—The greater the power, the more terrifying the catastrophe it unleashes.
Lan Xifang had arrived.
Her attire suggested not a high-ranking official of the Academy of Sciences, but rather a professional white-collar worker.
Unlike Ke Yiyi and the others, she had only arrived after retrieving her luggage.
To the members of the Robin Club, she was an enigma.
Her personal file was blank, effectively non-existent.
According to the regulations adopted by Vega from Prominence Star, every member of the Academy of Sciences was required to establish a personal file. While certain sensitive information could be redacted and kept confidential, a completely blank file was strictly forbidden. Even new recruits to the Academy had their files created immediately, a procedure no member could evade.
Ke Yiyi had two theories regarding this anomaly. One possibility was that Lan Xifang, like everyone else, possessed a personal file, but the blank document before them was not her true record.
The alternative was that Lan Xifang hailed from Yingzhou before the war. With Vega having lost the territory of Yingzhou, many Vega citizens who had narrowly escaped the region found their records incomplete. Consequently, her current personal file at the Vega Academy of Sciences was empty, having only recently been rebuilt, with much of her past experience on the vast continent now untraceable. This notion wasn’t unique to Ke Yiyi; others who had lived on Vega for an extended period, familiar with its myriad regulations, harbored similar thoughts.
“Welcome, esteemed leader, for your inspection!”
Fletcher snapped to attention, a beaming smile immediately gracing his face.
Lan Xifang observed him with an unruffled composure, as if witnessing a particularly clumsy performance yet choosing to remain silent, merely curious to see how he would continue his act.
Lan Xifang casually found a table and sat down, her gaze sweeping over the assembled group, uttering not a single word from beginning to end.
Fletcher’s smile faltered slightly. He glanced sideways at Kincaid, who, though wearing his characteristic enigmatic smile, remained utterly silent, a stark departure from his usual boisterous demeanor.
‘Kincaid is actually so quiet,’ Fletcher mused inwardly, a flicker of surprise crossing his mind. ‘How unexpected… Since I’ve known him, I’ve rarely seen him rein in his smile.’
Lan Xifang fixed her gaze on Kincaid. Kincaid met her eyes, and the peculiar smile on his face gradually vanished. It was the first time Ke Yiyi had seen his expression appear so normal, indistinguishable from an ordinary person. ‘If he can look normal,’ she thought, ‘why does he always wear such a strange expression?’
Seeing that no one was grinning playfully, no one was frowning in distress, and no one was whispering, Lan Xifang finally spoke.
“I am Lan Xifang, and starting today, I will serve as the primary person in charge of the Robin Club.”
The introduction was so brief it left everyone feeling somewhat bewildered.
“Excuse me, when can I return to my original post?”
Enfinietta, standing rigidly to the side, spoke with a cold edge. Her body perfectly straight, she tilted her head slightly towards Lan Xifang, her indifferent gaze piercing through her black-rimmed glasses directly into Lan Xifang’s eyes, conveying a distinct sense of challenge.
Though Enfinietta had, in recent days, come to terms with the reality of her situation, everyone could sense her dissatisfaction with the transfer. It wasn’t a matter of rank, but a fundamental misalignment with her area of expertise.
“I can only answer work-related questions within my known scope. I cannot answer questions unrelated to work that fall outside this scope.”
Lan Xifang met Enfinietta’s gaze without the slightest evasion. Enfinietta, after staring at her for a moment, silently turned her eyes forward, as if she had never posed the question at all.
Kincaid tilted his head, seemingly poised to speak, but quickly straightened it. His strenuous effort to suppress his smile was genuinely uncomfortable to witness; evidently, holding back his laughter was an immense torment for him.
“Ask what you wish. There’s no need to hesitate.”
Kincaid’s enigmatic smile immediately reappeared. Fletcher seemed to anticipate his question.
“May I laugh?”
Everyone’s eyes involuntarily turned to him, wondering why he would ask such an odd question.
“Provided you do not produce any sound, yes.”
Kincaid, visibly relieved, instantly opened his mouth into his characteristic unsettling grin, though no sound escaped. Even so, the sight of his wide-open, silent mouth was still somewhat unnerving.
“What about the regulations, then?”
Seeing that no one else was asking, Ke Yiyi inquired about the rules. Currently, everyone was operating under the regulations of their former departments, lacking a unified set of rules for all to follow.
“Regulations will be established. They will be drafted and submitted for approval after we have discussed and deliberated.”
“We?”
Li Qiwei repeated, baffled, while Lan Xifang remained perfectly calm.
“Yes.”
“Are you saying ‘we’?”
Li Qiwei pointed to herself, looking at Lan Xifang incredulously, convinced her hearing wasn’t failing her.
“Yes, you heard correctly.”
Lan Xifang placed a pen on the table, addressing the assembled group.
“Our regulations will be formulated by us, through our own discussions and deliberations, then submitted for approval. If there are any issues, they will be sent back for revision.”
The group exchanged bewildered glances, clearly unaccustomed to such a process.
“Has the sun risen in the west?”
Liana furrowed their brows, though their expression quickly returned to normal. Having come from intelligence, they were accustomed to many things, or rather, they believed there was no need to be surprised by anything in this world, as the notion of ‘strangeness’ was fundamentally merely a limitation of human ‘cognition’ and ‘understanding’.
“Or perhaps the north.”
Yoshida Rin rested their hands on the long staff across their shoulders, an outer jacket tied around their waist. They casually pulled up a sleeve of the jacket to wipe a bead of sweat from their face, then continued, “Or the south.”
Li Yuyi remained expressionless, merely adjusting his mask slightly and pressing down the brim of his hat. He always maintained this attire; his hat and mask were never removed, as if they were rented.
He wasn’t concerned with who was responsible for drafting the regulations. Such things, he believed, made the drafter irrelevant; what truly mattered was who enforced them.
“Why?”
Ke Yiyi couldn’t comprehend it. The creation of rules and regulations required layers of consideration and repeated deliberation, and should rightly be formulated by relevant professional bodies and personnel. How could it be left to them, people from all walks of life, to discuss and draft? Moreover, these regulations would ultimately be enforced by the Robin Club. If the club’s personnel handled it entirely, who could guarantee that they wouldn’t deliberately leave ‘loopholes’ for ‘manipulation’?
‘How could the higher-ups have considered this?’ she wondered. ‘Logically, they shouldn’t make such a fundamental mistake.’
“For no particular reason. Since the Robin Club itself is ‘an attempt at change,’ then any matter related to this department is part of ‘this attempt.'”
“That answer…”
Harshi glanced at Ke Yiyi, shrugging with a helpless smile.
“…is hard to believe.”
“Before the Great Revolution of the World’s Beginning, if people were told about the development path of the Prominence Star Academy of Sciences, they likewise would not have believed it. Yet, this did not prevent Prominence Star from steadfastly pursuing that path. Before a path reaches its end, who can definitively say it is impassable?”
“But the Prominence Star’s path ultimately failed.”
All eyes turned to Harshi. Standing there, she calmly articulated a conclusion many were unwilling to accept. In a sense, it was the dissolution of Prominence Star that had led to Vega’s current predicament.
If Prominence Star had still existed, the major academies of the Eastern Continent would never have been so disorganized during the World War. No, in fact, there would have been no World War at all.
“Every experiment has failed before achieving success; every infant has stumbled before walking independently. No path is entirely straight and smooth; twists, turns, and unevenness are all part of it.”
Harshi smiled, walked over, took the pen, and wrote their name on a piece of paper.
“Clearly, you’ve convinced me.”
“Whether the concept of change persuades people is not important; what matters is whether people possess the willingness to alter the status quo.”
Lan Xifang’s gaze swept over the group once more, clearly observing their reactions.
Though Enfinietta was reluctant to be there, and Lan Xifang had offered no substantive answers to her questions, she still agreed with Lan Xifang’s words. Vega indeed needed change; for instance, the practice of placing scientists in non-research institutions should cease immediately.
Ke Yiyi held no strong opinions on change. Before any transformation was realized, it was impossible to predict whether it would be as beneficial as expected. Nevertheless, change was indispensable for human development; otherwise, humanity would still be in the primitive communal era. Despite recognizing the significance of change, Ke Yiyi, having come from the police force and whose duty had been to maintain the existing order, found it difficult to embrace the idea of actively participating in such a transformation.
Liana couldn’t fathom why the rigid Three Councils would suddenly adopt such a divergent philosophy, but given the current circumstances, they were serious about establishing the Robin Club and genuinely intended to reshape Vega’s current structure.
But would such a change be so easily realized?
“I have a question.”
A smile played on Fletcher’s lips. Ever since he first saw Lan Xifang, a question had lingered in his mind, and now, finally presented with an opportunity to ask, he was determined to seize it.
The others had previously looked to him as their leader. Though the head of the Robin Club had changed hands, they still paid close attention to his thoughts. At his words, everyone immediately turned their gaze to him, wondering what crucial question he was about to pose.
“What?”
Under the scrutiny of all, Fletcher, utterly oblivious, asked a question that left everyone dumbfounded.
“Are you married?”