Zhao Xiaokui used her school bag as a pillow, both hands behind her head, sleeping so carefree.
The legs, which the oversized school uniform pants couldn’t conceal, were crossed, and the toes swayed leisurely.
This is Zhao Xiaokui before the age of eighteen.
She has not yet experienced those hardships, never endured the daily torment of five years, nor has she ever chosen to give up life on the brink of despair.
Her biggest daily annoyances are nothing more than homework making her hands ache and deciding what to eat for the next meal.
Shen Zhifei reached out and took off a ginkgo leaf covering her eyes.
Zhao Xiaokui opened her eyes and looked at the stranger who suddenly appeared here in surprise, “Hello?”
Falling.
At the moment when Shen Zhifei, the same eighteen-year-old, locked eyes with Zhao Xiaokui, she felt her body falling downward.
During the fall, she saw the most brilliant brilliance of this life.
Countless scenes intertwined, and she could only recognize a few images of Zhao Xiaokui at different ages.
Then control of her body returned to her.
Her lips were still close to Zhao Xiaokui’s, and their foreheads were pressed together.
She opened her eyes, meeting Zhao Xiaokui’s slowly opening eyes.
Zhao Xiaokui smiled, “I told you kisses work, see, I’m not in pain anymore.”
Even though she was weak after an ordeal, her triumphant look was still adorable.
Shen Zhifei wanted to laugh a little, but she suppressed the upward curve of her mouth.
Under her oppressive gaze, Zhao Xiaokui’s smile gradually faded, and her expression became more cautious.
“Shen Zhifei? Zhi Fei, Fei Fei?”
Shen Zhifei: “Realize your mistake?”
Zhao Xiaokui pretended to be confused, “What are you talking about? I don’t understand.”
In her heart, a bad premonition emerged.
Shen Zhifei couldn’t possibly know, right?
Shen Zhifei felt helpless. “Xiaokui, you’re already strong enough. This world isn’t that dangerous. I can protect myself. What happened was really just an accident.”
She didn’t explicitly say it, but the implication was clear, and Zhao Xiaokui understood.
She knew what she had done.
Zhao Xiaokui sniffled, suddenly feeling a bit wronged. “Do you dislike me?”
“I like you more than enough. How could I possibly dislike you? But you never told me before that when you devour a soul, it also devours memories.”
Zhao Xiaokui’s eyes darted around, extremely guilty. “Ah… Did I not mention it before? Did I really not say it?”
Shen Zhifei remembered very clearly, her expression serious. “No.”
“I didn’t know before either.” Zhao Xiaokui tried to widen her eyes, looking at Shen Zhifei, hoping she could sense her sincerity from these pure and innocent eyes.
However, Shen Zhifei just sternly stared at her with an “I do not agree” expression.
The coquettish strategy didn’t work, so Zhao Xiaokui could only honestly admit her mistake. “I was wrong.”
Shen Zhifei with a serious face asked, “And then?”
Zhao Xiaokui leaped up from the sofa like a fish, landing on the ground and hugging Shen Zhifei’s neck, acting cute. “Oh, I’ll be more careful next time. It’s not the first time without experience. I absolutely won’t do it again next time…”
Shen Zhifei felt veins throbbing on her forehead. “You want a next time?”
“Zhao Xiaokui!”
Being scolded, Zhao Xiaokui immediately let go and stood in place.
Shen Zhifei looked at her, and she saw the little mermaid pouting with a face full of grievance, trying to please her with a pitiful smile.
Shen Zhifei wasn’t buying into her act and her thoughts about what Zhao Xiaokui had done fueled her anger. “Do you realize how dangerous your actions are? Do you think absorbing someone’s memories is such an easy thing to do? You were lucky this time, but what if the next time the other person’s memories scatter yours? Will you still remember that you’re Zhao Xiaokui, recognize who you are?”
Zhao Xiaokui couldn’t come up with any words to defend herself.
Indeed, this time her anger clouded her judgment, and she did something reckless.
She only thought about devouring the soul of the disciple from the End of the World Sect, seeking revenge, enhancing her strength, and maybe gaining some information about the sect. However, she forgot to check if she had enough soul strength to support this devouring.
In truth, she was a bit scared.
She feared losing herself in the memories, afraid she wouldn’t remember who she was, and more afraid of harming Shen Zhifei.
Looking at the tears in her eyes, Shen Zhifei’s silent anger was extinguished.
She reached out to wipe away her tears. “Little crybaby.”
With red eyes, Zhao Xiaokui said, “I’m sorry…”
Shen Zhifei embraced her.
Zhao Xiaokui leaned against her shoulder, sniffing.
In the next moment, she was suddenly lifted into the air.
Zhao Xiaokui: “…”
When Shen Zhifei’s hand landed on her buttocks, Zhao Xiaokui was still bewildered.
It wasn’t until she was spanked several times in a row that she came to her senses and began to struggle. “Shen Zhifei, let go of me.”
She had lived for so long and had never been spanked.
At most, the teachers used bamboo sticks to hit her palms.
Being spanked on the buttocks was truly a first in her entire existence.
Shen Zhifei held her down, firmly delivering the spanks, and the contact between her palm and her flesh produced crisp sounds.
Zhao Xiaokui’s face blushed with embarrassment.
Shen Zhifei didn’t use much force. Even though she had awakened extraordinary powers, given Zhao Xiaokui’s constitution, the hits on her felt more like gentle tickles.
Zhao Xiaokui wasn’t hurt by the spanking, but she felt ashamed.
She was already an adult, and yet here she was, being held and spanked like a child.
Unfortunately, Shen Zhifei was still angry, and she didn’t dare to struggle, fearing it might escalate the boss’s anger even more.
All she could do was beg sweetly and politely, “Shen Zhifei, Zhifei, sister, I was wrong, I won’t dare again, please spare me, sob sob sob sob…”
Shen Zhifei was actually over her anger by now, but she thought it would be a good lesson for Zhao Xiaokui.
“Do you know you were wrong?”
Zhao Xiaokui, with a strong survival instinct, admitted, “Yes, I know.”
“Will you dare to do it again next time?”
“Next time…” Zhao Xiaokui was about to be a little cheeky, but immediately changed her tone, “I won’t dare, I won’t dare.”
“Do you know how scared I was today?”
“I know, I know.”
“If there’s another time, don’t bother coming home.”
“I won’t, I won’t.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Zhao Xiaokui realized something was amiss.
She received two quick slaps on her cheek and turned to look at Shen Zhifei with a pitiful expression. “There really won’t be a next time.”
“Get up.”
Zhao Xiaokui knelt on the sofa, looking like a submissive maid.
Grrr—
The mermaid’s stomach made a lonely sound of discontent.
“Your noodles have gotten cold; let me make you a fresh batch.”
Shen Zhifei still didn’t show a good expression to Zhao Xiaokui, but she stood up from the sofa, ready to prepare another bowl of noodles.
Zhao Xiaokui wouldn’t dare let her go through the trouble again. She quickly got up, ran to the dining room barefoot, grabbed the chopsticks, and started devouring the noodles.
“No need to bother. It’s fine like this. I’ll just eat this.”
She deliberately acted like she was wolfing down the food, slurping the noodle soup loudly. After finishing, she didn’t forget to lick her lips shining with oil and blew a rainbow kiss to Shen Zhifei. “My Zhifei is such a culinary genius. It’s very delicious! Eating this bowl of noodles, I must have accumulated a lot of virtue in my past life.”
“I don’t know if you’ve accumulated virtue or not.” Shen Zhifei walked over, picked up the slippers thrown in the living room, placed them by her feet, and then took away the empty noodle bowl and chopsticks. “In my past life, I might have been an unforgivable villain.”
Zhao Xiaokui pretended to cry. “Sob sob sob, you don’t love me anymore.”
Shen Zhifei, putting the bowl into the dishwasher: “…”
There was something Zhao Xiaokui couldn’t figure out.
How did Shen Zhifei know that she had devoured a soul?
Did she confess everything in a daze, lost in pain?
To this question, Shen Zhifei had only one answer: “I saw it.”
Zhao Xiaokui pretended to shiver in fear. “What kind of extraordinary ability is this? How can you see everything? Is it mind-reading? Does that mean I have no secrets in front of you?”
Shen Zhifei said, “Why, are you afraid I’ll see through your heart?”
With a strong survival instinct, Zhao Xiaokui shook her head vigorously, looking sincere. “How could that be? I wish you could see into my heart. That way, you’ll discover that my heart is filled entirely with you.”
Shen Zhifei gave her a stern look. “Smooth talker.”
“How can you call it smooth talk?” Zhao Xiaokui covered her chest, feigning a hurt expression. “Do you doubt my sincerity towards you?”
Shen Zhifei: “…”
When it came to serious matters, Zhao Xiaokui appeared quite earnest, despite her playful demeanor.
Previously, at the hospital, due to the Night Walker’s call, she hadn’t had a chance to analyze with Shen Zhifei what exactly her awakened extraordinary ability was.
Combining the two instances where Shen Zhifei accessed her memories, Zhao Xiaokui had a preliminary speculation. “I suspect that the extraordinary ability you’ve awakened is telepathy.”
Shen Zhifei asked, “Like the telepathy in movies where you can instantly know what the other person is thinking?”
“No, no, no, it’s not that exaggerated. People’s thoughts are incredibly complex, sometimes even they don’t know what they’re thinking unless they’re extremely focused on something. Otherwise, it’s impossible to discern specific thoughts.” Initially, when Zhao Xiaokui first encountered the concept of telepathy, her thoughts were similar to Shen Zhifei’s. However, after a detailed explanation, she was disappointed. “Awakened telepaths, like mermaids, lean towards being supernaturals in the direction of souls. However, while mermaids excel at devouring and using souls, telepaths focus on reading.”
“Hidden secrets, pasts unwilling to be known by others, and even things you’ve already forgotten, telepaths can read them all.” As she spoke, Zhao Xiaokui’s expression suddenly became subtle. “Damn, it seems like even a hypnotic psychologist can do that.”
Shen Zhifei commented, “Civilized.”
Zhao Xiaokui stuck her tongue out, becoming more relaxed in front of her. “The descriptions of telepaths in the books I’ve seen are not extensive. They just mention it as a special talent, and it seems like almost every race can awaken it. In the history of almost every race, there are a few telepaths.”
Listening to Zhao Xiaokui’s description, for some reason, Shen Zhifei felt that she probably wasn’t a telepath.
Still, she curiously asked, “Apart from reading minds, what else can telepaths do?”
“Uh… does modifying memories count? But it seems like only high-level telepaths can do that. Low-level telepaths can only add simple suggestions, but even that is impressive. When a telepath’s ability is activated, it’s hard for others to notice. Sometimes, they follow the telepath’s thoughts and genuinely believe they made the decision themselves.”
At this point, Zhao Xiaokui sighed suddenly. “But I don’t know the training methods for telepaths. I’ve only heard that they need to practice repeatedly to enhance their abilities. The deeper the understanding of telepathy, the faster the advancement. If you want to train as a telepath, I’d suggest buying psychology books. It should be able to help through cross-application.”
While she spoke like that, Zhao Xiaokui had already planned that once Shen Zhifei’s extraordinary abilities stabilized, she would let her practice telepathy on her own1Zhao Xiaokui’s mind, aiming for a quick improvement.
Unaware that Zhao Xiaokui was willing to open her mind for practice, Shen Zhifei, seemingly curious about things like telepaths, continued to ask, “Apart from telepaths, are there any other similar extraordinary abilities?”
“Similar ones…” Zhao Xiaokui had read quite a few books, but it wasn’t easy for her to come up with an example on the spot.
After some thought, she finally recalled a supernatural classification similar to telepaths.
“Star Seers!” She clenched her fist into her palm, finally remembering this category of practitioners she had criticized many times before. “They belong to the fate-related branch of extraordinary beings. Like telepaths, awakening isn’t restricted by race. Star Seers have appeared in almost every race’s history. It’s a charlatan profession. They’re said to be able to see five thousand years into the future and the past. Not only can they influence the future, but they can also change the past.”
Regarding the things related to the fate school of thought, whether it was about people, objects, or the various theories they proposed, despite spending five years in the mermaid world, Zhao Xiaokui’s scientific worldview kept her in a state of skepticism. “There are legends of Star Seers traversing time and changing the past, but most of the travel accounts I’ve read only have two words for Star Seers—frauds.”
As someone who had been tricked out of money by charlatans in her childhood, Zhao Xiaokui had a very negative impression of charlatans. She sneered, “Charlatans deserve a bad fate.”
