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 “Aside from having a funny character, he’s withdrawn, easily irritable, obsessed with research, and has zero regard for interpersonal communication skills.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

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

thinking, the pair found themselves

him, Cedrick. He’s a man who never flatters anyone. He does what he wants and speaks his mind when something displeases him.

and thought that he quite

somebody like that give Benedict as strange a

his eyes, Cedrick knocked

Knock, knock, knock.

knocked thrice in

sign of movement in the office, nor was there

said. “Why don’t I keep an eye here

“Nobody saw him leave the lab during work hours. He must

greater force, he rapped the

office. “What good would knocking do? Why

on the other side of

earful

and cleared his throat. “This is Prof. Mallory. I

a moment’s silence, the doorknob twisted with

your intention, Joshua, I’ll assume you’re mute. It’s a waste for you to have a

he saw his colleague as an elder who was

said, “You work in a premier laboratory in Chanaea, Professor Yortz. How could you be taking a nap

“I opened the door like you wanted, and you’re telling me off,” he said huffily.

I meant,” Cedrick replied. “Like you, Professor Yortz, I am merely

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