Chapter 54
The morning light shines through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, giving the luxurious suite a soft golden edge.
Lu Cheng's consciousness slowly emerged from a deep sleep, and last night's intense entanglement and uncontrolled intimacy flooded into his mind like a tide.
The next second, a huge feeling of regret and humiliation hit his heart like a cold hammer!
What had he done?! He had once again fallen for the liar who had completely deceived him and treated him like a toy! And even… Lu Cheng clenched his teeth so hard he could almost hear them clattering against each other, forcing himself to block out those unbearable images.
He sat up suddenly, his chest heaving violently, as if he wanted to vomit out the shame and nausea that was churning in his chest.
His crimson eyes fixed on the empty space beside him. This had to be it! The reason he lost control last night and did what he did... it had to be Lin Yao! He'd once again planted a hint in him with that damned supernatural power! Otherwise, how could he possibly agree?! Absolutely impossible!
This thought entangled him like a poisonous ivy, suffocating him. He could no longer bear to stay in this bed filled with the smell of sin.
Lu Cheng almost stumbled out of bed, not even bothering to change out of his wrinkled pajamas or put on his shoes. He rushed out of the bedroom barefoot and ran straight to the living room with a rage to accuse someone.
In the living room, Lin Yao sat at the exquisite dining table. The morning light outlined his elegant profile, his silver hair tied loosely behind his head, a few strands of hair drooping at the side of his neck.
He cut the food on the plate calmly, his posture as relaxed as if nothing had happened last night.
This picture of peaceful and tranquil life became the most glaring mockery in Lu Cheng's eyes.
"You—" Lu Cheng's voice was hoarse with anger. He rushed to the dining table and slammed his hands on the smooth surface, making the cutlery clink. "Did you use that damned supernatural power of yours to plant a hint in me again last night?!"
Lin Yao paused, slowly put down his knife and fork, raised his blue eyes, and looked calmly at Lu Cheng, who was disheveled, with red eyes, and looked like a trapped beast that was completely enraged.
He did not answer immediately, but raised his eyebrows slightly, as if assessing Lu Cheng's current out-of-control state.
After a moment, Lin Yao extended a hand toward Lu Cheng, palm facing upward, and said in a strangely calm voice, "Come here."
Lu Cheng was stunned, thinking Lin Yao was going to explain, or... to remove the hint? His anger and suspicion were temporarily suppressed by a vague expectation.
Subconsciously, with a hint of obedience that he himself was not aware of, he took a step forward and approached Lin Yao.
Just as he approached, Lin Yao's outstretched hand suddenly stretched forward and accurately grasped Lu Cheng's wrist.
An irresistible force came, and Lu Cheng was caught off guard. He was pulled and staggered, and fell directly onto Lin Yao's thighs. He was held in his arms in an extremely intimate manner.
"Hmm!" Lu Cheng was shocked and angry, and was about to struggle, but Lin Yao lowered his head, his nose almost touching his earlobe, and his warm breath sprayed on him. With a kind of understanding as if he knew everything, he spoke in a tone that was almost academic and convincing.
"Hmm...it's very likely that's the case." Lin Yao's voice was a little playful. "Perhaps when I asked you to come over just now, your action of coming over was also based on some...deeper hint."
boom!
Lu Cheng's mind exploded instantly! Humiliation surged like magma. He finally understood that Lin Yao wasn't explaining anything at all, but was playing a trick on him. He was playing him like a puppet.
"you--!"
Extreme anger made Lu Cheng's muscles tense, his supernatural powers surged uncontrollably in his body, lightning flashed at his fingertips, and he exerted force suddenly to break free from this humiliating embrace.
“Knock knock knock—”
Just then, there was a slow knock on the door of the suite.
Immediately afterwards, without waiting for a response from inside, the door lock made a slight electronic sound and was actually opened from the outside.
Jhin appeared at the doorway. He was still dressed in a well-tailored dark suit, his silver hair neatly combed, and his red eyes like burning gemstones.
He had his usual playful smile on his face, and his gaze was fixed precisely on the center of the living room - the scene of the disheveled Lu Cheng being held in Lin Yao's arms in an extremely ambiguous posture.
Jin paused, and the interest in his red eyes was instantly replaced by a hint of surprise and mischief.
He raised an eyebrow, his tone carrying just the right amount of embarrassment and teasing: "Uh... am I a little inconsiderate?"
Lin Yao held Lu Cheng's arms with no intention of relaxing. He even rubbed his chin on Lu Cheng's angry and stiff shoulders, like a lazy cat claiming ownership.
He looked up at Jin at the door, his voice calm and frank with a sense of matter-of-factness.
"No," Lin Yao's lips curled up slightly, "You at least... have some self-awareness."
This sentence was like a loud slap in the face, slapping Lu Cheng and Jin's ridicule.
Lu Cheng was filled with shame and anger, and struggled even harder. This time, Lin Yao did not force him and loosened his arms.
Lu Cheng jumped back as if he was scalded, without even looking back. With anger and humiliation that almost turned into reality, he staggered back to the bedroom and slammed the door shut.
Lin Yao seemed oblivious to his discomfiture. He calmly wiped his mouth with his napkin and elegantly finished the rest of his breakfast. Throughout the entire process, Jin leaned against the doorframe, watching with interest, a glint of inquiry gleaming in the depths of his red eyes.
Only after swallowing the last bite of food did Lin Yao stand up and walk to the large sofa in the middle of the living room and sit down. He looked at Jin leisurely and said, "I wonder what brings you here, Mr. Jin?"
His tone was calm, as if the embarrassing episode had never happened.
Jin looked at Lin Yao, who looked like he had everything under control, and smiled helplessly. He knew that the other party was asking a question even though he knew the answer.
He walked to the sofa opposite Lin Yao and sat down, leaning forward slightly, looking directly at Lin Yao with his red eyes, his tone becoming serious and direct.
"I want to see your sincerity, Lin Yao."
He emphasized the word "sincerity." "This will become the key asset in my negotiation with the City Lord to add you and Lu Cheng's names to the list of people to explore the Rotten Bone Forest."
He needed substantial proof that Lin Yao was capable of solving his problem.
Lin Yao nodded without hesitation: "Okay."
He raised his hand and pointed at Jin, "Relax and don't resist."
Jin was stunned for a moment, looking at Lin Yao's bony hand reaching out to him, and subconsciously leaned back slightly: "What?"
He was a little confused about what Lin Yao was going to do.
Lin Yao's hand stopped in mid-air, with a hint of legitimate doubt in his blue eyes: "Don't you want to see my sincerity?"
He tilted his head slightly, "What are you hiding from?"
"Now?" Jhin still found it hard to believe.
In a place like this? Without any preparation? To make that crucial attempt to control his power?
"Could it be that in City A," Lin Yao raised his eyebrows slightly, with a hint of sarcasm, "there are still regulations that require one to burn incense, bathe, and fast for three days at a specific time and place in order to assist in controlling supernatural powers?"
His tone was as if he was talking about a very simple matter.
Jin was silent. He really didn't expect Lin Yao's style of doing things to be so... vigorous and decisive, even simple and rough.
But the other person's absolute confidence and sense of control made him unable to refuse. Perhaps this was the posture of a powerful person? Jin took a deep breath, suppressed his doubts and a hint of uneasiness, slowly closed his eyes, and forced himself to relax his tense mind and body.
"Okay. Come on."
Lin Yao's spiritual threads stretched out silently. Like the most sophisticated detectors, they instantly sank into Jin's vast sea of consciousness filled with violent energy.
This place was like a universe filled with destructive storms, with violent energy turbulence crashing in all directions. However, Lin Yao's spiritual thread was remarkably stable, moving precisely through the turbulent waves and exploring.
Soon, he caught sight of an area in the deepest part of his sea of consciousness that was completely different from the other violent energies.
It wasn't strong, but rather... solidified, gray, and full of cracks.
Like a piece of black crystal covered with spider-web-like cracks after being impacted by a huge force, it exudes an atmosphere of depression, fear and strong self-loathing.
Lin Yao's spiritual thread paused slightly in front of the dark area. Then, like a scalpel, the most condensed and tough thread decisively penetrated into the deepest crack.
In an instant, a dusty fragment of memory full of pain and despair rushed into Lin Yao's perception like a raging flood.
The image shook, piercing screams echoed, walls collapsed, and rebar twisted... A young boy with silver hair and red eyes stood bewildered in the center of the shattered ruins, looking at his own trembling hands, the panicked crowd fleeing around him, and... a blood-stained hand reaching out from beneath the rubble...
Jhin's body trembled violently on the sofa, his eyeballs rolled violently under his tightly closed eyelids, cold sweat seeped out of his forehead, and his breathing became heavy.
So that's how it was. Lin Yao understood instantly. It wasn't the loss of control over the power itself, but the trauma buried deep in his heart, sealed by fear and self-condemnation.
The more you fear being hurt, the more your power will be driven uncontrollably towards destruction by unconscious fear.
"Use your special ability." Lin Yao's voice sounded calmly, like an order that penetrated the fog.
Jin suddenly opened his eyes, his red eyes filled with horror and disbelief: "Now?!"
He almost screamed, "This is the top floor of the Starry Sky Crown! If we lose control..."
The consequences are disastrous! Not to mention the casualties, this iconic building could even be destroyed by him.
"Yes, now." Lin Yao's tone was calm, with an unquestionable certainty, "Right now! I will assist you, and there will be no casualties."
His voice seemed to carry a strange magic, coupled with the absolute control that Lin Yao displayed during yesterday's negotiations, and Jin's own determination to fight to the death... Jin looked into Lin Yao's calm and deep blue eyes, and the fear and reason in his heart were in a wild tug of war.
Ultimately, the desire for "normal" overwhelms everything.
He gritted his teeth, a hint of determination flashed in his red eyes: "...Okay!"
With a thought, a violent, destructive aura instantly erupted from Jin's body. The pressure of his SS-level supernatural power swept across the entire living room like an invisible tsunami.
The expensive furniture groaned under the weight, the decorative picture frames on the wall shook violently, and the exquisite glassware on the coffee table trembled wildly, making a dense and harsh "buzzing" sound, as if they were about to explode collectively in the next second.
Jin's expression was painful and stiff, his red eyes staring at his hands, his body trembling slightly due to extreme depression and fear.
He could clearly feel that the destructive force was trying to break free from his restraints, like an enraged beast about to break out of its cage.
At this critical moment, Lin Yao moved.
His spiritual thread was no longer a probe, but instantly transformed into a huge, flexible, invisible net that shone with a faint blue luster.
This net accurately captured the destructive energy that was overflowing violently and trying to destroy everything indiscriminately, like a lasso thrown by the most skilled animal trainer.
The giant net suddenly tightened and guided.
The destructive force that was enough to destroy half a floor, under the forced restraint and precise guidance of Lin Yao's spiritual thread, changed direction in an instant like a tamed wild horse.
It did not rush towards the wall, the glass, or any living thing, but was forcibly condensed and compressed into an extremely condensed, almost invisible energy beam.
Swish!
The energy beam shot out silently, and its target was the crystal glass vase that Lin Yao had "taken" with another spiritual thread and placed in the center of the coffee table in front of the sofa.
The energy beam hit the vase precisely.
Time seemed to stand still.
Jhin closed his eyes tightly, waiting for the familiar piercing sound of objects shattering and being destroyed and the roar of uncontrolled energy exploding.
However... nothing happened.
There was only a heart-wrenching silence.
Jhin's heart was beating wildly and he suddenly opened his eyes!
The scene that came into his eyes was like being struck by lightning, and his mind went blank.
In the center of the coffee table, the crystal-clear crystal glass vase stood intact. Not even a petal had fallen from the delicate fluorescent blue rose in the vase, a symbol of City A's technology.
It still emits a soft light, quietly staying in the vase, as if the terrifying power that was enough to destroy everything just now was just an illusion.
“How…is this possible?!”
Jhin's voice was dry and hoarse, trembling with disbelief. He suddenly looked down at his hands. They were still trembling slightly, but the violent energy that had just been there had disappeared without a trace, as if it had never appeared.
He blinked hard, wondering if he was dreaming.
"When you use your powers, you're always overly concerned about damaging things around you or hurting people."
Lin Yao's voice sounded at the perfect moment, calmly stating a scientific phenomenon. "The more you worry, the more your attention, your mental strength, and even your supernatural energy itself, will unconsciously shift and disperse towards 'preventing damage.' This is what's often called the 'attention effect.'"
Jin suddenly looked up, his red eyes fixed on Lin Yao.
Lin Yao nodded. "Yes! The more you fear something, the more you focus on it. This will unconsciously direct your energy in that direction, leading to the very outcome you're trying to avoid. It's a vicious cycle."
He pointed at the intact vase. "So, what I did just now was very simple. I used my special ability to forcibly take over the part of your attention that was 'worried about destruction' and completely blocked it. At the same time, I forcibly focused all of your unconsciously scattered special energy and directed it towards a single clear target."
He spread his hands and said, "Look, the thing you were worried about didn't happen at all, did it?"
Jhin was completely silent.
It was like a revelation! Lin Yao's words were like a precise scalpel, dissecting the knot in his heart that had troubled him for years and that he himself had never fully understood.
Those countless times of losing control, those uncontrollable scenes of destruction... the root cause was actually his own curse-like "worry"?!
Yes... the more you fear being hurt, the more you will be hurt... the more hurt you are, the more afraid you will be... He is like being trapped in a maze built of fear and destruction, from which he can never get out.
Every attempt made him sink deeper and more desperate!
And the man in front of him with silver hair and blue eyes, Lin Yao... He only took one attempt and a vase to point out the exit of the maze to him so clearly, so cruelly and so accurately.
He didn't even need to go deep into the maze; just standing outside, he could see all the paths and traps.
Jin raised his head, and extremely complex emotions surged in his red eyes - shock, ecstasy, awe, and a hint of... indescribable dependence.
He looked at Lin Yao as if he was looking at the only light source in the darkness, the guide who was leading him through the desperate maze.
Just then, the bedroom door was flung open.
Lu Cheng had already changed his clothes, but his expression remained gloomy. He had obviously heard everything that happened in the living room, especially Lin Yao's final, "guided" analysis of Jin.
He strode out, his sharp eyes shooting at Jin like a knife, especially when he saw Jin's undisguised, almost scorching look when he looked at Lin Yao, the anger in his eyes almost turned into tangible thunder.
He walked over to Lin Yao, stood there with a possessive attitude, looked at Jin coldly, and said in a bad tone: "Have you seen enough? I've received your 'sincerity'. Isn't it time to leave?"
Jin came back to his senses from the shock, looked at Lu Cheng's posture of protecting food, then looked at Lin Yao who was still calm beside him, and a hint of deep meaning flashed in his red eyes.
He slowly stood up and nodded solemnly to Lin Yao, putting away all his playfulness and temptations, leaving only pure solemnity.
"I understand. Lin Yao, I received your sincerity. I will finalize the list of the "Rotten Bone Forest Sea" as soon as possible."
After saying that, he stopped looking at Lu Cheng and turned to leave the suite.
The moment the door closed, the atmosphere in the living room became tense again.
Lu Cheng's anger burned fiercely towards Lin Yao.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
