Hui Tian Ch42

Chapter 42

Law of Causality

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The three of them sat in the dim underground. Behind them, a fatal meteorite under radiation glowed with a faint blue light.

Aside from that, only the dim searchlight illuminated this small circle. The huge abandoned testing ground in the distance was completely submerged in darkness.

“Since we’re idle anyway, right? It’s a long night.” Su Jiqiao seemed not to notice the eerily quiet atmosphere. He placed the wine, dice, and iron spoon on the ground between the three of them, saying with great interest, “And the gameplay is very simple. Whoever rolls the higher number is the winner. The winner can spin the spoon, and whoever the handle points to is the traitor.”

He spun it casually with his hand, and the spoon handle twirled a few times. “The winner has the right to decide whether to let the traitor answer a truth or drink a glass of wine as a penalty. Simple, right?”

This game was indeed excessively simple, seemingly just an ordinary drinking game. Fu Chen frowned. “But according to regulations, drinking is not allowed during missions, and the interference desensitization isn’t finished yet…”

“It’s not like we’ll drink too much, just killing time.” Su Jiqiao looked at Fu Chen in surprise. “What’s wrong, Fu-ge? Do you really not dare to play?”

Fu Chen stopped talking abruptly.

“—Then I’ll go first.” Su Jiqiao picked up the die and raised an index finger. “Using abilities is forbidden. The energy monitor is right over there; using abilities will be detected.”

Then, he shook the die in his hand, threw it on the ground, and exclaimed in surprise, “Five!”

According to the seating, the person after Su Jiqiao was Shen Zhuo. He picked up the die and handed it over, smiling until his eyes curved. “Professor Shen, are you playing?”

“…” Shen Zhuo glanced at Fu Chen, then turned back to Su Jiqiao’s unusual smiling face. Nothing could be discerned from his deep, pool-like eyes.

After a long while, Bai Sheng saw him move slightly, actually raising his hand to take the die and throw it in front of him.

“Three! Average luck, Professor.” Su Jiqiao turned his head and smiled. “What about Fu-ge?”

Fu Chen said no more, picked up the die, and threw it casually. Four.

“I won!” Su Jiqiao seemed very pleasantly surprised, clapping for himself. He hovered his hand over the spoon and said mischievously, “Then I’m going to identify the traitor now.”

Whir. The spoon handle spun. For some reason, all three gazes fell on it. Even Bai Sheng in the void narrowed his eyes until the spoon handle slowly stopped.

Following the direction it pointed, it was Fu Chen.

In that instant, the expressions in all three pairs of eyes seemed to undergo different changes.

Immediately after, Su Jiqiao was heard laughing, “Hahaha.”

“Fu-ge, do you choose truth or drink?” Su Jiqiao seemed purely out for fun. Rolling his eyes, he waved his hand again. “Forget it, forget it. The game rules say the winner chooses, so I choose truth.”

“…”

Fu Chen said calmly, “What do you want to ask?”

Su Jiqiao asked grinningly, “Does Fu-ge have someone he likes?”

Fu Chen glanced at Shen Zhuo out of the corner of his eye and said, “Yes.”

But Shen Zhuo only gazed quietly at the spoon on the ground, seemingly blind to everything around him and saying not a word.

Su Jiqiao said “Wow” with shining eyes. “Who is so lucky to be liked by someone like Fu-ge? So envious. Next round, I’m going to ask you that person’s name!”

Fu Chen said indifferently, “It’s still undecided who will win the next round.” Saying this, he picked up the die and threw it. Also a five.

Su Jiqiao picked up the die and threw second. Perhaps getting carried away leads to quick karma; he only rolled a one. Sighing and groaning, he picked up the die and handed it to Shen Zhuo. Shen Zhuo took it and, just like the previous round, threw a three.

Sure enough, the winner of the second round became Fu Chen.

“Fu-ge, using abilities to spin the spoon isn’t allowed.” Su Jiqiao warned again half-jokingly, pointing at the monitor. “If anyone here uses abilities, it will be detected.”

Fu Chen uttered a sound of acknowledgment. With his index finger, he spun the iron spoon on the ground. Four gazes from different directions were fixed firmly on it. The spoon handle spun neither fast nor slow, and after a short while, it wobbled to a stop.

It pointed to Su Jiqiao.

“—Ah? Retaliation comes so quickly?” Su Jiqiao didn’t seem surprised either, covering his mouth with one hand and laughing. Then he looked up at Fu Chen, staring straight at him with burning eyes. “Alright, then I admit it too. I also have someone I like!”

That gaze was more than just unreserved; it was practically burning and bold.

But Fu Chen’s reaction was cold. “No one wants to ask you that. I just want you to drink a penalty glass.”

“What? You don’t want me to say it?” Su Jiqiao complained half-jokingly. He picked up the wine bottle, threw his head back to take a sip, and drawled, “I don’t care. What I said just now was also the truth, and you all heard it—didn’t you, Professor Shen?”

Shen Zhuo lowered his eyelashes slightly, like a statue in the flickering light and shadow, giving no reaction to the excellent performance before him.

Su Jiqiao opened his palm and presented the die to him, saying softly, “Professor, it’s your turn.”

Shen Zhuo took the die without looking and threw it casually.

Two.

His luck was indeed too average. But Fu Chen, who went next, surprisingly only threw a one. Seeing this, Su Jiqiao was immediately full of confidence to win another round, but when the die stopped, it was shockingly also a one.

The winner of the third round naturally switched to Shen Zhuo.

Bai Sheng keenly felt the atmosphere change subtly.

Fu Chen stared tightly at the iron spoon on the ground. Even the perfect smile on Su Jiqiao’s face faded imperceptibly due to tension. Under these two intense gazes, Shen Zhuo spun the spoon casually. The handle spun into a circle in the light and shadow, as if even the slightest wind sound was clearly distinguishable.

After a few seconds that felt as long as a century, it finally stopped.

The spoon handle pointed to Shen Zhuo himself.

“…”

The surroundings fell silent for a moment. Shen Zhuo just opened his mouth to say this round didn’t count, but Su Jiqiao reacted quickly and diligently handed the wine flask to Shen Zhuo. “Spinning to yourself means a penalty of three glasses, Professor.”

Shen Zhuo brushed the wine flask aside. “I choose truth.”

—Shen Zhuo’s truth…

How prickly Shen Zhuo’s truth could be was self-evident. The other two present were obviously not fools. Fu Chen immediately looked up, smiling nonchalantly. “Better to drink some wine to warm up. It’s so cold here, and it’s almost ten o’clock.”

Shen Zhuo scoffed, propping himself up with one hand to stand. “Tired. I’m going to sleep.”

Su Jiqiao immediately stood up following him. As they brushed past each other, he reached out to block Shen Zhuo, smiling. “Professor, it’s not easy for us to have a chance to team up for field duty. Don’t sleep so early. Besides, you can’t be a sore loser. You spun to yourself; how can you not drink three penalty glasses?”

Shen Zhuo’s steps were halted by him. “How can rules made up on the spot count as rules?”

Su Jiqiao said innocently, “There really was this rule from the beginning. If you don’t believe me, ask Fu-ge.”

Fu Chen’s eyes were deep and dark; he remained silent.

Shen Zhuo was a bit impatient. “Move. Wake me up when the evolution source interference desensitization is complete.”

But before he could push Su Jiqiao away, his left wrist was grabbed by the latter. The tone was still soft and pleading, but the strength in the hand was the complete opposite. “Professor, you’ve never honored us by going out for a drink together. We might not have another chance to team up for field duty in the future. What if today is the last time?”

Being forced to drink was probably an unprecedented experience in Shen Zhuo’s life. He simply felt it was a bit absurd. “You…”

“They say one should accept defeat gracefully, but you want to leave after losing.” Su Jiqiao spoke gentle words, but his face stared straight at Shen Zhuo. “This isn’t reasonable, is it?”

Shen Zhuo exerted force but failed to break his wrist free from Su Jiqiao’s grip. In the confusion, he was forced back half a step, his back hitting the hard lime wall. The mouth of the wine bottle in Su Jiqiao’s hand almost touched his lips. “Are you really unwilling to give me face even once, Professor?”

If an outsider saw this scene, it would undoubtedly be extremely absurd.

At this moment, that outsider was Bai Sheng.

Bai Sheng completely failed to understand why Su Jiqiao suddenly went mad, nor did he know how Shen Zhuo escaped this situation before the explosion that year. But he absolutely could not sit by and watch Shen Zhuo experience the scene of being coerced again in the dream.

In the void, sharp electric currents flowed through Bai Sheng’s palm blade, already hovering from behind in front of Su Jiqiao’s throat, less than half an inch away.

If Su Jiqiao advanced another half inch, he would be instantly decapitated and disappear completely from the dream.

Something invisible in the air seemed ready to explode. The standoff of just a few seconds felt suffocatingly long.

Shen Zhuo’s eyes held an indescribable mix of disgust and impatience. Suddenly, he tilted his head, the corners of his lips curving into a half-smile, his gaze skimming over Fu Chen behind Su Jiqiao like a dragonfly touching water.

Then he retracted his gaze. The smile was somewhat provocative, but the arc was beautiful. “Of course, I accept defeat. I choose truth.”

“I also have someone I like, and soon I will like them very much. Is that not okay?”

Even Su Jiqiao was stunned.

No one expected Shen Zhuo’s truth to be this sentence. For a moment, no one made a sound in the abandoned testing ground.

“…”

After a full moment, Fu Chen seemed to realize something. He stood up and coughed once. This time, the object of his gentle persuasion obviously switched to Su Jiqiao. “Alright, alright. Doesn’t choosing truth also comply with the game rules? Both count as accepting defeat.”

Shen Zhuo pushed with force, shoving the dazed Su Jiqiao back half a step.

“I’m going to sleep,” he said lightly.

He seemed to completely ignore the eerie and inexplicable atmosphere behind him, brushing past Su Jiqiao directly and walking toward a tunnel outside the testing ground.

“…”

Bai Sheng narrowed his eyes slightly. After a moment, he retracted the electric ability from his palm. While quickly chasing after Shen Zhuo, he turned back to look at the two people behind—

Fu Chen’s eyes flickered. He said nothing, just standing there watching Shen Zhuo walk away without blinking.

And Su Jiqiao stood in the shadows, his gaze following Shen Zhuo’s back tightly, a trace of horrifying light flowing in the depths of his eyes.

---

There were many empty rooms in this base. Shen Zhuo carried a flashlight through the corridor, randomly found a dormitory that looked less dusty, patted the years of accumulated sand off the wire bed, and put down his sleeping bag.

The door lock still worked, but the safety chain was rusty. Shen Zhuo opened and closed the door a few times to confirm that the iron chain wouldn’t break easily before lying into the sleeping bag.

He was human after all. having ventured deep into the desert, he was very tired by now. When he first lay down, he kept his eyes open thinking about things, but soon drowsiness surged. Obviously unable to stay awake, he slowly closed his eyelids.

Bai Sheng knelt on one knee by the bed, looking at him quietly, replaying the scenes that had just occurred in his mind.

Su Jiqiao couldn’t have gone mad suddenly without reason. Why did he say “What if today is the last time”? Did he already have a premonition of the disaster about to happen before the explosion?

It was already past 10 o’clock. Shen Zhuo said at the hearing that he was sleeping during the last half-hour before the explosion. For three years, everyone thought he was lying, but judging from the current situation, it was actually the truth. Then what exactly happened in the next 30 minutes?

Shen Zhuo’s breathing gradually became deep and long. His sleeping face was serene, peaceful, and soft.

From the surface, one couldn’t tell at all that he was someone so adept at manipulating hearts, able to make people infatuated with just a few words, wishing they could jump out first to get him out of trouble—Fu Chen next door was probably still racking his brains repeatedly pondering that last sentence.

—“I also have someone I like, and soon I will like them very much. Is that not okay?”

“Writing empty checks everywhere.” Bai Sheng couldn’t help but grit his teeth. He leaned down close to Shen Zhuo’s face and said through clenched teeth, “When will you give me an empty check to comfort me too?”

Shen Zhuo murmured something vaguely and turned over in his sleep.

He frowned, seeming a bit exhausted, burying the side of his face into the hollow of his own shoulder.

The jealousy in the male instinct receded like the tide. Bai Sheng reached out, wanting to smooth his brow, but his fingertips simply passed directly through from the void.

Shen Zhuo at this time had gentle features and cheeks like snow. He stood alone and helpless, spine straight at the peak, hated and plotted against by countless people, enduring assassinations and attacks from both front and rear.

He had no helpers, nor was anyone strong enough for him to entrust his back to. Besides relying on himself to traverse the many treacherous and subtle human hearts, he actually didn’t have many methods.

Bai Sheng stared blankly at the sleeping person before him, thinking: In less than half an hour, it will be the turning point of Shen Zhuo’s life.

After that explosion, Shen Zhuo was heavily injured and comatose for half a month, then subjected to repeated interrogations and public questioning, even tortured privately to the brink of death. The HRG project he had poured immense effort into was also forced to be shelved.

That tragic everything must never be repeated.

How can I completely crush Shen Zhuo’s dream without harming Shen Zhuo himself?

Bai Sheng remained half-kneeling by the bed, thinking repeatedly in his mind, quickly filtering every detail of the explosion. He stopped abruptly when he thought of Fu Chen.

A desperate, crazy idea arose spontaneously in his heart.

Click.

Just then, a light sound came from the door bolt behind him. Bai Sheng turned his head.

Through the crack in the door, the figure of a person outside was revealed. It was Su Jiqiao.

What is he here for?

Bai Sheng stood up suspiciously and warily. He saw Su Jiqiao stick two fingers through the door crack, pinch the safety chain, and exert force. The rusty thin chain broke silently.

Then he pushed the door open, walked into the room lightly, making almost no noise, bent down and half-knelt on the dust-covered floor beside the wire bed, examining Shen Zhuo with interest.

This scene was simply bizarre. In the darkness, Su Jiqiao’s eyes flickered. After a long time, he slowly lowered his head, his smiling lips almost touching Shen Zhuo’s ear, asking word by word in a whisper:

“Is the person you mentioned Fu Chen?”

“…”

Bai Sheng stared tightly at Su Jiqiao, his pupils constricting slightly.

Shen Zhuo breathed evenly, eyes closed tight, showing no signs of waking up. Su Jiqiao didn’t expect him to wake up and give an answer either. He paused for a moment before whispering as if to himself:

“Why? I hate you so much, Shen Zhuo.”

The room was quiet all around; breathing was clearly audible.

He repeated, “I really hate you so much.”

Bai Sheng watched helplessly as he raised his hand and, like a prank, scraped his index finger through the air across the bridge of Shen Zhuo’s nose.

“I just want to disgust you, just want you to remember it forever and hold a grudge.” Every word was intimate and sweet like a lover’s, yet full of complex hate and malice. “This is my punishment for you.”

For several seconds, Bai Sheng didn’t know what he intended to do. But immediately after, his S-class acute senses triggered abruptly. He felt the residual aura on Su Jiqiao’s index finger—mental energy fluctuations.

That action just now was actually releasing a mental ability on Shen Zhuo!

Bai Sheng’s first reaction was: Daydream? Did Shen Zhuo enter a Daydream on the night of the 5.11 Qinghai explosion?!

But he immediately calmed down and realized it was impossible because Daydream wouldn’t leave energy residue in reality. The energy fluctuation just now was very obvious; it should be another type of mental attack.

A psychic evolutionist might have several different attack methods. Su Jiqiao’s strongest ability was Daydream, but that didn’t mean he only had Daydream. It was just that other mental attack methods were weaker or couldn’t cause much damage, so they weren’t used often.

But what exactly did he release on Shen Zhuo just now?

Su Jiqiao stood up, his smile becoming very peculiar, vaguely containing a trace of excitement, eagerness, and twisted anticipation. He watched Shen Zhuo sleeping soundly on the bed without blinking, backed out of the room step by step, completely ignoring his own footprints on the dusty floor, silently closed the door, and disappeared into the darkness.

Bai Sheng turned abruptly to look at Shen Zhuo. Unexpectedly, the figure in the sleeping bag was still lying on his side, eyes closed tight, breathing steady, completely unchanged.

One minute, two minutes, ten minutes.

Shen Zhuo turned over slightly again, lying on his back in the sleeping bag, one hand by his ear, his body rising and falling rhythmically with long breaths, sleeping very deeply.

—If he hadn’t seen the scene just now with his own eyes, Bai Sheng would almost suspect his memory was faulty. Did Su Jiqiao sneak in just now to utter some harsh words and then cast a hypnosis spell on Shen Zhuo?

What does he want? Help Professor improve sleep quality?

Bai Sheng subconsciously glanced at the time. 10:25 PM. Only five minutes left until the explosion—Shen Zhuo didn’t lie; he really slept until the last moment!

Could it be that the 5.11 Qinghai Test Site explosion was really caused by Fu Chen’s operational error, with no exaggeration, and the truth had long been completely laid bare to the world?!

Just as Bai Sheng was bewildered, Shen Zhuo’s eyelashes twitched in his sleep. It looked like just an unconscious spasm.

Immediately after, Shen Zhuo began to grow restless.

Perhaps “agitated” was a more appropriate description for this restlessness. In less than half a minute, his cheeks became very red, even his breath carried a hot, humid quality. His eyelashes fluttered constantly as if struggling to wake up but powerless to do so.

One of his hands groped towards his own neck in his sleep. At first, Bai Sheng thought Su Jiqiao wanted him to self-harm and immediately used his ability to create an airflow to forcibly support his hand. But then Shen Zhuo’s expression became very painful. His other hand also extended from the sleeping bag and grabbed his collar. Bai Sheng was shocked to discover he was actually protecting his clothes!

He wasn’t trying to self-harm at all, but someone in the dream wanted to strip his clothes, and he was resisting with all his might!

The next moment, Shen Zhuo’s eyes snapped open, and he sat up abruptly.

His cheeks were as red as blood, his slender neck looked like it had been washed with water. Panting heavily, he pressed one hand to his temple and gritted his teeth. “…You disgraceful exhibitionist, Su Jiqiao—”

Bai Sheng would rather believe Su Jiqiao was an idiot who came to utter harsh words and conveniently helped Shen Zhuo improve his sleep, than accept this absurd fact sufficient to reshape one’s worldview.

Su Jiqiao’s mental attack was to make Shen Zhuo have a two-minute wet dream.

And in the dream, he personally went to seduce Shen Zhuo!

…From a certain perspective, Su Jiqiao’s words were not empty at all. He indeed disgusted Shen Zhuo enough, to the extent that he would hold a grudge and feel nauseous for a considerably long time.

But combined, the whole matter gave Su Jiqiao’s actions a particularly absurd hilarity incomprehensible to outsiders.

Shen Zhuo felt dizzy, his whole body trembling. The fingers of one hand dug deep into his messy black hair. His other hand fumbled by the bed, pulling out his service pistol from under the sleeping bag. Then he got up and stumbled toward the door, completely ignoring that the door he had locked before sleeping was now just ajar, and walked straight out.

“Su Jiqiao?!” he said sternly.

“Come out, Su Jiqiao!”

In the room, Bai Sheng’s gaze fell on the timer. 10:28 PM.

He suddenly realized something unusual: Shen Zhuo hadn’t fully shaken off the mental attack yet. Otherwise, he absolutely wouldn’t act so uncharacteristically, taking a gun out with murderous intent to chase down Su Jiqiao—his behavior and senses were still being affected!

Bai Sheng didn’t hesitate, rushing out the door.

He saw Shen Zhuo in the corridor, clutching the gun in one hand, stumbling around the corner. The hallucination seemed to make him smell some stimulating scent, perhaps rust or blood. This smell undoubtedly aggravated his anger and killing intent. With a click, he loaded a bullet into the chamber.

“Su Jiqiao! Come out!!”

Suddenly, his steps paused. At the end of the dark tunnel was a door, with faint light seeping through the crack.

It was that abandoned testing ground.

At this moment, only a few dozen seconds remained until the explosion. Bai Sheng vaguely guessed what would happen next. Sure enough, the next moment, Shen Zhuo stepped forward without hesitation. followed closely by Bai Sheng, he crossed the corridor and pushed open the ajar door with one hand.

“Su Jiqiao, you…”

His voice stopped abruptly.

“…Fu Chen?”

Bai Sheng stood behind him, also stunned.

The meteorite emitted a glistening blue light under the rays. Before the experimental equipment, Fu Chen and Su Jiqiao were kissing.

That was actually just a fleeting image, probably less than a tenth of a second, because the moment the voice sounded, Fu Chen abruptly pushed Su Jiqiao away and turned to see Shen Zhuo at the door. In the confusion, Fu Chen’s expression was indescribable, a mix of shock, bewilderment, and blankness.

“No, I didn’t—”

Past Fu Chen, Su Jiqiao faced the door directly, flashing an undisguised smile at Shen Zhuo, mouthing word by word silently:

“He. Doesn’t. Like. You.”

Under the rays, the meteorite’s light intensified rapidly, changing from ghostly blue to blazing white light. The radiation index on the monitor skyrocketed.

Shen Zhuo wasn’t looking at Fu Chen, nor did he care about Su Jiqiao. His constricted pupils only reflected the meteorite behind the two. “What’s wrong with it?!”

Fu Chen turned and strode toward the door. “Shen Zhuo, listen to me…”

“Shut up! Calm down!” Shen Zhuo shouted sternly. “Calm down! Don’t stimulate the evolution source!”

Fu Chen was agitated to the extreme, trembling violently from his voice to his whole body. “I didn’t, that was a misunderstanding, that wasn’t at all…”

“It’s fine, it doesn’t matter! Calm down first, you—”

Shen Zhuo’s voice was drowned in blinding white light.

Radiation breached the critical value.

The evolution source was about to explode.

If that moment were frozen, one would find Su Jiqiao smiling.

Bathed in the fatal blazing white light, he looked at Shen Zhuo with tenderness and sweet eyes, like a brilliant, grand farewell.

But no one present paid attention to him, not even Bai Sheng—because the only opportunity in his calculations had finally arrived.

Everything happened as it once did. Fu Chen didn’t hesitate, waving his hand to cast a vacuum shield covering Shen Zhuo’s entire body.

Immediately after, his palm unfolded with a swish, revealing a black inverted cross in the center.

S-class ability Inverted Cross. One person bears the impact of the entire field; all damage is directed to oneself. Added with the vacuum shield, it could negate all damage to Shen Zhuo.

This was exactly what Bai Sheng was waiting for.

He pulled Shen Zhuo into his embrace with his right hand. With his left hand, two fingers pressed together, a speck of brilliant radiance flashed from his slender fingertips, illuminating his clear, cold eyes—

Whatever I do not permit does not exist.

The clear light of Causality, capable of destroying heaven and earth, covered the entire field of vision in an instant.

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