"..."
"Don't you two have anything you want to explain?"
Klein stood in the center, positioning herself precisely to separate the two. Lin stood on her right, arms crossed, his expression placid as water. Mobius sat in the chair on her left, turning her head away, expressionless.
"..." Lin looked at her as if he had no idea what she was talking about.
"I mean, what were you doing just now? That... that must be a misunderstanding on my part, right?" Klein still hoped for the best. Mobius aside, Lin was emotionally aloof, always proper, and prioritized official business.
Lin words drifted out lightly: "There was no misunderstanding."
"...Smelling stockings?"
"Yes."
"No coercion? No accident? No experimental context?"
"No."
"..."
Lin shook his head solemnly and corrected her: "To be accurate, there was also the intention to smell body odor."
Their debate over whether Mobius was wearing long-unwashed clothes had led them to discuss her overall cleanliness. If she hadn't changed her clothes, she might not have showered either, so smelling body odor was also part of confirming whether she had showered.
"Do-Doctor?" Klein reluctantly turned her head toward Mobius.
Mobius nodded, her face frosty: "Yes."
Sometimes Klein felt the world was changing too fast, so fast that before she could react, the images of two people she respected collapsed with a crash.
What on earth had happened to make two people who were fine this morning end up in this situation?
Wait a minute, Mr. Lin has been coming to the lab frequently lately, and always carrying something. Given he brought sashimi today, he must have been bringing the Doctor food he cooked. Does that mean the two of them have been secretly eating together in the private office for some time now?
Just to be safe, she had to ask.
"Mr. Lin, when did you two start..." She struggled to manage a forced, unconvincing smile.
"Thirteen minutes and twenty-one seconds ago." Lin stated the time when their debate began.
"Ah? You two started that today! A-and in the office?"
The eyebrow beneath Lin helmet twitched. He said coldly, "Is there a problem with that?"
In a situation where both parties agree, using the most direct method to verify a point is efficient and effective. Shouldn't this be the ideal verification method every scientist would find excellent?
"Klein, your thinking is too conservative. That is a fatal flaw for scientific research, and especially for the Fire Moth's research projects." Lin took a step forward, looking down on Klein's bewildered eyes, and spoke slowly.
Mobius also nodded in agreement: "Exactly, Klein. While I think you're already much better than most idiots whose brains are sealed with cement, you still need to improve your mental agility."
Klein stared blankly at the two of them. What did this have to do with mental agility? And wasn't this beyond the issue of being conservative?
"But you two... were just smelling stockings?"
"Smelling stockings and body odor," Lin corrected. "Truth is only obtained through practice. If everything remains mere speculation deep inside the brain, there will be huge deviations from reality. Even something like smelling stockings has a great deal of 'learning' involved."
Klein's face suddenly flushed: "What learning! That's just perverted!"
"I ask you, what is the difference in smell between the stockings of a vibrant high school girl who ran five kilometers on the track and a middle-aged woman with a very plump figure sitting on a sofa that barely fits her?"
"This..." Klein gestured with her hands, not knowing what to say anymore.
"Most people would assume the former's stockings smell better, right? But in reality, the former will only have a sour, pungent smell of sweat, while the latter is likely to have a pleasant perfume scent. This is the difference between imagination and practice." Lin clenched his fingers and stated sternly, with complete impartiality, "Only by truly smelling and comparing the two will you know that the so-called scent of a young girl's body or sweat is false. Stockings are only a medium; they don't smell better just because a good-looking person wears them."
"Hmph, it's normal for a clueless amateur to say such things."
At this point, Mobius, who had been observing with a cold eye, suddenly spoke up to refute Lin. She gave a contemptuous smile: "The so-called body scent actually exists. It's a personal physiological scent related to sex hormones, the so-called pheromones. When excreted with sweat, it stimulates the nervous center of the opposite sex, accelerating the breathing process and giving the brain ample oxygen supply, ultimately leading to excitement. The content of secretions in the armpits is particularly high. After removing the sweat, what remains is essentially pheromones."
"Is that so? I stand corrected. It's understandable why so many people get aroused by the stench-filled athletic stockings." Lin pondered, nodding. "See, Klein, this is the cost of me making a definitive statement without true practice—being mocked by the one who holds the truth."
Klein was utterly numb. Her eyes were vacant, and she pulled at the corner of her mouth in a daze: "I-is that so?"
"Yes. On the external network, there are numerous groups with a passionate obsession with women's feet. But tragically, most of them cannot interact with women, so they focus on stockings. They have researched various ways to smell stockings. That is what I meant by 'learning.'"
"They endured various practices, persevering in studying women's stockings even while being called perverts. They know precisely what age group's stockings are the cleanest, what material of stockings is the most transparent and feels the best, and what posture allows for the maximum surface area to be sniffed. They invest their wealth and their future survival in human society to complete their practice."
"This is an unconventional, progressive, and great spirit of exploration!"
Lin couldn't help but sigh in admiration, paying tribute to the perverts who were willing to sacrifice their standing in human society.
"Although you are an outsider, your mindset is indeed quite good." Mobius curved her mouth into a beautiful arc. "Klein, your respect for him seems not entirely unfounded."
But now, Klein wanted to retract her respect for Lin, along with her respect for Mobius.
"But those people are only seeking to satisfy their desires, aren't they?" However, Mobius's tone abruptly shifted, and her eyes sharply challenged Lin words. "Their behavior causes psychological harm to the person being researched. Even my experiments, in most cases, require the consent of the subject. What they are doing is not true 'practice.'"
"Is that so? But who should pay the price for the harm they suffer? They have the willingness to face social death."
"Don't be ridiculous. Humans are merely creatures who forget the wisdom gained through evolution in order to satisfy their instincts. If they truly possessed a spirit of practice, they would conduct various controlled experiments after negotiating and compromising with the subject, rather than stealing stockings and secretly following women."
Lin dull voice emerged from his helmet with extreme pressure: "But the way you suggest would cause even greater harm, wouldn't it? Perhaps what they pursue isn't just stockings, but the pursuit of stockings while defying moral norms! It might even evolve into a pursuit not of women's stockings, but purely of stockings! Wouldn't that method also cause harm to men?"
Mobius's voice also grew louder: "How could that be! Once stockings shed the singular concept of men's clothing, their high association with women means that this desire originates from a longing for women! Therefore, one should openly seek consent!"
"Sneaking around might not cause the other party to notice or suffer any harm!"
"That's only one-sided! Openly smelling stockings might cause harm to both sides, but it's definitely less harmful than one-sided harm!"
"Sneaking around and smelling!"
"Openly smelling!"
Klein later forgot how she got back to her room.
Mobius, who usually smiled and was inscrutable, and Lin, who was silent most of the time, argued furiously, red-faced and breathless, over the question of "How to smell stockings." This even drew onlookers outside the lab. Various terms, both professional and crude, burst from their mouths, accompanied by cold sneers and blade-like sharp voices.
That was truly the most spectacular "academic debate" since the headquarters—no, since the Fire Moth was founded. Unprecedented, and likely... never to be repeated.
Klein felt she really needed a break.