CHAPTER 8

A young woman, about 22 years old, wearing a green windbreaker and sporting deep blue wavy hair, walked over.

Yuri felt like he recognized the woman but couldn't remember where he had seen her before.

"Sorry, kid, did Wally hurt you?"

"Kid"... it had been a long time since anyone called him that.

Yuri looked at the woman who was apologizing to him and swallowed the words he had planned to apologize himself, not knowing what to say.

Although he was called "kid," his body was indeed only 16 years old, and he was shorter than the average 16-year-old boy due to malnutrition.

"Well, miss, actually..."

"I didn't hit this kid, Linda, you don't have to worry too much."

Wally, the young man that Yuri had just almost bumped into (or was it the other way around?), put his arm around the woman's waist and said.

"Sorry, kid, I hope you weren't scared."

Then Wally showed Yuri a friendly smile.

Being called "kid" again...

Yuri blinked and forced a smile, "Sir, Ma'am, I'm fine. I'm not hurt or scared. So, have a pleasant meal."

Yuri didn't think much of this incident and turned to look inside the store. There was an empty seat, so he walked over and sat down.

...

Two Minutes Later

"Hey, it's nice to see you again."

Yuri recognized Wally's voice.

He turned around and saw Linda there too.

"The store doesn't have any more empty seats, so..."

Wally scratched his head awkwardly, wanting to say more.

"It's okay, I'm not eating in the store, you guys can sit."

After getting permission, Wally and Linda sat across from Yuri with relief.

"Thank you. By the way, my name is Linda Park, what's your name?"

"I'm Yuri, Yuri Sotos," Yuri introduced himself.

"Wally West," Wally also introduced himself.

"You don't like it when people call you 'kid,' do you, Yuri?" Linda said with certainty.

Yuri was taken aback.

"When Wally and I called you 'kid' earlier, your expression wasn't very good." Linda continued.

"Really? How did you notice?" Wally was surprised. "I didn't even realize."

"That's why your uncle always says you're not good enough," Linda smiled faintly.

The two of them continued to chat as if no one else was around.

Yuri felt a little mentally exhausted. Whether in this life or the previous one, he wasn't very good at interacting with people, especially those who were overly friendly.

But there was one thing that made him curious. Yuri didn't consider himself a master of microexpressions, but he didn't like to show his emotions too clearly.

Usually, no one would specifically observe a stranger's microexpressions, like how Wally didn't notice Yuri's subtle facial changes earlier.

However, Linda noticed. This level of insight was not ordinary.

Who was this woman?

"Miss Parker, are you a detective?" Yuri suddenly asked, causing Linda and Wally to freeze.

Then Wally looked at Yuri with an incredulous expression. "You don't know who Linda Park is?"

"Why should I know?" Yuri asked.

"How could you not know?" Wally retorted.

Linda slapped Wally on the head. "Enough, Wally. I'm not that famous, and I hardly work now."

After reprimanding Wally, Linda turned to Yuri and handed him a business card. "I'm a journalist."

"And to supplement that, she's also the most popular news anchor in Central City," Wally interjected.

Upon hearing this, Yuri suddenly remembered why Linda seemed familiar. "I remember now. You reported on the Pied Piper before and said he's a good guy now. I read it in the newspaper."

"That's right," Linda nodded with a smile.

As a journalist, if Yuri remembered correctly, in movies and TV shows in dc, people in this profession were usually either the hero themselves or related to the hero.

"You said you hardly work now. Is there something going on?" Yuri asked casually.

Linda's lips curled slightly as she held Wally's hand tightly, about to speak.

"Come on, you really want to tell a stranger our business?" Wally vaguely guessed what Linda was going to say.

"I don't understand why this is a secret. We're getting married! In the second half of this year! But you've been hiding it from our friends, Iris, Barry, Jesse...why?" Linda stood with her hands on her hips, clearly displeased.

It looked like this was a couple who were about to get married soon, Yuri silently thought.

He glanced at Wally, this guy was lucky - Linda was beautiful, and it was obvious she liked him. But Linda's words later on gave Yuri a bad impression of Wally - he was going to get married and was keeping it a secret from family and friends, what was up with that? Were they eloping like Romeo and Juliet?

As Yuri was mentally constructing a 5 million-word tragic love story, an electronic announcement interrupted his thoughts: "A1552, please come to the front desk to pick up your order."

Yuri stood up and bid farewell to Wally and Linda. "It was nice to meet you, Mr. West and Ms. Parker, oh, I mean Mrs. West next time. I wish you a wonderful wedding."

Before leaving the table, Yuri looked at Wally and said, "Mr. West, I didn't mean to eavesdrop on your privacy, but if you really love Miss Parker, then share your happiness with your family openly. They will sincerely bless you."

As he finished speaking, Yuri gave Wally a thumbs up and then walked straight to the front desk, picked up his lunch, and left the burger joint.

Checking the time, it was now 12:37 and there were almost seven and a half hours until the meetup at 8:00 p.m.

"To the library."

Yuri arrived at the Midtown Library in 20 minutes and borrowed ten books, including "Advanced Mathematics," "Classical Electromagnetism," "Origin of Species," "High-Energy Physics," and more.

He transformed into a grey matter and read a book in one minute, returning it after he finished all ten books. Yuri's highly developed brain allowed him to comprehend the entire meaning of the book while reading it.

In less than three hours, Yuri had acquired enough knowledge to become a professor at any university in the world.

By the time Yuri was ready to leave, he had finished reading all of the science-related books in the Midtown Library.

It seemed outrageous, but in reality, it was not very useful. After all, the overall technological level of Earth was too low, and even though there were many cutting-edge technologies, they were all confidential information of various factions, which Yuri could not access.

Yuri returned all the borrowed books to the library and started his old beat-up car towards the meetup point with Jim.　

*****

Hungry for more chaps? Then check out our pătreon!

Link: Påtreon.com/BaphometFiction

I post 10 advanced chapters of this fanfic there.