Chapter 218: The Way of Getting Along

Luo Qi walked back to the car. Du Zhengyi looked at him inquiringly. He wiped his face, which was covered in water droplets that were either sweat or condensation from the humid air, and stared fixedly at Du Zhengyi.

"What's wrong?" Du Zhengyi asked in a low voice.

Luo Qi looked at Du Zhengyi carefully, his lips trembling slightly. Du Zhengyi looked down at him in confusion; his eyelashes fluttered a few times, but his eyes were filled with blankness, his expression dazed, as if he had received a great shock.

Du Zhengyi watched him with some concern, his tone becoming solicitous, "Were you frightened by seeing the corpse?"

Luo Qi was startled for a moment before finally coming back to his senses, "No... it's nothing."

Du Zhengyi didn't quite believe his words. He couldn't help but raise his hand to wipe the forehead where another layer of fine sweat had broken out, saying in a low voice, "Is it still that you aren't familiar with the human brain, and find it uncomfortable to make contact?"

"It's nothing." Luo Qi shook his head, then suddenly lowered his head, pressed his face against Du Zhengyi's shoulder, and rubbed it hard back and forth against Du Zhengyi's white shirt, wiping the sweat away completely.

"Damn, Luo Qi, you..." Du Zhengyi was stunned at first, then greatly shocked.

Fearing he would be beaten, Luo Qi quickly turned and dove into the car. Du Zhengyi had no choice but to open the car door and sit in as well. "Damn, Luo Qi, what month is it even? You really are a through-and-through Northerner; you can't even handle this much."

Guan Xinyue inside the car had long been waiting impatiently. Regardless of how uncomfortably hot Luo Qi was, she kept tugging at his clothes from the back, "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Nothing, someone died here." Luo Qi took a deep breath and looked back through the car window; the police were still diligently busy.

"Someone died here?" Guan Xinyue exclaimed, "How could this happen? Is that river very deep?"

"They were probably frightened and fell into the river by accident," Luo Qi said in a low voice, his gaze still lingering on the Ancient Town, which only had dull colors of black, white, and gray. "Do you remember those two humans who explored Du Zhengyi's home? The more a place makes humans feel like there are ghosts, the more humans want to explore it. There's no helping curiosity; it can be considered both a good thing and a bad thing."

"But..." Guan Xinyue said in astonishment, "But the defenses here shouldn't be lethal, right?"

"Why wouldn't they be lethal?" Luo Qi suddenly turned his head, saying almost sternly, "When we are all inside, the defenses notify Majiang to screen and handle things, so there naturally won't be any problems. Majiang or I wouldn't really want to kill anyone. But when we aren't inside, the defenses handle things on their own. The results of acting on their own are hard to predict, and such things vary from person to person. If it were someone bold with a stable mental state, it might not lead to irreversible consequences, but for someone else, it might not work out. The police suspect the deceased also had some congenital issues; she might have had a spasm after being frightened and falling into the water, and as a result, she drowned in just that little bit of water."

Guan Xinyue was speechless for a moment, half in shock and half in sadness.

Majiang felt rather uncomfortable; after all, the defenses here were reactivated by him. "About this... are you sure the person who died was a human? It wouldn't be a Mage, would it? If a Mage came to scout this place, the defenses here would react particularly violently. After all, it's a product of the Psychological Society; it's only slightly worse than the one from the Qionglin, and actually even more bizarre, with more traps."

"Whether it's a Mage or a human," Luo Qi said gloomily, "drowning in such a shallow ditch, that must be fate. Those destined to drown in a well won't die in the sea."

Du Zhengyi looked at Luo Qi with slight surprise, sensing that Luo Qi's mood was terrible. Luo Qi might have accidentally leaked his emotions again; the car now felt like it could scrape off frost. Facing Luo Qi, he always felt he was somewhat in the wrong. If Luo Qi was in a good mood, it would be fine, but when he was truly in a dark mood, Du Zhengyi had recently become accustomed to taking a step back. "What do you think we should do? Should we turn back immediately, or go in and take a look?"

Majiang immediately said, "I still insist that we should go in; there is no place safer than here. We can go in first. It's broad daylight right now and there are police everywhere outside, so there won't be any danger. I'll go in and check the defenses; I should be able to roughly figure out what happened here yesterday."

"Brother Jiang makes a valid point. Shall we return the car and then walk over?" Luo Qi looked toward the town again. "We can enter on foot from another entrance to the town. There are very few police at other entrances, so there won't be any problems."

"Fine," Du Zhengyi said, restarting the car, reversing, turning around, and driving back to the city.

Luo Qi let out a long sigh, propped his elbow on the right car door, and slumped his head there.

Du Zhengyi drove while glancing at him a few times. "What's wrong with you? If you're feeling bad, you can talk about it. A Telepath's sixth sense is usually very useful."

"It's nothing, I didn't sense anything," Luo Qi said in a low voice, shifting his body to tilt to the left, changing into a posture of leaning toward Du Zhengyi.

Du Zhengyi smiled and glanced at him again. "I think you were still frightened, right? It's okay, anyone who just saw a corpse will definitely have a period of adjustment."

Luo Qi didn't say a word. After a long while, he swallowed heavily and finished the half-bottle of water stuck in the cup holder.

Actually, Guan Xinyue was the most unhappy of the four. She knew she had already talked too much about these topics over the past few days, so she endured for a while before finally being unable to hold back. "So, how many humans have Mages inadvertently killed? How many humans have died in a muddled way without knowing anything?"

Majiang scratched his head, fearing this debt would be counted against him. He said pitifully, "Then Xinyue... do you mean you want me to pay with my life for the ghost?"

"That's not what I meant," Guan Xinyue was stunned for a moment. "I mean, you should strengthen your own legal system and restrain your own behavior. You can't just trample on our human rights whenever you want. Why is our life so cheap?"

Luo Qi took a deep breath and was just about to say something when Du Zhengyi went "shh" above his head. He was startled, then slumped back onto his arm and stayed still.

"Huh?" Majiang said from the back, "Then what do you think should be done? Why don't you share your thoughts? Anyway, we are already coexisting on the same piece of land. What kind of situation do you think would be considered fair to both sides? After all, Mages have also helped humans shoulder quite a few things, I guess." "You guess?" Guan Xinyue said angrily.