The sterile smell of disinfectant lingered in the medical room.
Jiang Nuan leaned against her pillow, staring at the ceiling blankly. The white rice porridge and steamed bun that Meng Lan had brought were only half-finished; she had lost her appetite.
Just a moment ago, another chilling realization had struck her.
Was the original host really driven to suicide because of this purification ability? Or was it truly suicide at all?
The note hidden in the crevice of the iron box.
【Trust no one.】
What did those words really mean?
What had the original host discovered? Or foreseen?
And then there was Sister Zhou, that old neighbor from Sector C. When they had met again, her evasive eyes and hesitant expression clearly hinted that she knew something.
She had to go back.
Back to Canglan City, Sector C. Find Sister Zhou. Get all the answers.
Those three keywords had circled in her mind at least twenty times.
But the problem was, how could she go back?
Jiang Nuan reached up and touched her neck.
She was now a “special containment target” for Zero Squad. Politely, a team member; bluntly, a caged canary.
Eating, drinking, and sleeping were all confined to the base. Going out required a report, and even then approval wasn’t guaranteed. And around her neck hung a tracking collar.
Wait.
During the field mission two days ago, her collar’s tracking had been temporarily deactivated.
If no one actively reactivated it… then theoretically, she was free right now.
It was nighttime. Although base security was tight, Zero Squad, the highest combat force, was all resting.
If she could avoid the patrols and sneak to the garage area…
But even if she made it to the garage, then what?
Steal a heavy armored vehicle?
Jiang Nuan quickly simulated this crazy plan in her mind, then despairingly scrapped it.
She didn’t even know the way!
Out in the wilderness, everything looked like it had been copy-pasted. She didn’t even have a GPS map.
Or maybe steal a map?
She had once seen Jiang Ce using one in the meeting room.
“Steal an armored vehicle? And a map too?”
A light, deeply amused voice rang out in the quiet medical room.
“Are you planning an escape again?”
Jiang Nuan’s whole body stiffened.
She whipped her head around and met Shen Wu’s pale eyes directly.
When had Shen Wu come to the medical room? He was sitting in a chair, legs crossed, one hand resting on the armrest, his slender fingers tapping out a lazy rhythm.
Careless move!
She frantically started playing “Good Fortune” in her mind, reciting the multiplication table under her mental breath. Three times seven is twenty-one, four times eight is thirty-two…
“That trick again? With a soundtrack this time?”
Shen Wu raised an eyebrow slightly.
“But reciting that now? Too little, too late.”
“Besides, with your pitiful driving skills, you can’t even unlock the steering wheel’s gravity lock.”
Shen Wu smirked, a hint of malice in his expression.
“I bet you wouldn’t last ten seconds past the base gate before crashing headfirst into the perimeter high-voltage grid.”
He paused, as if imagining the scene in his mind, his brow lifting slightly.
“You and the car, roasted to a perfect medium-well.”
Jiang Nuan: “...”
This man had a seriously sharp tongue.
Her cheeks flushed crimson with shame and anger. She pointed at him with trembling fingers, “You! You eavesdropped on my thoughts!”
“Correction: not eavesdropped.”
Shen Wu leaned forward slightly, his eyes reflecting Jiang Nuan’s panicked face.
“You were just being too loud.”
He sighed, his tone dripping with exasperation, “Jiang Nuan, sometimes I really wonder how you managed to awaken an SSS-grade purification ability.”
His tone shifted, gaining a hint of scrutiny.
“Don’t think you’re that impressive.”
“That blow of yours landed only because it happened to catch the monster in its weakest, most injured state, and your purification-type attack happened to be its natural nemesis. Change the timing, change the opponent, and that little trick of yours wouldn’t even be enough to tickle it.”
His words were like a bucket of cold water, instantly dousing the flicker of confidence that had just started to kindle in Jiang Nuan.
Shen Wu relentlessly twisted the knife.
“And with that leaky, run-down shack you call a brain…”
“Don’t you worry. A mere C-grade psychic esper could run wild in your mind and see all your ridiculous secrets laid bare, let alone the monsters from the Forbidden Zone…”
A cold sweat broke out on Jiang Nuan’s back.
She remembered the monster that had disguised itself as Qinian.
It had dragged her into an illusion in a single encounter. If not for Shen Wu’s timely intervention, she would have been fully assimilated into the Forbidden Zone by now.
This was too dangerous.
But how could she strengthen her own mental abilities?
Mental power was such an intangible thing. It wasn’t like learning to shoot a gun, where you could just keep practicing until muscle memory kicked in.
Wait.
She suddenly realized that the person standing in front of her—one who could read minds, even locate her psychic coordinates across dimensions—was literally the most perfect, top-tier mental ability teacher she could ask for.
She stared at Shen Wu, hesitating for a few seconds. “Can you teach me?”
Shen Wu didn’t respond. He just raised an eyebrow at her, the clear unspoken question in his eyes, “And why would I?”
Jiang Nuan bit her lower lip.
She reached out and grabbed a pinch of Shen Wu’s sleeve, which was draped over the armrest of his chair.
The sleek black fabric bunched up in the grip of her fair, slender fingers as she gave it a gentle tug.
“You’re right, I can’t do anything right now. That’s why I need someone to teach me.”
She looked up, trying to fill her eyes with admiration and earnestness.
“You’re the strongest psychic I’ve ever met.”
“Shen Wu, teach me.”
Shen Wu didn’t answer immediately.
He looked down, his gaze settling on the fingers clutching his sleeve.
Slender, pale fingers, gripping the edge of his black sleeve, whitening slightly from the pressure.
His eyes lingered on that image for a few seconds.
“Do you know what teaching you in the realm of mental energy entails?” he asked, his voice a half-note lower than before.
Jiang Nuan shook her head, looking confused.
“It means I would need to enter your psyche.”
Shen Wu’s gaze lifted from her fingers and met her eyes.
“Your mental world—all your memories, emotions, instinctive reactions—would be exposed to me in their most raw form.”
“Deeper and more thorough than mind reading.”
His tone was very calm, as if stating a trivial fact. But Jiang Nuan noticed that something stirred deep within his eyes.
A flicker, very brief and just barely perceptible.
Without fully grasping what he meant, instinct made her hesitate. “Is there another way?”
“There is. You could figure it out on your own. It might take three to five years just to get started.”
A corner of Shen Wu’s mouth lifted.
“Provided that no rogue psychic monster or enemy esper tries to invade your mind during that time.”
Three to five years.
She’d probably be dead by then.
Jiang Nuan released her grip on his sleeve, wiped her sweaty palm—damp from nervousness—on the blanket, and took a deep breath.
All her memories would be exposed.
Then what about the memories from her past life?
Quickly, she ran through them in her mind.
It seemed that every time something related to her past life came to mind, Shen Wu’s mind-reading ability failed. He could not see those things—was it her own personal barrier, a wall unique to her world?
But what if he entered her mental world? Would that barrier still hold?
She didn’t know.
Yet, one thing was even clearer to her.
If she didn’t learn, and her next trip into the restricted zone wasn’t lucky enough for Shen Wu to pinpoint her location, then she wouldn’t even have a chance to be saved.
Fear and doubt churned together.
In the end, fear won.
“I want to learn from you,” she heard herself say, her voice calmer than she had expected. “What should I do?”
Shen Wu stood up.
He walked over to the bed and looked down at her. Backlit by the harsh white light of the medical room ceiling, his features were half in shadow and half illuminated. Those pale pupils, cast in darkness, became profoundly deep.
“Close your eyes.”
The same two words as before, in that pitch-black space.
But the context now was entirely different.
Jiang Nuan’s heart gave a violent jolt. She bit her lip and shut her eyes.
Darkness fell.
At first, there was only the sound of breathing—her own, rapid and anxious, and Shen Wu’s, steady and restrained.
Then, an icy finger gently pressed against the center of her forehead.
That sensation was too clear.
An icy finger, lightly landing on the thin patch of skin between her eyebrows.
“Relax,” Shen Wu’s voice came from above, so close it seemed to ring directly inside her mind. “Don’t resist.”
She tried to relax her body.
But her fingers couldn’t help clenching the sheets beneath her.
Because the moment that finger made contact, she felt something extremely unfamiliar...
An intrusion.
