I want to be a strong and gentle person
"So, I come to you again, is there anything more you can tell me this time?"
Ji Yunding and Tang Chaoxi sat facing each other, and after briefly summarizing recent events, they spoke seriously.
Ji Liuxing led the way, and then drove him away gently. According to Ji Liuxing, he had completely broken up with the family since he stood on the side of the reorganization, so he was not willing to come back at all, and he maintained an attitude of respect but not wanting to contact Tang Chaoxi.
Before, Ji Liuxing had more or less played a guardianship role, but now Ji Yunding was able to overthrow his family on his own, so he thought about it and left.
Tang Chaoxi sat silently. She always made Ji Yunding feel an inexplicable sense of rejection, as if they were essentially incompatible, but Ji Yunding could not completely deny the other party.
"Have you ever heard of depersonalization and derealization?"
Tang Chaoxi seemed to have just come back to his senses, and his eyes focused on Ji Yunding.
"You should have been to the Cemetery of Rise and Fall, right? Do you understand?"
"Yes, according to what you said, if you have retained complete memories of all your reincarnations, then theoretically, you have indeed experienced a period of time that is not shorter than mine."
In this regard, Ji Yunding had some understanding of Tang Chaoxi's performance and attitude.
When he first came out of the Rongku Cemetery, for a long time, Ji Yunding not only had problems with his perception of time, but also his emotions became particularly weak. He always felt that he was living in the third person. If it weren't for his overly firm self-esteem, Ji Yunding might have really gotten lost there.
Therefore, Ji Yunding now understood the source of Tang Chaoxi's unnatural feeling. Her indifferent responses and emotional expressions, her disregard for other people's subjectivity, were all based on the fact that she herself had been suffering from a serious personality disorder.
To a certain extent, Ji Yunding even understood how Ji Liuxing's irritating personality developed.
"Have you seen your second reincarnation?"
"I saw it. To be honest, it's not very pleasant to see myself as the protagonist of a shonen manga."
Ji Yunding was not a person with a lot of emotions, and she had almost never felt the emotion of "shame", but seeing herself doing all these things in such a passionate way, she really felt a subtle urge to die.
Tang Chaoxi didn't say anything, just looked at Ji Yunding. He was silent for a while, and then inexplicably changed the subject, as if he had just mentioned it casually.
"Not long ago, Ruguilu left the dungeon."
"…Since you used the word 'left', does that mean you let him go on purpose?"
"Not really. I just didn't stop it. It should have already started at this point."
Tang Chaoxi nodded slightly, her eyes seemed to pass Ji Yunding and look at somewhere behind her.
"start?"
Just as Ji Yunding asked the question in confusion, he heard an extremely shrill alarm sounding from his mobile phone, so he picked up the phone to receive the emergency message.
A photo showing many fresh corpses dripping with blood, with strange shapes standing in the lush woods, about to walk towards the village.
Negative energy is unstable and disordered, so it is relatively simple to create a channel from the alien plane back to reality. All you need to do is create a large number of unnatural deaths at a certain point and increase the concentration of negative energy to a level sufficient to allow the weird to descend.
Destruction is always much easier than protection.
"It's a continuation of the Hundred Days of Ghostly Tribulation. According to his concept, the invasion of monsters is a good thing that promotes human evolution, and the dead are just 'eliminated'. This is his way of dealing with the end of the world."
Ji Yunding ignored Tang Chaoxi's words and looked at the group of Group 1 first. After knowing that the seniors had already arrived, he put away his phone for the time being and took care of the things in front of him first.
"You'd better give me a reasonable explanation, otherwise I can't guarantee that I will continue to maintain a friendly attitude."
"Do you care? You will also care about people who have nothing to do with you."
Tang Chaoxi didn't seem to care about Ji Yunding's threat at all. She just looked at her indifferently. It was unclear which Ji Yunding she was looking at, or maybe she couldn't tell them apart.
"It doesn't matter. If we've progressed this far, you don't need me anymore. You can just flatten this place."
"It's not that I care about them, I just suddenly want to kill you."
There was no sign of anger in Ji Yunding's tone, but she rarely spoke in such a cold tone anymore.
There is no point in talking if there is no agreement. No matter what the other party's purpose is, even if she has sacrificed herself, Ji Yunding still cannot accept such behavior.
In Ji Yunding's opinion, human self is inviolable, so no matter what the reason is, people should and can only decide to sacrifice themselves.
"What makes you think I really exist here?"
Tang Chaoxi picked up the teacup, took a sip of tea, and said slowly,
"You just saw me and heard me speak, but how can you prove that I am not a phonograph, a programmed answering machine, or..."
Tang Chaoxi paused halfway through his words, then remained silent, just looking at Ji Yunding. The second hand of the wall clock was moving step by step, and the ticking sound of mechanical friction floated in the air in the room.
If you listen to the sound of a clock for a long time, you will miss a beat, as if time has been taken away for a moment without anyone noticing. If you listen to it for a little longer, it will seem to merge with the beat of your heartbeat, or like the ticking sound you occasionally hear when you lie on your side at night.
Perhaps time is the heartbeat of the world.
After the missed second hand returned to normal, Tang Chaoxi lowered his eyes slightly and did not continue speaking.
"I have reported it to the Ghost Story Bureau. Please tell them the details. I don't want to become a murderer."
When Ji Yunding realized that Tang Chaoxi had nothing else to say, he stood up and prepared to leave, reminding himself in his heart that public officials must abide by the law and that killing people is not good.
Obey the law, obey the law...
"No one in this world matters except you."
Tang Chaoxi put the teacup back on the table, sat upright, and spoke calmly.
"The world really revolves around you now. So you have to live on, keep living, so that we have meaning."
——————
After returning, when he followed the group to clean up the mess, Ji Yunding was still a little absent-minded. If I were to sum up Ji Yunding's current mood in one sentence - he hates the Riddler.
However, when he arrived at the place, Ji Yunding temporarily had no time to think about these trivial things.
Half of the villagers died, half were frightened and went crazy, and the rest squatted in the corner in silence, watching the research team and the logistics team go back and forth to deal with the situation. Some people were crying, some had empty and helpless eyes, and some had hatred in their eyes.
Learning to face this kind of hatred is a compulsory course for investigators, and appeasing this hatred is the job of the logistics team.
"The death toll totaled 133 people, which is the same as the duration of the Hundred Days of Ghost Calamity. The identity of the criminal can be basically confirmed."
Lin Shugang had just finished talking to the logistics team and saw Ji Yunding coming. He immediately told her the important information.
"The others will go and hunt down the monsters according to the direction indicated by Sister Qianqiu. The two of us will be in charge of guarding here."
Ji Yunding nodded, glanced around, and saw a villager grabbing the collar of a logistics staff member and yelling at him, so he quickly stepped forward and slapped the man's hand away.
"Are you okay?"
"It's okay. This kind of thing happens all the time. I'm used to it... Yunding, go and rest first."
People in the logistics group can basically recognize all the people in the first group - after all, they go there most frequently and bring the most urgent matters - but they are familiar with Ji Yunding to the point of calling him by his nickname, mainly out of some strange concern that people who have entered society have for students.
Compared to the research team, the logistics team's thinking is still normal. When they see the young Ji Yunding, they always can't help but want to chat more. Even though they know that she is a very strong investigator, they can't help but want her to stay away from these malicious people.
Seeing that the villager was not going to give up, Ji Yunding slightly turned his head to avoid the punch, then pressed the man's shoulder and elbow joints, and gently knocked him down with a force that would not hurt him but would prevent him from breaking free.
Everyone in the logistics team knew that there was no point in saying more at this time. These people might have just lost their loved ones, so it was understandable that they had any emotions, but Ji Yun must have other ideas.
"On the one hand, you are innocent and should not bear this kind of harm. On the other hand, I am also trying to prevent them from making a bigger mistake."
As he spoke, Ji Yunding loosened his grip and took two steps back without a care.
"These people still have to live. If they really hurt you, they will regret it when they are in jail. If the situation gets more serious and gets out of control on a large scale, Sister Lin Shu's ability will also cause serious secondary damage to them, so..."
Ji Yunding squatted down to avoid the flying stone from nowhere, and quickly knocked down the person who was approaching secretly from behind, also using very light force.
After completing a series of smooth movements, she raised her head and stood up, staring at the people around her and spoke seriously.
"I won't get hurt, nor will I let anyone get hurt, and I'll have you safely on the ground until you calm down."
There is no need for those who survive to lose their lives anymore, and there is no need to cause more harm.
Protecting others is much more difficult than protecting yourself - you have to be stronger than everyone and gentler than everyone.
It is not easy to get rid of the condescending "saving" mentality of charity. In fact, theoretically, we should judge by deeds rather than intentions. Even the good intention of charity is worthy of praise, but sometimes, this mentality will bring harm to both parties.
The party that provides charity and protection feels that their kindness has been betrayed, while the party being protected is hung on the pole of morality and judged to the point of losing their humanity, and is criticized as a model without emotions.
These villagers who attacked innocent people seemed unreasonable, but upon closer inspection, they were just ordinary people who had just experienced a horrific incident beyond common sense, and who might have lost their relatives and friends, and were panicked and frightened.
If they have hurt someone, then it is certainly an indisputable crime, but if someone had stopped them, perhaps they could not be said to be so unforgivable.
Putting aside all the beautiful rhetoric, honor and superficial work, not requiring the protected to behave like a "perfect weak person" and give back with gratitude, and accepting that their efforts may not be rewarded in any way - it sounds harsh, unreasonable, and impractical.
Ji Yunding was not such a person before, and she is not such a person now, but she is trying to take her own position step by step.
The scene was quiet, and seeing that no one else was taking action, Ji Yunding just stood there without saying anything. She was not good at comforting people, but only at solving problems.
When everyone started to move again and the logistics team continued to register the names of people to distribute the ghost story disaster compensation, Ji Yunding followed the staff and passed by a corner as if nothing had happened, and suddenly grabbed someone's wrist.
The sky of the other dimension was blood red. The person who was brought to the other dimension looked at Ji Yunding dazedly, and Ji Yunding did something she had wanted to do for a long time.
Over the shoulder throw.
"...After you kill someone, you come back and squat in the corner with someone else's face in your face. I will think you want to die."
Ji Yunding had been annoyed by the Riddler recently. It could be said that he met the person he wanted to fight the most when he was most angry.
But Ruguilu was hit hard by the fall, but he just shook his wrist which was broken.
Of course, Ji Yunding did not delay his work while venting his anger. He blew up the tendon of his left leg to prevent him from escaping.
"Ji Ye is right. You do have a strange ability to recognize people."
"Since you know this, what do you want to do? Get beaten up by me?"
"I just wanted to see what kind of person you have become after being led by those people. It's such a pity that Ji Liuxing has really corrupted a good person."
Ruguilu spread his hands. His left leg was no longer able to stand. He only relied on his right leg to support himself. He stood diagonally and sighed.
"I think you can better utilize the power of the Chariot card when you are alone in your original state. Why do you want to learn from a boring card like the Hanged Man?"
"I don't understand what you're saying."
"Stop me outside and cooperate with the Lin family to control me. Are you worried that I will hurt ordinary people?"
Ruguilu could hardly hide the regret on his face. He looked at Ji Yunding with regret.
"In order to protect the weak, even victory is no longer your first goal? I have always wanted to follow such a powerful and self-centered Chariot card... What a pity."
If you ask Ji Yunding what he thinks, it’s a bit disgusting that strange expectations were imposed on him without his permission.
"I need to know why Tang Chaoxi let you go. In exchange, I can spare your life this time."
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