Joshua noticed Cedrick’s unusually stern expression. “What’s on your mind, Cedrick?”

Cedrick was staring at the cover of the book, Abnormal Psychology, and thinking about what Benedict had said to him earlier in the ward.

“Benny told me a professor in the lab gave it to him, so I came to ask you since you were with him the most. Who else spends that much time with him?”

He wanted to know if it was a coincidence or a deliberate act to give a five-year-old child something so disturbing.

“I’ll look into it,” Joshua promised. “I wouldn’t be too worried, though, Cedrick. It must have been a coincidence.”

Cedrick nodded.

Five minutes later, Joshua found out from the professors on duty in the laboratory that it was given by a biochemist named Eugene Yortz.

Eugene was an elderly professor of about sixty, with a snow-white beard, a straight nose, and chiseled features.

He was not Chanaean. Instead, he was sent from Astoria as part of a collaborative project.

Joshua led Cedrick to Eugene’s office to pay the professor a visit.

“Eugene is a strange fellow,” he warned Cedrick in a whisper along the way. “Aside from having a funny character, he’s withdrawn, easily irritable, obsessed with research, and has zero regard for interpersonal communication skills. The things he does sometimes are bizarre.”

Behind his back, the other professors called him Professor Nuts.

After listening intently, Cedrick mulled it over for a while.

and doctors are weirdos. Wasn’t Kieran initially an oddball? After he got married, he now shares a stable and loving relationship with Inez. Compared to the earlier version of himself who had devoted his life to research, he seemed to have become an entirely different person. However, Eugene is different. He is sixty years of age. Having had enough of his eccentricity, his ex-wife left him long ago. As he has no children and

pair found themselves

the door, Joshua repeated gingerly, “Try not to be too blunt when you speak to him, Cedrick. He’s a man who never flatters anyone. He does what he wants

frowned and thought that he

somebody like that give Benedict

eyes, Cedrick knocked on

Knock, knock, knock.

thrice in a

nor was there the sound of someone coming to

out on business,” Joshua said. “Why don’t I keep an eye here and let you know when he comes

him leave the lab

greater force, he rapped the

raspy, irritated voice sounded from the office. “What good would knocking do? Why won’t you say why you’re here? Your mouth is not something you use just to

on the other

an earful before we

Prof. Mallory. I have something

a moment’s silence, the doorknob twisted with a

again without stating your intention, Joshua, I’ll assume you’re mute. It’s

his colleague as an elder who was his father’s age. Being familiar with his temperament, he thought it was

said, “You work in a premier laboratory in Chanaea, Professor Yortz. How could you be taking a nap during

gaze on his face. “I opened the door like you wanted, and you’re telling me off,”

not what I meant,” Cedrick replied. “Like

You look a lot like the boy in the lab ward, the one who has the S404 RNA virus in him.

The Novel will be updated daily. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

Comments ()

0/255