped in front of the entrance. Ignoring the eye mask, voice print and fingerprint identification system, the visitor ran a black, unmarked card across the slot.

In an instant, the warning value felt back sharply. The power of the infrared laser scanner and hundreds of cameras was cut off. The warning light of the security system turned green and “Clicking” voice rang slightly. Nine gates to the center server were unlocked at the same time.

On the top floor of the library, Professor Manstein and Professor Guderian looked at each other in silence. Manstein looked down at his watch, but he suddenly stunned. His watch is a monitoring terminal, showing that the security system at the moment went into the sleep mode. But the security system should be a perennial operation and never come to sleep mode.

“Executive Department, Norma’s security system went into hibernation. Send a few people to the library.” Manstein was on the phone, running toward the elevator.

Guderian put down the sealed can and squeezed in time when the elevator door got closed.

When the elevator reached the first floor of the library, Manstein stepped out of the elevator and looked around. The first floor was quite at midnight.

The library of Cassel College is an elegant antique building, with a lobby nearly ten meters high, as magnificent as the Sistine Chapel. Exquisite marble columns support the elegant arch, on the top is the colourful glass window that can see the starry sky. The atrium is paved with visible, water-rubbed granite tiles. The wooden door carved cherry at the end of the walkway was locked at the moment.

There was a knock on the door, and Manstein went to open it. Outside was a tall, thin figure, standing in the shadows, in a solid black suit with a small car in tow.

“Professor Von Schneider, you are here yourself,” Manstein said.

“Maans went to China, so I can only take care of it by myself.” Professor Von Schneider raised his hand in greeting. “I also found Norma’s security system is dormant.”

He went into the library and was exposed to the light. His face was covered in a black mask, a gas pipe led to the cylinder on the car, and his neck was covered with dark red scars. His breathing was deep and thick, like a broken bellow. His iron-gray eyes swept around coldly.

The two professors looked away at the same time. No one in the college would like to look at the eyes of the head of the Executive Department, Von Schneider, as if gaze a knife a few centimetres away.

“The surveillance system did not detect any trace of the intruder.” Schneider glanced over at Manstein. “It’s late at night, and you’re here. Is there anything unusual?”

“Nothing unusual. Tomorrow is the 3E exam. Maybe some students want to hack into Norma’s system to get the exam questions or something.” Manstein managed a forced smile. He’s trying to make it easy. The Executive Department at Cassel is always a little condescending. As the chairman of the ethics committee, which is in charge of students, he doesn’t want to work with the Executive Department, but he has to maintain a little respect for Schneider.

1. The reference came from Louis Zha’s novel The Legend of The Condor Heroes.