Chapter 31: The Guan Family

Guan Xinyue walked forward slowly for a few steps, until she stood right in front of the characters floating in the air. She looked at the report; just as people project highlighted text onto transparent glass, she could see it very clearly.

She finished reading it once, then silently and mechanically read it a few more times. There were some unfamiliar terms she could not understand, likely professional terminology for a Mage; she could tell that the writing in this report was quite professional. It was like a diagnosis, an appraisal, cold and devoid of a shred of personal emotion.

Could it be that all the disasters originated from a single, unintentional professional report?

She turned around and saw that Luo Qi was somewhat excited; because he had caught a glimpse of the path, those handsome eyes were even brighter. He raised his hands to swipe through the data in the air, making them arrange themselves more orderly. He was unconstrained by trifles and was still wearing the shirt printed with "China's Good Child," with a frog sewn onto the chest, and the sleeves of the shirt were rolled up a few times, revealing his sturdy forearms.

"4821.219, Guan Yushan received an assignment from the Committee to go to the human prison to conduct Mind Detection on the murderer of the Lu Jinfeng Case; this matter aroused the vigilance of the mastermind behind the scenes," he said. "This is very likely the cause of the matter. Actually, we could have been certain long ago that your grandfather was a Mind Master; the Illusion that Du Zhengyi fell into at the bottom of the well in the backyard must have been the masterpiece of a Mind Master."

He was slightly unconfident, stopping to ponder other possibilities. "I think if that Crystal were a generic security device bought from a store, it shouldn't have been able to trap Du Zhengyi for so long. Your Gufu is just a jewelry dealer; the Crystal shouldn't have been made by him."

Guan Xinyue came back to her senses from her trance and subconsciously blurted out, "No, it wasn't made by him."

Luo Qi looked up at her in confusion, and she explained, "The trap under the well was only made by my grandfather after the man surnamed Lu died. If that trap is related to the mind as you said, then that is probably it."

Luo Qi nodded and fell into thought again.

"But what I don't understand is, if my grandfather really discovered something, he had plenty of time to report it, right? But this report doesn't mention anything. I look back on the events of that year now, from the day of my birthday to the time my Gugu started being pestered by that woman, everything was plain and unremarkable. It was summer vacation then, and the next day my grandfather took me to Disney. All summer long, Grandfather took us sisters traveling, playing everywhere, just exactly like previous summer vacations. We weren't even at home... I only realized something was wrong with Gugu after I returned home; she was very unhappy, but I didn't think..."

She lowered her head in pain, took a few heavy breaths, and forced herself to shake off these emotions.

"Perhaps your grandfather really did discover something, he just hadn't realized it himself at the time," Luo Qi said softly. "Do you want to sit down?"

Guan Xinyue shook her head, her trembling fingers brushing past her temples to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. "I'm fine. I must get to the bottom of this. Even if I really won't remember these things in the future, I must walk to the end."

Luo Qi looked at her, his worry overflowing in his expression. "I will never..."

Guan Xinyue smiled somewhat neurotically, but quickly suppressed it, made a face, and took a few deep breaths to calm her emotions. She tentatively reached out, finally letting her hand rest on Luo Qi's shoulder, and took another deep breath. Somehow, being close to Luo Qi made it easier for her to regain her calm.

She raised her thin eyebrows and made a joke, "My grandfather said not to listen to boys making vows."

Luo Qi grinned. "Your grandfather must have succeeded."

"Maybe so." Guan Xinyue smiled as she remembered something. "Perhaps my Nainai was tricked by him; after all, my Nainai divorced for him, and he wasn't young anymore at that time. Do you think... he was able to detect other people's thoughts?"

"You mean..." Luo Qi felt a wave of discomfort in his stomach. "That can't be."

Guan Xinyue looked at him strangely. "Why are you reacting so strongly? If he modified my Nainai's thoughts to make her fall in love with him, that's not a bad thing, because Grandfather was very, very good to Nainai. Isn't it often said that someone who tricks people for a moment is a jerk, but someone who tricks them for a lifetime is a romantic saint?"

"You might not be taking this seriously," Luo Qi said in a low voice. "Invading someone else's thoughts is already among the most unforgivable violations. If you twist a person's thoughts and change their preferences, that's going too far. You're making your grandfather sound like a rapist."

Guan Xinyue was stunned for a moment.

Luo Qi continued, "Think about it, your privacy, your secret fantasies, all potentially exposed to outsiders—what does that feel like? What you love, what you hate, all beyond your own control; then, are you still even you?"

"You're right." Guan Xinyue realized, then thought of something else. "Du Zhengyi said that compared to your world, my grandfather was living in seclusion. Does it have to do with this reason?"

"It's possible. Even in the Mage world, Telepaths are not very welcome most of the time." Luo Qi wanted to change the subject and immediately seized on a question. "You said your grandfather only made the trap after Lu Chengzhi died? Lu Chengzhi was already dead; did your grandfather have any other enemies?"

"I really don't know," Guan Xinyue said. "At that time, my grandfather's mind was already not very clear. My sister told me about the trap; she said my grandfather might have been obsessed with watching anti-Japanese TV dramas while staying at home, thinking it was wartime and was busy guarding against imaginary enemies."

Luo Qi had nothing to say; the two Guan sisters were probably both experts at bad-mouthing people.

"Alright," he said. "So far, this is all that can be inferred. I suspect Du Zhengyi might know quite a bit of other information; he might just not know how to piece the information together. He might have come here just to find that key piece of the puzzle."

His whole body relaxed as he leaned back into the chair, changing into a comfortable posture suitable for waiting. But he was a person who couldn't stay idle, and after twisting around in the chair without finding a comfortable sitting position, he simply jumped up.

"Xinyue, you said that the mistress's family members all disappeared too; there shouldn't be anyone at her home now, right?"

Guan Xinyue was still silently sorting through the information she had received today, and upon hearing this, she looked up and said, "What? You still want to break into an empty house?"

Luo Qi looked at her.

"No way," Guan Xinyue cried out in annoyance. "You really want to go take a look? They must have searched it a hundred times already!" She felt awkward just thinking about that person's home.

"What does that matter? Anyway, aren't we just idling right now?"

Guan Xinyue sighed. She looked at Luo Qi's unusually bright eyes and knew she had been persuaded again.

Separated by a wall, the temple courtyard was very lively: people burning incense, making wishes, releasing animals, and accumulating merit; believers and temple loafers—the little monks in the temple were diligently attending to the people of the secular world.

More than an hour ago, there was a Master chanting scriptures in the Buddha hall, and Du Zhengyi and Zhao Zhiyan had gained the qualification to enter the hall by relying on Merit Points.

Du Zhengyi had sat here listening to the chanting for a full hour; to be honest, he didn't understand a single word. Zhao Zhiyan didn't seem to have any insights from listening to the scriptures either, but he was quite sensitive to the rhythm within, and before long, he started to doze off. Du Zhengyi grew bored and secretly wondered if Luo Qi had known what it was like inside, which was why he refused to come along; could he be playing games behind his back right now?

Games. This word flashed through his mind again. Luo Qi had made him understand the general rules behind games. Someone had moved that set of point principles into the temple, and it was only then that he thought the mastermind manipulating all of this might be a human.

He had previously secretly worried that Zhao Zhiyan's method of dealing with the mad dog was too sloppy, but so far, while the people in the village might have said something, the monks in this temple were consistently dull and kind. Du Zhengyi really felt he couldn't describe them; from the first time they met, he always felt the monks didn't quite seem like living people. He didn't mean they were corpses or ghosts; they were breathing in a very real way. Later, until Du Zhengyi started playing the game Luo Qi gave him, he finally understood why Luo Qi immediately associated this place with a game mode—they were just too much like NPCs in a game.

They were alive, yet they didn't seem truly alive. Or perhaps this was the result pursued by cultivation. Luo Qi seemed to have rambled on before about how life is bitter and the only way is to reach great enlightenment; what the Buddhist school pursues is not escaping suffering but enduring it. Du Zhengyi didn't quite understand—was the purpose of cultivation to pursue dullness?

Du Zhengyi pondered these things while sizing up the Master in front of him. By this time, the scripture lecture had ended, and Du Zhengyi and Zhao Zhiyan were at the very front of the Master's list for private audiences.