Chapter Fourteen: The Erudite Scholar

  After signing the "Voluntary Severance of Father-Son Relationship" document and receiving that one hundred yuan "fortune", towards Ma Long, who was full of anger but couldn't express it, Lie Wei-en turned around and left without a word, disappearing into who-knows-where.

  Even Levi Yean knew that Marlon would definitely move away with his son An Wei.

  But in this house, the slightly valuable things had long been sold by Levi-Ian, so he wouldn't care what Malone would take away.

  So now, Malong is alone in the attic packing up his belongings. Fox Spirit Uncle... no, it should be Police Chief Bernhard, after having Xiao Anwei take an oath following procedure and voluntarily going to live with her cousin Malong-Lester, also appeared at the stairs of the small attic where Malong lived.

  "Hey kid, where are you planning on moving to?"

  The height of the attic forced Inspector Bernard to bend down so as not to bump his ears and head against the ceiling.

  "Let's find a place with good public security and rent a house first."

  Marlowe gathered up a sheaf of manuscript papers covered with writing and answered Bernard's questions offhand.

  Chief Bernard walked up to Marlon's side, peered at the manuscript paper that Marlon was collecting and showed a slightly surprised expression: "What are these strange squares, what kind of text?"

  "Chinese characters."

  Ma Long replied casually, and while speaking, he had already successfully bundled up a stack of manuscript paper about half a meter high with twine, and there were more manuscript papers filled with words waiting for him to bundle them up.

  In these twenty-odd days, Ma Long rewrote a lot of things, and it's impossible that he only rewrote "The Little Prince", this famous book with only tens of thousands of words.

  These manuscripts filled with words are the result of Ma Long's overtime and hard work, although his brain can clearly remember the detailed content of all the movies, magazines and music he has seen before, but what if one day he wakes up suddenly and forgets everything?

  These things are Ma Long's greatest reliance in this steam fantasy world, how could he not take the trouble to copy them onto paper again?

  A good brain is not as useful as a bad pen.

  "What are Chinese characters? Which country's?" Inspector Barnard was slightly stunned, he had heard of Runes, Elvish script, Dwarven script, Sperethiel script, Ogham script, Helfarian script, Vellian script, but never anything about Chinese characters.

  "Oh, Sheriff, you can think of it as... a kind of ancient script that has been passed down."

  Ma Long glanced at the bewildered police chief and casually told a lie that wasn't a lie - Chinese characters were indeed ancient characters passed down from ancient times, although the "ancient" of Chinese characters had nothing to do with the "ancient" of this steam-based world.

  "Could it be that you're a scholar?!" exclaimed Chief Bernard, his expression suddenly solemn and respectful.

  This building in the steam civilization of another world, where civic compulsory education has not yet been popularized, and only a handful of higher institutions are open to either those with sufficient wealth or intellectual elite...

  So, at least in the eyes of Sheriff Bernard, Marlon, who could fill at least tens of thousands of sheets of paper with "Chinese characters", an ancient script that he had never heard of before, was absolutely a scholar.

  What is polymath?

  Ha! If we analogize China in the global village to a university student, then it would be an 80s college student or a 90s sea turtle.

  In short, they are rare animals and high-ranking intellectuals with a bright future.

  Considering Ma Long's current age is only thirteen or fourteen years old, how can Sheriff Bernard not be deeply respectful?

  This is also why, when Ma Long was negotiating the publication terms of "The Little Prince" with Evonne, the red-haired queen of Jade Ribbon Press, she would proactively raise the price so high.

  In an era where knowledge is still in the hands of a few and has just begun to show a trend of spreading to the majority, how eye-catching would a literary prodigy be? What kind of sensation and celebrity effect would it bring?

  In fact, at the same time that Mark and Bernard were talking, far away at the Emerald Pattern Publishing House, Yvonne was introducing several newspaper reporters who had connections with their own publishing house to Mark and his overnight writing of... "The Little Prince".

  Ma Long didn't know that among the reporters invited by Yvonne, there was an acquaintance he had met before... Oh no, it was a familiar spirit.

  That's right, it was Ma Long and Aierste who, while evading bank robbers, burst into the top floor treehouse of Eshiria's Light Restaurant, where that unknown identity spirit tribe mentalist was.

  But all of this, Ma Long was still completely unaware of, he was busy packing up all the manuscripts.

  Out of respect for Malone's scholarly status, Inspector Bernard also joined in to help gather the items, and soon a portrait of a man wearing armor that had been stuffed under Malone's bed was pulled out by Inspector Bernard.

  "This is..."

  If Bernard's expression was only curiosity when he saw the "Chinese characters" written by Ma Long, then after seeing the portrait of the armed man in his hand, Bernard's expression was one of astonishment.

  "Malong, who is he to you?!"

  Bernard, taken aback, yanked Marlon over and pointed at the portrait, firing off urgent questions.

  "He is my... " Malong glanced at the portrait and paused before saying in a very soft voice: "Father."

  Although it was just a soul transfer, although this body originally should have called the man in armor in the portrait "father", for Ma Long to call someone he had never met before "cheap father" was indeed a very difficult thing.

  But thinking about those pioneers who had crossed over with both parents intact after reading online novels, Ma Long let it go - anyway, he was already a dead man, so what did it matter what he was called?

  But just as Marlon finished answering Bernard's question, his thin shoulders were tightly pressed down by Bernard's iron-like large hands.

  "Are you the son of Byron-Saginowski? How is that possible?! This can't be!" Bernard, who had grabbed Marlon's shoulders, had eyes full of doubt: "Even if you are the son of Byron-Saginowski, why would your surname be Lester?! That surname definitely isn't your mother's maiden name!"

  "It's quite simple, really. My father's real name is actually Nelson Liston, and Byron Sutherland is my... uncle."

  It's okay, for Bernard's puzzlement, Marlon who inherited the memories of Marlon-Lyster was still able to make a response - at that time, Byron-Sagin should have been recruited as a conscript soldier, but he was weak and sick since childhood, so Nelson-Lyster replaced his younger brother-in-law.

  This kind of thing wouldn't be surprising even in the war-torn world, such as Hua Mulan from "The Ballad of Mulan" who disguised herself as a man to take her father's place in battle.

  "Chief, can you let go of your hands now?"

  Ma Long tried to move his body, but unfortunately Bernard's strength was far beyond what this small body could withstand.

  "So it was like this, so it was like this."

  Chief Bernard, however, fell into a daze: "I told you, I told you! How could the records possibly show that Byron-Saginowski and his whole family died in the Haleph Crossing Massacre!"