Chapter 81: The Son's Friend

Luo Ruian stood in Du Zhengyi's grotesque living room located in the middle of the wilderness, his hands tucked into his trouser pockets, appearing relaxed and casual. He looked at the host sitting on the sofa; after righteous indignation, all a child could feel was helplessness. He seemed to have seized the initiative, "You are my son's friend?"

Du Zhengyi looked at him without answering. His face held heavy disappointment, and even a touch of weariness as if he wanted to drive the person out of his home; he had always been a person who was impolite, willful, and unruly. Being disrespectful to his elders and unkind to the young was his consistent character. But if he wanted to drive someone away now, he would have to banish them from his wilderness, and this location he had chosen was truly a bit troublesome.

Once again, Luo Ruian seemed to see through his thoughts, along with a disdain for his age, "Why choose this place for a meeting?"

This way of conversing made Du Zhengyi uncomfortable beyond measure, and he restrained the urge to check once more if his Consciousness Barrier was intact. Luo Ruian was deliberately trying to make him uneasy. When a Consciousness Mage wanted to make people feel comfortable, people would always be pleasantly surprised, feeling as if they had found a soulmate who understood them completely. But if a Consciousness Mage deliberately wanted to make people uncomfortable, they could easily dismantle people's sense of security; even if you set the location in a place he would never expect, in an absurd scene, he could still seize the initiative and quickly strip away the other party's psychological comfort zone.

Luo Ruian continued, "The view here is indeed better than average; I'm afraid you've also set traps in the surroundings, haven't you? I don't know if you don't trust me, or if someone is threatening your safety? You are a dangerous person, aren't you? I hope you will return Luo Qi to me; I don't like him playing your games, and his Mama is also very worried about him. If we were just two people who happened to meet in the wilderness, I would greatly admire a talented junior like you, but when it involves my son, it is different."

"In what way is it different?" Du Zhengyi asked.

"No parent would want to see their child playing with a dangerous child like you." Luo Ruian looked at him earnestly, "I hope you can understand."

"If I weren't so dangerous, Luo Qi wouldn't have been able to walk out of the Qionglin." Du Zhengyi narrowed his eyes dangerously; clearly, he scoffed at such words. He was not a kindergartner looking for friends, and he had always been smug about his own danger. But perhaps it was Luo Ruian's tone, or perhaps it was Luo Ruian's demeanor, he still felt a faint, hidden anger.

"If Luo Qi hadn't been with you, he wouldn't have been brought into the Qionglin at all," Luo Ruian said solemnly.

Du Zhengyi pressed his lower lip tight, not letting the next retort escape his mouth.

"In my career, I have come into contact with many gifted children, recruited by the Qionglin to have their psychological safety assessed." Luo Ruian continued, his tone becoming increasingly level, as if Du Zhengyi were a child and he were a patient child psychologist. "I think you were also this kind of child when you were young, raised by the Qionglin, trained to be... how should I put it? A killer? A hunter? A demon hunter? I don't know how to describe you all. In any case, you were deprived of the opportunity to live with your parents; most were educated to be very self-centered, liking to rely on themselves for everything, and most had no friends. Even the Qionglin didn't quite trust you, constantly monitoring whether your humanity remained within a basic normal range. I... forgive me for asking, before meeting Luo Qi, have you ever been this devoted to a friend?" "What do you mean?" Du Zhengyi's hand clenched abruptly.

"I am not a monster. Perhaps a child like you who is obsessed with personal ability cannot understand my methods." Luo Ruian said, "Perhaps it is because you have no parents that you cannot understand the heart of a parent planning for their children. Have you ever thought about how difficult it is to raise a child like Luo Qi, with such and such talents, when he was still small?"

Du Zhengyi looked at him in silence.

"Luo Qi is a rare Telepath who can easily control the emotions of others; he is a natural controller." Luo Ruian said, "When he was still an infant, his talent had already appeared; he was an infant who got whatever he wanted. We spent a long time realizing this problem. An infant without self-control has many excessive desires—wanting to eat, wanting to be carried out to play, regardless of how much he had already eaten, and regardless of whether it was windy or raining outside."

Du Zhengyi was truly taken aback; he suddenly realized that it was a terrifying scene.

Luo Ruian sighed and swallowed with exhaustion, "At the beginning, we didn't realize what was wrong at all. We were very happy when accompanying him, very happy when feeding him, and very happy when taking him out to play. We thought all people who had just become parents were this doting on their children. Even when others pointed out that we had a problem, we couldn't restrain the desire to comply with his wishes. It wasn't until he started getting sick because of this unhealthy doting, and when his body was uncomfortable, he began to vent his pain and irritability outward. At first, his Telepathy wasn't very strong, and we similarly attributed our emotional problems to worrying about the child. But as he gradually grew up, between the ages of about two and three, he was frightened once, and the result was that his Mama and I experienced a severe psychological ordeal. He vented the pain of his fear onto us without any restraint, and only then did we understand what was happening."

Du Zhengyi could imagine that terrifying scene. An infant's Consciousness World is chaotic and without restraint; other infants' reactions might just be deafening cries, but Luo Qi was naturally controlling adults, and the infant's chaotic fear was an unimaginable picture.

"It took his Mama a long time to recover her health, and she had to be separated from him for a while." Luo Ruian's voice said flatly, "At that time, the only thing I could do was lock his Telepathy. Otherwise, this child would never be able to grow up. Because no one would be able to educate him anymore; he would be an infant king, a low-functioning tyrant, for his whole life."

Du Zhengyi could not refute this; he had not thought that deeply, because Telepaths of Luo Qi's level were simply too rare. Compared to the average passive Telepath, Luo Qi's type was inherently rare, and he couldn't help but think of that arrogant and inferior Jin Yu, who clearly lacked upbringing.

But Luo Ruian had no need to tell him so much; there was another meaning in his confession, and Du Zhengyi frowned tightly at this layer of meaning.

"Perhaps you feel that today he has grown up and is qualified to use his talent. But is this ability of his truly valuable? Even when I made him lose his Telepathy, I had long felt that his consciousness could always seep out in thin, wispy threads." Luo Ruian said, staring into Du Zhengyi's eyes, his voice becoming somewhat bitter, "He can always win the favor of those he takes a fancy to; do you think you are truly doing so much for him of your own volition?"

In an instant, the sound of the wind diminished; all Du Zhengyi heard was a burst of white noise.