Hello, Mr. Major General (1)

Chapter 59: Concentric Circles (2)

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Shehnaaz’s gaze swept across the concentric circles, taking them all in; she did not venture any further.

While she was doing this, the Sahyadri Mountain Resort Villa usher led Little Temptress out from the main building, and handed her a list of names. “This is the guest list for your class. Please
take a look and confirm that everything is in order. As you can see from the list, we have already assigned the rooms.”

Little Temptress accepted the list, smiling as she said, “Not my job, actually, but I’ll hand this to our class rep for you.”

“Thank you.” The usher smiled courteously, before leading the two of them outside.

Shehnaaz fell behind. She continued to look around as she walked.

She was now actively looking for the dark green concentric circles, the fluorescent ◎ symbols.

This time, she did not find the concentric circles; instead, there were other markings. For example, she saw faint scratches, made by bayonets, on
the bamboo trees along the road. They appeared to be depictions of arrows.
Some of the arrows were pointed forwards, while others were pointed backwards; some were pointing up, others were pointing down. They looked like messy, random graffiti, the work of a naughty child.

Even so, Shehnaaz slowly but surely discovered an underlying pattern.
It was like working out one of those questions in a mathematics competition, the kind where you had to work out an underlying pattern from a group of seemingly random numbers.

Shehnaaz remembered being really good at this, back when she was 12.
Sant had given her similar math problems to solve, as part of his psychotherapy sessions with her…

Before she knew it, she had broken away from the usher and Little Temptress and wandered off on her own.

She looked inquisitively about, acting the part of a curious child who had gotten lost; in actual fact, she was
deliberately walking the perimeter of left wing.

There was a covered passageway, decorated with red hanging lanterns. She walked along it and made her way to Little Mirror Lake, behind left wing. She had just reached the lake when she saw, out of the corner of her eye,
a figure zip past her quickly before silently diving into the water.

The man’s movements had been as quick and precise as a professional diver’s.

Shehnaaz knew he was a good diver because he had made only the barest splash when he jumped into the lake. The water surface had quickly become still and tranquil again; she could have imagined the whole thing.

But Shehnaaz had the eyes of an eagle. Most people would not have seen the figure jump from the passageway into the lake – but she had, and she was sure of it.

Shehnaaz pretended not to have noticed anything. She picked up a small stone and threw it into Little Mirror Lake.

She watched the resulting splash, then smiled beatifically as she turned to walk away.

The sky gradually darkened. The moon was obscured by a cloud. Misty moonlight leaked feebly from the
edges of the cloud, up above in the sky and down below, reflected on the
surface of the lake.

Little Mirror Lake sparkled with moonlight, quiet and peaceful. Every once and a while, there was the sound of fish breaching the water for some fresh air.