Chapter 50: Schedule (Part ½)
After all, there was the lesson to be learned from Yan Hong. Luo Nan had to consider the issue of plagiarism.
In the end, the Wilderness Explorers Society was not the academic circle. Academic competition, contested ground, didn’t seem to exist here. Instead, they cared more about practical results.
The status of a psychic was exceedingly high without even taking into account the special circumstances of the present. As long as he stood his ground and displayed the functionality of his grandfather’s results, no one would be able to strip away his grandfather’s achievements.
He considered things a few more times, but he still decided to place his trust with Octopus. He replied simply:
“You can.”
Octopus burst into laughter on the spot: “Excellent. Then I will prepare the power of attorney form. The Society uses a unified system, so we will need two people to act as notaries. Each of us will choose one person. Who will you choose? Your secretary?”
Luo Nan was finally completely at ease upon hearing Octopus take the initiative to say these words. He thought of He Yueyin’s personality. Indeed, she would make the best notary and would agree to it.
The family had already boarded the car right now and the car drove off from the sanitorium. Luo Nan sat shotgun again and he turned his head to watch the setting sun gradually turn blood red amidst the large buildings. He was silent for a time.
A moment passed before he requested something of Octopus: “My Grandfather is there. I ask you to look after him.”
Octopus naturally pledged to Luo Nan: “Be at ease! I never knew that there was such a god next to me before. Now I know. From now on, he’s my grandfather too! I will be sure to visit him morning and evening and attend to him properly.
“……Cough. There’s no need to follow my Grandfather too closely with his current condition.” Luo Nan was worried that Octopus was unable to think clearly, that Octopus would seize his grandfather as a treasure and interrogate him several times.
“I understand. I understand. It would be bad to disturb Grandfather with his current condition. Then how about you let me see Grandfather’s records post haste?”
Octopus was currently in an extremely interested state. His thoughts were jumping around at lightning speeds: “Oh right. I heard you mention that Grandfather also had a large portion of his records lost. This is easy to deal with. Let’s issue a mission in the Society later. We just need to set the reward to be very high. For example, one Honor Point for one notebook. Do you think even President Ouyang would mobilize? Don’t be scared about not having enough points, I can split the cost. Just give me a complete copy of anything related to drugs and I will pay all the points okay?”
Luo Nan smiled from Octopus’s passionate surge of details. But soon Luo Nan changed the topic to something else:
“Oh right. Let me ask something else Bro Octopus. For an ability user, It doesn’t matter how crazy one’s Self-Logic is as long as their Self-Logic is complete and can be verified, right?”
“Of course! Just look at those Secret Orders with their Gods, Holy Sons and Daughters, and First Oblatums1. Their mysterious and magical abilities are way too overpowered. They’re unstoppable.”
Octopus has spoken all of this in a single breath, but he immediately felt that part of it was wrong so he rushed with some additional words: “Mm. Mm. What’s more important than a complete logic is the verification. The verification! If you can’t meddle with reality, then you’re just psychotic; you just believe you can meddle with reality. Now that’s a serious mental disorder…… Oh, shoot! It looks like the things I just told you are things you find in the intermediate level seminars. This is beyond your scope. Don’t let your imagination run wild!”
No wonder Octopus worked in the mental sanatorium; he was very keen towards these questions. He even worried that Luo Nan would let his imagination run wild without bound. Luo Nan being at a young age, and also being a psychic, made it so that misunderstandings could easily give rise to extremely serious issues.
Luo Nan watched Octopus continue to give him advice and laughed: “Relax Bro Octopus. I know. The most important task for me to do right now is to temper my body and achieve an equilibrium between my mental mind and fleshly body. Then through the dual channels of the mental mind and fleshly body, I shall slowly perceive this world to form an answer progressively…… I shouldn’t spend my time interpreting this world right?”
“Good!”
Octopus didn’t know that most of these words were pointers from He Yueyin2. He immediately let out a breath of relief and greatly supported Luo Nan: “Excellent. You have wits kid! One should move steadily, one step at a time. Indeed, your body is lacking some polishing. But that doesn’t matter. You’re still growing man!
“When the matter with the Human-Faced Arachnid is over, I will give you a set of training methods for the mentally enhanced. You will certainly achieve equilibrium in just a few years time before your body finishes maturing. You will become an Awakened when that happens from relying on the foundation I lay for you. You should naturally find success like a canal that is formed when water flows.”
“Oh right. I’ll send you the study notes I took in the junior classes back in the day. You can refer to them for now. There are a lot of very fundamental things in them, but this information will still be useful even if you become an Extraordinary.”
“Luo Nan took a deep breath: “Many thanks, Bro Octopus.”
Luo Nan chatted a few more topics on fundamentals with Octopus before ending the call. Then he looked at the skies outside. The pitch blackness of night had already descended and the road lights to the two sides of the high-speed electromagnetic track were like two endless dragons of light. They extended dancing through the darkness. They seemed to merge together at the corners, but they would split apart in an instant. The dragons of light were harmonious and synchronous, yet they would find it hard to stay together forever.
Luo Nan leaned against his chair. He stared absent-mindedly at the reflection of the two dragons of light.
“One dragon is Grandpa. One dragon is me……”
“What?”
Mrs. Luo Shuqing, who sat in the backseat, was extremely sensitive to Luo Nan’s soliloquy. Actually, Luo Nan had yet to speak a single word since getting on the car. He was silent for a long time, making Luo Shuqing be highly alert.
Luo Nan looked back and saw that his aunt was obviously very nervous. He had to do his best to put on a calm expression.
He thought for a bit. Then he spoke in a low voice: “Aunty. Can you tell me something? Grandpa…… How much time does he have left?”
Luo Shuqing’s face was filled with shock in an instant. Then she used an even clearer frown to cover up her appearance. She suppressed her voice down to the softest whisper:
“What are you daydreaming about!?”
Luo Nan let out a deep breath: “Two years?”
“Don’t be crazy!”
“One year?”
“Luo Nan!”
Luo Shuqing had suddenly raised her voice, causing Mo Peng besides her to freeze up. On the other hand, Uncle never looked back. It was as if he didn’t hear anything all this time. He acted as the driver in form.
Luo Nan let out a long breath to stabilize the sharp rush of emotions in his mind and to do his best to keep the tone of his voice steady: “Grandpa sensed something about my drawing……”
“What are you talking about?” Luo Shuqing thought Luo Nan’s train of thought was very bizarre.
Luo Nan opened his notebook with a lowered head. He flipped to the page with the prison building and showed it to his aunt to see: “Grandpa felt something about this drawing in the morning. Isn’t that right Brother Peng?”
Mo Peng’s entire body felt uneasy when he heard Luo Nan take the initiative to call him “Brother”. This must be a threat, but Mo Peng still nodded. Obviously the words “It was none other than this drawing that made Grandfather go crazy” had to be stuffed down to his stomach.
Luo Shuqing took the notebook and saw the numerous and chaotic lines. She had formed a different meaning from these lines though, and her eyebrows furrowed tighter. She closed the book, not wishing to look at the drawing any longer in order to focus her thoughts: “Be straightforward. What are your intentions when all is said and done?”
“I want to draw a drawing that will make Grandpa truly happy when he sees it…….. I want to make him happy! This is not easy to do. I will need time, but I just don’t know how much time he has left!”
Luo Nan turned his seat around to be facing Luo Shuqing directly. They crossed gazes: “I need to plan a schedule, so I hope Aunty you will be able to give me accurate information to refer to…… Can you do this for me, do this for the eldest son of the eldest son of Luo Yuandao?”
1. First Oblatum (首祭, literally Head/Chief Sacrifice). I mistranslated this before as Head Zhai. I thought it was a name, but it’s really a title. Oblatum is Latin for “to offer”. The leader of the Order of Justice is known as the First Oblatum. (Chapter 44.1)
2. He Yueyin’s Pointers. He Yueyin gave Luo Nan pointers on how he should proceed with his training in Chapter 46.1.
