Chapter 25: World Tree
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The subway doors closed once again, and the carriage, which could accommodate 32 people, instantly became lively.
Tang Lin and his four companions, along with the three members of Nightwalker, found two empty benches and sat facing each other. Most of the Sky Lantern members remained near the door, waiting for their leader’s instructions.
In order to provide as much protection as possible for his team members, Zhou Yunhui was among the last group to board. At this moment, he was catching his breath while holding onto his knees. However, his head was raised, and his gaze was fixed firmly on the VIP and Nightwalker members sitting a little further away.
Tao Wenyu signaled to the VIP across from him with a glance and whispered, “Watch out, they’ll definitely come over for a chat in a bit.”
Without waiting for “a bit,” Zhou Yunhui stood up straight, briefly exchanged a few words with his team members, and then came over without any hesitation.
Most of the Sky Lantern members found seats nearby, but they all unconsciously avoided the Strawberry Sweet Doughnuts. Even if they had to sit on the same bench, they made sure to leave two or three seats in between.
As soon as Zhou Yunhui entered the social sphere, Tao Wenyu immediately put on a cheerful smile and greeted, “Hey.”
“Don’t pretend,” his gaze swept across the seven people on both sides without reservation, “you guys can really keep your composure. You guessed it but didn’t make a move, just waiting to benefit from our guesswork, right?”
As soon as this thought crossed his mind, everything became clear. It was highly unlikely that both teams would coincidentally guess the answer. So, when we guessed it, you guys also guessed it, and then we would compete while you reaped the rewards.
Tao Wenyu hesitated for a while, finally asking cautiously, “If I say it was really a coincidence, would you want to punch me?”
Zhou Yunhui replied, one word at a time, “You, tell, me.”
Tao Wenyu smirked and held his tongue. When you’ve taken advantage of someone, don’t play innocent.
Zhou Yunhui leaned against a vertical metal pillar, his breathing gradually stabilizing. His carefree demeanor returned as he said, “Now, it’s pointless to talk about it. I can’t chase you off, so let’s discuss compensation. We can’t just hitch a ride with you for nothing.”
Wang Zhengming furrowed his brow and said, “Leader Zhou…”
“Compensation is fine,” Tang Lin interjected calmly.
Wang Zhengming looked at him in surprise.
Tang Lin continued, “But the condition for compensation is that the claim is valid.”
Zhou Yunhui raised an eyebrow, “Is there something wrong with my claim?”
“There are significant issues,” Tang Lin spoke calmly and with clear reasoning. “First, we only needed an opportunity for chaos. We couldn’t control who created the chaos, so it wasn’t us choosing Sky Lantern; it was Sky Lantern choosing us. Second, the difference in the size of our groups means that Sky Lantern had no choice but to barge in forcefully, while we had to be clever. This was an inevitable situation, and even if you had foreseen it in advance, you couldn’t change the course of events. Third, if we hadn’t created the heavy fog, Sky Lantern would have faced a united encirclement from the entire platform, and the final number of people boarding the subway would have been far lower…”
He glanced around briefly.
“19 people,” Tang Lin politely and diplomatically concluded. “In summary, this was an inevitable and mutually beneficial event. The claim is rejected.”
Zhou Yunhui：“……”
Not just Leader Zhou, but also the completely puzzled Zheng Luozhu, Nan Ge, Tao Wenyu, Wang Zhengming, and Chai Ye all have same expression.
It felt like something was off, but before they could figure it out, Tang Lin had already taken them away, leaving only one feeling behind—an uncanny sense of reason.
Leader Zhou returned empty-handed.
His lonely figure made people inexplicably sympathetic.
As he walked away, Fan Peiyang commented nonchalantly, “Clever argument.”
Tang Lin smiled faintly, “As long as it works.”
Nan Ge looked puzzled.
Sitting next to her, Zheng Luozhu noticed her daydreaming and asked, “What are you looking at?”
Nan Ge whispered, “I just realized he can smile.”
Zheng Luozhu: “Who?”
Nange: “Tang Lin.”
Zheng Luozhu understood without looking, “And does he smile in a particularly gentle way?”
Nan Ge said, “And charming too.”
Zheng Luozhu: “Enjoy it while it lasts; it’s President Fan’s exclusive.”
With Zhou Yunhui’s return, the Sky Lantern finally stabilized their situation, and the carriage gradually quieted down.
Wang Zhengming leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and looked at Tang Lin across from him. “Now, can you tell us why the password is those five animals?”
One question piqued everyone’s curiosity.
It was such an important matter that it almost slipped Zhou Yunhui’s mind.
Tang Lin nodded, “In fact, we have the Strawberry Sweet Doughnuts to thank for this. They boarded the subway and confirmed that there were other hints besides the puzzle. And all the information we obtained was just what the owl said…”
“Once you focus your suspicion here, you’ll realize that ‘good use of the Stationery Tree, this tree is your world’ is a very peculiar statement. Regardless of whether it wanted us to use stationery to protect ourselves or to stop others from boarding the subway, the word ‘world’ seems forced…”
“But if you think about it the other way around, what if it intentionally made the statement sound awkward? What if this is the clue? The tree and the world, when you put these two together, the first thing that comes to mind is the World Tree from Norse mythology…”
“In ‘Edda’ this tree supports the heavens and the earth, dividing the world into the realms of heaven, earth, and the underworld…”
“Wait a moment,” Tao Wenyu raised his hand, not understanding, and asked, “What is ‘Edda’ ?”
Tang Lin replied, “It’s a manuscript about Norse mythology, probably composed between the 9th and 13th centuries in poetic form. It can be considered one of the sources of Norse mythology. However, in the early 13th century, someone wrote a prose version of ‘Edda’ to interpret this poetic ‘Edda’ so now the former is called ‘Old Edda’ and the latter is called ‘New Edda'”
Tao Wenyu struggled to swallow his saliva, now filled with “Edda.” “Did you happen to read it, or is your knowledge system naturally this solid….”
Tang Lin said calmly, “I was hospitalized for a while, with nothing else to do, so I read quite a few books.”
Tao Wenyu: “And then you remembered them all?”
Tang Lin: “Being in the hospital makes it easier to focus.”
Tao Wenyu：“……”
Zheng Luozhu, Nan Ge, Wang Zhengming, Chai Ye：“……”
Is this a hospital stay or a full-time training course?
Fan Peiyang was the calmest, he just silently nodding in his mind. Good, he remembered all the miscellaneous information.
Tang Lin returned to the topic of the password, saying, “In ‘Edda’ there is a passage about the World Tree that happens to mention several animals. A squirrel runs back and forth between the branches, passing messages to the eagles above and the dragons below. There are four young deer gnawing on the tree leaves, and there are also many snakes hibernating at the tree’s roots, waiting for the carcass to decay…”
“Squirrel, eagle, dragon, deer, snake, exactly five kinds. However, the translator of that book wrote in the preface that there is some ambiguity in Norse mythology about whether it’s an eagle or a rooster at the top of the tree,” he sighed lightly, “but luckily, we don’t have rooster in our password grid.”
After explaining, the audience fell into a long silence.
There was too much information to digest.
Zheng Luozhu, on the other hand, gave up on digestion altogether and just admired Tang Lin, looking up to the head of the study committee. Underachievers just needed to admire and learn.
“You always manage to bring surprises,” a teasing voice suddenly came from the front, making everyone startle.
Guan Lan and his five team members were standing by the nearest subway door.
The strange thing was that no one noticed them coming over. It was unclear whether they were so skilled that they went unnoticed, or if the intensity of the knowledge they had just received overwhelmed everyone’s vigilance.
Before anyone here could speak, Guan Lan glanced at his teammate beside him in dissatisfaction. “Look at them, they remember everything so clearly.”
Trendy young man who had been criticized and had racked his brains until he was practically bald was naturally the one who had finally figured out the five animals.
Now he was no longer stylish, hanging his head in dismay, but his restless little mouth continued to buzz like a mosquito, muttering, “If you can do it, then why didn’t you…”
Guan Lan knocked his head irritably.
Bald guy standing nearby was in a good mood. When they were on the platform, this guy had racked his brains to no avail, and he was silenced by the 2 sentences retort, “If you’re can do it, then step up!”. Now that he saw the team leader getting the same treatment, he felt quite satisfied.
Tang Lin didn’t think that the Strawberry Sweet Doughnuts would come over to greet them, and he turned to look out the window at the platform. As expected, there were the three major team leaders, Dai Xiaoliang, He Lu, and Cui Zhan, gathered together in a huddle. From the looks of it, He Lu and Dai Xiaoliang were the main talkers, while Cui Zhan was just listening, and his face was so wrinkled up that it looked like he was a typical “struggling student.”
The other three major forces had also deciphered the password.
This was the real reason why Strawberry Sweet Doughnuts was watching the train doors.
As for whether they were “concerned about their competitors” or just “curious bystanders,” it’s hard to say.
After a good while, the three team leaders outside still hadn’t finished their conversation. The Strawberry Sweet Doughnuts members started to get a bit bored. Their formation dispersed, some got lazy, some leaned against metal pillars, and others wiped the train windows. Meanwhile, Leader Guan took out a lollipop from his pocket, unwrapped it, and put it in his mouth.
Among them, the one with the lowest emotional intensity was that slender man who hadn’t moved. He still stood there, quietly gazing at the platform outside, his profile showing a cold and desolate expression.
“Leader Guan,” Tang Lin suddenly called out to Guan.
Guan Lan turned to him in surprise. “Hmm?”
“Why do you call yourselves Strawberry Sweet Doughnuts?” Tang Lin asked the question that had been on his mind.
This question also piqued the curiosity of Zheng Luozhu, Nan Ge, and Nightwalker. Their gazes immediately focused on Guan Lan.
Unfortunately, Guan Lan shook his head regretfully. “That’s a question for the elders upstairs.”
Tang Lin was surprised. He thought that someone like Guan Lan, whose style matched so well with theirs, would know the inside story.
“I’d really like to know who came up with this name. I’ll have a good chat with them,” Guan Lan said with a disdainful twist of his mouth.
Tang Lin: “You don’t like it?”
Guan Lan: “Hmm, I don’t like strawberry flavor.”
Tang Lin: “I understand.”
Zheng Luozhu, Nan Ge and the three people from the Nightwalker: “……”
So, there was no issue with Strawberry Sweet Doughnuts’s name?!
The five members of the Strawberry Sweet Doughnuts continued with their own activities. They joined Strawberry Sweet Doughnuts because they valued strength, not the name. In other words, they had a very relaxed attitude about it—what’s the big deal if they were Strawberry Sweet Doughnuts?
“That rat from White Team is really good at scheming…” Wheat-skinned young man crossed his arms, smiling ambiguously.
“Is he up to something again?” Bald man curiously leaned in to see.
Tang Lin and Fan Peiyang exchanged glances and then turned their heads towards the window. They quickly spotted Lu Jue lurking near a trash can.
Well, it couldn’t exactly be called lurking. His position was inconspicuous to begin with, and he was just standing there quietly, not doing anything. However, his gaze was fixed on the three team leaders who were talking in the distance.
But given the distance between him and the three leaders, there was no way he could eavesdrop.
Tang Lin was still puzzled when he suddenly noticed a small black dot on the ground behind He Lu’s heel. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a mouse!
He Lu’s foot completely blocked it from view, so none of the three people in the conversation noticed.
After another half a minute, the mouse quietly retreated, following the wall back to Lu Jue’s feet.
A little while later, the mouse vanished with a swift movement, and a triumphant look appeared on Lu Jue’s face.
Using a mouse for eavesdropping was indeed a unique twist on the “Stationery Tree.”
Tang Lin finally understood why Strawberry Sweet Doughnuts referred to him as “Rat” – it had a double meaning.
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