Li Sang’s words effectively choked back everything Ji Lin had been about to say.
That was right—wasn’t the fact that she knew these things the very reason he was sitting here talking to them now? Ji Lin suddenly snapped to his senses and his expression turned serious. He opened his mouth and, after a long pause, asked, “How… how do you know these things? I am certain I told no one about the abnormalities in my body.”
Driven by curiosity, Ji Lin’s fear had mostly dissipated. He stared intently at Li Sang, waiting for an answer.
“I know many things. You don’t need to concern yourself with how I know them, but I can tell you that everything he just said is true,” Li Sang replied, leaning back against the car seat and looking at him sideways. “Furthermore, we belong to the state. We aren’t a pyramid scheme.”
What was with all this talk of pyramid schemes? It sounded so unpleasant.
“You aren’t the only one with abnormalities; there are others,” Ling Lan, who was sitting beside Ji Lin, suddenly chimed in. Her face was devoid of expression, and she spoke calmly, as if merely stating a plain fact.
“Others? There are people like me?”
A light flashed in Ji Lin’s eyes, which widened slightly. If there were others like him, would they be his own kind? At this moment, Ji Lin desperately needed such people to appear by his side; it would give him immense encouragement. To him, his current state was far too strange; having someone like him nearby would alleviate many of his worries… At the very least, he wouldn’t be the sole outlier.
However, Ji Lin’s fantasy was quickly shattered.
“No, she is different from you. She possesses a space that can store all things,” Li Sang said calmly while staring at him.
The moment she spoke, Li Sang clearly saw the light in Ji Lin’s eyes dim. So, they aren’t the same, Ji Lin thought.
A strong urge to leave suddenly welled up within him, but since things hadn’t been fully clarified yet, Ji Lin suppressed the impulse. “What did you mean when you said I was chosen by fate?”
And were the things that man said true? Was the end of the world really coming? He had heard such rumors since he was born, but the so-called apocalypse had never arrived; he had lived safely until now.
“Fate chose you so that you can save the Blue Planet after the disaster strikes.”
“In truth, it’s not that you crave rotten food, but rather that you don’t need food at all. It’s not so much that the rotten food attracts you as it is the sensation that eating it might bring.”
The current Ji Lin could be understood as a non-human being who had awakened powerful abilities. His physiological structure had already transcended human boundaries, yet he maintained a human appearance. He didn’t need to eat or sleep; he could work endlessly and was extremely difficult to kill, yet he still possessed emotions.
This last point was particularly important.
If—and it was only an “if”—Ji Lin lacked emotions, then Li Sang’s plans would never have worked on him. A person without emotions has moved beyond the realm of humanity. Human beings are defined by their complex emotions. If a person lacked even the most basic feelings, they would be terrifying. Especially for someone like Ji Lin; if he lacked the fear or curiosity that a normal person possesses, he wouldn’t be sitting here listening to Li Sang’s nonsense.
Hearing Li Sang’s explanation, Ji Lin slowly lowered his head. Was that how it was? He wasn’t sure himself.
“Then… can I still return to normal? I don’t want this much strength.”
“Huh?”
Li Sang, who had been waiting for his reaction, was stunned by his question. What did he mean? Return to normal? This truly fell into her blind spot. She knew how to restrain Ji Lin’s desires for the unknown, but she really didn’t know how to strip these powerful abilities from his body. From beginning to end, the author had never written about such a thing. Even by the grand finale, Ji Lin was still in this state. It seemed no one had ever asked if Ji Lin actually wanted to be like this.
Li Sang blinked. “Perhaps… we can try.”
One had to remember that they had the entire state behind them. When the country finally stabilized after the devastating disaster, perhaps the people at the research institutes truly could develop a medicine to separate abilities? However, because this was uncertain, Li Sang could only say “perhaps.”
“We’re getting off track. We came to find you today because we want you to join us.”
“That is, to join the state.”
Upon hearing Li Sang’s words, Ji Lin slowly raised his head, a glimmer of light shining in his eyes. He finally asked for confirmation: “Can you help me return to normal?”
The turn of events was a bit strange. Li Sang blinked and turned to look at Jiang Tai’an’s reaction. As it turned out, Jiang Tai’an still wore his usual grim expression, his face devoid of any emotion.
In that case, she couldn’t be blamed for leading him on. Li Sang cleared her throat and spoke clearly and formally, “We can try. We will certainly do our absolute best.”
“Okay. Then I am willing to join you.”
He didn’t seem to care at all whether the people in front of him actually belonged to the state; he agreed immediately after receiving the promise. This was a result Li Sang had never expected. She hadn’t even begun to threaten him—telling him that if he didn’t join, he would be locked up to prevent him from harming ordinary people when the apocalypse arrived. Even if he had immense physical strength, the state could build a special prison just for him.
But none of that was necessary. Before Li Sang could even deliver the speech she had prepared, the man in front of her had already agreed to join them.
“Then…” Li Sang turned to look at Jiang Tai’an in the driver’s seat. “Captain Jiang, can we go now?”
Currently, it seemed that was the case. Ji Lin had already agreed to join them, and that had been their purpose for coming here tonight. Now that the mission was completed so easily, Li Sang felt a bit dazed. Recruiting Xu Jiao had taken three days of back-and-forth, yet when it came to the combat-heavy Ji Lin, they had actually finished ahead of schedule?
Jiang Tai’an also hadn’t expected things to go so smoothly. After a half-second of silence, he nodded.
Sitting in the back seat, Ji Lin suddenly realized something. Watching the car slowly drive out of the underground parking lot, he felt something wasn’t right. “Where are we going?”
Why did it feel like something was off? “Don’t I need to go home?”
Was it because they were going to help him return to normal right now? At this thought, Ji Lin grew excited.
But his excitement was quickly dampened.
“What? Go home for what? You’re still planning on running your stall?” Li Sang stared at him. “No need, no need. We’re part of the establishment now; you don’t need to run a stall anymore.”
“…No, I mean, don’t I need to go home and wait for the results?”