Genius Club-Chapter 222 - 51 Blood Debt, Blood Repayment

"Senior Lin Xian! Ji Lin! Come down quickly~"

Downstairs, Chu Anqing’s shout could be heard.

It really was getting late, Lin Xian and Ji Lin ended their chat on the rooftop and made their way down the stairs to the first-floor hall.

As they barely stepped off the stairs together—

Click!

Chu Anqing hopped over like a little rabbit, jumping in front of them with a cute scissor-hand pose, smiling at what was ahead. At the same time, the sound of the camera shutter echoed from a cellphone.

Lin Xian and Ji Lin were still in a state of dumbfounded confusion when Chu Anqing’s classmate, laughing, held up her phone:

"Got it, An Qing! The photo of the three of you is amazing! Surely the combination of handsome guys and a pretty girl... no matter how you take it, it looks good, even a random snapshot could be a magazine promo page."

Chu Anqing turned her head and stuck out her tongue at them:

"You guys really—always reluctant to take photos, so I had to sneak one when you weren’t paying attention! This is the first birthday I’ve ever celebrated on my own~ I have to keep some memories of it!"

Lin Xian couldn’t help but laugh and cry at the same time.

So that’s how it was...

After dinner, Chu Anqing had been chirping about taking photos. But Lin Xian and Ji Lin were both resistant to taking group photos.

Boys usually don’t like taking photos, and all the more so when they were surrounded by eighteen and nineteen-year-old girls, making the 24-year-old "old man" Lin Xian feel a strong sense of generation gap; perhaps Ji Lin felt similarly, not interested in taking photos, which was why they had both run up to the rooftop.

Not minding the two guys, Chu Anqing quickly trotted to her classmate to check the photo just taken...

Lin Xian and Ji Lin, one tall and the other short, stood behind her, their attention drawn to her by her sudden appearance, while she was already prepared with her scissor-hands. This spur-of-the-moment photo projected a different kind of warmth.

"This birthday has really been so much fun~ You all have to come again next year!"

Lin Xian and Ji Lin stood silently, not saying a word.

After that, the birthday party wrapped up.

Chu Shanhe’s chauffeur specially drove a large business van to send all the classmates back to East Sea University, while Lin Xian and Ji Lin rode back in Ji Lin’s car.

As they passed Ji Lin’s villa, Ji Lin looked out the car window at the unlit structure and murmured:

"When it comes to my birthday, let’s hold the party here, just like Chu Anqing did."

"Sure."

Lin Xian leaned on the car window and replied offhand.

"But I have no experience in organizing or preparing." Ji Lin went on:

"I’ve never had a birthday party before, mainly because I’ve had no friends… There’s no point in having a birthday party without friends to come."

Lin Xian turned to look at him:

"Maybe the main reason is that your parents died too early. If they were alive, they would surely celebrate your birthday grandly each year."

"Speaking of which... since you’re sure that your parents were murdered, have you avenged them? You went all the way to Donghai City to avenge Xu Yun over a brief acquaintance... so have you caught the killer who murdered your parents?"

Ji Lin fell silent for a moment:

"No..."

"I’ve also been searching for my parents’ murderer all this time but haven’t found them. Like you, I don’t believe that the people who killed my parents are the same ones who killed Xu Yun and Tang Xin... even though they all died at 00:42, it’s not difficult to see from other details that they’re likely not the work of the same type of people."

Lin Xian nodded:

"You mean... there were two groups killing at 00:42. One killed your parents, and the other killed Xu Yun and Tang Xin."

"What do you think?"

Ji Lin asked, looking at Lin Xian as if posing a question:

"If there really were two groups killing, what do you think their relationship is?"

Lin Xian folded his arms and looked at the evenly receding streetlights, deep in thought.

This really was a question without any clues.

Based just on the method of murder... it seemed one group was more flexible in their methods, while the other was more rigid.

According to Lin Xian’s speculation, Ji Lin, Ji Xinshui, and Zhou Duanyun were among those who employed a more rigid method.

This was something Lin Xian couldn’t figure out.

Why make murder so complicated?

And it seemed that their methods of killing weren’t just complicated, they also adhered to other inexplicable rules... and it was these rules that ensured his own safety right now.

This was really too strange.

What reason could there be that made their process of killing so "awkward"?

"Maybe..."

Lin Xian opened his eyes and came up with a hypothesis:

"Maybe, essentially, these two groups have no connection. It’s just that one is a poor imitation of the other."

"I don’t know what this imitation means, but staging car accidents to kill at 00:42 is clumsy and crude, other than deliberate imitation... I can’t think of any reasonable explanation."

Ji Lin listened.

Sighed.

Shook his head and chuckled:

"Sometimes I really think it would have been better if I’d met you earlier, now there’s a sense of regret for not having known you sooner."

"You feel that way too?"

"Yes." Ji Lin nodded:

This chapt𝒆r is updated by frёewebηovel.cѳm.

"But I don’t think these two groups are unrelated. That’s why I want to catch this bunch of murderers."

Ji Lin looked at Lin Xian:

"I want to find clues to my parent’s killer through them. There’s a debt of blood to be paid, I have to avenge my parents, don’t I? Blood for blood."

"Exactly."

Lin Xian also looked into Ji Lin’s eyes:

"Blood for blood."

...

Three days later, a sensational piece of news shook the scientific community.

Academician Lyon from the National Academy of Sciences of Canada announced a paper which claimed a significant breakthrough in "Room Temperature Superconductor" research.

The lengthy thesis was well-argued, complete with both theoretical analyses and experimental data.

However, the real foundation that led to the significant breakthrough in room temperature superconductors still came from the research results of Academician Xu Yun’s hafnium alloys and the Hibernation Pod Filling Liquid.

Discoveries in the scientific community often complement each other; many breakthroughs come from advances in other fields, and of course, many more come from "accidents," an interesting phenomenon indeed.

Ordinary people don’t really have a practical understanding of room temperature superconductors...

But when the media publicized it, they directly linked room temperature superconductors with controlled nuclear fusion, leading people to mistakenly think that controlled nuclear fusion was about to be realized!

Thus, this news caused a tremendous stir worldwide, everyone eagerly anticipating the dawn of an era with infinite energy and free electricity.

"But actually... there’s still a long way to go between room temperature superconductors and controlled nuclear fusion,"

Inside the office of Donghai Public Security Bureau, a male colleague beside Lin Xian browsed on his phone and said,

"Even if room temperature superconductors truly were successfully developed, we are still early in creating a practical controlled nuclear fusion device. There’s still a multitude of problems to solve."

This male colleague, whose major in university was within the realm of physics, was now enthusiastically enlightening everyone with his nuclear physics knowledge.

Lin Xian, on the other hand, twirled his pen, lost in thought.

He wasn’t listening to his colleague’s lecture...

He was pondering whether Academician Lyon’s publication of the "Breakthrough in Room Temperature Superconductor Research" was originally part of the historical trajectory or not.

According to his understanding, it definitely wasn’t.

Because without the release of the hafnium alloy and the Hibernation Pod Filling Liquid, Academician Lyon’s research definitely couldn’t have achieved a breakthrough.

So now...

At the moment when the "Breakthrough in Room Temperature Superconductor Research" was published...

[Has my own Dream World also undergone changes simultaneously?]

Lin Xian felt it was highly possible.

Such epoch-making research would surely trigger a strong butterfly effect and create massive Temporal Flux.

Therefore, the world 600 years in the future must once again undergo earth-shattering changes.

Maybe New Donghai City no longer exists, humans have truly achieved controlled nuclear fusion, and then entered the era of interstellar travel.

Where would his birthplace be then?

Would it be in the old Donghai City, abandoned by mankind, or perhaps aboard a rapidly moving interstellar spaceship?

He was eager to verify this in the Dream World immediately.

But...

He glanced at Ji Lin, who was intently reading the news.

This guy was practically monitoring him around the clock, chatting with him until one or two in the morning each night before sleeping.

Also, for safety’s sake, he never slept and entered the dream in Ji Lin’s presence.

Once he entered the dream, he wouldn’t wake up unless he died or the time reached 00:42, not even with strong external stimuli.

This was verified during his childhood... his parents had even been so scared they had taken him to the hospital in the middle of the night.

Luckily, by the time they reached the hospital, it was 00:42, and Lin Xian woke up by himself, avoiding undue alarm.

After a comprehensive check-up by the doctors, who found nothing serious, they concluded to Lin Xian’s parents that "this child just sleeps very soundly."

No matter what...

The current Lin Xian didn’t want to give Ji Lin any reason to suspect him.

Even though suicide could allow an early exit from the dream, the side effects of death-induced awakening were too obvious: a surge in adrenaline, a red flush all over the body, a heart rate that takes a long time to calm down... If Ji Lin saw such conditions, it would just be asking for trouble.

"Let’s wait a few more days to find an opportunity to verify through the dream. There will be a chance,"

Lin Xian thought to himself.

Neither side, be it Ji Lin or himself, would extend this game of cat and mouse indefinitely.

Perhaps...

Both were waiting for an opportunity.

An opportunity to catch the other’s flaws, to find evidence strong enough to annihilate the opponent!

Lin Xian discreetly opened his phone and began searching for information about Academician Lyon.

Search results revealed that Academician Lyon held a high research position at Canada, quickly rising from a university lecturer to a national academy member, known within the industry as a research maverick.

The reason he was called a maverick and not a genius... was because Academician Lyon’s approach to research was very unconventional, and his range of interests was incredibly broad.

Other scientists usually delve into one academic field for life, while Academician Lyon researched whatever sparked his interest.

He seemed like a fickle and distracted scientist.

But in reality, he really was a top scholar in every field! He made both major and minor breakthroughs in many academic disciplines, a case of success on multiple fronts!

Thus, he was dubbed a research maverick.

His "Breakthrough in Room Temperature Superconductor Research" was no different. A short while before, Academician Lyon had just announced a patent concerning food safety detection, and now, so soon afterward, released a paper on superconducting materials...

One had to admire this scientist’s imagination and energy, a typical scientific eccentric, an inventive genius.

Lin Xian clicked to view a photo of Academician Lyon.

Surprisingly.

He was plump with a bald head and a potbelly, not fitting Lin Xian’s stereotypical image of a scientist at all.

People like Xu Yun and Liu Feng, with their physique, hairstyles, and appearances, even if Lin Xian knew nothing about them, upon a first glance on the street would intuitively seem like researchers.

Aura is such a miraculous thing.

As for Academician Lyon...

"This is the first time I’ve seen such an unconventional-looking scientist,"

Lin Xian couldn’t help but comment.

Upon hearing this, Ji Lin nearby gave a slight smile and said,

"You can’t judge a book by its cover, Lin Xian. In your opinion, what should Academician Lyon be doing?"

"He looks like a chef, a cook," Lin Xian replied.

Ji Lin suppressed his smile and slowly nodded:

"Your perspective... is quite sharp."