79: Chapter 37 “Suppose…
79: Chapter 37 “Suppose…
“Perhaps there simply is no underlying principle?”
He smacked his lips, holding his pen aloft all this while, and after much hesitation, he still did not write down the sentence which felt extremely bizarre even with a mere glance: “Tomato sauce is plaster.”
Having written down that entry, Lin Yi narrowed his eyes and pondered over it again and again.
Confirming it was approximately correct, he then put down his pen.
Next, he reached into his pocket.
He pulled out two slips of paper, which contained more information than a sticky note, but essentially similar.
One slip of paper was folded very neatly, the other was also well-folded, just a bit wrinkled.
Lin Yi flipped through them briefly to get a vague impression.
His gaze lingered on the second point of the first slip of paper, reflective.
“The homeroom teacher seems off, but I can’t pinpoint where exactly.
Be cautious around the homeroom teacher, her eyes can turn yellow.”
He remembered that the homeroom teacher had been in contact with food containing tomato sauce—whether she ate it or not, contact was made.
“Golden yellow eyes, golden eyes…
“Could it be that eating food containing tomato sauce turns one’s eyes gold?”
What’s the principle behind that?” Thinking this, he shook his head.
Tomato sauce turning into plaster under the sun was already far-fetched, so instead of pondering the principle, it was better to accept the concept.
Have I unconsciously come to accept the concept that ‘tomato sauce turns into plaster’?!”
At this thought, Lin Yi shuddered intensely.
The moment he contemplated accepting the concept of “tomato sauce will turn into plaster,” a terrifying inspiration flashed through his mind like lightning tearing through the night sky, related to “cognition” but very vague to him.
But this inspiration was fleeting and he couldn’t grasp it no matter how hard he tried!
He frustratingly ran his fingers through his hair and then propped his chin, rhythmically tapping the paper with his pen in the other hand.
He glanced at the other wrinkled slip of paper, lost in thought.
He had taken this paper from the homeroom teacher’s office, and it bore the same sentence written in various handwriting styles: “I am the homeroom teacher.”
He unfolded and smoothed out this paper, then placed them together.
His gaze moved back and forth between the two slips of paper.
Now in his mind, there was a third clue—the homeroom teacher’s office bin contained food with tomato elements, presumably tomato meat sauce pasta.
Putting these three clues together, could he find something useful?
Golden eyes, tomato meat sauce pasta, “I am the homeroom teacher”…
“‘I am the homeroom teacher,’ ‘I am the homeroom teacher,’ ‘I am the homeroom teacher’…”
He repeated the phrase to himself.
Wei Liang noticed him and nudged him with an elbow, unable to refrain from saying, “Old Lin, what are you muttering about?
What’s this ‘I am the homeroom teacher’?
You’re not delusional, are you?
You’re a student, right?”
Lin Yi’s train of thought was momentarily interrupted as he looked at Wei Liang and said, “Ah, I know I’m a student.
Wasn’t I just pondering a problem?”
Lin Yi suddenly mumbled something, with emphasis on every word—”I·am·a·student.”
His eyes settled on “I am the homeroom teacher.”
That’s what a student would say.”
“‘I am the homeroom teacher’…
That’s what a homeroom teacher would say.”
If he approached it from that angle, Lin Yi instantly felt as if he had cleared the fog to see the clear sky.
“Hey, hey, hey, Old Lin, are you sure you’re okay?” Wei Liang looked at him worriedly.
Since a moment ago, Lin Yi seemed a bit off.
Lin Yi looked at him cheerily and chuckled, “It’s nothing, it’s nothing!
Thanks to you, I figured something out.
You rest for a bit, let me sort through this…”
After finishing his words, he no longer paid attention to Wei Liang and turned his focus to the slip of paper with “I am the homeroom teacher.”‘
There was one point he had continuously forgotten to consider.
The handwriting on the paper varied, some neat, some messy, some simply a wild blur of blue ink.
The student’s code mentioned how to deal with certain special situations: by reminding oneself of one’s own name and student ID internally.
So could there also be a “Homeroom Teacher’s Code”?
And perhaps, within that code, there’s an emergency where the homeroom teacher, when faced with such a situation, would need to keep writing “I am the homeroom teacher” on paper?
“Is it ‘a firm will,’ a conviction that one truly is ‘the homeroom teacher’?” he murmured.
“Like when I went to the bathroom last night, only by firmly believing the front is Class B1, and before Class B1 is the bathroom, was there a bathroom?”
“By believing unwaveringly that one is the homeroom teacher, does that make one the homeroom teacher?”
“And could tomato sauce…
Lin Yi was reminded of something else.
When he acquired his student ID card, the homeroom teacher told him, her students are those with “student IDs,” and her own homeroom teacher was the person wearing “Homeroom Teacher-B2-039” on their chest.
“So having the ‘ID card’ is the physical condition to confirm one’s identity, and a ‘steadfast belief’ is the psychological condition to confirm the identity?”
“Moreover, it seems just having the ‘ID card’ isn’t enough; ‘will’ is also needed!”
“That’s why the student code mentioned that losing the student ID card is a troublesome issue!”
“Similarly, if a homeroom teacher loses the ‘ID card’ or their ‘firm belief’ in their own identity…
it would also be a very troublesome situation!”