The Detective of the Noble Male Academy 2

02

'You mean you want to take the morning off? But this morning is our Photography Club activity...' Fu Dao tapped the tabletop lightly.

As president of the male academy's Photography Club, he naturally didn't want anyone skipping out during a major event.

As already mentioned in the first chapter, Ji Yue was indifferent to everything at the male academy. He had joined the Photography Club only so he could photograph F4 and the special student's romantic entanglements at important occasions without arousing suspicion; as for the club's development, he couldn't care less.

Fu Dao wore the same unreadable gaze as the other students, and now turned a smile on him: 'Why are you taking the day off?'

'Something came up.'

'If I pressed you for a reason, would you explain?'

Ji Yue stayed silent. He couldn't say it was to tail the special student, and he had no interest in making up a lie.

'All right, go on then. That expression of yours...' Fu Dao laughed, for reasons he couldn't quite name.

Ji Yue thanked him and turned to leave. He didn't know that the half-sentence Fu Dao had swallowed was 'so adorable' — and even if he had known, he wouldn't have cared.

He went back to his dorm and changed clothes.

The first rule of tailing someone: dress plainly, stay inconspicuous, and don't repeat outfits too often, so as to lower the chance of being recognized.

Unfortunately, the BBS Forum's pinned thread 【School Beauty's Wardrobe】 meticulously documented his daily outfits and drew a steady stream of replies with commentary.

——Today it's a white T-shirt and a pale blue knit cardigan, nothing bright or eye-catching — oh, and big-framed glasses, sneaking around all furtive-like, he's definitely going to tail the special student again (rage)(rage)

——Ohhhhhh he even matched it with a hair ribbon in the same color?! Is today's theme Alice in Wonderland?!! The special student is the ugly rabbit!

So far, Ji Yue had yet to encounter any of F1 through F4 in person, and his records on them were nearly blank.

F4 didn't appear often — not in class, not around campus — but the first law of noble academy fiction held: follow the special student and you'll find F4.

F2 Yuwen Qing — Ji Yue had no reliable way to pin down his whereabouts.

Yuwen Qing attended the Horseback Riding Class regularly, yet even so, Ji Yue had never managed to catch Yuwen Qing leaving the grounds afterward. The man would ride around the paddock for hours and then simply rest and sleep over there, vanishing from sight for an entire day.

Last night, Ji Yue had tried to tail Yuwen Qing and failed.

'I really want to kill them.'

The thought refused to leave Ji Yue's mind.

【......】

Fortunately, guided by the System's coordinates, Ji Yue had located F2's residence in advance — a standalone mansion hidden deep in the forest, with no neighbors anywhere near it.

Yuwen Qing could hardly have imagined that an unknown detective had already planted a listening device inside his home.

Ji Yue began to daydream: 'Give me an invisible, traceless, self-retrieving hovering camera.'

【That kind of advanced technology doesn't exist in this world yet. The tech tree of the upper city was developed in a different direction entirely.】

'Heard today is the Flower House's open day.'

'Oh? He doesn't usually open it to the public, does he? A guy who treats his flowers and plants like treasures — there was that drone footage last time, and it really was beautiful.'

'Apparently today you can go in without an invitation. I'm a little tempted.'

A little tempted.

Ji Yue repeated the phrase silently.

Known fact: the Flower House was a non-public attraction belonging to F1 Yan Min.

A special event — connected to the special student — the special student heading to the Flower House — the special student and F1's romance —

He had been lost in thought for over ten seconds, and when he looked up again, Si Jing was nowhere to be seen. Ji Yue moved forward and rounded the corner, and only then spotted the special student at the intersection.

Red means stop, green means go — the light was green, but Si Jing hadn't stepped onto the crosswalk. He stood there, head bowed over his communicator screen.

Ji Yue drifted quietly into position behind him.

Five seconds left on the green light.

Si Jing finally moved, crossing the street and heading in the direction of the Flower House.

【The special student really is going on a date! Our plot is back on track!】 The System broke into a bright, unrestrained laugh.

Ji Yue had no real concept of what a noble academy's Flower House might look like — he'd assumed something on the scale of a wealthy family's private greenhouse. It wasn't until he reached the entrance, which loomed like the gate of an ancient castle, that he realized he'd been wrong. A place this vast and boundless deserved to be called a mega-garden.

A robot recited how many acres the grounds covered: the section two kilometers out was tropical greenery, the part ten kilometers away was winter-blooming flowers, and so on and so forth. Ji Yue looked up at the sky — it wasn't a natural sky at all, but a climate simulation system operating within a sealed environment, designed to simultaneously meet the growing needs of plants from every different season.

This was F1 Yan Min's private amusement.

Si Jing hadn't chosen to take a vehicle, and neither had Ji Yue. The two of them moved one ahead of the other, strolling through the sea of flowers.

The deeper they went, the more the terrain and garden design shifted, until it began to feel like a series of enormous mazes.

Two boys came speeding past in a cart: 'Ji Yue, want a ride?'

'No.'

'Walking is tiring, you know. We're heading up ahead to see the roses?'

'No.'

What a nuisance. That brief delay was all it took — Si Jing's figure had already vanished around a bend.

【The special student has anti-surveillance techniques!】

Distracted by his exchange with the System, Ji Yue rounded a corner and walked straight into someone, barely managing not to crash headlong into them.

Before he could fall, the other person threw an arm behind his back and deftly cradled the back of his head with the other hand — but there were too many vehicles on the path just then, and Ji Yue only felt himself yanked sideways toward the wall — dizzy and disoriented, he stumbled headfirst into the other person's chest.

'Sorry.'

Both of them said it at the same time.

It was the special student, Si Jing.

A pair of naturally downturned eyes made him look entirely like a large, harmless white-furred dog; his calm, unhurried expression also softened the sense of imposing pressure that his height and build might otherwise have given.

Only once the stream of vehicles had dispersed did Si Jing release the hand he'd had at Ji Yue's waist.

【The special student is a kind person — he's friendly toward most of his classmates. A mission target like that is so much easier to keep under surveillance.】

'That part of things is going smoothly.'

Or rather, there genuinely wasn't much worth investigating. Regular schedule, a straight line between three fixed points; the only thing that set him apart from other students was his dealings with F4.

Maybe the client wanted footage of their romantic moments?

So far, Ji Yue had yet to witness any intimate behavior between them.

Ji Yue watched Si Jing walk away into the distance. He couldn't follow immediately — that would raise suspicion.

He chose to take a detour, pretending to go look at another part of the garden.

It was genuinely strange: the moment Ji Yue stopped and made to glance at the jasmine growing along the path, the ground suddenly shook and heaved. Three meters away, the earth itself began to slide sideways; an entire swath of jasmine — flowers, soil and all — was pushed aside, and the ground that slid into its place was planted thick with Blue Rose.

【So this is what the ultra-wealthy spend their money on?】

'......'

The Blue Rose swayed in the breeze, vivid and dripping with color — a blue so deep it looked as though it had been cut straight from the ocean floor, still damp with sea mist.

Ji Yue's world had no blue roses. He couldn't help but look a moment longer.

Two robots hovered and circled at his side, their bulb-like eyes blinking on and off.

'Is something the matter?'

The path ahead of him had already changed from what it had been before. Si Jing had vanished after the ground shifted. Ji Yue thought it over and decided to follow the robots back.

Was this the way out?

In the distance stood a towering mansion.

A warm lamp hung directly overhead, its light falling bright and full across Ji Yue's face.

There were no humans inside the mansion — only robots circling around him, tugging at his clothes and urging him to sit down and drink hot tea.

Outside the window, a great blazing expanse of Blue Rose; in the distance, mountains and birdsong.

After resting for a short while, Ji Yue explored the mansion, going upstairs and back down again, until he encountered the mansion's owner in the study.

'And you are?'

The young man set down his book and asked where he had come from.

Ji Yue stopped in front of the desk, standing quite close to him.

The study was warmly lit, its light falling gently over Ji Yue — dark lashes, snow-white cheeks, long black hair radiating a soft halo; black was black and white was white, the contrast stark and vivid.

A butterfly that had drifted in through the window came to rest beside his ear.

A pale blue velvet hair ribbon floated lightly on the breeze, brushing across the study owner's shoulder.

Ji Yue recognized him.

He was F1 — Yan Min — the owner of the Flower House.

-------

BBS Forum

Hot Threads / HOT...

Topic: Today is an Alice in Wonderland AU, right?!

0F: Where's my Alice?????????? How did he just disappear and never come back?!!

1F: The school beauty chased the rabbit into the hole, only to find a demon waiting inside?! (sobbing)(sobbing)(fist)

2F: Someone go get him out of there, can anyone talk to Yan【】...

3F: A whole day and night — nothing terrible happened in there, right?!

4F: The special student hasn't come out either... hmm...

5F: ? What is the person above fantasizing about

6F: I mean honestly it's too much — he opened the garden specially just to play at confinement??

7F: What kind of family does the school beauty come from? Is there anyone at home who can help — can someone say something

8F: Read the forum rules!! Discussing his personal private information is banned, ok?

9F: Look on the bright side — he might be in there growing flowers

10F: How about we flatten Yan【】 with a shovel

11F: Yan【】 isn't that kind of person... it's not like he's Yuwen【】

12F: ...all I can say is you still don't know F4 well enough

13F: Good news, he's already out...

14F: 【image】

15F: I can already see the bad news... (sobbing)(sobbing)