Chapter 29: Carbonhead's Speculation

The reinforcements we had waited so long for were all gone, not a single one remained. The last glimmer of hope vanished just like that.

Lin Xiayue let out a contemptuous laugh. “You might as well give in to me. From now on, I’ll look after you. You can marry into the Lin family. Our son…”

She began outlining her plans, but my mind was elsewhere. Lin Xiayue must know that I’m an ability user—after all, she’s already seen my body. Is she not afraid that I could simply use my power to kill her?

I flexed my wrist, gathering the surrounding light into my palm. If I found the right moment, I could take her out instantly.

But then I thought about it. There was never any deep grudge between us. At most, I accidentally saw her, and she demanded I take responsibility.

Really, it’s not an unreasonable demand, and Lin Xiayue isn’t unattractive—in fact, she’s quite beautiful, just a bit wild in temperament. For a woman who can hold her own as the boss of her group, becoming her lover would be no problem at all. Far from being a disadvantage, it could even make us much stronger.

So why was I refusing? Why did I instinctively reject the idea?

It felt as if someone else was always there, occupying a place in my heart. I didn’t want to make her sad. I couldn’t bring myself to hurt her.

But is that really a reason to hurt Lin Xiayue instead?

No, no, that’s not right. I can’t think that way. I’m just an ordinary person, not some savior. I can’t possibly take care of everyone’s feelings.

With gain comes loss; with love, inevitably, comes pain. Once I’ve made a choice, it’s only natural that others will be hurt. I can’t let my heart soften.

If I don’t stop this now, I’ll only end up hurting two people instead.

Once I came to terms with that, I grabbed Lin Xiayue’s arm.

She was startled, her face flushing as she said shyly, “What? You want to take the initiative?”

“If you insist,” she added, looking as though she'd resigned herself, giving up all resistance.

“Then I’m sorry.”

“Just be gentle.”

“I’ll do my best.”

With that, I sprang up and flipped Lin Xiayue to the ground, chopping my hand at her neck.

According to the usual plot, Lin Xiayue should have fainted, giving me the chance to escape.

But in reality...

She didn’t pass out. Instead, she immediately unleashed her own power.

Purple light filled the entire room, and the gravity field pressed down directly on me.

I couldn’t resist at all—I collapsed on top of Lin Xiayue, my hands landing uncontrollably on two places they absolutely shouldn’t have touched.

“You!” Lin Xiayue was speechless for a moment.

An idea flashed in my mind. I squeezed with both hands, making Lin Xiayue gasp. In an instant, the purple light vanished.

I seized the chance, scrambled up from behind her, snatched a bedsheet, and bolted for the door.

At the same time, I activated my ability, absorbing all the light from the building.

Lin Xiayue let out a frustrated roar as purple light burst from the room. I kept running, barely able to see, but I knew—if I just kept going, I’d reach the stairwell.

Her purple power kept spreading behind me, drawing closer and closer.

But when I reached the stairs, I saw the purple glow had already stopped five or six meters behind me—so her range wasn’t that great after all.

Wrapping the sheet around myself, I continued downstairs. Stripped bare, I had no tools at all.

My phone and keys had been taken by Wu Ziwei and the others. Now, all I could do was head back wrapped in a sheet.

When I returned to the spot where Sun Cheng and I had first come in, I found Tan Tou and Sun Cheng waiting there for me.

I stared at them in surprise. “Why’d you come back?”

Tan Tou grinned and tossed me a set of clothes. “You think we’d just leave you to become someone’s boy toy?”

“Boy toy?” I put on the clothes, puzzled. “What does that mean?”

“I did some digging on Lin Xiayue,” Tan Tou said. “She’s had loads of boyfriends—Engineering, Medicine, Biochem, Agriculture, Business, you name it.”

“Pretty much every faculty’s male students have been involved with her.”

“So what? Having boyfriends is normal. Maybe she just likes to switch things up,” I replied, still not understanding.

He shook his head. “No, she dates them all at the same time.”

“People have seen her staying overnight with several guys at once.”

“That…” My mind was a mess. This didn’t fit with the Lin Xiayue I’d just seen at all.

Thinking back to what just happened, she really was in quite a rush to get intimate with me.

“Could it be…?”

“That’s right,” Tan Tou said bluntly. “Lin Xiayue is a sex addict.”

I took a sharp breath. I never would have guessed the boss of the Art Institute had such an issue.

“That’s not all. I found out her card is the Eight of Hearts.”

“Sun Cheng’s is the Six of Hearts.”

I looked at Sun Cheng, then said, “What does that have to do with him?”

“Isn’t it strange Sun Cheng suddenly ran off and left you?” Tan Tou pulled Sun Cheng over. “I asked Pang Dongqiang—turns out, this isn’t the first time. In certain situations, Sun Cheng has a compulsion to escape.”

“He’s got a psychological disorder too.”

“So you’re saying both Lin Xiayue and Sun Cheng have some kind of psychological disorder, and they’re both Hearts ability users?” I summarized.

Tan Tou nodded. “My theory is that all Hearts ability users have some form of psychological disorder. That gives us a narrower field to investigate.”

“There’s one more,” I said. “The Nine of Hearts—Zhang Yisheng.”

Li Yuan had told me before that he’d glimpsed the suit on Zhang Yisheng’s body in the bath—it was the Nine of Hearts.

“Zhang Yisheng? He’s definitely manic—spends all day in the dissection lab, always excited.”

I thought about it and agreed. If Tan Tou’s theory held, it would make finding other ability users much easier.

“Have you noticed any other common traits among ability users?” I asked.

“Not so far,” Tan Tou said, shaking his head. “Most of our group are Diamonds or Spades, but there isn’t much in common between us.”

“Anyway, let’s get out of here for now,” I said. “Sun Cheng, let’s go.”

Sun Cheng kept his head down, unable to meet my gaze—probably out of guilt. But I didn’t intend to blame him.

With the white light fading, we returned to the dormitory of the Business Institute.

“Jian, you’re back! How was it, huh?” Chen Hao greeted me with a sly grin. He looked so lecherous I wanted to punch him.

“Enough, Chen Hao. Zijian needs to rest,” Tan Tou said.

I ignored Chen Hao and climbed straight into bed.

“Sun Cheng, you should get some rest too,” Tan Tou waved him off, and Sun Cheng finally slipped out.

“Zhenyu, what happened? Did Zijian not manage to handle Lin Xiayue? If he can’t do it, I’ll go!”

“Oh, please. You’re lucky if Lin Xiayue doesn’t play you to death.”

“Really? How would she play me?”

“Alright, alright, I give up. Let’s go outside and talk—don’t disturb Zijian.”

With that, Tan Tou dragged Chen Hao out, gently closing the door behind them.

Because of all this chaos, we’d missed the live broadcast of the sixth round between the Medical and Agricultural Institutes. I reopened the video link, but unfortunately, there was no replay.

Among the survivors, two people particularly caught my attention: Su Mu and Cheng Gentu from the Agricultural Institute.

Xia Qingqiu and Zhou Zitong from the Law Institute had left a deep impression on us. Su Mu was already known to be an ability user, so I suspected Cheng Gentu probably was as well.

Aside from Zhang Yisheng, more than ten from the Medical Institute had survived. There were likely some ability users hidden among them, otherwise, there wouldn’t be enough to make up the fifty-four.

But when I did the math, there still weren’t even forty left alive. So where were the rest of the ability users?

Just as I was pondering this, news of the seventh round arrived as expected.

It would take place in one week, at the library.

No matter what, survival was the most important thing right now.