92 Files (1/2)
Still in the library, more than half the day had passed but Ye Qingxuan was still empty handed. He had found no clues at all! He had looked through every record and file related to the Royal Academy of Music. The pile towered beside him.
”Collection of Personnel Files at the Royal Academy of Music,” courses and schedules of the different schools, records of school anniversary celebrations, summary of announcements, staff lists of each school, pictures of large-scale ceremonies, newspaper interviews about the Academy, the salaries for each year. There were even lists of the classrooms and dorms…
Ye Qingxuan had read through all of it from noon to mid-afternoon! He had a more holistic understanding of all four schools and sixteen majors, but it did not matter at all. He had not found anything that he had wanted, and accidentally learned too much about what he did not care about. In order not to miss any details, he had even held his nose and read through Sydney’s autobiography! But in the end, all he got was the amazing adventures of the stupid man’s youths, but they were probably made up.
Moon Chant, Ye Lanzhou, Ye Qingxuan’s father…He seemed to have never existed. He had disappeared from every record and memory in the world. If Ye Qingxuan did not remember him, would he be entirely forgotten?
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After reading the last book, Ye Qingxuan had lost all hope. He collapsed onto the pile of books, sinking into a gray state. There was no sign of any Easterner in any of the records! And especially not an Easterner that had been the vice principal. Was Hermes lying? Even though Hermes had a bad personality, he did not seem like the type to lie for fun. What was going on? Who had erased all of the records?
”He didn’t even leave behind the lecturer’s name on the class schedules!” Ye Qingxuan punched the ground angrily and stuck his middle finger up at the air, ”Why don’t you go big or go home and get rid of the sign-in sheet too?” Of course, no one replied in the silence, but Ye Qingxuan froze.
He shot up from the ground, finally having realized something. ”That’s right. The sign-in sheet…every public lecture would have included the professor’s signatures! Otherwise, it would be impossible to calculate their salaries!” The best thing was that those useless pieces of paper counted as lecture material and would be collected by the library.
”Sign-in sheet! Sign-in sheet!” Ye Qingxuan chanted like a lunatic as he started searching through the shelves. But after a long while, he was still empty-handed. He could not find it.
In the centuries that the academy had existed, there must have been millions of lectures. If every lecture had a sign-in sheet, at least ten warehouses would be needed to store them all. Why would they be here? And even if they were, Ye would not be able to find them in the giant library, right?
He sighed in despair, trying to resist the urge to slam his head against the shelf. When he looked into the surging darkness, his eyes lit up. He might not know but…they would know! If they knew where the personnel files were, then what Dominic called ‘little things,’ raised in the library, would know the place like the back of their hand.
”Hey, anybody here?” Ye Qingxuan looked around and raised his hand. ”Does anyone know where the sign-in sheets from the Royal Academy of Music nineteen years ago are?”
”…” As if a group of people were staring coldly at him, no answer came from the darkness.
”Come on, I know you’re listening! Help me out!” Ye Qingxuan’s expression was still genuine. ”Don’t be like this. What if we make a deal?”
The darkness remained silent.
”Hey, if I can help you with anything, I’ll be glad to do it!” Ye Qingxuan raised his voice. ”At least consider it! Friend, I’m the concertmaster…why don’t we make a deal? People should help each other! There’s a saying from the East that goes, ‘everyone works for me and I work for everyone.’ Can’t you at least give me a hint?”
A long time passed before a voice said, ”Marble.” The soft voice that came from behind Ye Qingxuan was like a little girl’s.
”Huh?” Ye Qingxuan looked back in shock, but there was nothing there.
The voice rang again as if it had never spoken before. A faint hand made of dust reached out from the darkness. There was a shiny marble between its three fingers, and it shook it before Ye Qingxuan’s eyes. ”Marble. Want.”
Ye Qingxuan was overjoyed. ”Yes, yes! I’ll get you a bunch of marbles when I get out! But it’s kind of hard to find ones made of bone. Is glass okay? What color do you like? Red? White? Or green?”
The darkness surged and there were soft sounds, as if the beasts were discussing amongst themselves. After a while, the dust hand raised two fingers. ”One hundred. Every kind.”
Ignoring the fact that they did not know how to count, Ye Qingxuan nodded quickly. ”Great! It’s a deal!”
There was the soft sound again, then the dust hand rose slowly, pointing at Ye Qingxuan. ”Promise?”
Ye Qingxuan raised his own hand and gave it a high five. ”I promise.” Of course, the high five was silent. The dust hand dissipated, leaving no trace behind. And then boom!
The floor under Ye Qingxuan suddenly cracked open and collapsed, a hole appeared. There was a sharp cry and then the youth was gone.
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Screaming, Ye Qingxuan fell into the darkness. Quickly, he landed with a thud on a giant pile of something. Dust flew and swirled in the air, choking him. Light from some unknown source illuminated the underground room.
Ye Qingxuan climbed up from the pile of notebooks with difficulty. He looked around in shock, realizing that he seemed to be in a landfill. In the vast underground square, there were piles and piles of books. The tattered records had been tossed there, forgotten for years until a giant hole appeared in the corner of the wall.