A bone-chilling coldness, like a tide, assaulted him from all directions, allowing Chu Tianyi's muddled consciousness to struggle upwards from a boundless darkness.
He snapped his eyes open and coughed violently a few times. The pungent smell of disinfectant mixed with a strong odor of smoke choked him, bringing tears to his eyes.
What met his sight was the cold, stark white ceiling of Feichi Group's infirmary, and a few blurry, unfamiliar faces wearing masks.
"He's awake, he's awake! The kid's finally awake!" a slightly shrill voice exclaimed.
Chu Tianyi shook his still groggy head, only then realizing he was lying on the narrow single bed in the company's infirmary. The back of his hand still seemed to throb with a dull ache from where someone had pinched it.
What happened?
He tried hard to recall: Wang Hai's face, contorted with anger; Lin Qiqi's beautiful eyes, reddened from grievance; and… and those countless, chaotic "voices" and "images" that had surged into his mind like a tsunami!
"Young man, how are you feeling? Are you uncomfortable anywhere?" A female school doctor, wearing a white coat and gold-rimmed glasses, looking quite refined, was shining a small flashlight into his pupils and asking softly. Her voice was gentle, but Chu Tianyi subconsciously wanted to avoid her gaze, afraid of "hearing" something he shouldn't again.
"I… I'm fine…" Chu Tianyi's voice was as hoarse as if it had been sanded down. "I… how did I end up here?"
"It was Miss Lin Qiqi from your department who sent you here," the school doctor said with a smile, putting away her flashlight. "She said you suddenly fainted in the office, and your face looked terrible. We did a preliminary check; it might be a temporary syncope caused by low blood sugar combined with excessive emotional agitation. However, to be on the safe side, we still recommend you go to a major hospital for a detailed examination."
Lin Qiqi? She brought me here?
An indescribably complex warmth involuntarily surged through Chu Tianyi's heart. He remembered that in the last moment before his consciousness completely blurred, he had indeed seen a pair of anxious and worried, beautiful eyes…
Just then, the infirmary door was gently pushed open, and a slender, familiar figure walked in cautiously, carrying a cup of steaming brown sugar water.
It was Lin Qiqi.
At this moment, her pretty face still carried a trace of lingering worry and pallor. Her large, watery eyes visibly brightened when she saw Chu Tianyi wake up, a flash of relieved joy passing through them, but it was soon replaced by an inexplicable embarrassment and shyness. Today, she was wearing a light pink knitted cardigan, which further accentuated her snow-white skin. The full, soft curves of her chest were outlined in a breathtaking arc, rising and falling gently with her breath, exuding a unique, heart-stirring fragrance and vitality characteristic of a young girl.
"Chu Tianyi, you're awake? Feeling any better?" Lin Qiqi handed the brown sugar water to Chu Tianyi, her voice as soft as a feather. "The school doctor said you might have low blood sugar; drinking something warm will make you feel more comfortable."
Chu Tianyi struggled to sit up, but he couldn't muster any strength in his body. His head, from the earlier recollection, once again throbbed with that familiar, splitting pain.
"Don't move!" Lin Qiqi, seeing this, quickly put down the cup and reached out her small, soft hands, gently pressing his shoulder to stop him from getting up. Her fingertips accidentally brushed against Chu Tianyi's neck. The delicate, warm touch sent a slight shiver through Chu Tianyi's body, like an electric shock, and an unusual tingling numbness instantly spread throughout him.
Lin Qiqi also seemed to realize the impropriety. Her pretty face flushed crimson in an instant, like a ripe apple. She quickly retracted her hand as if struck by lightning and stood there somewhat awkwardly, her head bowed, not daring to look at Chu Tianyi again.
An awkward and ambiguous atmosphere quietly permeated the small infirmary.
Just then, Lin Qiqi's clear and genuine inner thoughts, tinged with a young girl's characteristic shyness and bewilderment, uncontrollably surfaced in Chu Tianyi's mind again:
"[Oh dear, I just… I just touched him… His skin… it's so hot… Will he think I'm being frivolous? It's all my fault for being too nervous… He looks so weak, his face is so pale, his lips have no color at all… He's so pitiful… That big villain Wang Hai, is he really trying to push someone to their death? Chu Tianyi… he actually… he's not bad looking at all, it's just that he usually doesn't dress up and always wears such… shabby clothes… If he could tidy himself up a bit and be more confident, maybe… maybe many girls would like him too… Bah, bah, bah! Lin Qiqi, what nonsense are you thinking! He's already in such a miserable state, and you're here…]"
These thoughts, like the sweetest poison, made Chu Tianyi feel waves of dizziness and headache, yet an inexplicable secret joy and… a flutter of emotion uncontrollably surged in his heart.
So, her feelings for him weren't just simple sympathy…
This discovery caused Chu Tianyi's heart, long grown cold and numb from Wang Hai's suppression, to feel, for the first time, a ripple tinged with sweetness, different from despair.
"Thank you, Qiqi," Chu Tianyi said hoarsely, forcing himself to endure the severe pain in his head and the strange feeling in his heart. "I… I'm much better."
"That's good." Lin Qiqi seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as well. She looked up, her large, watery eyes shimmering with sincere concern. "The school doctor said you should still go to the hospital to get checked, you…"
"No need," Chu Tianyi shook his head. "I'm just… I've been under too much stress lately, haven't rested well. It's nothing serious." He didn't want to go to the hospital; he didn't even have the money for a registration fee right now. Moreover, he didn't want anyone to know about these bizarre changes happening to his body and mind.
Lin Qiqi wanted to say more, but seeing Chu Tianyi's weak yet exceptionally firm gaze, she eventually swallowed the words on the tip of her tongue and merely said softly, "Then… then you must rest well. As for Team Leader Wang… don't take it too much to heart, he's just that kind of person…"
Chu Tianyi didn't speak, just nodded silently.
After lying in the infirmary for about another half hour, the intense pain that felt like it was tearing his head apart finally subsided somewhat. Although he still felt groggy, he had at least regained some ability to move. Ignoring the advice of the school doctor and Lin Qiqi, he insisted on leaving the infirmary.
All he wanted now was to return to his small, rented room—a place that, despite its size, at least offered him a sliver of security—and properly sort out everything that had happened, everything so bizarre.
Dragging his exhausted body, Chu Tianyi returned to the Huangnigang urban village like a walking corpse. Pushing open the creaking wooden door, the room still had that familiar air, a mixture of damp mustiness and the smell of cheap instant noodles.
He threw himself heavily onto the single bed, which was as hard as a rock. With bloodshot eyes, he stared at the ugly yellow water stain on the ceiling, his mind replaying the events in the office that afternoon and the strange, real "inner voices" he had perceived in the infirmary just now.
Wang Hai's venomous curses and filthy fantasies… Zhao Yuhang's jealous and malicious calculations… The true faces of those colleagues, whether indifferent, selfish, or gloating… And, Lin Qiqi's inner world, pure and beautiful like a clear spring, filled with worry and a trace of… an indescribable sentiment…
All of this was like the deepest brand, seared fiercely into the depths of his soul.
"This… what on earth is this?" Chu Tianyi raised a slightly trembling hand to touch his still faintly aching temples, muttering to himself, "Could it be… that I can really hear what other people are thinking?"
Mind reading?
This ethereal term, once found only in lowbrow web novels and third-rate movies, exploded in his mind like a bolt from the blue!
He abruptly sat up from the bed, his heart pounding violently and uncontrollably at this bold and absurd conjecture!
He hadn't doubted whether he was having a mental breakdown due to excessive stress, or simply experiencing severe hallucinations due to low blood sugar. However, Auntie Li from Administration's vague yet real complaining thoughts in the fire escape, and just now in the infirmary, Lin Qiqi's crystal-clear inner monologue, which perfectly matched her outward words and actions, all continuously and irrefutably confirmed this almost miraculous possibility!
If this truly was mind reading… wouldn't that mean that he, Chu Tianyi, from now on, could see through everyone's hypocritical masks, perceive the deepest secrets and desires in everyone's hearts, like a god?
This thought sent a shiver of excitement, like an electric current, coursing through his limbs, a sensation he found hard to suppress!
But then, a deeper fear and confusion, like an icy tide, instantly submerged him.
He forced himself to calm down from that almost frenzied fantasy, trying to recall the specific sensations each time he "heard" those inner voices.
It seemed… that the greater the other person's emotional fluctuation, or the more intense and focused their inner thoughts, the clearer and more complete the "inner voice" he perceived. For example, Wang Hai's extreme anger and smugness at the time, Zhao Yuhang's undisguised jealousy and malice, and Lin Qiqi's pure emotions filled with worry and anxiety, were all imprinted in his mind like a high-definition movie narration.
Whereas mundane, inconsequential complaints like Auntie Li's from Administration, or the fleeting, shallow thoughts of passersby, seemed relatively vague, fragmented, and even somewhat difficult to capture.
Moreover, distance also seemed to be a very important influencing factor. In the office, his perception of Wang Hai and Zhao Yuhang, who were close by, was the strongest. In the fire escape, separated by a thick fire door, his perception of Auntie Li was significantly weakened, requiring him to concentrate more mental effort to barely catch some fragments.
The most crucial, and also the most fatal point—the cost!
Every time he actively tried to "listen," or passively received the overwhelming influx of "inner voices" filled with strong emotions, it would bring him that unbearable, splitting headache, as if his entire head was about to be torn apart, along with a soul-deep mental exhaustion, as if his very spirit was being hollowed out!
Just like a moment ago in the infirmary, he had only slightly focused his mind to "perceive" Lin Qiqi's inner thoughts, and now he could feel his temples beginning to throb faintly again.
This was definitely not an ability that could be used at will, without restraint! It was more like an incredibly sharp, yet extremely dangerous demonic sword; every time it was unsheathed, while harming the enemy, it would inevitably cause a backlash to himself!
To further verify his conjecture about the toll of this ability, Chu Tianyi took a deep breath. Forcing himself to endure the throbbing pain in his head, which felt like countless steel needles pricking him simultaneously, he carefully focused his attention on the wall of the adjacent room, a wall as thin as a cicada's wing and offering almost no sound insulation.
The young couple, who viewed each other as enemies yet were forced to live together for some reason, still resided next door. At this moment, a suppressed, tearful female voice and a man's impatient growl could be faintly heard from the next room.
Chu Tianyi closed his eyes, held his breath, and painstakingly extended his weak mental energy, like the finest spider silk, slowly and tentatively towards the source of the sound next door.
At first, it was the familiar sensation of confusion and pressure that made his head swell and his vision darken. But gradually, perhaps because his mental energy had recovered slightly compared to yesterday, or perhaps because he had gained a slightly better grasp of this "perception" method, two relatively clear thoughts, filled with anger, grievance, despair, and a trace of… pathological dependence, began to intertwine and surface in his mind.
The man's thoughts were irritable and full of a desire for control: "[Damn woman, all you know is how to cry, cry, cry! I work my ass off entertaining clients, drinking and smiling, isn't it all for this family? All you damn do is suspect me of having other women outside! If you dare shout at me again or check my phone, believe it or not, I'll break your legs today! Damn it, if it weren't for you still being somewhat good-looking and having a decent figure, I would have divorced you long ago!]"
The woman's thoughts were filled with desperate accusations and a chilling self-deception: "[Hit me! Go on, hit me to death if you have the guts! There's no meaning in my life anyway! I was truly blind to marry a beast like you who only thinks with his lower body! You fool around with those vixens outside, then come home and act all high and mighty with me! If it weren't for the child, I wouldn't want to see your disgusting face for a single day! But… but if I leave you, where can I go? I don't know how to do anything… Boohoo… As long as you… as long as you hit me less often in the future, and give me a little more housekeeping money, I… I'll listen to whatever you say…]"
These thoughts were more direct, more explicit, and also more… bone-chilling than the quarrels they had, which were deliberately kept low yet still full of tension, that passed through the wall! They starkly revealed the ugly truth behind a seemingly ordinary marital relationship—a truth already rotten to the core, filled with violence, control, despair, and pathological dependence!
"It's true… It really is true… And… it's even more terrifying than I imagined…" Chu Tianyi abruptly opened his eyes, a layer of cold sweat uncontrollably beading on his forehead. At the same time, that familiar, soul-tearing, intense pain, like the fiercest wild beast, arrived as expected, viciously seizing his nerves, causing him to let out a suppressed groan. His body swayed uncontrollably, and he almost fell straight off the edge of the bed.
He quickly, as if fleeing a plague, forcibly cut off that state of "perception." His body collapsed backward in exhaustion, heavily hitting the hard bed-board. He gasped for breath, cold sweat completely drenching the hair on his forehead, making it stick to his skin in messy strands.
He was now one hundred percent certain: he truly possessed some extremely bizarre, extremely powerful, and also extremely dangerous mysterious ability, akin to "mind reading"! A forbidden power that could allow him to see through all the light and darkness in the depths of a person's heart, but also one that could, at any moment, drag him to the brink of a mental collapse from which there was no return!
Excitement? Fear? Confusion? Or perhaps… a hope, like a wildly and tenaciously growing weed, quietly sprouting from the ruins of despair?
Chu Tianyi's current mood was so complex that even he himself couldn't accurately describe it.
He possessed a heaven-defying superpower that countless people, even gods and demons, dreamed of. Yet, this ability had emerged at the darkest moment of his life—when he was at his most wretched, most desperate, with not a sliver of light in sight.
He had been fired. And in the most vicious, unforgiving way, publicly dismissed by Wang Hai, who had even threatened to use means to ruin his future.
This cruel reality, like a basin of ice water mixed with ice shards taken directly from the Siberian tundra, instantly extinguished the tiny, impractical flame of fantasy that had just risen in his heart due to the discovery of his mysterious ability.
So what if he could read minds? Could he read whether Wang Hai would truly keep his "promise" and make him pack up and leave tomorrow? (He already knew Wang Hai's true inner thoughts, but what could he do about it? He had no room to resist!) Could he read whether his landlady, Liu Guifang, would really throw all his belongings onto the street if he still couldn't pay the rent the day after tomorrow? Could he read what those high-and-mighty interviewers were really thinking, so as to secure a new job that could barely provide for him on the bleak path of job hunting that lay ahead?
Perhaps… he could?
An extremely bold thought, even tinged with a desperate, all-or-nothing madness, like a dazzling bolt of lightning suddenly streaking across the dark night sky, unexpectedly illuminated his thoughts, which had become somewhat chaotic and numb from pain and despair.
If… if he could master this ability more skillfully, if he could find a way to reduce or even avoid that terrifying cost, then, wouldn't he be able to seize the absolute initiative in future interactions with people? Wouldn't he be able to easily see through everyone's lies, conspiracies, and calculations? Wouldn't he be able to… like a true hunter, play those who had once been high and mighty and bullied him wantonly in the palm of his hand, and then, completely change his own卑微 (humble) and desperate fate, like that of an ant?
This thought made Chu Tianyi's body, already somewhat cold from excessive blood loss, tremble uncontrollably. For the first time, a complex light, tinged with strong ambition and unwillingness, different from despair and fear, flashed in his eyes.
The cost was unbearable headaches, was bone-deep mental fatigue. But if it could be exchanged for a chance to regain control of his own life, if it could be exchanged for a chance to狠狠 (fiercely) trample underfoot those scoundrels who had once lorded over him, what was this bit of cost?
Chu Tianyi lay back exhaustedly on the cold, hard single bed. His head still throbbed faintly from overusing that mysterious ability, as if countless tiny steel needles were constantly pricking it. Outside, the unique clamor of the Huangnigang urban village, full of the breath of life, once again enveloped him like a tide.
But at this moment, Chu Tianyi felt that his life seemed to have reached an extremely small, yet crucial fulcrum… one sufficient to leverage his entire future.
He didn't know where this sudden fulcrum would lead him—to an even deeper, bottomless abyss, or… to those nine heavens beyond, which he once felt too extravagant to even gaze upon?
But at least, from this moment on, he, Chu Tianyi, would no longer be that pitiful ant, helpless and at the mercy of others.
Tonight, for Chu Tianyi, was destined to be a sleepless night. He had too many things to think about, too many mysteries to unravel, too much of a future to plan. And all of it began with that name gradually crystallizing in his mind—
Mind Reading.
No, perhaps, it deserved a more fitting, and more… domineering name.