Chapter 33: Evidence! (8/9)

“Do you really believe that Akazawa Izumi is the deceased?”

Longxiang frowned. He was not as guileless as he appeared. At least, Longxiang considered himself a clever man.

Who didn’t?

Tao Yunchuan also considered himself a clever man. That was why he walked even faster than Longxiang, almost running as he headed toward the library.

“What are you going there for?”

“To look for something.”

A sudden light flashed in Tao Yunchuan’s eyes. An idea had occurred to him, and now it was time to test it.

Click!

The library door swung open. Yet contrary to what Tao Yunchuan had imagined, the library was not empty. Instead, four people stood before him.

Liu Mengchao, Liu Ling, and…

Akazawa Izumi.

“Your eyes are giving you away.”

Chapter Thirty-Three: Evidence!

Mengchao rose from his seat and looked at the person in front of him.

“What are you looking for?”

“What? I’m not looking for anything.”

Tao Yunchuan was startled and involuntarily stepped backward, colliding with Longxiang behind him.

“Oh?” Liu Mengchao raised an eyebrow, the smile at the corner of his mouth filled with amusement. “Did you know that when people lie, they especially like to repeat the other person’s question?”

Gulp.

For a moment, Tao Yunchuan felt as though he could no longer breathe. A terrifying thought suddenly flashed through his mind.

Could this veteran reincarnator have already seen through him?

“Who told you to come here?” Liu Mengchao continued.

As long as I don’t answer, he won’t be able to find any flaw in me, will he?

With that thought, Tao Yunchuan decided not to say another word.

“Let me guess. It was Teacher Zhang, wasn’t it?”

Tao Yunchuan did not respond, but Liu Mengchao smiled.

Tao Yunchuan’s expression had betrayed him completely. His brows had drawn together, and the corners of his mouth had tightened nervously. The change had lasted for barely a millionth of a second, but noticing such minute differences had almost become instinctive for Liu Mengchao.

“Looks like I guessed correctly,” Liu Mengchao said with a smile.

To Tao Yunchuan, however, those words were more terrifying than the cry of a monster.

He collapsed helplessly onto the floor. The chill of the library tiles seeped through his hands, as though Liu Mengchao’s words could pass through the floor and enter his very body.

Don’t speak. I can’t speak! He’s only trying to trick me. It’s impossible for him to read minds!

Tao Yunchuan frantically warned himself. When he remembered how Liu Mengchao had once held a gun to his head when he had first arrived in this cycle world, he became convinced that the consequences of admitting he had deceived Liu Mengchao would be severe.

Liu Mengchao, by contrast, seemed completely relaxed. He paced slowly, as though walking upon clouds, and stopped beside Tao Yunchuan.

Boom!

A thunderclap suddenly split the sky outside the window.

Lightning burst into the library, illuminating everything except one place.

The sensation was uncanny. For the first time, Tao Yunchuan realized how terrifying the place he occupied truly was. Everything around him was bathed in light, yet not a trace of it reached him.

Liu Mengchao’s shadow completely engulfed him.

“Let’s go.”

Liu Mengchao turned and looked at Liu Ling and Akazawa Izumi standing behind him. Then he smiled.

Of course he had to smile. Anyone would want to laugh upon seeing the reward pool surging wildly before their eyes—

if he were the Main God’s agent.

Reward pool: Seven hundred ninety thousand!

“Um…”

The moment they left the library, Akazawa Izumi’s expression changed. For some reason, the girl stubbornly refused to let Liu Mengchao see her vulnerable side.

Perhaps only in a small, enclosed space could she truly speak with Liu Mengchao…

Akazawa Izumi lowered her head and watched the rain pattering from the edge of her umbrella into the puddle before her, sending ripples across its surface.

“I wanted to…”

What was it that I wanted to say?

Akazawa Izumi opened her mouth, then suddenly stopped. What, exactly, did she want to say?

Without warning, anxiety seized the girl’s heart.

Say something. Quickly. Even pretending would be better than this. This isn’t like Akazawa Izumi at all!

As though she had finally made up her mind, Akazawa Izumi drew a deep breath. Her chest rose and fell gently, swaying with the sudden emotion stirred within her.

“Liu Mengchao!”

She raised her head and finally called his name.

But the man was no longer standing before her. He had vanished like the rain falling from the sky, dissolving into it without leaving the slightest trace.

“Was that really all right?” Liu Ling asked worriedly, holding the doll in her arms.

“I think it was fine.”

Leaning against the wall, Liu Mengchao extended a hand and felt the rain falling into his palm.

“Don’t you think Akazawa Izumi may like me? She’s acting differently from the way she does in class.”

“What would be wrong with that?”

Liu Ling shook her head, allowing the doll in her arms to speak for her.

“Even if this is only a plot mission…”

“But in your eyes, they’re no different from us.”

Before Liu Ling could finish, Liu Mengchao spoke the words in her heart for her.

“That’s right.”

Liu Ling nodded. She genuinely agreed with him.

Smack!

Liu Mengchao suddenly braced one hand against the wall, his body forming a barrier that separated Liu Ling from the downpour behind him.

“I like you!”

His gaze was utterly serious.

Thump, thump!

Her heart suddenly began to beat faster.

“Heh.”

Yet Liu Mengchao only laughed. He straightened, reconnecting Liu Ling with the world beyond him. Holding up his black umbrella, he walked away without the slightest hesitation.

Only then did his next words slowly drift into Liu Ling’s ears.

“Playing with other people’s feelings is a man’s natural talent.”

Liu Mengchao spoke very slowly, but he walked quickly, as though fleeing from hell—or perhaps from heaven.

“But I hate that nature.”

Drip.

Without Liu Mengchao’s black umbrella above her head, the raindrops fell directly onto Liu Ling’s long black hair. They slid along the strands and fell to the ground, where they gathered together.

Her lips parted slightly. She let out a soft sigh.

“Longing to be loved—isn’t that a woman’s natural instinct?”

Watching the ripples trembling before her, Liu Ling began to smile. There was nothing funny about it. It was like a dull, tasteless joke.

And yet she suddenly felt a trace of warmth in her heart. Vaguely, Liu Ling thought she understood what Liu Mengchao meant.

Precisely because he cared, he would not treat them as dispensable tools whose only purpose was to complete a mission. He believed in the feelings of these plot characters—feelings that, in the eyes of reincarnators, were utterly worthless.

Liu Mengchao believed in human emotions more than anyone.

“He really is different from the other reincarnators.”

Liu Ling shook her head and lifted her face, allowing the rain to strike her cheeks and blur her smile.

“He can be a little fierce, but he’s a good person.”

Liu Mengchao did not know that, without realizing it, he had changed Liu Ling’s opinion of him.

At that moment, he knew only one thing: the reward pool before him was surging more violently than ever.

Reward pool: Eight hundred thousand!

“What are you trying to do, reincarnators?”

Liu Mengchao stopped and looked at the reward pool before him, suddenly speaking to himself.

What did the reincarnators want?

Perhaps it was very simple.

To seize every opportunity and survive.

Tao Yunchuan and Longxiang were in precisely that situation.

Bloodshot eyes fixed on the table before them, they stared at a list while another person’s voice echoed in their ears.

“This is the list of all the students in Class Three of the third year last year. The names marked with crosses belong to those who died because of the curse.”

As the voice spoke, it pointed to the table.

“This list may not be complete. The curse of death does not affect only the students of Class Three. Any direct relative within two generations of a student from that class could also have died because of it.”

“For example…”

Tao Yunchuan’s hand trembled as he pointed to a name marked with a red cross.

“His younger sister? The younger sister of this person, Akazawa Nobunaga?”

“You mean…”

The voice did not deny it outright. Instead, it hesitated.

That hesitation only deepened the conclusion forming in Tao Yunchuan’s heart.

“Akazawa Izumi!”

Their breathing suddenly grew heavy.

Longxiang and Tao Yunchuan exchanged a glance. A single thought slowly rose within their hearts.

This was the evidence!

Evidence proving the identity of the Extra!

There will be another update…

It will be released at midnight sharp.

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