Impact

"An opera troupe?" Manager Huang said, "Yes. Lanxiang Cinema used to be called Fenghua Theater, staging traditional operas. That was nearly sixty years ago, before the Great Expansion even began. Are you looking for this person, Mr. Chen? Judging by her figure, she couldn't have been more than twenty back then. If she's still around today, she'd be an old woman by now." Chen Chuan nodded. "I see. Thank you, Manager Huang." "You're being far too polite, Mr. Chen! By taking care of this problem, you're practically my savior!" Chen Chuan said, "Since the matter is settled, Manager Huang, I should be heading back." "Of course, of course. Safe travels, Mr. Chen. Do come back anytime to relax—I'll see to it that you're personally taken care of." Manager Huang warmly saw Chen Chuan to the car. Returning upstairs, he couldn't help wondering why Chen Chuan was looking for a woman from who knew how many decades ago. Yet as the thought crossed his mind, a sudden realization seemed to strike him. His face went ghastly pale. Shivering slightly, he pulled out a handkerchief to wipe away his cold sweat. Steadying his nerves, he muttered, "It's handled. It's handled. Just sleep on it... a good night's sleep and everything will be fine." As for Chen Chuan, he took the car all the way back to Wuyi Academy. Once back in his dorm, he raised his arm with some force, and the fabric under his armpit tore right open with a rip. Unsurprisingly, the fabric had grown brittle and aged with decay. Grasping his collar, he gave it a gentle tug, and the entire garment shredded apart. Before heading out earlier that night, he had actually brought a change of clothes with him. Fortunately, things had not turned out as badly as he had feared. After cleaning up the tattered scraps of fabric, he went to the bathroom, took a shower, and returned to bed to catch up on sleep. When he woke, it was exactly eight in the morning. He glanced at his Second Self; it still showed persistent signs of blurring, but this encounter seemed to have brought significant gains. Using the Aperture Breathing Technique to examine himself, he found that the stimulation from the urban legend had effectively accelerated the growth of his mutated tissue by an entire month, strengthening it in the process. However, had he not patched the flaw beforehand, the outcome would hardly have been so pleasant—it likely would have taken a disastrous turn. Moreover, the persistent blurring indicated that some lingering negative effects remained. Even so, his overlap duration now far surpassed what it had once been, and he judged that he could probably dispel these ill effects sooner than before. He went to have breakfast first, then returned to call Cheng Zitong, reporting that the matter was resolved. The teacher told him to come over to the administration building. Agreeing, he left the dormitory building and headed over to the academy's administration building, walking all the way to the Logistics Office on the sixth floor. The office door stood wide open. When Chen Chuan arrived, Cheng Zitong was on the phone. Spotting him, Cheng motioned for him to come in and take a seat, then looked up and added, "Tea leaves are in the cabinet." Seeing that the teacher's teacup was nearly empty, Chen Chuan stepped over, picked up the hot water thermos, and filled it before sitting down to one side. Once Cheng Zitong finished his call, he signed a few slips, went to the door, called someone over to give a few instructions, and then walked back. Looking Chen Chuan up and down, he said with a smile, "Looks like it went smoothly enough." Chen Chuan said sincerely, "Your method worked very well, Teacher." With that, he took out the antique mirror, only to find that the previously rust-pitted surface had somehow become bright and pristine as new. Cheng Zitong seemed entirely unsurprised. Taking the mirror from his hands, he walked over to the desk, pulled open a drawer, slipped it inside, and said, "Tell me the details." Chen Chuan recounted what had happened, then fished the photograph from his pocket. "I also found a photograph where the urban legend vanished. When I asked later, I was told it's an old picture from over sixty years ago. It might have something to do with the legend." Cheng Zitong walked over, took it, glanced at it, and handed it back, his tone casual. "You keep that photograph. We have no way of tracing things from that far back. After dealing with urban legends, they sometimes leave items behind, and as you saw, these things can undergo changes. You can keep them as part of a collection; some might prove useful down the line, just like my antique mirror." "Understood, Teacher." Chen Chuan agreed, but could not resist asking, "Teacher, what exactly are these urban legends or tales?" He remained intensely curious about this. Cheng Zitong had avoided answering directly last time, so he took this opportunity to ask again. Cheng Zitong said, "After experiencing this, you probably have some guesses of your own, don't you? But I will say this: what you saw was only a fraction of the whole; it doesn't represent everything. "On this path, I am just a student and explorer like you. It's only that I started a bit earlier and encountered a few more things, but even I cannot give a definitive answer. Anything I tell you might only mislead you. "So my advice is, don't rush to conclusions. Wait, observe, and once you've had more contact with such things, you might arrive at a judgment of your own." Chen Chuan nodded. "I understand, Teacher." Pausing briefly, he added, "Teacher, I wanted to ask—if I plan to take the exam for an unlimited defense license, how does the process work?" At the mention of this, Cheng Zitong's expression turned solemn. He walked over to the door, peered outside, and shut it before saying, "No need to rush into this just yet. New Year's break is in a few days. Before then, I'll find some time to go over the details with you." Chen Chuan said, "Alright, Teacher." Not wishing to disturb Cheng Zitong any further, he left the office. Reaching the corridor, he glanced out the window and saw snowflakes drifting down. Unnoticed, snow had begun to fall. A day later, on Guangmo Street in the southern district. Inside a plainly decorated venue, a man of twenty-seven or twenty-eight in a white shirt was flipping through a stack of forms, looking troubled. Beside him sat several young men and women. Every one of them was dressed in fine, tailored clothes, yet right now, they all appeared thoroughly listless. A large chandelier hung above them, and spread across the solid wood table they sat around was a map of Yangzhi City and its surrounding counties and towns, marked up with notes in various colors of drawing pens. Suddenly, the door slammed open, and wind and snow swept inside with a person, making everyone in the room shiver. "Hiss, freezing to death out here!" "Quick, close the door!" "Xiao Jiang, have you lost your mind? Shut the door!" Xiao Jiang brushed off the scolding without a care. Hastily shutting the door, he scurried over to the man in the white shirt. "Big Brother Ren, did you hear? I heard someone resolved the specter urban legend at Lanxiang Cinema!" "Resolved?" Big Brother Ren froze for a moment, then his eyes lit up. Grabbing Xiao Jiang, he asked urgently, "It's resolved?" Xiao Jiang nodded vigorously. Hearing this, the other youths all looked up one after another. Big Brother Ren pressed, "Who did it? Did you find out?" "I asked, I asked!" Xiao Jiang said. "Manager Huang said he can't disclose information about commissioners, but I found out his driver was responsible for picking him up and dropping him off each time. So I slipped his assistant some cash, and the assistant told me in private that it was a student from Wuyi. He couldn't give a name, but the person brought weapons every time, and Manager Huang only found him through personal connections." "From Wuyi? And carrying weapons every time? Then he must be someone who holds a weapons license. No wonder!" Big Brother Ren said excitedly. "That's exactly the kind of person we need!" However, one of the youths at the table threw cold water on his enthusiasm. "Big Brother Ren, don't celebrate too soon. Wuyi students aren't easy to hire. They all go to the big commissioner agencies. Why would someone like that come to a newly founded small-fry operation like ours?" Big Brother Ren was full of confidence. "How do we know if we don't try? Have you forgotten what our dream is? We're going to build this into the biggest commissioner firm in Yangzhi City—no, in the entire Prefecture Circuit! These little obstacles in front of us are just things we have to find a way to overcome." He rallied the youths around him. "Right now, we can't compete with the major firms, so targeting these urban legends is our best breakthrough point. An expert who can resolve such matters is exactly the commissioner we're looking for. No matter what, we have to find a way to persuade him to join us." "Alright, Big Brother Ren, you're right. But we can't even get into Wuyi Academy, and we don't even know his name. How are we supposed to meet him?" Someone chimed in, "Doesn't Manager Huang know him?" "Forget it. Manager Huang has strong professional ethics. If he leaked the commissioner's identity, no one would ever hire him again. Besides, he had to rely on favors himself. He won't help us." "Then give that assistant more money. If he leaked a little, he can leak more. Even without a name, there's bound to be a description of his appearance. There aren't many people with weapons licenses—we'll definitely track him down." Listening to the young people debate, Big Brother Ren pondered for a moment. Suddenly, his eyes lit up and he snapped his fingers. "Right! The arena tournament!" "What?" The youths all looked over. Big Brother Ren clenched his fist, full of excitement. "Wuyi Academy holds arena tournaments at the end and beginning of the year. During that time, ordinary citizens can enter the academy to watch the matches. As long as we get tickets, we'll have a chance to enter Wuyi Academy! We might even find him then!" "That's right!" The youths' eyes brightened. They loved watching arena matches anyway; tracking down someone while enjoying the tournament would kill two birds with one stone. Just then, a young girl with hair tied in a bun raised her hand and said in a crisp voice, "Leave getting the tickets to me! I haven't done anything for the team yet." "Good, we'll leave it to Xiao Wan," Big Brother Ren readily agreed. Getting those tickets might be difficult for others, but for this group of wealthy scions gathered together, it posed no problem at all. In just half a day, they had secured enough tickets. Today was already the twenty-seventh, however, and the holidays would begin in two days. Tomorrow's arena tournament was the final event of the year. If they didn't look for him now, they might have to wait until next year. Initially, the young people had been lazy about it, thinking it wouldn't hurt to wait until the new year. But Big Brother Ren refused, giving an entirely convincing reason: "If we noticed an expert like him, other commissioner firms surely will too. If we don't find him soon, someone else might beat us to the punch!" Spurred by this logic, the youths drove out to Wuyi Academy the very day they got their tickets. Around six o'clock, Chen Chuan emerged from the training room. He had heard the dorm manager knocking earlier, telling him to clear out his internal dispatch box. So he went out and opened the box, only to find it stuffed full of letters, leaving him somewhat surprised. Taking the letters back to his room, he flipped through them one by one. Many were from upperclassmen, mostly expressing a wish to have a meal with him and get to know their junior, all written in warm and polite terms. Chen Chuan checked the dates on the letters; they had all arrived clustered within the past two days. After thinking it over, he realized this was likely connected to his resolution of the incident at Lanxiang Cinema. Many graduates and upperclassmen were interning or working at various commissioner agencies. They had likely learned of the matter and reached out to him. Given the reach and resources of these firms, finding out that he was behind it would not have been difficult. Tidying up the letters, he set out to grab dinner first. But as he stepped out of the dormitory building, he spotted a poised, spirited senior schoolmate in imported formal attire standing nearby, seemingly waiting for someone. He cast a glance her way and kept walking. Just then, footsteps hurried up from behind him, accompanied by a voice calling out, "Student Chen? Is that Student Chen? Please wait a moment." Chen Chuan stopped, turned partially around, and asked, "Senior, is there something I can help you with?" The senior extended a pale, slender hand, smiling as she said, "Student Chen, it's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Min Lan. I'm a Wuyi graduate, currently working as a commissioner at a commissioner firm. You should have received the business card we had Student Fang deliver to you last time."