Chapter 108: Fly to the Moon |
"The people from the Salvation Society said they're going to let me leave? My true self is finally allowed out of this confinement room?"
Bathed in the pale, sterile light of the confinement room, Ji Minghuan sat in his chair, looking slightly dazed as his thoughts ran wild.
'They've kept me locked up for so long, and now they're just going to let me out this easily?'
'Is it because they are entirely certain I won't be able to escape their control on the outside, or... do they actually want to use this opportunity to dig up my secrets? Are they waiting to see if Black Cocoon will come to my rescue, just to determine if there is a direct connection between me and that newly emerged Esper?'
'But happening at such a coincidental time... Could the mission they want us to carry out really be related to the underground auction in Tokyo in a few days?'
At this thought, Ji Minghuan lifted his gaze from the tabletop, slowly shifting his eyes toward the Tutor.
He asked with a mix of curiosity and vigilance, "So, what kind of mission are you planning to hand us?"
The Tutor offered a faint smile. "I will tell you the next time I visit. You will also get to meet Sun Changkong then."
"Here we go again," Ji Minghuan muttered, rolling his eyes at the man. "You love doing this every single time. Always keeping me in suspense."
It was like a young couple going out on dates. Every time the boyfriend went to see his girlfriend, he would casually pick up a bouquet from a flower shop. Receiving the flowers would keep the girl happy for quite a while.
Similarly, whenever you visited a child for a chat, leaving them with a curious riddle right before parting ways meant that you could reveal the answer upon your next visit. That way, the child would associate your arrival with overwhelming positive feedback.
Over time, they would start looking forward to your visits more and more. It was far more effective than handing out a piece of candy.
Especially for a child who had been imprisoned for so long.
But Ji Minghuan was no ordinary child. All he wanted was to find an opportunity to use Restraining Band True Words to pry into whatever the Tutor was actually thinking. Did this guy really think he was dealing with an idiot?
Or did all these little actions serve some deeper, hidden purpose?
Whenever Ji Minghuan was bored to death, he would daydream about the day they finally breached the Salvation Society's base. He figured he would just kill the researchers—he did not know them, anyway—but the Tutor was different.
He planned to find a nice place with good feng shui to lock the Tutor up all by himself.
Then, every few days, he would drop by for a chat. He would let the man experience the exact sensation of having nothing but absolute emptiness for company, with ringing silence deafening his ears. He would provoke the man's mind with his words, slowly tearing away that condescending, hypocritical smile.
If the Tutor ever attempted suicide, he would just pump him full of anesthetics, leaving him immobilized on the floor like a pathetic maggot.
And when he finally grew bored of the game, he would drain all the air from the room, leaving the man all alone in the most isolated, oppressive environment to clutch his throat and suffocate to death.
No matter whose name he screamed, there would never be an answer.
It would be like sinking into the dead, lightless depths of the ocean.
Of course, Ji Minghuan also had an excellent backup plan in mind:
Uncle Ghost Bell had been a supervillain for two whole years; he definitely knew how to torture someone far better than Ji Minghuan did. Letting his first character's dad do the honors would not be a bad idea, either. Could that not be considered avenging his son?
Ghost Bell would surely be more than happy to spare a little time for the task.
Ji Minghuan lifted his head, calmly meeting the Tutor's gaze.
The man still wore that unpredictable, utterly obnoxious smile on his face.
The Tutor stared into his eyes and spoke gently. "I know how much you want to see Kong Youling, so I had someone bring her over early. Go on, have a chat with her."
He let out a soft sigh and screwed the lid onto his thermos cup. "I will be taking my leave now. Filio is currently washing up; he will be here to see you in a little while. Play nice, and try not to fight."
"Oh." Ji Minghuan lowered his gaze and tugged at the collar around his neck. "Just to be clear... when we finally leave this place to go out on a mission, we are all going to be wearing these things around our necks, right?"
"That is correct," the Tutor nodded. "To prevent your abilities from spiraling out of control, these collars will help you maintain a stable state, ensuring you do not commit any unforgivable mistakes. Should any extreme situations arise, we might consider using the collars to put you to sleep temporarily before bringing you back."
"Got it," Ji Minghuan drawled, shrugging his shoulders with a look of sheer impatience. "I figured you guys wouldn't let us run completely wild out there anyway."
He paused for a second before adding, "Actually... I think it's fine for the others to wear collars, but it's really unnecessary for me. Haven't these past two months proven that I'm just a complete and utter Muggle?"
The Tutor shook his head. "Quite the opposite. Even if everyone else were allowed to take theirs off, you are the one person who absolutely must wear it."
"So, letting this bunch of monsters out to 'play'... is really just another way to study me, isn't it?"
"Ji Minghuan, we must understand your Supernatural Ability. Otherwise, if we are ever backed into a corner, we might be forced to resort to extreme measures, despite the immense risks involved." The Tutor adjusted his glasses. "...We have no other choice."
Ji Minghuan leaned back against his chair. After a long silence, he offered a disapproving remark.
"I prefer the surname 'Ji'."
"But that is not your real surname."
"I don't care what my real surname is. Since my dad went by the fake surname 'Ji' during the brief four years we spent together, that's the one I'm using."
"True... If you prefer it, I suppose I cannot say otherwise. The girl is here. Goodbye."
With that, the Tutor offered him a parting smile and strode toward the exit of the confinement room.
The heavy, layered metal doors slid open one after another. A white-haired girl stepped into the dazzling light, brushing past the Tutor on her way in.
The Tutor paused outside the doorway, quietly watching the girl step into the room from the corner of his eye.
Meanwhile, Ji Minghuan was sprawled across the table. He buried his head in his arms, letting out soft snores as he pretended to be fast asleep.
Kong Youling sat down on the opposite side of the table. Unable to see his face, she genuinely could not tell whether Ji Minghuan was pretending this time or not.
She blinked, sizing him up for a moment like a little penguin straight from the South Pole. Then, she slowly walked over and poked his shoulder.
"I'm dead," Ji Minghuan mouthed, squeezing his eyes shut and stubbornly refusing to open them. He simply mouthed the silent words: "I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead..."
Kong Youling began writing in her notebook. Hearing the soft scratching of pencil against paper, Ji Minghuan cracked one eye open and peeked at what she had written.
Scribbled on the page was a line of slightly crooked handwriting: "Then I'm dead too."
"Whoa... the two of us are barely elementary school age and we're already planning a double suicide. Even the adults aren't as intense as we are."
"If someone posted this on the internet," Ji Minghuan snickered, "the netizens would call us 'edgy little schoolkids'."
As he spoke, he suddenly snatched Kong Youling's pencil and scribbled in her notebook: Ji Minghuan (Edgy Mode): Preparing to destroy the world.
Kong Youling (Edgy Mode): Preparing to invade the moon alongside the great demon king who destroyed the world. Fly to the moon.
After finishing his masterpiece, Ji Minghuan curled his lips into a smirk, balancing the pencil like a mustache on his upper lip.
Kong Youling reached out for the pencil, but he refused to hand it back, dodging her grasping fingers by swaying his head back and forth.
She stared at him, stunned. Without her pencil, she had no idea how to communicate with him—even though they knew each other extremely well, she was still uncomfortable using lip-reading to communicate.
Ji Minghuan had never played a prank like this before. He had never once made fun of the way she communicated.
Back when they lived at the orphanage, whenever the other children snatched Kong Youling's notebook and pencil away, Ji Minghuan would fiercely snatch them back for her. Like an angry little wolf, he would violently teach those bullies a lesson, glaring at them as he coldly declared:
"You never, ever joke about this!"
She stared blankly at the pencil balanced under Ji Minghuan's nose and tilted her head, her pale white hair swaying gently.
She simply could not fathom what this self-proclaimed 'edgy little schoolkid' was trying to accomplish.
But in the very next second, Ji Minghuan suddenly raised both hands and gestured in sign language:
"Have you eaten?"
As the boy signed the words, he lifted his head and flashed her a sly, puppy-like grin, his bright eyes shimmering as though ripples of water were swirling within them.
Kong Youling watched him in utter disbelief. It took her a moment to process what was happening—he wasn't trying to bully her at all.
She thought for a second before signing back, "When did you learn sign language?"
Ji Minghuan curled his lips into a proud smirk. Averting his gaze, he casually signed back:
"Back at the orphanage, I secretly read a few books and taught myself. I figured you didn't like using sign language with other people, so I never bothered using it. I just remembered it recently since I've been so incredibly bored in here."
He was lying.
The truth was, while hanging out at the cafe with nothing better to do, he had happened to spot a beginner's guide to sign language on the bookshelf. He had controlled Xia Pingzhou to grab the book and spent an entire afternoon reading it. Ayase Origami had been sitting right next to him reading a collection of haikus, her posture looking exactly like she was supervising a little kitten as it read.
Kong Youling fell silent for a moment before silently mouthing:
"I hate being a burden to people. That's why I didn't want anyone learning sign language just for me."
"Am I just 'anyone' to you?" Ji Minghuan blinked, caught off guard.
Kong Youling shook her head.
"Well, that's fine, then," Ji Minghuan said lightly, pressing the pencil back into her hands.
He paused in thought before asking, "Does it bother you that we can't use our abilities in here? If we could use them, communicating wouldn't be such a hassle..." As he spoke, his eyes dropped to the metal collar tightly secured around Kong Youling's neck.
The white-haired girl hung her head, thinking seriously about the question. Suddenly, she reached out and took Ji Minghuan's right hand.
She slowly unfurled his fingers and used her own to trace lines across his palm, carefully writing out her response:
"It is... a shame."
Ji Minghuan raised an eyebrow, captivated by the soft tickle against his palm. "A shame? What's there to be a shame about?"
The white-haired girl's finger paused for a moment before she resumed tracing letters on his skin:
"Without my abilities... I can't hear your voice anymore."
Ji Minghuan froze.
He lowered his head, plunging into a long, heavy silence. It wasn't until this very moment that he finally understood. The supernatural abilities that everyone else in the world would kill to possess held only one true purpose for this girl...
...They allowed her to hear his voice.
Suddenly, Ji Minghuan recalled a memory from back when they used to sit in the loft together. He had looked at her with total seriousness and told her:
"Kong Youling, you and I aren't the same. You have powers. That means you'll get to live in a big house someday. Someone will come and adopt you from the orphanage, and you'll get to live an amazing, happy life."
But her entire world was so incredibly small. It consisted of him, and him alone. Her world was completely silent, entirely devoid of sound.
Even the simple act of hearing a voice was an unimaginable luxury to her.
For a silly little girl like her, it wouldn't matter if you gave her a hundred different supernatural abilities...
Because she could never even begin to imagine how she was supposed to trade those abilities for some 'amazing, happy life'.
Kong Youling kept her head down, continuing to trace letters across Ji Minghuan's palm with slow, deliberate strokes. "Sometimes I wish I wasn't deaf... I just know your voice must sound wonderful."
Ji Minghuan silently watched her cold finger dance across his palm.
After a moment, his lips trembled as he spoke in a soft whisper.
"Stop it. I told you already... I hate it when things get all depressing and gloomy," he mumbled, his eyes growing red around the edges. "You're going to make me cry... How embarrassing is that?"
Just as the words left his mouth, the heavy metal door rumbled open. Filio had arrived.
Like he had just been electrocuted, Ji Minghuan instantly jumped in his seat.
He aggressively sniffled, his hands flying to his face like a pair of electric drills to fiercely wipe away the tears and snot, as though he could physically shove them back into his body.
He immediately sat up straight. Sporting red, puffy eyes, he snapped his head toward Filio, pointed straight at the boy's wolf ears, and then quickly lowered his hand to point at the furry tail dragging against the floor.
"Ah! It's a b-b-b-b... big," Ji Minghuan loudly sniffled halfway through his sentence, "b-b-big puppy!"
Suddenly, his expression turned deadly cold. Shooting the half-demon a glare worthy of an assassin, he threatened, "You go back and tell the Tutor that if word gets out about me crying, I will literally hang myself. And if I fail to kill myself, this edgy little schoolkid is going to destroy the world."
Filio froze in his tracks. His wolf ears twitched upward, invisible question marks floating all around his tiny head.
Ji Minghuan, 12 years old. His reason for wanting to destroy the world: ensuring there were no witnesses left alive.