[When the same thing is said by one person, others might not believe it. But if it comes from several different people, from different angles, and even includes sworn enemies among them, then people will tend to believe in the truth of this matter.]
[This is the advantage brought by information asymmetry. The upstream party can deceive the downstream by fabricating false information.]
[…Adams successfully completed his guiding task. He led everyone astray into the pre-written script.]
[…Lies were gradually covering the truth.]
The double web of faith and thoughts, centered on the old town, spread outwards, gradually enveloping this world.
At the center, on the second floor of the apartment, Bai Yi put down his pen, lightly pushed off the desk with his palm, and the recliner beneath him rotated 90 degrees to the right with his effort.
The window facing him was spotless, and a thin, pale light, like a layer of glaze on a painting, spilled in from outside, also giving his pale face a faint glaze.
Although not picky about food, perhaps due to the dark cuisine, Bai Yi’s figure was thinner than his peers, and his complexion was excessively pale from rarely going out in the sun. This made his already pitch-black eyes appear even darker and deeper. Under his long eyelashes, they were like two jet-black glass beads.
Facing the sunlight pouring into the room, Bai Yi instinctively squinted his eyes and leaned back against the chair.
Like a deity sitting on a divine throne, overlooking his realm.Invisible threads spread outward with him at the center, the rhythms of all things opened up to him, and he could hear countless voices.
At this moment, Bai Yi’s soul seemed to leave his body, ascending to the high heavens, sensing the rhythms of countless souls.
One soul among them was particularly special.
“…Want to develop you as an external staff member?”
Bai Yi’s half-closed eyelids moved slightly, revealing a hint of mild surprise in his eyes, which then turned into an interested smile. This faint smile spread to the corners of his lips.
“Such an interesting thing, of course I should agree!”
He seemed to be talking to someone else across space.
“Being unilaterally considered a friend? If you’re willing, of course you can accept it – why not?”
“I told you, right? Do what I want to do, and also do what you want to do – you’ve achieved the first point, but the second point doesn’t seem enough yet.” Bai Yi spoke with a smile, but his words could corrupt any honest child, “Being friends with someone and continuing to mislead them…these two things are not contradictory!”
“So, you don’t need to have any burden~”
…
The tide-like sounds in his ears were forcibly suppressed, changing from a great river and waterfall to a trickle, and the chaotic noises constantly entering his mind were no longer enough to affect him.
Bai Yi slowly and lazily stood up from the chair, and then slowly and lazily stretched.
His movements were like a movie scene played at half speed. Only after stretching his arms straight did he slowly and lazily yawn again, making observers feel anxious for him.
“Easily done.”
“Unexpectedly…” The corners of his mouth gradually turned upwards, and Bai Yi drew a conclusion proven by numerous facts, “It seems I really have the potential to be a psychologist.”
Back then, in his role as a doctor, he had guided countless lost patients towards their path, helping them embark on a bright future. For example, that girl called Tian Yin, didn’t she get a new lease on life after removing the “lesion”?
Now, he could even grasp the thoughts of a ghost. This self-taught psychologist wasn’t bad at all.
“Hmm, to prevent arrogance, I’ll give myself 99 points!”
****
“So, he’s willing to become a special external staff member of our Supernatural Affairs Investigation Bureau?”
In the director’s office of the Supernatural Affairs Investigation Bureau.
An Yuansheng looked at the person who came to report and asked.
Li ‘Officially Certified Ghost Language Max Level Sole Translator’ Fufeng: “How should I put it? Little Adams is very willing to cooperate with us, but he doesn’t want such a formal title as an external staff member. He feels he’s not that useful, except for possibly knowing some things we don’t. He thinks he can’t help with anything else. The formal-sounding title makes the little one too shy to accept. So he thinks it’s fine if we just ask him what we want to know, but as for the title of external staff member…”
“Of course we should give it to him,” An Yuansheng said solemnly. “Just based on the intelligence he’s provided, he’s already made a great contribution to the Supernatural Affairs Investigation Bureau. Our Yao Country has always followed the principle of rewarding merit.”
“But he doesn’t think so,” Li Fufeng said, somewhat amused and exasperated. “The little one feels this is just an equal exchange. We’ve given him so many candies, snacks, toys, and other gifts, and this information is the only return gift he can give – he doesn’t realize how precious his memories are.”
“This is really…”
An Yuansheng showed a surprised expression. With his experience in various departments and even dealing with foreign countries, he had never encountered such a “naive and pure” collaborator before. He felt an inexplicable sense of shame for taking advantage of a child.
“A child’s thoughts are just simple and pure.”
He shook his head and sighed.
“But why can’t he help with other things?” This wasn’t An Yuansheng wanting to exploit “child labor”, he was purely curious about ghosts, a phenomenon he had never encountered before, and wanted to understand more deeply. “Are there any limitations?”
“Yes. According to his description, he seems unable to leave the inn, though I’m not sure if this is temporary or permanent. And when he’s in the inn, he’s sleeping most of the time, which might be a ghost’s unique way of replenishing soul energy?” Li Fufeng speculated.
An Yuansheng frowned slightly and keenly asked, “Can’t leave the inn? Is he confined by something like a barrier that prevents him from leaving, or is there another reason?”
“…It should be the second reason.”
Li Fufeng hesitated for a moment, then said uncertainly, “I’m not sure if I’ve guessed the meaning correctly.”
An Yuansheng knew that his communication with Adams was basically guessing meanings from pictures, so uncertainty in his tone was normal.
He gestured with his hand, “Go on.” Whether the conclusion from guessing the pictures was right or wrong, it was at least a line of thought.
“…From what I gathered from the little one, it seems he doesn’t know how he became a ghost after dying. Anyway, when he hazily woke up, he was floating in the inn. At first, out of curiosity, he floated out of the inn, but soon felt like he was being crushed by a millstone…” At this point, Li Fufeng thought of the childish animation showing a huge millstone in the sky and earth, with a small figure beneath it. “It seems there’s a terrifying force in this world that consumes his soul. He quickly became weak, and in a confused state, he rushed into someone’s home, almost instinctively trying to absorb their soul…”
“—At this point, a mysterious person stopped him.”
“A mysterious person?” An Yuansheng’s straight back leaned forward a bit.
“Yes, a mysterious person. What he drew was a vague outline, like a dotted line drawn with white chalk, impossible to tell if it was male or female, young or old, just a human shape—anyway, this mysterious person stopped him and sent him back to the inn.”
Li Fufeng described while recalling, “After entering the inn, he slowly recovered from his weakness and no longer felt the pressure of that huge millstone… I think there must be different rules between Blue Star and the other dimension. Blue Star has a force that repels the existence of ghosts.”
“…Little Adams’ drawings described it more or less like this.”
In that abstract picture, only the mysterious person with a vague outline was saying something to the stick figure ghost. The content of the speech was automatically translated by Adams into several difficult-to-understand symbols. They were a balance scale, a hanging clock, and a large square divided into many small squares by countless horizontal and vertical lines, looking a bit like a page from a handwriting practice book.
This image was also recorded and presented to everyone for a brainstorming session.
Finally, they reached a conclusion.
The network composed of numerous small squares likely represented some kind of rules and order, the balance scale symbolized equilibrium, and the hanging clock naturally indicated time, or a specific point in time.
“…The most likely meaning he’s trying to convey is that this world has certain rules and order, maintaining a balance we don’t understand. Ghosts are currently not allowed to appear in this world, but as time passes, or at a certain point in time, the balance might be broken, and then ghosts might no longer be rejected.”
If Bai Yi were here and heard such a well-reasoned analysis, he would probably give a thumbs up and praise — True Master of Reading Comprehension!
Although he had instructed Adams to reveal some “information”, even Bai Yi wasn’t sure if his scribble-like level could be understood by people. In a sense, Li Fufeng was practically his best assist.
Without Li Fufeng’s translation, Bai Yi’s script, as performed by Adams, would probably have been incomprehensible to anyone.
“Rules, order, maintaining balance…sounds familiar.” After carefully pondering the translated meaning and looking at the mysterious person with only a vague outline, Yin Xubai was the first to react, “—The Flower Speaker!”
“What?”
“I mean, the Flower Speaker said something similar.”
They quickly found the Flower Speaker’s file and indeed saw that familiar passage—
[Now the world is in turmoil, spiritual energy is reviving, such space-time disturbances and visitors from other worlds will only become more frequent, but there are people maintaining order and human reason. Everything that should happen will happen. Everything that shouldn’t happen absolutely won’t. At least for now, major upheavals are impossible.]
“We analyzed before that there should be some rules governing extraordinaries, or order-keepers among them. But now it seems these rules don’t just apply to extraordinaries, but to the entire world.”
Chu Xingrui exclaimed, pointing to the shadow with only an outline, his expression indescribably complex.
“As for the order-keepers, isn’t this one?”
The sudden appearance of an order above Yao Country’s laws, and “order-keepers” above ordinary people, made him, as a member of the royal family, far more sensitive than others. This sense of the unknown felt like a sword hanging over his head, greatly offending him.
“We just don’t know if the one maintaining order is just one person, or a special organization?”
Author’s note: The protagonist, hiding under layers of aliases, now has an identity too!
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