Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The youth decked out in a long black coat left B University. He hopped into a black Rolls Royce that was parked in front of the school and returned to a villa in the Yu Shan precinct.
It was a clear day with blue skies and white clouds. Yu Shan was quiet, peaceful, and warm. Yu Shan precinct was in the mountains. The mountains had many hot springs in them, therefore, it was warm, and it even felt like spring instead of winter. Under the shade of the trees, a Japanese-style house emerged into view. It had white walls and black tiles. The youth pushed open the bamboo gates and entered the house.
There was a small pond on the left in the front yard. The water in the pond was clear and wasn’t frozen. It seemed like the ground was really hot. On the right was a shishi odoshi, a type of bamboo rocking fountain. The entire front yard was designed to look like a classic traditional Japanese place.
The youth walked to the stairs in front of the house and changed his shoes into wooden clogs. A middle-aged woman wearing a light beige kimono with pictures of coy printed on it opened the wooden door and bowed deeply to him. “Welcome home, Young Master Taro.”
“Ma’am.” The youth’s voice was clear. His voice had already changed, but it did not sound deep at all.
Upon entering the house, he sat down on a tatami in the living room. He faced an old man with white hair who was kneeling behind a small tea table and greeted him. “Grandpa.”
There was a huge calligraphy piece on the wall behind the old man. It had the word “chan” written on it, which meant “tranquility” in Mandarin. There was a bright yellow pot of winter jasmine tea on the corner of the tea table.
The old man smiled at the youth and put down the ladle he was using to scoop hot water from the pot. His position for kneeling was extremely accurate. “Taro, I heard that you went to B University today?”
The youth nodded. “Yes.” There was a look of stubbornness and determination on his face.
“How did it go? Did you see Gu Nianzhi?” The old man, who was also in a kimono, folded his arms and closed his eyes.
“Yes I did.” The youth did not continue and moved closer while kneeling in order to pour some tea for the old man.
“So how did it go? Did you succeed?”
The youth’s heart skipped a beat, and he felt his gut wrench. Putting down the cup of tea in his hands, he said, upset, “Almost.”
“So you have not succeeded?” The old man opened his eyes, and his gaze was like lightning. “You are still insisting on your theory of orderly chaos?”
“Yes, I am.” The youth nodded, his gaze of determination never faltering. “The belief of the theory of orderly chaos is that everything in the world is in a chaotic state. It is something that cannot be predicted, nor calculated. Even the existence of the universe happened in a moment of coincidence. However, I disagree with that. I feel that there is an order to chaos. It can be calculated mathematically and by categorizing, therefore, it is able to be predicted.”
The old man nodded. “So what is next? Have you proven your theory?”
“My calculations have just been put into an experiment. Indeed, they are still a little inaccurate. However, I will be successful after some changes here and there.” The youth lowered his head. “I hope that grandfather will give me another chance.”
The old man sighed. His gaze traveled to the pot of winter jasmine tea on the corner of his tea table, and he mumbled, “I still remember that your father went to America to study with Gu Xiangwen. They learned under the best physicist in the world. Your father was the genius of our Yamato clan, and Gu Xiangwen was known as the Genius of the Chinese. Sadly, your dad was still… not as good as Gu Xiangwen.”
Stubbornness was seen all over the youth’s face. “Grandfather, I do not think that my father was not as good as Gu Xiangwen. He was merely… too gentlemanly. Gu Xiangwen was a jerk!”
“No. Gu Xiangwen was not a jerk.” The old man shook his head. “He was merely too clever. He was clever to the extent that no schemes could escape his mind and eyes. Your father… What your father lacked most was graciousness.”
“When my father went to the same competition as Gu Xiangwen then, my father won. However, Gu Xiangwen said that there was something wrong with the question!” The youth slammed his fist on the tea table furiously.
“Yes. That was why your father was not as good as him. It was because the question was indeed wrong. Your father’s win turned into a joke.” Deep wrinkles appeared on the old man’s face. “However, your father’s experiments were always slower than Gu Xiangwen’s. When Gu Xiangwen discovered a major breakthrough with the energy from the blue star, your father finally could not take the pressure any longer…”
When the well-known physicist in Japan, Baizo Ishihara, committed suicide by stabbing himself in the stomach, it was reported for a good period of time.
“I will definitely avenge my father!” The youth waved his fist. “Even if my father was not Gu Xiangwen’s match, I, Ishihara Taro, will definitely be better than his daughter, Gu Nianzhi!”
The old man looked at him deeply. “Can you be?”
“Grandfather, I used the theory of orderly chaos to predict an entire series of events. Almost every single thing was accurate!” Ishihara Taro was so excited as he was saying this, even his face turned red.
The old man looked at Ishihara’s bodyguard and said, “Toi Kun, you talk.”
Toi Ohara was a plump, middle-aged man whose height was not even five feet. He was also kneeling on the ground and began speaking about Taro Ishihara. “Sir, Young Master was indeed capable. He analyzed and got his conclusions from our information and felt that Gu Nianzhi would not be attending the concert by the military performing team of the Hua Xia Empire but would be attending her class’s Christmas party instead. After attending the party, she would not be going home alone but would be going back with He Zhichu to the school. All that happened. Then, we used our connections to get people to meddle with He Zhichu’s car. They also successfully drove away from the bar. All that happened in reality. It was exactly what young master had predicted.”
The old man laughed. “Anything else? What you did would never be just putting things in his car, would it?”
Toi Ohara lowered his head guiltily. “Yes, sir! The CCTV at the Bar Jinling’s parking lot was damaged by our men a couple of days ago.”
“What?!” The youth jumped up in shock. “You said that it was damaged on its own!”
Toi Ohara did not dare to look Taro Ishihara in the eyes.
The old man raised his hand to calm Taro Ishihara down. “Taro, take a seat. Look at you getting furious all because of such a tiny matter. Have you forgotten what your father taught you?”
Taro Ishihara was truly furious, so much so that his eyes turned red. After a while, he finally managed to calm himself down and took a seat. He turned to face the old man and bowed low. “You are right, grandfather.”
The old man caressed his head. “Now this is the right attitude. It is okay to fail. The most important point is to not be complacent when you win, and not give up when you have lost.”
Taro Ishihara was so touched by the old man’s words that tears welled up in his eyes. “Grandfather–!”
“Go and give more thought as to how to perfect your calculations.” The old man was using the art of conditioning in psychology. He attacked the youth with words first before giving him motivation. “I will give you two more chances to prove to me that your calculations can be used in real life settings.”
If Taro Ishihara could succeed, then this would be the perfect way of not using any weapons to murder someone. The law would never be able to get them, as it would be a blind spot or a loophole in that sense. The old man was looking forward to the results.
Taro Ishihara took his men and left the old man’s house, returning to his own condominium in Di Capital’s CBD area.
Watching his skinny but proudly upright back disappear through the bamboo gates in the front, the old man massaged his temples. His body was almost unable to take it anymore.
The middle-aged woman in the kimono quickly went over to help him. “Mr. Ishihara, Young Master is smart and capable. You do not have to worry so much.” She attempted to comfort the old man.
“How can I not worry?” The old man’s voice was deep. “We are about to lose the lawsuit. The moment the funds from the foundation are questioned, the entire Ishihara Corporation will have to close down and declare bankruptcy…”
…
Taro Ishihara returned to his own condominium. Turning on his computer, he began calculating the different programs again. This time, he had actually used a perfect method to deal with Gu Nianzhi. However, he did not know where he had gone wrong. The first time, she had already escaped from the car that was lined with drugs unscathed.
He did not give up. He went to her school to look for her. He had only wanted her to be run over a little in order to teach her a lesson. However, he did not expect that he could not even fulfill such a tiny wish.
He reassessed his mistakes during the first try and felt that it was due to too much interference from his men. The calculation of the theory of orderly chaos was based on what would happen naturally, without any human interference. His men had initially damaged the CCTV in the parking lot, then sent people to line the car with drugs. Just these two actions would have already ruined the fundamentals of the theory.
Yes. It must be like that.
Taro Ishihara pursed his lips and intended to devise another operation. This time, other than the initial “flutter of butterfly wings,” no other external interference would be involved.
“Toi Kun, give me the details about the owner of the validated account that you guys have been in contact with. I need the information to be as detailed as possible,” Taro Ishihara ordered.
“Yes, sir!”
…
The owner of the validated account that had begun spreading the false information online received the legal letter from He Zhichu within a short period of time. He looked at the seriously-worded letter and couldn’t believe his eyes. They had really sent him a legal letter! They wanted him to apologize and even wanted monetary compensation of $30 million for tarnishing of reputation!
What the heck!? How could this be? Why don’t you just die instead?
The owner of the validated account was so angry that he tore the letter into pieces. Then, he called the person who had given him the tipoff. He did not expect that the number couldn’t be called. It was a closed account! The account that had provided the tipoff had already been deleted. The account owner had also disappeared without a trace!
“This means they want me to be the scapegoat!” The owner of the validated account laughed coldly. “Hmph! Ishihara Corporation, do you think that I will be a pushover like that?!”
After spending the entire morning in the study, he found the Ishihara Corporation’s website. Then, he sent them a letter of warning. In the end, they refused to receive his letter. There was nothing he could do, no matter what he tried! The owner of the validated account was so furious that he almost punched his computer.
When it was noon, he was really hungry. Looking at the blue sky, he took a deep breath and walked towards the parking lot. In order for him to get to the parking lot from his condominium apartment, he had to cross a street. The parking lot was across the street, and the condominium building was on the other side.
They had parking lots in the lower level of the building, but he had wanted to save some money when he bought the apartment, and thus did not buy the unit that came with a parking space in the lower level. He had regretted it immensely, so the best he could do was to buy a parking space in the parking lot opposite his condominium building. It was not far per se, he just had to cross a tiny, narrow street.
There was a vendor who sold newspapers and magazines along the street. He flipped a couple of them habitually and stopped only when the seller rolled his eyes at him. However, he still did not buy anything.
At the other end of the pedestrian zone, an old lady was walking over unsteadily. She was one of the people living there as well. She walked along this road on a daily basis.
There was a bus stop along the road, and there were two youths waiting for their rides.
The owner of the validated account looked proudly at these people waiting for public transportation. He felt that he was someone of a higher caliber, as he owned his own vehicle.
There was someone who was lugging a cart full of briquettes, walking towards the owner with the validated account. He was working hard.
The orange bus was already almost at the bus stop. It was at the stop before.
Right at that moment, a shiny coin suddenly rolled toward the feet of the middle-aged man who was lugging the cart full of briquettes. Seeing that it was a shiny coin, the middle-aged man moved to the side instinctively. He did not expect there to be a shallow pothole to the side. He stepped into the pothole and lost his balance, then fell down immediately, causing the entire cart full of briquettes to overturn and roll down the street. The old lady quickly tried to get out of the way of the briquettes and walked a couple of steps faster towards the front.
Seeing what had happened, the owner of the validated account did not wish to bump into the old lady. Therefore, he moved faster as well to cross the street.
The bus driver was distracted by the entire street full of rolling briquettes and looked at them, forgetting to step on the brakes as he was nearing the bus stop. Instead, he moved with the usual speed!
A loud bang was heard!
The owner of the validated account, who had been about to run across the street, was hit by the bus! The impact was so great that he flew quite a distance and landed harshly on the ground. After a period of struggling, he stopped breathing before an ambulance could arrive.
A youth decked out in black smiled slightly and left, carrying his backpack.
