Chapter 2: Space and Time

The materials were spread out on Roach's desk in his bedroom, and the photographs and bios looked unremarkable, and Roach quickly lost interest. He was thinking about how difficult the social investigation was, at most it was trivial, not to mention that the main attack was still Du Zhengyi, who was a young man and an old man, what he had to do was to start a fight, to put it bluntly, he was a follower, and he just obeyed the instructions.

Liu Xing was very interested, and kept rummaging around his desk to look at the materials he brought back, and lined up the photos. Luo Qi and Liu Xing have always had no secrets to speak of, and as soon as he came back from the teacher's office, he couldn't wait to tell Liu Xing the ins and outs of the matter. Liu Xing's interest was higher than that of Luo Qi, and he asked again and again, asking him to tell the story many times, until he said that Luo Qi really couldn't come up with anything new before he stopped, and Liu Xing had been studying these materials since then.

He watched with interest as Liu Xing rearranged the information again with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and finally turned around and planned to talk to him, but who knew that when he opened his mouth, it was-"That's not right!" ”

"Boss, if you sit in the dormitory, you can see what's wrong, can I just write a report without going to the field?" Rocky replied without much energy.

"No, I can understand the target event of this investigation. From time to time, some of the two or five eyes are witnessed by humans when they use their abilities, and then there are some so-called paranormal sighting reports, but human beings always like to lie and add to the limelight, so this kind of sighting report is always true and false. From the perspective of a mage, studying the reaction of human society to such a thing is certainly a boring thing that some academics are willing to do. Liu Xing said with a thoughtful expression, looking a bit like when he usually does strategic analysis for games, "But why did you two choose to participate in this research project?" ”

Roach was startled, a little hesitant. He didn't tell Liu Xing the reason for his selection, which was really a bit unspeakable. He hesitated for a moment, hesitantly looking left and right to him, "Because I'm the only student in the third grade who may not be able to make it to the fourth grade, and I need credits urgently?" ”

Liu Xing shook his head, "Of course I know that you have the motivation to participate in this social investigation practice, I mean Du Zhengyi, why should he get involved in this at this time?" He is a well-known good student, he doesn't need extra credits at all, and besides, he will graduate soon and participate in a Mao social practice? ”

It turned out that it wasn't to ask why he was selected, and Rocky breathed a sigh of relief. But then he understood what Liu Xing meant, he was so nervous that he had been thinking about his own problems, and now after Liu Xing mentioned it, he remembered Du Zhengyi again. Indeed, Du Zhengyi's grades and resume are there, and there must be a lot of choices after he graduates, and there are even some very promising choices, so he doesn't need to talk about this at this time.

Liu Xing ignored his hindsight, and said with a deep thought, "I think there must be something here, maybe it's a good thing, otherwise he definitely won't go." Tomorrow is the last day of the exam, right? Then the day after tomorrow at the earliest, you will go with him to the other side. ”

Luo Qi's attention was distracted again, he wanted to laugh a little every time he heard Liu Xing say the word "other side", this is a rather old-fashioned statement, Liu Xing was raised by his grandparents, and from time to time he would inadvertently say some old words.

In the old saying, the other side refers to the world of ordinary humans. They also live in the other world, but they do not exist for humans, perhaps they only float by in the distant legends of mankind or in the stories of children.

There are always mages who call for their dignity to be respected, reject the hedonism of human suicide, and criticize the destruction of natural ecology. These views are well accepted among the less strongly assimilated old people, who always insist on referring to the human world as the other side.

Lodge scoffed at the idea, believing in the theory of human evolution. Mages are just a branch of primates on the evolutionary tree, and their ancestors are likely to be the same female monkey as the ancestors of humans, and perhaps they are more appropriately called by modern humans - Aliens.

Luo Qi told Liu Xing about the theory of evolution and the supernatural, as well as Marvel Dafa. Liu Xing raised his eyebrows and looked at him until he gradually shut up, "Is it your mage talent to scatter your thoughts?" ”

“……”

"Don't you think this girl is pretty?" Liu Xing flicked the photo and looked at it carefully.

Luo Qi sighed and took the photo handed to him by Liu Xing, others were always not interested in his theory, obviously he thought it was good. He has seen this photo several times, the girl is okay, and the feeling between her eyebrows and eyes is very light, which is indeed the type that Liu Xing likes. But when he looked at it just now, he felt that something was unpleasant, and now that he looked at it again, he finally realized the source of the sense of disobedience, the end of her hair was a squirming pink, which did not match the style of her appearance.

Liu Xing's speculation also dug a hole in his heart, and when Du Zhengyi asked him to meet, he became more and more unsettled. Always worried that good things would come too suddenly, but he sincerely hoped that everything would go well, whether he could graduate, whether he could get a mage license or not was almost a matter of this.

The place where Du Zhengyi asked him to meet was a teahouse owned by a mage, located in the center of the old town of the human city. Even though Roach often spends his time in the human community, he is not very familiar with this kind of place. He circled several times in the middle of a dilapidated residential building, an open neighborhood and the territory of a group of stray wild cats, and he circled around and met them for a third time before he suddenly found the teahouse. A huge signboard of an e-sports Internet café almost completely blocked the suffocating little sign of the teahouse, and if you don't look carefully, you can't see that the teahouse is open upstairs of the Internet café.

Luo Qi hurriedly entered the unit door, and Du Zhengyi's first impression was that he was a very difficult person to deal with. He is said to have many talents, but tolerating others being late is certainly not one of his talents.

Roach had some other worries when he went upstairs, and recently it was popular for merchants to show their personality on the face of the storefront, and you have to work hard to find out the way. There is a famous ice cream parlor where only the sad can open the door; There's also an awesome rotisserie that only the elated can open its doors to – Roach is a regular customer of this one, and he gets through every time. Roach speculates that both locks are medical magic, detecting hormones secreted by the body to speculate on the mood of diners. Of course, it is a gimmick for businesses to deliberately install such door locks, in order to attract customers. But there's a jewelry store in Xi'an, it's ridiculous, and to find the door you first have to untie a nine-in-a-row, which is! If you have to check your IQ before you are allowed to enter the store, then it's no wonder that the store has since closed down.

Luo Qi pinched a handful of sweat, for fear that Du Zhengyi would find a strange shop to embarrass him, who knew that as soon as he stepped on the stairs at the turn, he looked up and saw the door of the teahouse that suddenly opened, and the half-used curtain with two beckoning cats was printed on the door.

Roach approached the Lucky Cat curtain with trepidation, guarding against the door lock at the last minute. Sometimes the scene is completely different before and after the door lock is opened, but now you see the Manekiko Teahouse, but when you actually unlock it, there is a possibility that there will be a subtle Zen garden.

Rocky did enough mental construction and stepped forward slowly.

Then, nothing happened. Through the open door, he saw two tables of old mages playing mahjong - this is the only thing that can cross the two realms of illegal humans, and even the old men who practice isolationism can't refuse mahjong.

What's more, Du Zhengyi is not difficult to find, he is very conspicuous among a group of old men drinking tea and playing cards. He was sitting with his back to the window at a broken table in the innermost part, writing on a pile of papers. The BGM lined with it is still the old singing tone in the teahouse tape recorder, "The beautiful night is so quiet, only my piano sound is left on the grassland, I want to write a letter to the girl in the distance, yes~~, it's a pity that there is no postman to spread the word." ”

Luo Qi covered his face, this person is either too unsophisticated, or too special to do. He thought that Du Zhengyi, the legendary "child of someone else's family", would definitely stay in an unusual place, but who knew that this teahouse was quite consistent on the surface.

He walked over, threw his schoolbag on the chair, and pulled the chair across from Du Zheng to sit down and talk. Du Zheng didn't raise his head for a moment, raised his left index finger and made a wait gesture, "One minute." ”

Luo Qi sat down, entertained himself, picked up Du Zhengyi's teapot and poured himself a cup of tea. While drinking tea, he slipped his eyes on what Du Zhengyi was writing, and there were ten thousand curiosities waiting to jump out in his throat to figure out what Du Zhengyi was writing.

A minute had already passed, almost five minutes, but Du Zhengyi hadn't finished writing yet, Luo Qi quietly reached out and turned to the bottom page in the manuscript pile, pulled it out and looked at the cover, on which there were a few big words written on it - nonlinear cyclic multi-dimensional space transformation.

He pondered, this must be Du Zhengyi's graduation thesis.

"I'll kill you with a drop of tea."

Luo Qi was startled and looked up at Du Zhengyi, who was still hurrying to write, looking impatient in a hurry. However, Roach was never a person who could hold back his words, and when he finally broke his head, he cheekily asked while the iron was hot, "What does this mean?" Can you tell me about it? ”

Du Zheng paused for a moment with the pen in his hand, he raised his head and glanced at Luo Qi, "Don't you usually read?" ”

Roach shrugged and took a sip from his teacup.

Du Zhengyi looked at him again, as if assessing whether he was pretending to be stupid. Luo Qi wanted to help him, smart people always think too much, but he couldn't say directly, "Big brother, I'm really stupid, so can you be more direct when you do things with me?" ”

Du Zhengyi seemed to have guessed his thoughts, and took a deep breath as if giving up, ready to answer him.

Luo Qi suddenly remembered how good the academic school was at chattering, and hurriedly rushed in front to interrupt his vomit, "Big brother, to put it simply, I can understand." ”

The expression on Du Zheng's face suddenly became very exciting, as if he was smiling, but he still explained, "When traveling through subspace, you need to calculate the location of the beacon first, and what I am studying is a new calculation method. ”

Roach understood, "You're good at teleporting?" "That's the biggest advantage a mage has in a duel.

Du Zheng glanced at him, "You can't?" ”

"Theoretically, yes, but I haven't taken a lab class yet." Roach blushed and forcibly excused.

Du Zheng nodded his head and said as he wrote, "The improvement of the beacon algorithm can make the mobile see the destination more quickly, and use ...... To put it in more layman's terms, it is to reduce the chanting time of the mage. However, in practice, the mage's sense of direction is the most important factor in completing the space traversal. In 1851, when a large family in Gansu demolished the courtyard wall, a dried corpse was removed from it, which also alarmed the government at that time. The owner who lost his soul couldn't tell what was going on, and he caused a lawsuit in vain, and it took countless silver dollars to barely save his life. The family could not live in the local area anymore, and within a few years they decided to move their family, but when they crossed the Yellow River, they caught up with the Yellow River flooding and the family drowned. Ah, of course that's an afterthought, far from it. ”

Luo Qi felt a chill out of thin air and shivered, "That dry corpse is a mage?" ”

"Yes, the mage who created evil has been missing for several years, and the Supreme Council of Mages at that time got the news of this god and ghost, and also sent someone to investigate, and the result was confirmed the deceased and the cause of death." Du Zhengyi said that the cloud is light and the wind is light, "The reason is that the deceased has a bad sense of space, and when he teleportes, he was stuck in the wall, and he died." ”

Luo Qi was silent, this way of death was too embarrassing, and the person may still be alive when he penetrated the wall, but he slowly suffocated in the compacted rammed earth wall. "Why did he ......?" he asked, inarticulately.

Du Zhengyi understood what he was asking, and nodded very smartly, "He is going to enter the house of that big family and want to date their young lady." You know that there are a lot of mages who are good at this, pretending to be a fox fairy or something, seducing human girls. He raised his head and glanced at him meaningfully.

Luo Qi came back to his senses, what did he mean by scolding Du Zhengyi in his heart, could it be that he looked like a frivolous mage and a coquettish appearance? But looking back, his mother had seriously warned him several times that his sense of space was very poor, and he should never move the idea of shuttling through space in the future. But in this world, apart from space, only time is the coolest field of research.

"So...... Do you know about chronology? Roach thought for a moment and hesitated and said, "How about the major of forecasting?" "The future is unpredictable. Du Zhengyi said in a low voice, but his tone was not ordinarily tough.

"Have you heard of Grand Master Chu Jin?" Roach asked cautiously.

"Of course." Du Zhengyi said, this time he stopped his pen, raised his head to look at Luo Qi, and said slowly, "Chu Jin is a famous arithmetic, of course I have listened to her lectures. ”

"She's my mom's youngest sister." "My aunt has always believed that the future is predictable, and that as long as she can do a lot of calculations, she can predict an accurate future. She is interested in human computer science, and she thinks that the working principle of computers is a good idea. But I don't know if she's made it or not, she's rarely been home in years, and we don't know what she's doing. ”

Du Zhengyi looked at Luo Qi, his right hand still holding the pen, and his hand pressed against the bottom of the manuscript paper. Luo Qi suddenly realized that Du Zhengyi's expression at the moment was actually serious, and he couldn't help but be a little flattered, Du Zhengyi's attitude towards him had always been a little like a pet. He hasn't resisted yet, after all, a ditch has been broken between the two by age, experience, ability and knowledge, and he is not so self-conscious. But who would have thought that he could inadvertently force Du Zhengyi to be serious, which made him tremble a little, "I also like computers." I think technically, predictions are achievable sooner or later. ”

"I didn't say that it couldn't be technically realized," Mr. Du said, "I just don't think the prophecy makes sense." ”

This is a bit like a strong argument, Luo Qi secretly thought that Du Zhengyi actually had such a second-year moment.

Du Zhengyi seemed to see his thoughts again, and shook his head, "Unless your aunt decides to be a spectator of the world for the rest of her life, just staring at the results and entertaining herself, then I don't have anything to say." The future is always dynamic – you know the prediction, you make a change, the prediction doesn't hold, all observations are invalidated, and the outcome is still unknown. ”

Roach froze.

Du Zhengyi continued to return to the beginning of the topic, "There are only two branches of chronology, in addition to prediction towards the future, and observation towards the past. Time is an uncyclical path, the past time point can be observed, but the past cannot be changed, so this is not very meaningful, and like prediction, not many people are willing to learn. These are the reasons why chronology is an unpopular subject for mages. Having said so much, junior, you won't be about to enter the fourth grade and need to choose a major, but you will be confused, right? ”

Luo Qi did not deny that he now has some real admiration for Du Zhengyi in his life, just like a little boy facing a big boy who is cooler than himself whether he is playing games or skipping school, he is beginning to be a little willing to be Du Zhengyi's little brother.

He just wanted to say something more, but Du Zhengyi's eyes drifted behind him, he hurriedly turned around, and happened to see the beckoning cat hanging on the door frame of the teahouse half curtain being lifted, and an old man in pajamas walked in. The man didn't seem to wake up, and walked in with a glazed gaze, one hand still in the pocket of his pajamas, and a pair of half-worn cotton slippers dragging on his feet. If it weren't for the fact that he had a small tattoo on his face and a hairstyle as cool as a lion's mane, Rocky would have thought he was wandering around the neighborhood with Alzheimer's.

The old man saw Du Zhengyi and nodded at him. Du Zheng nodded to the elder a little rudely, even if it was a greeting, and then ignored Luo Qi, burying his head in his paper and writing wildly.

The old man dragged over, sat down in the empty chair next to Rocky, and looked out the window in silence. Roach was overwhelmed by his position, and looked at the window, where a Santa Claus poster was glued to the middle of the window. However, the shopkeeper didn't seem to be camouflaged enough, and put five blessing characters around it, and hung a carp streamer on it. Through the glass window, you can see the hot pot restaurant on the second floor across the street, and there are many diners inside, and the steam from the hot pot is blurring the window.

Roach didn't see anything to see from the window, so he took an empty cup, pulled the teapot and filled it with water, and brought it to the old mage, "Please." ”

The old man seemed to suddenly notice that there was a big living person beside him, and turned his head to look at Luo Qi. Luo Qi didn't expect the old man to wake up from his sluggish contemplation, his eyes were as sharp as a falcon, he was a little uncomfortable being stared at, and smiled dryly. He remembered that Du Zheng was coming, lying on the table and stretching his arms to the longest, and finally touched the teacup in Du Zheng's hand, and dragged it over and filled it with tea diligently.

Du Zhengyi scolded casually, "If you're too lazy, can't you stand up and take the teacup?" How is it that your butt can't live without a wheelchair? ”

"Yes, Mom." Rocky pushed his teacup back, turned his head to look at the old man painlessly, and smirked at the old man without a smile.

"Who are you?" The old man asked, as if he hadn't spoken for a long time, and his voice was a little dry.

"Oh-he's-" Du Zhengyi said lazily in a long voice, raising his eyes and glancing at Luo Qi with a wicked smile, "He's my mascot." ”

Oh your mother! Rocky greeted sincerely in his heart.

"Master Liu Li asked me to take him with me this time." Du Zhengyi explained, "I said that as long as I take him, I can turn evil into good fortune and be auspicious in death......

“…… Immortal longevity Hengchang, Fang Ling Yong. Roach couldn't help but tease.

Du Zheng glanced at him.

There was a slight smile on the old man's serious face, and he asked Du Zhengyi, "You don't know the source of his words?" ”

Du Zhengyi's face was a little stinky, and Luo Qi laughed, he could see that Du Zhengyi was not used to ignorance. He turned his face and introduced himself to the old man with a smile, "My name is Roach, and I am in my third year of college this year. ”

The old man nodded, and thoughtfully stretched out his hands, palms turned upwards, as if holding a handful of invisible water, and Roach immediately noticed that he was wearing a ring, and the palm of his hand was messy. He knew that he was focusing on the wrong point, but he also thought that the old man's fingers were strangely long and the joints were obvious, hey, this is suitable for being the legendary swordsman, the golden lion king. Coming back to his senses again, he finally felt the power that the old man was summoning, and the magnetic field radiated was so strong that even a person as sluggish as him could feel a slight static sting.

Something was formed in the hands of the Golden Lion King, Rocky couldn't see clearly, as if the light and shadow were flowing rapidly, his eyes followed in vain, and finally he couldn't make out a form, and everything was lost in those hands. He looked at Du Zhengyi in bewilderment, who seemed to be oblivious to all this, and was concentrating on drawing a sparkling and exaggerated signature at the end of the paper. As if sensing the question mark on Roach's head, he glanced up and said casually, "Information extraction based on infinite data." ”

Rocky felt that these words were very familiar, and after thinking about it for a while, he suddenly remembered that it was the topic of tomorrow night's academic report. He didn't hold back, and said again, "Human beings use the Internet to connect to data resources, and information search can be done through search engines. ”

Du Zhengyi ignored him, and Luo Qi didn't expect that it was the Golden Retriever Lion King who explained to him. The old man lowered his hands, as if he had finished what he had to do, and said to him gently, "Even humans understand that the speed at which the brain extracts data from chaos is very fast, which even their most advanced computers cannot match. We are slightly luckier than humans in this regard, and our brains are very good at processing information, which is our advantage. ”

Roach nodded in awe, the old man had an indescribable power, hidden behind a layer of modest enchantment, unfathomable. But Du Zhengyi seemed to be immune to all authority, he stacked his papers on the opposite side, put them on the table, and threw them in front of the old man, "Hand in the papers." ”

Luo Qi couldn't help but admire Du Zhengyi even more, no matter how big or small, he was not afraid of thunder.

The old man picked up the paper, carefully took out the rolled up page from a stack of manuscript paper, and slowly pressed it flat. Roach watched him rub the page slowly, carefully stacking the student's paper more neatly, and somehow lost his mind, remembering that when he was a child, his grandfather took back the toys he had thrown everywhere, and in this way slowly repaired the broken places. When the old man spoke to him, he didn't hear it at all.

Du Zhengyi unceremoniously stretched out his long legs and kicked him in the chair, startling him.

"What did the teacher ask you about?" Du Zhengyi said comfortably, as if it wasn't him who kicked his chair, and after thinking about it, he added, "The King of Wandering Gods." ”

The Lion King was much more patient than his students, and seeing that he didn't know why, he repeated Fang Cai's words, "You know a lot about human culture? ”

"Got it? Culture? Roach scratched his head, not knowing what to say, "Say me?" ”

A gentle smile appeared on the old man's face again, "Your homework paper cites a large number of classic works of mankind, and your experimental environment elaboration section also has movie scenes, and your tutor doesn't like your cumbersome way of describing it, thinking that your thinking ability is average and your reasoning is not strong, so the score you are not high." But I think that's just because your thoughts are more like humans than mages, you're familiar with human society, and maybe you have some human friends who spend a lot of time in human society. You may often use human tools to replace brain-draining mage skills, so the mage part of your brain has not been properly developed. ”

Roach stiffened in embarrassment, blushing with shame, and was a little annoyed at the thought that he had been criticized by an old man in scruffy pajamas in an old teahouse. Indeed, the mage never makes up stories and wastes his spirit, and like him, he is addicted to the world of human fiction from time to time, probably like a human child who is addicted to the Internet, and will be beaten.

"I'm not criticizing you." The old man said softly, sighing, "Most mages have too narrow vision, and we all need to be more open-minded. ”

The Lion King fell silent after saying this, staring at the teacup on the table, and Roach found that he had fallen into the same trance as when he first entered the house, as if his soul had roamed out of his body. The lion king's nose was very flat, and Luo Qi remembered the Sphinx statue again, almost laughed, and hurriedly turned back to look at Du Zhengyi. Du Zhengyi seemed to be surprised by the situation of the lion king, drinking tea happily with a teacup in his left hand, and the slender fingers of his right hand smoothly guided a bamboo spoon on the table to circle around his fingers in the air, passing the time waiting for the old man to come back to his senses. Luo Qi watched enviously, some people's abilities are as natural as a mountain spring overflowing from a spring, but he himself is like a dry well, and it takes all his strength to squeeze out a spoonful of water.

The Sphinx finally woke up, and he could still receive the last sentence, "Zhengyi knows very little about the human world, and you can just make up for his lack of this part." ”

The two glanced at each other. Roach could see that none of them had taken the old man's advice to heart, and he couldn't help laughing. Fortunately, Du Zhengyi is not a nerd without a sense of humor, and there is also a smile in his eyes.

The tape of the teahouse was put at the head, the old singing stopped, the room was quiet at once, the sound at the door of the hot pot restaurant occupied the top, and a particularly contrived male singing voice was sent through the window, "The little sister sent my Lang, sent it to the south of the gate, and I took out two big silver yuan in my waist, this yuan to buy a train ticket for my Lang, wow, this yuan to buy a Chinese cigarette for my Lang." ”

Du Zhengyi's face darkened, and the old man was stunned, only Luo Qi laughed. He got up and turned over the tape in the tape recorder, and the old song Jin Dian sang it again, suppressing Yue Yunpeng's new song on the other side.

The atmosphere became a little casual, anyway, Luo Qi felt so, and the old man was not harsh on him, so he felt that he could talk to the old man casually.

"You must have been an archmage, but I can't remember an archmage as cool as you, with long hair and a tattoo on his face." He said casually.

As if a bomb had been dropped on the tea table, the two of them glared at Roach at the same time. Roach was stunned and looked at the old man at a loss, and the old man's gaze was so cold that it seemed to want to pierce his soul and make him very uncomfortable. He looked at Du Zhengyi for help, Du Zhengyi's expression was softer, but his gaze was calculated, as if he was frantically collecting parameters from his face and body to calculate.

Luo Qi sat awkwardly, feeling like a fool, he must have said something taboo to the old man, he didn't know how to ask questions, and Du Zhengyi didn't mention him. He smiled dryly and stubbornly nagged, "Will the students be lucky enough to know the teacher's name?" ”

"My name is Pei Shu." The old man answered him generously.

He was taken aback, this was a thunderous name, even a mage apprentice like him knew it, and now he finally became nervous, his palms were sweaty, he didn't know what to say at all, and he almost began to shake his legs.

It was Du Zheng who solved him out of his panic, and he asked him across the table, "Can you see the tattoos on the teacher's hair and face?" ”

Roach didn't know what he meant, swallowed his saliva, and nodded. Could he see something that no one else could see? According to the ghost story, it should also be seeing a soul or an elf or something, right? There's nothing to be proud of when you can see scars on your hair and skin.

Du Zheng glanced at Pei Shu, "I guess the teacher is not dressed now, right?" ”

Roach nodded, and said weakly, "Pajamas, and slippers." ”

Du Zhengyi nodded with satisfaction, "I guess so." ”

"What's wrong?" Roach asked him weakly, hoping that he would answer the question with kindness.

Du Zhengyi looked at him again, and smiled maliciously, "I won't tell you." ”