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 “Aside from having a funny character, he’s withdrawn, easily irritable, obsessed with research, and has zero regard for interpersonal communication skills.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.

It appears that researchers 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 did not bother remarrying over the past decade, he may never amend his reclusive nature.

was thinking, the pair

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 and speaks his mind when something displeases him. He doesn’t care who you are or what power you wield. Everybody is subjected to the

and thought that he

give Benedict as strange a journal as

Cedrick knocked

Knock, knock, knock.

knocked thrice in

in the office, nor was there the sound of someone coming

don’t I keep an eye here and

leave the lab

he rapped

knock.” A raspy, irritated voice sounded from the office. “What good would knocking do? Why won’t you say why you’re here?

sweating profusely on the other

an earful before we even stepped

and cleared his throat. “This is Prof. Mallory. I have something urgent to talk to you about. Open up,

the doorknob

at them. “If you come knocking again without stating your intention, Joshua, I’ll assume you’re mute.

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

Chanaea, Professor

fixating his gaze on his face. “I opened the door like you wanted, and you’re telling me off,” he said huffily. “Feel free

“Like you, Professor Yortz, I

You look a lot like the boy in the lab ward, the one who has the S404

deliberately paused before saying, “Grandfather. Am

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