Chapter 26 - 12: Veteran Otaku and Magical Tomato Spaghetti

Chapter 26: Chapter 12: Veteran Otaku and Magical Tomato Spaghetti

Yu Xian had no memory of what was taught in the morning class. He only remembered the professor’s mouth opening and closing on the podium and the slides flashing by as time slipped away. When the bell rang for the end of class, he snapped out of a daze, finally shaking the image of that blackboard from his mind.

The "imposter" theory seemed to have been debunked upon learning of Professor Gao’s final words. If it really was an imposter, or some entirely unknown, hostile will controlling Teacher Gao’s body, there would have been absolutely no need to make such a grand display of writing a repentant suicide note on the blackboard. Disappearing logically and silently after completing the mission, or disguising it as a more dignified accident, would have been enough.

"I am guilty. I have failed all of humanity."

The despair, contradiction, and even self-destructive agony conveyed by the words on the blackboard perfectly matched what someone who wanted to personally strangle their lifelong pursuit would write.

It not being an imposter was good news. At the very least, it made Yu Xian feel that reason had regained the upper hand—or, in Shi Zuozhou’s words, he had "recovered some sanity points." With this in mind, there was no need to discuss what they had talked about on the phone yesterday with Shi Zuozhou anymore.

Yu Xian slowly stuffed his books into his bag, pondering why Professor Gao would make such choices: casting a dissenting vote, committing suicide, and leaving behind those final words.

"Old Yu." Shi Zuozhou stood in the aisle with his backpack slung over his shoulder. Instead of impatiently dragging him to the cafeteria like usual, he tapped the leg of Yu Xian’s desk with the tip of his shoe. "Want to find a place to chat?"

Yu Xian paused in surprise, then nodded.

The Second Main Building of JCU was quite tall, and since teachers and students usually took the elevator, the stairwell had become a spot for students to sneak a smoke. The wind blew in through the gaps in the ventilation fan, and several flattened cigarette butts littered the floor. Leaning against the wall, Yu Xian realized that because it had been raining for so long, even the indoor walls were damp.

"First thing, about what we discussed on the phone yesterday..." Shi Zuozhou crouched on the landing, staring down at the terrazzo floor tiles. "I thought about it all night. I can confirm with absolute certainty that I have no habit or memory of not eating cilantro. I even asked my mom, and she doesn’t have any impression of it either. We’ve never paid attention to it when cooking at home. I’ll be straight with you—this whole thing is just too fucking weird."

He suddenly looked up. In the dim light, a complex expression crossed his face. "Assuming your brain isn’t broken, of course."

Yu Xian didn’t say anything, merely holding Shi Zuozhou’s gaze. His friend’s head was bathed in the green glow of the emergency exit sign; normally, Yu Xian would have teased him about it.

"Second thing," Shi Zuozhou continued. "A few days ago, you said a female classmate of ours completely disappeared... Her name was Xia Li, right?"

Yu Xian froze for a second.

"Can you tell me about it?" Shi Zuozhou asked. "The specifics."

The stairwell was quiet, as most students had gone to grab lunch. Yu Xian remained silent for a moment. The last time he had brought it up, Shi Zuozhou thought he was joking and barely listened. He hadn’t expected him to bring it up on his own today.

Yu Xian recounted in full detail how he and Xia Li had grown up together, how they had both gotten into JCU’s physics program, and the experiences she had shared with Shi Zuozhou. This time, Shi Zuozhou listened intently without interrupting, his expression solemn.

Only when Yu Xian finished did Shi Zuozhou nod. "If this were before, I would’ve thought you were just telling tall tales to mess with me. But the whole situation with Professor Gao from yesterday to today might have made me a bit more open-minded."

Shi Zuozhou looked at him again. "Third thing. Those suicide cases you mentioned last night, and the reactions of their families... how did you know about them?"

Yu Xian hesitated. This didn’t just concern him; it also involved his cousin. His cousin’s position was sensitive, and Yu Xian had only seen those photos by chance. He couldn’t let his cousin violate protocol any further.

"I found out by chance." Yu Xian avoided Shi Zuozhou’s gaze. "I promised I’d keep it a secret, so I can’t talk about the specifics, Old Shi."

Shi Zuozhou nodded and didn’t press the issue. Yu Xian figured he could probably guess some of it anyway. He stayed quiet, waiting for Shi Zuozhou to continue, but Shi Zuozhou didn’t say anything either. The stairwell fell silent once again.

"Old Yu, let me straighten this out for you." After a long while, Shi Zuozhou pushed his hands against his knees and stood up, as if he had finally figured something out. "These things we just talked about, although they’re all bizarre, actually fall into two categories."

He looked at Yu Xian, gesturing with his left hand. "The first category is Professor Gao’s suicide and dissenting vote, as well as those families you mentioned who felt their loved ones were replaced. These things are outrageous, but at the end of the day, they still fall within the realm of ’humanity’. People change. Although these events don’t make emotional sense, objectively and logically speaking, they are possible."

Shi Zuozhou abruptly shifted gears, raising his right hand to emphasize his point. "But the second category is what you’ve encountered yourself. This includes the discrepancy in your memory about my habit of eating cilantro, the girl named Xia Li, and even the so-called ’disappearance’ of an entire floor. The nature of these events is entirely different. This is a conflict on the level of ’reality’."

He paused, then added seriously, "One is a cognitive dissonance; the other is the alteration of established objective facts."

It was hard to see the whole picture when standing right in the middle of it. Yu Xian felt a chill run down his spine. Shi Zuozhou’s summary was terrifyingly accurate.

If he had to make an analogy, what everyone else had encountered was, at most, a logic error at the software level. But what he had encountered was a parameter tampering at the hardware level.