After the mushroom-haired herbalist’s full body physical assessment, Doctor Yun clicked his tongue in disdain.
"Multiple bruises on her back, a sprained elbow and irritated scalp from hair-pulling. What kind of beast did this to her?"
Ashamed and remorseful, Researcher Yang apologised to Anji for not preventing the abuse from happening.
"It’s most definitely Song Geying. She was about to hit Anji when I found them in the backyard. I’m very sorry for what my assistants did to you."
Song Geying was notorious in the Western District for just about everything from plagiarising to sleeping her way up the ranks. The elders had an eye on her for the longest time, but there was never a good enough reason to expel such a shameless witch. Now, they had a great reason to do so. Yet, nobody was truly happy about this victory. Doctor Yun, who knew a little about the sect’s politics, glared at Researcher Yang.
"Was it worth it?" he asked. However, none of the cultivators answered.
For the sake of getting solid evidence to get rid of an evil woman, they used an innocent child. Nobody was expecting Anji to become truly hurt. Song Geying was a detestable and shameless person, but they did not think she would stoop so low as to harm a child. They knew she would abandon her duties and bully Anji to do her portion. However, nobody thought she would lay her hands on Anji.
"I’m sorry," Researcher Yang bowed to Anji, who was startled. "I neglected my assistants and caused you harm. Please forgive me."
Naturally, he was instantly forgiven by Anji, who claimed it was not his mistake. Doctor Yun begged to differ but kept silent while he treated Anji’s elbow and took her pulse. Apart from suffering a little dehydration, Anji was fine.
"I heard that you forgot about lunch," the thin doctor levelled his stare. "If not for Aunt Wine sending the food to you, would you have starved?"
This time, it was Anji’s turn to apologise to the doctor. She had gotten so carried away with her task that she forgot about the time. It was quite a rough start for her orientation month.
Quickly jumping in to save Anji from Doctor Yun’s nagging, Researcher Yang chimed in and agreed.
"That’s why we should leave now so Anji would not miss dinner. Right?"
Winking at her, the researcher waited for Anji to agree. Taking the cue, the small girl quickly nodded and jumped from the chair.
"I’ll see you again tomorrow, Doctor Yun! Bye!"
Just like that, both the researcher and the child were gone. Fuming, Doctor Yun took his anger out on Little Mushroom, who was walking by whistling a happy tune. Her face fell immediately when the doctor scolded her for leaving dirt trails on his clinic floor again. It was true her shoes were muddy from harvesting mushrooms outside. However, the nagging was wrongly directed as she bore the brunt of his lectures now that the real targets had escaped.
>>Xxx Destiny Aitsuji xxX<<
When Researcher Yang and Anji finally reached the mess hall, Aunt Wine was already waiting for them.
"You’re here! Oh, it’s rare to see researchers visiting the kitchen. Did your lazy assistants finally send you to do their errands?"
Sighing, Researcher Yang begged to be let off the nagging. In just one day, he had to listen to the same lecture from so many people. All he wanted was some time alone. Besides, there would be consequences to deal with when he returned. He would be dismissing both his assistants and opening up new spots for assistants from the eastern district looking for a transfer. As it was, the two lazy assistants he had could either look for a different researcher to take them in or be demoted to a librarian once more. As for Song Geying, who was caught red-handed trying to harm a child, he would send her directly to the disciplinary committee to handle.
Hearing that the spineless researcher was finally doing something right, Aunt Wine huffed and told the kitchen to bring out the good stuff.
As she checked her children’s menu, Anji wondered what the good stuff was. Today, the kitchen added a red bean jelly to her meal.
When Aunt Wine reappeared with the good stuff, Anji quickly realised it was alcohol. Researcher Yang appeared thrilled with the brew but tried to keep his behaviour in check before her, hiding the bottle away.
"These are my research notes. We did promise to teach you one thing when you finish one chore. Although I have no idea what you would find useful, I have been working on this for the last two years. Tell me honestly what you think, and feel free to clarify anything you don’t know." The source of this content ɪs novel⟡fire.net
Research notes! Anji wondered why there were so many stacks of papers. It was her first time looking at research notes instead of a medical journal. Excited, she finished her meal and started pouring through the papers while Researcher Yang ate, occasionally explaining the concepts he tried to incorporate into his project.
"These are calculations for the spiritual shield force field," he pointed at a matrix. "The force field should expand accordingly to the energy received. However, it has been a year since I made any progress."
At first glance, the matrix was complicated to understand. Anji stared at it for ten minutes in silence while the adults chatted and drank. However, after thirty minutes, she finally asked a question.
"Why is the conversion method here layered each time it expands?"
Scrutinising the part Anji extracted from his complex equation, Researcher Yang explained how it became harder to maintain a force field shield the bigger it became. Previously, he tried to convert the energy linearly. However, the force field could not maintain its area, and the shield would lose its sturdiness. Hence, the extra layering method was used to conserve the properties of the force field and shield.
Tilting her head to a side, Anji recognised the problem. However, in her shifu’s notes, there was an easier way to resolve this problem. A mountain that grew too large would eventually collapse in a landslide. There had to be a balance for everything. Pivoting the shield on only one point was already a mistake. Once it fell out of balance, it would naturally collapse.
"May I suggest a different method?" she asked. "It was in my study notes, but I think I understand the problem."
All ears, Researcher Yang nodded. Unlike his assistants, who only sang him praises or claimed they could not understand, he wanted to know what a child prodigy thought.
Using three objects to create a triangle, Anji explained that this was the balance between energy, area and sturdiness of the shield. Using the cup as an example, Anji explained how the more water being poured into it, the more water they could use to cover the area inside, which was created by the two sauce dishes representing the area and the sturdiness.
"Assuming the water is infinite, there is still a limit to how big this triangle can become. To maximise the shield’s sturdiness over a large area, we must maintain a good distance between the area and the sturdiness. However, when creating this new spell, there is no buffer between the area and the sturdiness. They both take first priority."
Pushing the two sauce dishes next to each other, Anji stretched the distance between them and the cup. Instead of a healthy triangle, it now looked closer to a straight line.
"Originally, balancing both would be hard enough as the focal energy point is at the bottom. However, when you stretch them too close to each other, it becomes even harder to balance the distribution, causing it to topple either way easily."
Drawing the two sauce dishes apart as far as she could and as low as possible, Anji pointed out how easily the cup would be able to balance the new formation, even if it was at the bottom.
"If we changed the ratio of the area and shield to maximise them and put more spaces between, you can even stack more weight above this formation, and it would remain sturdy."
Borrowing the chopsticks, Anji placed as many of them as she could above this wide-based inverted triangle to demonstrate it. Her insight made Researcher Yang smile. Then, he laughed as if the alcohol had finally taken effect.
Patting Anji on the head, he wiped the tears from his eyes and thanked her. Anji was about to reply when he took the notes out of her hand and tore them up before everyone’s eyes.
Shocked, Anji wanted to stop him, but Aunt Wine stopped her. She shook her head, and the girl could only watch as Researcher Yang destroyed all his work for the past two years.
"It’s all part of the creation process," she explained to Anji. "He realised that the fundamental ideology of his invention was wrong and the research would never succeed."
Feeling pained for all the hard work Researcher Yang had put into the last two years, Anji cringed. However, the researcher looked refreshed after ripping all his notes into little pieces.
"Thank you," he smiled at Anji once more. "You reminded me of the most basic principle that I’ve forgotten in my search. No wonder it was not working. I’ll have to return to the drawing board again and redesign it using the basic principles."
Unsure if it was a good thing, Anji felt conflicted. Seeing her expression, Researcher Yang admitted that he had a feeling this project was impossible to complete. However, he did not have reliable assistants or colleagues to point out his mistake. Anji had only given him the confirmation of what he doubted previously, giving him the confidence to make a new start.
"I’m sorry I haven’t been most helpful with teaching you anything new," Researcher Yang apologised. "However, if there is something you want to ask about, I’m sure I could assist."
Grabbing the opportunity, Anji asked about the concept of General Relativity used in space and time research. Teleportation was a difficult topic that Anji could not understand. Even after seeing it used first-hand and experiencing it, her shifu’s notes were too complex for her.
Stumped by another high-difficulty question, Researcher Yang frowned. Apart from the sect master, the other researchers who delved into teleportation spells were usually the senior researchers. Regular researchers have not studied it due to its complexity, which transcends astrology.
Wrecking his brain, he finally remembered someone who could help Anji.
"I’ll recommend you to someone tomorrow who is a specialist in point-to-point teleportation spells. Although she is young and temperamental, she is a direct student of a senior researcher. Not many of us specialise in spatial spells. I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help."
Shaking her head, Anji thanked Researcher Yang for the recommendation and decided to stay a little longer in the mess hall to talk with Aunt Wine until the sun went down.
Seeing how it was getting colder in the evening, Researcher Yang offered to send Anji back to her cottage. Aunt Wine reminded Anji that she had to report on time for all three meals and also insisted that she was escorting Anji to see Researcher Ke tomorrow.
Waving goodbye to the kitchen staff, Anji followed Researcher Yang out into the chilly night.