The steel body of the "Rheingold" international express train pulled into Heidelberg Central Station with a hiss of steam.
Here, there were no sky-obscuring industrial chimneys or deafening machine roars.
In the distance were the undulating mountain silhouettes of the Odenwald, their slopes covered in the golden-red broadleaf forests unique to late autumn, while nearby flowed the erald-green Neckar River.
The entire city was ticulously nestled between mountains and water, exuding a tranquil, classical, and romantic academic atmosphere.
Outside the station's magnificent Gothic architecture, a young gentleman wearing a monocle, who introduced himself as Professor Hermann Schmidt's assistant, was waiting by order to welco the "distinguished guest" from Paris, Julian.
Everything was arranged in perfect order. Their lodging was the "Knight's House" located in the center of Heidelberg's old town.
An ancient building with a history of several hundred years, it was once the residence of dieval knights, and its exterior walls still retained exquisite Renaissance-style carvings.
After settling in, Julian, with his three heavy crates of "intellectual armant," followed the assistant to the Heidelberg University library for a long-anticipated "academic rendezvous" with his old friend.
William, citing the need to maintain his weapons, stayed behind in the hotel room. Lin Jie knew this old soldier had no interest in attending scholarly gatherings.
He would rather stay alone in the room, wiping his firearms with linen cloth soaked in alchemical oil, or continue imrsing himself in the world of Jean Valjean's suffering and redemption.
Thus, Lin Jie found himself with an entire afternoon of freely disposable "holiday."
Faced with this ancient city that combined historical and natural beauty, his twenty-first-century "tourist" soul, which maintained curiosity about the unknown world, was activated.
He decided to go out for a walk alone, to asure this famous university town with his own footsteps, and also use this opportunity to relax his taut nerves.
He changed into more casual, local student-style clothing, carrying only a small backpack with a water flask and a map, blending into Heidelberg's streets brimming with youth and academic atmosphere like an Eastern scholar on a study tour.
He first passed through the old campus of Heidelberg University, composed of Gothic and Baroque buildings.
Young students gathered in twos and threes in the ancient courtyards, so fiercely debating Kant's "Categorical Imperative" and Hegel's "Absolute Spirit," while others lay lazily on the lawns, letting the warm afternoon sun bathe their youthful faces.
Then he left the lively campus and arrived at the north bank of the Neckar River, ascending along a winding, steep stone stairway path. This was Heidelberg's renowned and legendary hiking route, the Philosopher's Walk.
Legend had it that over the past centuries, German philosophers and poets who had taught or studied at this ancient university, such as Hegel, Feuerbach, Goethe, and Hölderlin, had all walked alone in contemplation on this secluded, tree-shaded mountain path. Here, they conceived great works that changed the world's intellectual landscape, and here they wrote immortal poems that would be rembered for generations.
Lin Jie walked alone on this path trodden by the footsteps of great souls. The fresh mountain air flooded his lungs, awakening his senses which had grown dull from long stays in perpetually rainy London.
From here, he could overlook the entire panorama of Heidelberg's old town.
He found an unoccupied bench, sat down, and closed his eyes, enjoying this rare mont of peace free from danger and conspiracy.
However, this luxurious "peace" ultimately could not last long.
When the western sky at dusk was dyed into a canvas of oil-painting quality by the setting sun's afterglow, Lin Jie concluded his afternoon of "spiritual healing journey" and began retracing his steps. He prepared to cross the equally centuries-old Karl Theodor Bridge spanning the Neckar River to return to the hotel in the old town.
This ancient bridge was the city's liveliest spot at dusk. Students finished with their daily classes, artists who had co to sketch, and countless tourists like Lin Jie who had co attracted by its fa, all gathered on this not-so-wide bridge deck to admire the dreamlike beauty of the castle and river illuminated by the evening glow.
Lin Jie was mixed into this bustling, peaceful crowd. As he walked, he observed the bridge's exquisite sculptures with keen interest, his mood more relaxed and joyful than ever before.
But just as he reached the very center of the bridge, the position offering the best viewing angle, a sudden, icy shiver pierced his entire body, sharp as if an ice pick had stabbed the back of his head.
His perception, honed to exceptional sensitivity by countless uses of [Reverberation Touch], sounded an alarm.
Sothing was "gazing" at him.
It was not a physical visual observation from human eyes, but a kind of "lock-on" filled with malice and venom, acting directly upon his soul.
Lin Jie's body stiffened. He did not imdiately react excessively, only very slowly and inconspicuously shifting his gaze away from the castle before him, then pretending to glance casually in the direction from which the icy gaze originated.
In that instant, he saw it.
On the other end of the ancient bridge, about fifty ters away from him, also leaning against the bridge railing and similarly mixed into the bustling crowd of oblivious tourists, an impossible figure that froze his blood stood there quietly.
It was a young Eastern man.
He appeared to be around twenty-two or twenty-three years old.
He had neat, short black hair and eyes as dark as night.
He wore a plain, gray local student-style jacket.
On his shoulder, he carried a canvas backpack identical to the one Lin Jie was carrying at that mont.
It was another "Lin Jie."
That "Lin Jie" stood there quietly without making any extraneous movents. He simply gazed at him across dozens of ters of space and the flow of innocent passersby, with a look brimming with venom, jealousy, and killing intent that Lin Jie had never seen in a mirror or photograph.
That gaze seed to say: "You thief, you fraud, what gives you the right to stand here? What gives you the right to possess all this?"
Ti froze. The sounds of the world were sucked away. In Lin Jie's eyes, only that malicious "self" standing at the other end of the bridge remained. An absurd, eerie chill crept up from the soles of his feet, threatening to consu his entire being.
"No..."
Lin Jie quickly closed his eyes and opened them again.
When he focused his gaze once more, the spot at the other end of the bridge where he had just looked was already empty.
That bizarre, venomous "doppelgänger" had vanished. Only a portly middle-aged tourist was excitedly asking his wife to take a photo of him with the castle in the background.
Everything around him was still so peaceful and beautiful. The laughter of students, the conversations of artists, and the murmuring flow of the Neckar River flooded back into his ears.
It seed as if the terrifying glimpse that would have shattered a normal person's mind was nothing but an absurd hallucination born from the fatigue of long travel and the interplay of light and shadow from the setting sun's afterglow.
But Lin Jie knew.
He knew better than anyone.
That was not a hallucination.
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