Chapter 14

“What do you mean?” Xie Yuchen asked.

Beliak waved his cigarette as if to ask if he wanted one, but Xie Yuchen said that he didn’t smoke. Beliak lit the second one and then continued explaining, “This house is very valuable. The owner became seriously ill after the end of World War II and gave all of their assets to their children, with the exception of this house. In regards to this house, the owner’s will was very complicated.”

Xie Yuchen looked at the other man’s calm face but couldn’t find any indication that he was lying.

“There were three rules that had to be followed. First, there had to be at least one person staying in this house who was related to the original owner by blood. In other words, there had to be a guarantee that a blood relation was in this house at all times. Second, if someone died in the house, then they had to be buried in the house. The definition of ‘in the house’ meant the whole area including the valuable land. The third rule was the strangest. It said that if you saw anything in the house that you thought you had lost, then you must pretend not to see it. If you fail, you need to leave the house immediately and get at least thirty kilometers away.”

Xie Yuchen found the whole thing a little interesting and silently memorized the rules, “This sounds like some kind of game.”

“Did you see the servants at the door? One of them was the child of the previous owner. Even if the house was sold, their family has been abiding by these rules all this time. When the current owner wanted to buy this house at that time, he asked me for my advice. I told him that if he really wanted to buy it, then he still had to abide by these rules until we could figure out what the reason behind them was. Once we knew the reason, we could get rid of them.”

“Did you find anything?”

“No, I haven’t been involved in this matter for a long time. But he really cares about it a lot. I believe he’s found something but some things happened which made our relationship a little strained. As a result, he won’t tell me.”

“Oh, then you’re here to protect him?”

“You know, even though it’s strained, some things just can’t be ignored. It’s the principle of the matter.”

Xie Yuchen nodded. Yes, that’s right. “Then based on your previous relationship, do you have any guesses?”

Beliak frowned, “I asked the descendants of that family if anyone had ever disobeyed the rules. Not only did none of them give me an answer, but they weren’t fazed by my questions at all. Yuri—sorry, that’s his nickname—adopted many orphans, thinking that he could use them to see what would happen if someone didn’t follow the rules. I strongly disagreed with this approach so I stopped participating.”

Xie Yuchen frowned, “What about those orphans?”

“I didn’t take part in it so I don’t know what happened, but he seldom appeared after that. And based on what those servants said, he began to use various intimidation tactics to set up restricted areas in many spots around the house. He was the only one who could enter them so nobody else knew what was inside. If the orphans are still there, they should all be in those areas.”

“Those children don’t have basic human rights? They’re not even allowed to leave the house?”

“The servant said that sometimes, you can hear the sound of children talking in those areas of the house. But no one from the welfare agency has ever been here so many people think that these children were sent away a long time ago and that the house is haunted. After all, the welfare agency here isn’t easy to mess with.”

“Hmm.” Xie Yuchen took a deep breath. He was starting to realize that this building’s background was a little more complex than he had originally thought.

He tapped on the headset and heard the person on the other end also tap back. This was their simple code signal to indicate that everything was fine. Black Glasses was also listening to this conversation.

“What do you think?” Beliak asked. “Who are you? A Taoist priest?”

“One of the three rules I’m most concerned about is the second rule,” Xie Yuchen said. “If someone dies in the house, they must be buried in the house. The definition of ‘in the house’ includes the whole area including the valuable land.”

“Why are you worried about that one?”

“This rule has a precise definition. If you want to know the implications behind this precise definition, I can tell you, but it will take a little time.”

“Why don’t you just come over here? I have refreshments.”

Xie Yuchen smiled and shook his head. “No, I’m a very cautious person. Let’s talk here.”

Beliak didn’t expect Xie Yuchen to be so straightforward and raised his eyebrows. Xie Yuchen continued, “You know, in mathematics, land area can’t really be measured. You can’t draw a line and tell others that the area in the middle of the line is the effective area, because this line, magnified by countless times, is still a surface. Whether or not the edge of the line exists, and which edge belongs to the edge of the effective area is not an objective issue. So, a person must consciously decide what is covered in the effective area when they make this calculation. This is what’s called a ‘rough calculation’.”

Beliak’s Chinese obviously wasn’t that good so he had a confused look on his face. Xie Yuchen said, “It means that the area covered by ‘valuable land’ is a concept created by a person, so the creator of this rule must be a person.”

“So?”

“So, as long as it’s a rule made by people, it can always be disobeyed. Only the laws of nature are difficult to circumvent. You can’t not breathe oxygen, but you can get up in the morning and not go to school,” Xie Yuchen said. “But these rules have obviously been followed for a long time. At present, Yuri is still abiding by them even after doing that experiment, which shows that these rules have a supervisor. This supervisor still exists and even knows when someone has broken the rules. He must have a punishment mechanism that’s very frightening.”

“And so?”

“People are not omniscient and omnipotent, even in such a large area. In fact, even if the supervisor is present, it’s impossible to know everything that’s going on. But according to what we’ve deduced so far, this supervisor is both. We need to change a concept in our deduction.”

“What do you suggest?”

“This omniscient supervisor has the attributes of a person but definitely isn’t a person.”

<Chapter 13><Table of Contents><Chapter 15>

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…I don’t even know what’s going on anymore. That was a rollercoster of confusing information so sorry if I butchered it. Fun fact: Omnipotence means all-powerful and omniscience means all-knowing.

Pic added 6/3/2023 (fan translation courtesy of me)