Chapter 50: Schedule (Part 2/2)
Luo Nan knew that although his aunt appeared powerful, she was very much a traditional woman. She put the importance of educating a child first. Her way of thinking was conservative. And she would often shift decisions towards the men of the family on certain principles and topics.
Luo Nan was the sole heir of the Luo Family. His Aunt absolutely wouldn’t be able to refuse just based on this fact alone.
Luo Nan got what he wanted two minutes later. But now he didn’t know what he should say to his aunt. He could only turn his chair around and the car sunk back into silence once again.
Luo Nan used his flexible e-ink screen to thumb through his grandfather’s diagnosis records.
There wouldn’t be any clear and timely conclusions in these records, but there would be hidden meanings between the words and lines.
Luo Yuandao had multiple complications in functionality occur from the pathological changes in his nervous system. He had lost the functionality of several organs at the present, so he laid in an extremely dangerous state. In fact, he completely relied on drugs and medical devices to keep him alive.
In the eyes of a doctor, it was already quite the miracle that this old man was now able to walk, able to speak, and able to get angry. There would ultimately be a day when the intense stimulation of drugs would no longer be capable of surmounting the essentials for life, the failed organs. Who knows when this man’s scales of fate would start tilting. Perhaps all it would take was a slight increase in tolerance towards a certain drug, then the balance would be broken and everything would become irrevocable.
Everything could be simplified into three words:
At any time!
Beyond all expectations, Luo Nan wasn’t that shocked. It seemed that things ought to be this way.
Some information came from the HexaEar once again; it was still Octopus. Octopus had sent Luo Nan the study notes he had taken back in the day. They were all on the junior level seminars he had participated in. He had written down the key information.
Inside was a fundamental set of training theories for the realization and maintenance of equilibrium between mental mind and fleshly body. It was extremely typical and practical. Naturally, Octopus’s intention of giving Luo Nan these notes was to give him some direction.
Luo Nan skimmed through the writing, getting a general understanding of the notes as he flipped through its entirety. He saved these notes in the favorites folder within HexaEar for later use.
His body leaned back against his seat and his gaze was cast outside at the two parallel dragons of light.
The courses of these dragons of light were the same, but they would never be able to converge together.
This was the way things must be under the rationality and rules of the normal world.
If he were to draw something using the line of thinking of an ordinary person, his grandfather, a serious schizophrenic, would never be able to truly have the same interpretation towards the drawing.
Five years of time. Luo Nan had spent a lot of time trying to use the logic of normal people to decipher his grandfather’s theories. He even tried explaining it to normal people…… even tried to convince them.
But now he understood clearly: Grandfather’s world of logic had completely departed from the dimension of normal people. What business did he have towards worldly reputation and justice?
What Grandfather needed, or at least what Luo Nan believed he needed, was a definite, an open, a proper, and an unmistaken interaction.
Only then would everything begin.
The most important thing was logic.
Luo Yuandao’s logic was classical. His Formatting Theory was similar in form to primitive philosophy. He advocated the nested rings of Self Formatting, Social Formatting, and Heaven-Earth Formatting.
This type of nesting was not based on the external to the internal, the material to the mental, but rather the internal to the external, the expansion of the self towards the entire universe.
It would be very hard for someone, aside from the founder, to like this sort of theory. This was because this theory took all existences besides “I” and pushed them in the whirlpool of life inside of “Me”, turning them all into “My” servants.
Luo Nan had followed the words of his grandfather for Self Formatting. And when he explained Social Formatting, he had also used the five-level structure of Student, Office Worker, Technician, Clergy, and Politician. He had understood it in a relatively impartial manner, intentionally or otherwise.
But Social Formatting followed a formula that Luo Nan had yet to discover; it was not a clear-cut model. The collective bodies of certain human societies…… There were many social theories out there and the majority of them didn’t differ in nature from Social Formatting. In fact, Social Formatting was even a bit inferior.
It was just as Mo Peng, who possessed outstanding grades in all seven subjects, had said: Where did the standard lie?
Luo Nan had heard this answer clearly from the crazed roar of his grandfather:
In me! The standard completely lies in me!
My students, my office workers, my technicians, my clergies, my politicians!
The selfishness and arrogance were enough to cause one to vomit. They were extreme and to the pinnacle, enough to make one quiver.
But when Luo Nan eliminated those unnecessary emotions, he had found a complete and clear trail of logic to follow.
Luo Nan flipped through his notebook until he reached the page with the prison drawing. He also flipped to the page that had given rise to the wraith sign. These were the two psychic drawings that were left on paper. Then he flipped back and opened the flexible e-ink screen to enter the interface of the drawing software.
There should be one more psychic drawing here. The one he drew on the night of the 28th. The third psychic drawing that was like a muddy river.
But, it wasn’t inside.
He then long-pressed to enter the second layer interface of the software. It was as if this place had truly been submerged in the muddy waters of a river.
Then could he understand things to be like so: The psychic drawing was imported in this sort of way?
Luo Nan naturally knew the symbolism behind the psychic drawing since he was the one who personally drew it. The muddy river waters were the turbid flow of emotions wielded by the Human-Faced Arachnid, formed from the convergence of emotions of countless humans.
It seemed that there was no one capable of breaking away from these dusky and muddy waters. And within this turbid flow, the Human-Faced Arachnid engaged in its hunt…...
Luo Nan stared at the five layer pyramid shaped structure. Humanoid sketches were densely packed inside. Although they were arranged neatly like playing cards, they were inexplicably hindrances to the eye.
He trembled subconsciously for a moment like something was passing through a sieve.
In an instant, the muddy flow of the interface turned even more muddy and turbid, as if it was being stirred by an enormous incorporeal hand. More importantly, the several hundred “playing cards” didn’t follow the functions of the interface to get reshuffled. Instead, the cards scattered all around. The thousand of humanoid images were like passengers of a capsized boat drowning in the water. They poured out from the five-level pyramid and they struggled, floated, and warped within the muddy waters.
Luo Nan was undisturbed as he watched all this happen and he arrived at the appropriate conclusion:
“Everyone’s struggling within the turbid flow of emotions.”
“A simple sketched portrayal is meaningless in regards to the Social Format.”
“I believed I had to classify them into different categories, but actually this had no use at all.”
“What is truly significant is…..”
His gaze was cast at the main body of the five level pyramid. It had already turned completely empty.
No. There were exceptions.
At the lowest level, student, there were two!
Luo Nan’s memories ran rather deep for one of them. It was the gift he had drawn not even two days ago. A certain man was brandishing with one arm and was holding onto someone’s shoulder with the other. He seemed deranged but was also upright and unafraid…… It was Xie Junping under an extreme state1.
The other was a fish. It looked to be very lively. It swam in circles within the muddy waters, but from start to end, it never surpassed the range of the Student Level.
He stared fixed at the outline of this fish, which looked to be drawn in a casual manner. Luo Nan used his finger to trace two lines before confirming its history:
Within the third psychic drawing was the portraying of several ability users as fish. The corresponding target was:
“Cat Eyes!”
This was not the end. Looking up from the Student Level, crossing over the completely empty Office Worker Level, and into the Technician Level, Luo Nan could clearly see a bizarre symbol floating in space.
The Wraith Sign. Human-Faced Arachnid!
1. Luo Nan's drawing of Xie Junping. In Chapter 33.1, Luo Nan drew a picture of Xie Junping as a gift portraying the moment when Xie Junping was defending Luo Nan against the lawyer of a new investor.