Chapter 370 – The Gatekeeper’s Visit to the Door
Chapter 370 – The Gatekeeper’s Visit to the Door
Duncan sat on the sofa in the living room, leisurely and contentedly looking at the newspaper bought from the street this morning, occasionally turning his head sideways, glancing at Shirley, who was lying on the coffee table with a worried frown on her face, as well as Dog, who was lying next to Shirley holding a copy of the “Compendium of the Modern History of the City and State” with his full attention, and his heart felt a burst of solidity.
In this strange and bizarre world, he finally regained a little bit of the familiar rhythm of life.
On the other hand, bringing Dog, Shirley and Nina here was also the realization of a thought he had been searching for a long time before – Captain Duncan’s small classroom had finally reopened.
He turned his head and looked over to the other side of the coffee table again, where Nina was sitting with a small stool, diligently working on her winter break homework, with Maurice supervising, occasionally helping his student to correct mistakes and omissions in the details.
“You’re a good and dedicated teacher,” Duncan said to Maurice, “Nina is lucky.”
“She’s a hard working child and I don’t want to hold her back in life,” Maurice smiled, then glanced at the workbook spread out in front of Shirley with a somewhat subtle expression on his face, “but I didn’t realize you were so good at it too . . teaching others.”
Duncan raised an eyebrow, “Oh?”
“The study plan you made for Sherry, Alice and Dog is very reasonable, and even …… has some professionalism,” Maurice’s tone was a bit hesitant, “I also saw the test papers you prepared for them earlier, and they were very professional as well,… It was a little …… out of my expectation.”
The old man phrased it very carefully, he did care a little about it – when he first learned of Duncan’s excitement to literate the three illiterate men on the ship, he didn’t think of vocabulary cards, word books, and multiplication tables, but rather the first image that popped into his head was of “the evil god’s dependents gathered in the ceremonial grounds”. The first image that came to his mind at the time was something along the lines of “evil gods and their dependents gathering in a ritual ritual arena to be exposed to forbidden knowledge”, but instead he saw the fearsome Captain Duncan pulling out a bunch of literacy cards. ……
Although he was now more or less accustomed to Captain Duncan’s private calmness and friendliness, the thought of such a subspace shadow actually giving a serious lesson (or a literacy lesson, for that matter) still sent a wave of uncontrollable chills up his spine.
Duncan knew what the old scholar meant, of course, but he couldn’t explain, so he just smiled and waved his hand, “Perhaps I had a dream of being a teacher?”
Morris didn’t know what to say for a while, while Duncan probed at Sherry’s scratchy handwriting again and couldn’t help but sigh, “Unfortunately, the gap between the learning progress of these three ‘students’ is too big, it’s really a headache.”
Morris thought about it and nodded, “Indeed. I think Dog has almost managed to dip into a library somewhere and study on his own until he graduates from college by now, but Shirley is still wrestling with common words, and Alice …… Alice she ……”
Duncan sighed again, “Ugh, Alice tries hard, but she’s Alice.”
The learning progress of the ship’s three illiterate people is not at all the same as what he initially expected, he originally thought that the brain is better so the learning progress will be faster Shirley is still half-illiterate up to now, the unwavering spirit of posing as a bad boy and the despairing attitude towards learning is the main reason, Alice is harder than anyone else, but Ms. Doll’s brain really does not seem to be the material for reading and writing, as a result of which, in the end, the three illiterate people who had the highest level of proficiency actually In the end, the highest level of illiteracy among the three illiterate people even became a dog – under the surprising diligence and enlightenment, Dog can now not only read literature by himself, but even solve quadratic equations in three elements ……
There are thousands of profound hounds chasing after knowledge – now it seems that Dog is the only one who has caught up.
To be fair, this was the biggest blot on Duncan’s – or Zhou Ming’s – entire teaching career.
Just as he was sighing so much in his heart, Alice, who had gone out to buy groceries, finally returned – nearly twenty minutes later than expected.
“I’m back!”
Miss Doll opened the door and entered the house, poking her head in the direction of the living room as she put down the things in her hand and greeted her, then with a glance, she saw the school bully, the school scum and the school dog who were mending their homework next to the coffee table, and her face instantly revealed a happy look, “Nina! Shirley! Dog! You guys are here?”
“Just got here in the morning and have been fucking …… already making up half a day’s worth of homework ……,” Shirley looked up with tears in her eyes, “The Captain said for me to put the word book Everything from page sixteen onward to be recopied ……”
“It’s three times,” Duncan spoke up nonchalantly beside him, “Don’t cut yourself two thirds of the assignment without moving.”
He then ignored Shirley’s follow-up reaction and looked up at Alice, “What took you so long? Run into trouble?”
“Ah no no!” Alice hurriedly waved her hands, “Just encountered a lively …… I didn’t watch the lively ah! Is encountered things, I investigated to come ……”
This mannequin really can not lie, also not good at finding excuses, three or two words exposed the fact that on the way home to watch the delay of time.
“Investigation?” Duncan slightly surprised to look at Alice, he did not want to pursue her “watching” things, although he did warn the other party not to walk on the road, but this is only a small matter, he is more concerned about …… the usual dull-headed Alice can actually a face of The word “investigation” was said seriously.
Even if it is her temporary excuse, he is also very concerned about what this doll investigated something.
“On that street nearby, there is a family, said to be dead, the church people went,” Alice immediately began to tell Duncan about what he saw and heard on the road, “a woman, said what killed her husband, and then the onlookers also said that the family’s male master had gone out before or something. …… Ah yes yes yes, I also saw a woman, she dressed like you ah! Also wrapped in bandages ……”
Duncan stared blankly as he listened to the mannequin’s disjointed and unfocused narration, barely able to understand what had happened, and then noticed the other party’s final reference to the “bandaged woman”, he frowned slightly, and was just about to ask for some details when he saw that not far away from the dining table, where she was sitting to feed the pigeons, Vanna suddenly stood up.
“Stranger approaching,” Vanna said quickly, “It’s the Cleric.” Duncan immediately waved a hand to quiet Alice and reattach the veil, while Dog, crouching next to the couch, retreated into the shadows in the blink of an eye, Aey flapped his wings and hid on a nearby cupboard, and Maurice rose from the couch and made his way to the door.
“Relax, it’s just a visitor.” Duncan was quite calm, and with a wave of his hand to a somewhat nervous Vanna and Maurice, he blandly made his way to the door and pulled it open casually.
A young woman in a long black trench coat, bandages, a black bowler hat, and a cane stood outside the door and was holding her hand raised ready to knock.
She seemed to have frozen there in her entire being.
Duncan looked the young lady up and down, then down at himself.
“Ah, a collision.” He said casually.
“That’s her that’s her,” Alice stood behind Duncan’s flank, and at that moment got a good look at the person in the doorway, and came over all of a sudden with glee, “The woman in black I was telling you about, the one I saw on the way back from grocery shopping …… “
Alice’s voice made Agatha, who was in a dazed state, wake up with a jolt, the muscles of her face trembled slightly, and it took half a day’s effort to take her eyes off the tall and lanky figure in front of her, and to look in the direction from which the voice had come.
The blonde woman she had seen only a short while ago, without a breath or heartbeat, was standing in the room, looking over with a curious and delighted gaze.
She was indeed here.
Agatha took several deep breaths, trying to calm her heartbeat, the slight ringing in her ears faded in her head, and the blackness and double vision caused by suddenly looking directly at the “Truth” finally disappeared from her eyes. She finally sighed with relief, and her confused mind remembered what she had come for.
A somewhat stiff smile appeared on her face, “I …… didn’t mean to intrude, I just came to check the situation, you ……”
“Come in,” Duncan nodded in a bashful tone, making way to the side, “It’s quite cold, don’t stand in the doorway talking.”
Agatha was stunned for a moment.
Seeing this scene, Vanna, who had previously stood by the side without saying anything, couldn’t help but frown, and stepped forward to look at the other party, “You rushed over here knowing full well what this place was, you wouldn’t have never thought about what would happen after you opened the door, would you?”
“Understand,” Morris rushed to the side and said, “After seeing the captain for the first time the brain must be messed up, the higher the spiritual sight the more so, this girl is confused at first sight.”
Upon hearing this, Vanna immediately recalled her own initiation on the Lost Country and felt that the old gentleman was right.
Agatha, on the other hand, finally reacted while Vanna was talking to Maurice – her brain was indeed still a bit messed up, but her sanity had already returned to dominance, and thanks to Duncan’s conscious astringency, her mind hadn’t suffered too much, and she nodded in a panic just as she recovered at that moment, “Sorry, I was a bit lost in my thoughts .”
She then glanced at the path Duncan had made, and after a slight hesitation finally took a step.
She knew what this place was.
She knew that the lanky figure was essentially an unnameable being who had descended upon the city-state and whose realm was most likely analogous to that of an ancient god.
She knew that she had stepped into a “land of descent”.
But from the moment the door opened, there was no turning back.
Behind Duncan, Maurice watched the tense young lady step inside and whispered to Vanna with a slight sideways glance, “Better than you were.”
Vanna cooed in a low voice, “I don’t blame me, the Captain was so scary the first time he ‘dreamed’.”
Morris nodded, “That’s true ……”
Vanna added, “I was much calmer the second time though.”
Duncan listened to the two muttering in the background and finally couldn’t help but turn back, “You weren’t much stronger the second time – be quiet, the guests are coming.”
(End of chapter)