Intellectually Challenged

Hao Xuan was sitting with his back against the wall in the last stall of the noodle shop. The voices of gossiping customers could be heard over the paper walls as they tried their best to keep a low profile. An occasional order number would be yelled out from the kitchen disrupting the usual flow but it was pretty quiet apart from that.

Yet his confused expression accurately portrayed his even more perplexed state of mind for a number of different reasons.

One, the unknown artifact that Song Jae Hwa should have been protecting with her life now sat comfortably in his lap without eliciting any strange reaction.

Its glossy surface held no symbols or unexplainable energies and he could discover nothing new about it despite having it in his possession.

Two, the vision. It was fueled by conflicting temporal energies that made no sense to him.