“Juan” quickly finished reviewing the entire exam paper and wrote down the total score for the three subjects at the beginning of the paper: seventeen points.
It was a full one hundred points off from the final result.
“Hmm… it seems the problem lies with Maisie?” Nana Wa tilted her head.
“Eh, is that all there is to it?” Mystery Moon was greatly disappointed. “Could it be that Juan deliberately protected Maisie, using the condition of giving a high score in exchange for honey-glazed jerky—ouch!”
Lily slapped her on the back of the head. “Shut your mouth!”
“Do you want to keep watching?” Asha asked timidly. “Should we leave here earlier? What if we get discovered?”
“Wait a little longer,” Candlelight said in a deep voice. “Maybe there was some mistake during the copying process.”
“No need, I already know the result, that’s enough…” Evelyn shook her head. If it were the original writing style, it would indeed be possible to confuse the compactly arranged numbers, but in the popular education promoted by Roland, the numbers have been changed to simple and easy-to-remember single-stroke shapes. The chance of misreading them is too slim.
“I think Maisie flew in from the window and stole the jerky—stop!” Mystery Moon covered her head. “Don’t hit me, I won’t say it.”
“Juan” finished checking all the exam papers and began copying the scores. Even after all the scores were compiled onto a single sheet, Maisie’s score remained at seventeen points.
“It seems it’s not Juan Teacher’s problem after all,” Candlelight breathed a sigh of relief.
“Can we leave now?” Asha asked anxiously.
Just as Evelyn was about to agree, “Juan” suddenly stood up and looked towards the door. The six immediately followed her gaze, only then noticing that the door had been opened at some point, and a City Hall apprentice was standing in front of the office door.
“What are they saying?” Mystery Moon asked.
The illusion had no sound, so everyone could only judge the conversation through lip movements.
“It seems Juan-daren… Lord Barov… has something to see you?”
Then “Juan” nodded and left the office with the apprentice.
At the instant the door closed, perhaps due to the air current, a gust of cold wind suddenly swept through the room, blowing all the exam papers up and scattering them messily on the floor.
“Ah… the window,” Lily said in a daze.
Evelyn also saw it—the window that had been closed before was now open with a thin crack. It could only be said that Juan hadn’t closed the window tightly. Under the influence of the airflow produced by the opening and closing of the door, the window was pushed open. With the gusty autumn wind outside, the window swayed back and forth, opening wider and wider. Before long, another strong gust of wind slammed it hard against the window frame. Although no sound could be heard, the extent of the glass’s vibration showed that the impact force was considerable.
A jaw-dropping scene occurred.
The airflow swept through the office again, knocking the pen holder onto the desk. The quill hit the mouth of the ink bottle and flew up, landing precisely on the grade sheet.
The tip of the quill landed first, accurately brushing across the grid containing Maisie’s score, leaving a short vertical line that turned the original seventeen points into a three-digit one hundred and seventeen points.
Perhaps someone heard the loud noise coming from the office, the door was pushed open again, and the apprentice who had notified Juan to leave first peeked inside and then walked in in surprise.
She walked to the window, re-secured all the windows, then squatted down to clean up the office for Juan.
Only after all the documents were re-organized and neatly placed on the table did she leave satisfied on light feet.
So that’s what happened? Evelyn and Candlelight exchanged glances.
It wasn’t that Juan copied incorrectly, nor was it that Maisie deliberately lied, but rather an accidental wind caused it?
Evelyn could already guess what happened next. Juan received His Majesty's order to go on a mission to Changge and handed the grade sheet to Wendy, and Wendy was not the grader. Even if she felt confused about Maisie's score, she would not question Juan's judgment.
“Ha, under Mystery Moon's insistence, the truth has finally been discovered,” Mystery Moon looked up and said, “The culprit is… Teacher Juan!”
“It’s the wind!” Lily gritted her teeth.
“But if Juan had closed the window properly, the wind wouldn't have blown the exam papers around, or blown the quill away, would it?”
“There’s no way you can say that!”
“That’s not right,” Nana Wa pondered, “If you say that, it should be Roland-dianxia’s fault. He built the new City Hall here, not only expanding it by a circle, but also adding two more floors. Without the extra second floor, Juan wouldn't be grading papers here.”
“Uh… you have a point, so the culprit is—Roland-bishia?”
“Enough, you guys!”
“Excuse me… can I end this now?” Asha looked like she was about to cry.
“Sorry, it’s already over,” Evelyn patted her shoulder. “Thank you, let’s go.”
“Eh, just leaving? Maybe we can find the next quiz in Juan's office?” Mystery Moon blocked the way.
“That’s your real purpose for coming here!” Lily pounced on her. “I won’t let you mess around!”
“I, I was just saying!”
……
The final investigation ended like a farce. After saying goodbye to Candlelight, Evelyn returned to the witch building alone.
Although the truth had come out, she couldn't calm down at all.
For some reason, the flying paper and the falling quill kept appearing in her mind—the trajectories of both were irregular, but in the final moment, they formed a clever and perfect result.
Not only the paper and the pen, but also the airflow driven by the door and the time the apprentice entered and exited were all components of this result. Without any one of these conditions, the change in the score could not have been achieved.
However, these conditions were unconscious and chaotic.
So, mixing drinks is the same.
Various ingredients are added to the wine, but when tasting it, one does not feel each flavor in turn. They blend and influence each other in the wine. Every taste that can be accepted requires countless attempts, and sometimes an accidental combination creates those unique flavors.
Evelyn couldn't help but think of the microscopic balls that Roland-bishia spoke of—they are always doing unordered disturbances, each of which seems unrelated, but overall can show wonderful properties.
She closed her eyes and felt something about to emerge from her heart.
The world is full of chaos.
But chaos also hides results.
It's as if it were predetermined.
Evelyn suddenly opened her eyes and reached out to hold the water glass on the table.
The cold water that had been left for a day rippled, and then the color changed, like a drop of dye poured into it. The water surface gradually turned orange-red, and an unprecedented fragrance floated into her nose.
She hesitated for a moment and stuck out her tongue to lick it.
An indescribable sweetness instantly filled her taste buds—slightly astringent, but the strong and mellow sweetness was incomparable to any type of drink.
It was like a mixture of fruit juice and milk, or a mixture of tea and honey. Evelyn found it difficult to accurately describe the taste, but one thing she was sure of.
This was definitely not wine.