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Chapter 48
Chapter 48
[Your card has been upgraded, please check.]
[Flower Speaker★★☆]
[A seemingly ordinary flower shop owner]
[Unfortunate one, I hear your heart’s voice and come]
[What is your wish?]
[Click to expand details and view card skills.]
- Listen to Flower Language lv3
Description: Every flower will become your eyes and ears. You see the whole world through them.
Note: All things have spirits, and flowers have hearts. From the moment they sprout, they record this world in their own way, turning themselves into unique journals.
You have a special way of communicating with flowers. When in close contact, each flower will open up everything to you. For every seed you cultivate yourself, even without close contact, you can automatically sense everything they experience after leaving the flower shop.
- Wish Messenger lv5
[This probability is directly proportional to the skill level, the depth of misfortune, and the urgency of realizing the wish. Meanwhile, wishes beyond the skill level cannot be realized temporarily.]
Note: Wish power/Faith power is the core of your ability, a type of energy only you can use.
This is a seemingly unequal exchange. Others offer you sincere wish power/faith power, you extract part of it to strengthen yourself, and use another part to fulfill their wishes.
- Voice of Faith lv5
Description: You can hear the voice of faith, receiving faith power from believers, regardless of when and where they are.
On this great web woven by faith, countless believers prostrate below, while you are at the pinnacle of everything. If you wish, you can consume faith power to convey divine will to them.
Note: Gods are born from mortal faith, shaped into gods by belief. When everyone believes you can fulfill their wishes, you naturally become able to do so. When everyone believes you are a god, you become a God.
In mid-air, the golden card slowly radiated light.
In the invisible interdimensional flower shop, the young man in the sea of flowers leaned back relaxedly in a wicker chair. He folded his hands on his knees and smiled as he opened his eyes.
At this moment, his consciousness kept rising, rising, as if ascending to a height ordinary people could hardly reach. Threads of consciousness, some deep and some shallow, connected with him from extreme distances, emitting soul radiances of varying brightness.
Some were warm and pure white, some were scorching and deep red, some were icy and pitch black… but without exception, what they conveyed to him was pure and devout belief! The most fanatical ones even seemed to be burning in his perception!
He also felt that if he wished, he could transmit his thoughts to any of these consciousness threads. Just like a god issuing divine decrees to their believers.
“Voice of Faith…” He murmured this skill name again, his gaze full of curiosity, “Is this the invisible web woven by faith power?”
Then, Bai Yi drew a conclusion.
“If listening to the Voice of Faith counts as a god’s skill, then I, who was born with the ability to hear the rhythm of all things, haven’t I already stepped into the threshold of divinity?”
Saying this, Bai Yi’s own consciousness, for the first time, no longer tried to suppress his spiritual fluctuations, but instead actively and unscrupulously spread outward, like a signal tower constantly receiving external signals.
Two-story apartment, old town district, Yuanyang City, Yao Country… neighbors next door, passersby a street away, visitors outside the community, a drunk who just woke up in a bar in the new district far away, and even tourists at the airport about to fly to another province… from near to far, countless chaotic and noisy voices rushed towards Bai Yi all at once.
At this moment, his head felt like it was about to explode.
[– Web of Thoughts!]
The next instant, an invisible network spread out. The signal tower that originally only received signals suddenly gained the ability to broadcast outward.
The thought channel between Bai Yi and the multitude of people in this world changed from a one-way channel to a two-way channel.
All the sludge and garbage pouring into his mind flowed back through the channel.
At this moment, the world presented before Bai Yi’s eyes was countless densely packed small dots.
The spiritual fluctuations constantly escaping outward made these small dots unpredictable, which was also the state of most ordinary people.
Only a very small number of people were at two extremes. Either pure and calm, with little fluctuation, or chaotic and turbid, constantly emitting the stench of garbage.
Bai Yi marked them as dots of different colors to distinguish them, and soon spread them out on this web of thoughts.
He not only marked them in his mind, but also opened his laptop and immediately created a small program to record it.
He ignored those ordinary people and only recorded the two types of people at the extremes. Dots representing these people in different colors appeared in different areas on the map.
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— To the uninformed, at first glance, it might look like some online game map, marking friendly and enemy factions.
“Oh my, there are quite a lot of them. It looks like there will be new targets on the Puppet Master’s log,” Bai Yi said, propping his chin with some distress. “There’s too much garbage to clean up, one person can’t handle it all. Perhaps I should have expanded the scale of the Shadow Council earlier to recruit some tools?”
Speaking of this, he immediately thought of a prime candidate for a tool. That was the most special business since the flower shop opened! Perhaps now was the opportunity to fulfill that wish?
Through the flower seed given out back then, with the [Flower Speaker]’s ability to listen to flower language, it was effortless to sense that person’s movements over this period of time.
— You just want to meet the Puppet Master? Let’s arrange it!
— I’ll find myself to fulfill your dream, there’s nothing wrong with that.
— It can successfully recruit a tool person to share the Puppet Master’s work, and also indirectly fulfill the other party’s wish, not ruining the flower shop’s reputation, but making it even more famous!
Excited about his brilliant idea, Bai Yi immediately picked up a pen and began writing in the Puppet Master’s diary.
[Tian Yin, as a one-time tool used by the Puppet Master while cleaning up some trash, the Puppet Master completed a non-existent murder by remotely controlling her actions. And she, in turn, framed and eliminated her enemy.]
[Everything ended perfectly, with the Puppet Master hidden behind the curtain of shadows from beginning to end. These two conspirators should have had no further contact, like ships passing in the night.]
[But the one-time tool person seemingly didn’t think so.]
[Having finally vented her long-suppressed hatred, she was able to step out of her twisted, repressed world and return to a normal one. But her heart couldn’t return to its former simplicity and purity. Instead, she fell into greater confusion and emptiness, losing her purpose in life.]
[She fanatically worshipped the person who had single-handedly changed her fate. She wanted to thank them in person, hoping to change from a one-time tool to a permanent one. She wanted to…become someone like them! Although she didn’t know if that person was male or female, good or evil.]
[For this, she made a wish to another mysterious entity.]
[Although she only received a mysterious flower seed, her desire to achieve her goal undoubtedly became stronger. The encouragement from the mysterious entity gave her the courage to take action.]
[She inquired about that person’s news in various ways.]
[She even found like-minded individuals online and formed an immature secret society.]
[She began to pay close attention to everyone and everything around her, trying to find potential targets. Just like how that person had discovered her, found her, and helped her.]
[She has made ample preparations…]
[And now, it’s the 90th day after making the wish.]
[– The Puppet Master in the shadows finally turned their gaze towards her.]
The thick hardcover notebook fell to the ground with a thud, along with more than ten books of varying thickness. A pile of books crashed down, scattering dust everywhere.
“Ah, sorry.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
The two people who bumped into each other were stunned for a moment before reacting, apologizing in unison, and then simultaneously crouching down to pick up their respective books from the ground.
The tree-lined path at Imperial Capital University was clean and spacious. Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the lush foliage, falling on the faces of this young man and woman, creating patches of light and shadow.
This was a small path leading from the library to the dormitories, always quiet. In the nearly one month since starting school, Tian Yin would walk this path back and forth several times every weekend, usually returning to the dormitory as night fell.
Today, she was unusually early in returning to the dormitory, but unexpectedly bumped into someone.
She felt a little frustrated, but this frustration couldn’t cover her excitement.
Because today, the sunflower she had planted and waited for so long had finally bloomed! It was as if an unattainable goal had finally shown a glimmer of hope.
Upon receiving a call from her roommate, she hastily packed up her things and rushed back, not minding today’s reading assignment.
Perhaps it was because of her haste that she bumped into someone, which made Tian Yin even more embarrassed.
As she picked up her books one by one back into her arms, she apologized to the other person again. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I was too happy today and forgot to watch where I was going…”
“It’s alright, I’m a bit excited today too,” the other person said, standing up with his neatly arranged books, his voice clear and gentle. “I just received an interview invitation I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. It’s really a pleasant surprise!”
Only after the young man stood up did Tian Yin notice something was a bit off about him.
He was tall and slender, with a handsome face that lacked any aggression. His legs didn’t appear to be obviously uneven, but after standing up, he seemed to have a slight limp.
But the expression on his face was very composed.
The words Tian Yin was about to say got stuck in her throat.
She suddenly felt that saying anything wouldn’t be appropriate, so she simply smiled and congratulated him. “Then I wish you success in getting accepted, senior!”
“Thank you! Congratulations to you too!” This unfamiliar senior accepted her blessing with a smile. “It seems you’ll have something good happen today as well!”
After exchanging these few words, they went their separate ways.
Tian Yin was still thinking about the sunflower she was growing in her dorm room, so she quickened her pace and hurried into the dormitory building. But she couldn’t help thinking about that senior she had just met.
It wasn’t that she had developed any romantic notions about him, but subconsciously, she had a strange feeling of familiarity, as if she had heard about this person before.
Just as she reached the door of her dorm room and pushed it open, Tian Yin’s vague memory suddenly became clear.
“– I remember now!” She was quite excited. “I heard senior students mention this person when we first entered school!”
[In high school, he was stabbed dozens of times by some delinquents, struggled back from the brink of death, and after being left with a limp in one leg, he worked hard to repeat a year and got into Imperial Capital University’s Law School with the third highest score in the country! He seems to be from the same place as you, Yuanyang City!]
Once she had this trigger, all the things that senior had said back then flooded back into her mind.
Then, there were certain rumors about the rainy night serial killer case. Even now, thinking back, it was still very clear…
[That murdered minor? He wasn’t a good person, a juvenile offender who had just gotten out. He stabbed a classmate dozens of times out of jealousy, nearly killed him. Luckily the victim escaped death, but I heard he was left with a limp in one leg… For someone like that, his death doesn’t deserve any sympathy. I even think it’s good that he was killed!]
As the memories and clues connected, Tian Yin felt as if she had suddenly broken through a fog before her eyes, having an epiphany. She still remembered the thoughts that genuinely arose in her heart when she heard about these things.
“How admirable, this guy!”
“What this guy, what that guy, don’t tell me you’ve taken a fancy to some handsome senior, Tian Tian?” A girl’s joking voice broke Tian Yin’s train of thought.
In the dorm room, a girl who had been lying on the bed playing a game heard the door being pushed open. She put down her phone and jumped off the bed, poking her head out to look at Tian Yin standing at the door.
“– Look, your flower is on the balcony!”
She pointed at the flower pot on the balcony, exclaiming with an exaggerated tone. “Earlier you insisted on telling us to let you know immediately if anyone saw the flower bloom, I thought you were making a big deal out of nothing, that you’d gone crazy about flowers!” At this point, her tone became even more exaggerated, “…I never expected your flower to be truly magical!”
“Just half an hour ago it was still sulking in the soil, but just now, in the time it took me to finish one game, I looked up and, wow, what’s this patch of golden yellow? I was completely stunned, it’s like it launched a surprise attack on me!”
Tian Yin automatically tuned out her roommate’s lively voice, which sounded like a comedy skit. Her gaze was intensely focused on the golden flower pot on the balcony.
It was as if it wasn’t just an ordinary sunflower, but some magical plant with mysterious powers.
Tian Yin dumped the pile of books in her arms onto the desk and was about to go look at the flower when a light piece of paper fell out from among the books. She instinctively reached out to catch it.
It was a palm-sized folded card. It looked somewhat like the birthday cards that were popular ten years ago.
[Interview Invitation]
On the snow-white paper, several large black characters were neatly written.
Each character seemed to be rendered with shadows, giving a blurry and distorted illusion upon closer inspection.
“Is this… that senior’s thing?” Tian Yin suddenly realized, pushing the illusion to the back of her mind. “I need to return it to him quickly, so it doesn’t delay today’s interview!”
However, she didn’t know his class or contact information, and even his name hadn’t been mentioned in the news or in that senior student’s chat.
But might the interview invitation mention it?
Thinking this, Tian Yin had no choice but to open the folded invitation. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry into your privacy…”
Upon opening the invitation, Tian Yin discovered that this interview invitation didn’t conform to the normal format at all, containing only a few short sentences.
Line after line of black text, though perfectly neat, appeared strangely twisted and eerie to her eyes. The few short sentences were like a strange little poem.
[Only greater evil can punish evil.]
[What devours darkness is not light, but shadow.]
[I await you in the reflection of dawn.]
After these cryptic sentences, the line that appeared below made Tian Yin’s heart skip a beat in shock!
It clearly stated —
Invitee: Tian Yin
Interview Position: Shadow Middleman [Intern Temporary Worker]
Recommender’s Message: When the heart is sick, cut out the lesion. You have the quality to heal more people.
Tian Yin’s heart pounded.
At this moment, she didn’t even have time to wonder why this invitation was for her, what role that senior played in this, whether he knew about it or not… She only knew that the doctor she had been searching for so long had finally appeared!
Her gaze was fixed on the recommender’s message column, and she couldn’t help but recall the conversation when the doctor first approached her–
[Father is sick, this world is sick, and I’m sick too. Doctor, you say you’re a doctor. So I ask you, when the body is sick it can be treated, but what to do when the heart is sick?]
[It’s simple, cut out the lesion,] that person answered this way. [The source of your illness is the lesion that needs to be cut out.]
Then, she cut out her foster father. Indeed, the world returned to normal, and her heart recovered too.
The corners of Tian Yin’s lips slowly curved upward. She tightly gripped the invitation, murmuring, “Doctor, is this your invitation? Do I also have the chance… to become another doctor?”
At the bottom of the invitation was another line of black text.
[Tearing up the invitation means accepting it.]
[Please make your decision within 24 hours. After accepting the invitation, completing the internship task means passing the interview.]
[The task content will appear in any form within 24 hours. Please stay alert.]
[No response within 24 hours will be considered as rejection.]
“How could I possibly reject? This day, I’ve been looking forward to it for so long, so very long!”
Without hesitation, Tian Yin raised her hand and tore the invitation. As the paper was torn in half, the black text on it quickly disappeared, fading like shadows and merging into a greater shadow.
As if finally resolving a concern, Tian Yin now had the mind to think about the matter she had temporarily ignored earlier.
That is…
Did that senior know about this invitation?
Could it be… that he was also someone who received a similar invitation?
Or even, had that senior already become a “Shadow Middleman” before her, and this invitation was delivered by him?
The 24 hours seemed so long, Tian Yin couldn’t wait. She managed to find a senior student she knew before and finally learned the general situation of that senior.
“Song Chi? Third year in the Law Department?”
Tian Yin went to look for him based on the information from the senior student, but couldn’t find Song Chi. His roommate, surprised to see a junior female student coming to their door, casually said, “You’re too late, junior. Old Song left school this afternoon. He has an interview with a company tomorrow morning, it’s a bit far so he went to stay at a hotel there in advance.”
“Do you know which company it is?”
“Ah, I don’t know that! It’s surely a big company, related to his major. With Old Song’s abilities, it should be a piece of cake!”
Tian Yin thanked him and left, lost in thought.
“Could it… really just be a coincidence?”
She was unsure, when suddenly her phone vibrated in her pocket.
Tian Yin took out her phone and found she had received a text message from an unknown number.
[Internship task: Shadow Middleman, hide within the shadows, act when the time is right, and remain unknown. For the first part of the task, please arrive at North Island Park tomorrow at 7 PM.]
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