Beneath the Mediocre

Lan Wu said softly, "The demon with you is eager to find an excuse to escape your sight. The tighter you watch her, the more she'll hide her true colors. You might as well give her a weakness."

Zhang Yu paused for two seconds, then said, "Ah."

You noticed?

Lan Wu was quiet and reserved; her usually composed and clear gaze was now like a deep pool.

"I learned a lot from being by Guild Master Medusa's side. The Midnight Guild understands demons better than Broken Mirror, so when Captain Hsing was unsure of the demon's intentions because she had just returned and decided to keep her around to test her, I was already certain that she had ulterior motives."

Zhang Yu couldn't help but reassess Lan Wu.

... That's right, they never trusted Mo, who joined them midway and traded his eye abilities for information.

Although she was someone Yu Xing had known before, what could a mere one-time encounter signify?

Not to mention that this encounter was more than a year ago. Anyone who has personally experienced this tense and absurd year understands that the high-intensity Yugi experience changes not only their skills but also their mindset.

The degree of alienation can easily rise to an irreversible level if one is not careful. One's mind and consciousness are constantly being eroded by ghosts, and even old friends may have long since changed beyond recognition.

Demon, a typical example of someone who has grown stronger throughout the year, has become a bounty hunter-like figure as a lone wolf, accepting missions based on his own eyes and then receiving the rewards.

Just as she herself said, she came to Nanshui Town this time because she was hired by someone else to find something.

Is she weak?

Before this, she was already well-known, but she had never participated in live simulations and rarely appeared in other people's recommended videos. So apart from Yan Ming from the Research Institute and the Widow Investigation Team, probably few people knew what methods she had.

But no one would consider her weak, whether in terms of intelligence or Combat Power.

If she really didn't have any fighting ability, where would she get the confidence to hire people and succeed every time?

However, from the moment she started acting with Yu Xing and the others, she appeared pitifully weak, as if she had nothing to offer except for her eyes. Her thinking and reaction were also very slow, making her even less noticeable than Zhang Yu.

Yu Xing was interrupted halfway through. When Mo first approached him, although he could sense that the woman's words and actions were inconsistent, he couldn't figure out what she really wanted. Therefore, he went along with it and agreed to let Mo join.

Hua Subai knew what was going on the moment he saw the demon, and he also silently understood Yu Xing's thoughts. That's why he openly showed his rejection of the demon's existence to test him, Yu Xing didn't say a word.

But since he was going to keep the demon in the group, Hua Subai just scared her a little, and then pretended to accept her.

What followed was an unspoken mutual precaution.

Zhang Yu doesn't have many strengths, except for his intelligence.

It was because of his intelligence and accurate intuition that Yu Xing and Qu Xuanqing ultimately decided to include him when accepting Zeng Ranran.

Moreover, given his current extreme focus on reconnaissance and investigation, Zhang Yu had no particular concern about the extra person in the team; he was simply observing the demon out of habit.

Therefore, he quickly discovered that the demon's information did not match his own, and that the demon was clearly hiding its true abilities.

Just as he saw through Boss Hua's friendly facade at a glance, Zhang Yu still noticed Hua Subai and Yu Xing's "watching the show" attitude towards the demons, no matter how subtle it was.

So he knew that the captain didn't believe in the devil.

Then, of course, he had to cooperate with the captain and act like an ordinary team member who had accepted the demon, but—

On the way to the town hospital with Yu Xing, he had already confessed his discovery and thoughts to the captain.

This Yugi was essentially a trial for him to join the team. Yu Xing didn't need to tell him anything; he could see for himself how much he was capable of, which would determine whether he was qualified to even touch the words "broken mirror."

Anyway, Yu Xing seemed quite happy at the time, and even rewarded him with a pancake bought from a roadside stall.

It's quite delicious.

Yu Xing said that since he had already figured it out, he would give him another task: to keep a close eye on Mo during their future interactions and prevent her from pulling any tricks right under his nose and succeeding.

After leaving the hospital ahead of time, Zhang Yu went to see Hua Subai before the rendezvous time and asked him some questions about demons.

Strangely enough, he felt very conflicted about Boss Hua: dangerous, deceptive, unpredictable, yet reassuring—the kind of reassurance that made him certain Boss Hua wouldn't harm him.

Zhang Yu himself was quite surprised. He didn't know why, but he clearly knew that he was Boss Hua's "ally." It seemed that when Boss Hua listened to Yu Xing, he would treat him very well as well.

He could even see that Yu Xing's trust in Boss Hua seemed almost nonexistent, but in reality, she trusted him all the time. She could easily turn her back on Boss Hua, looking disgusted but never truly rejecting Boss Hua's colleagues.

Compared to her attitude towards demons, Yu Xing had a completely different attitude towards Boss Hua.

Zhang Yu was unaware of the stories between these bigwigs. Although he was eager to gossip, he couldn't find a good opportunity. He only managed to supplement his information about the demons from Boss Hua.

The demon's eyes are far more powerful than her words suggest.

She can see illusion, she can see reality, she can see the true nature of the soul behind a person.

She said she saw Hua Subai's soul as a tree, but before she could look closely, her eyes stung and bled. The first part is true, so the second part must be false.

This is far from her limit.

When she first saw Yu Xing, was it really because Yu Xing was reading a letter and she didn't want to disturb her, so she only looked at her from afar for a long time?

Impossible, that's not how a demon is. She clearly saw Yu Xing's "true self," which is why she felt a moment of fear and hesitated.

This is what Hua Subai told Zhang Yu.

Zhang Yu wasn't bold enough to ask what the captain's true nature was. It was Hua Subai himself who told him meaningfully, "She will see the similarities between Yu Xing and me, and then she will have no choice but to join us. Otherwise, she won't be able to unravel this secret that is incomprehensible to her."

Afterwards, he and Hua Subai parted ways, and then, as if nothing had happened, went to the agreed-upon alley when the time came to meet. He and Hua Subai were still the first to arrive, but going their separate ways was a necessary precaution.

After that, he stayed around the demon.

When the seats were being assigned, Mo wanted to go upstairs, but Yu Xing stopped her from doing so with a single sentence. So, she just followed Xue Shouyun and successfully escaped his surveillance.

It was originally destined to fail.

Zhang Yu pursed his lips and looked at Lan Wu: "You want to say more than just this, don't you?"

Lan Wu whispered, "I know what your abilities are. President Medusa bought information about you from the Research Institute. So, I believe you're a smart person and can understand that it's better to let the prey think it's free than to keep it by your side."

"Do you want to go out?" A lively cunning appeared on his pale face, as if he had been suppressing it with some kind of mask until now, and only in this unattended moment did a bit of his true nature show.

"I can get you out of here; my abilities are related to that."

"Shall we sneak off and see where the demon goes after it gets out of your sight?"

She only said that she was hired to pick up something.

But it didn't say her employer wasn't present.

"Ha, the rules of this dinner are destined to be broken into a sieve," Zhang Yu muttered numbly to himself, but he didn't back down.

He saw a rare clarity in Lan Wu and was not worried that Lan Wu had bad intentions.

He had only one question, "Is this helping me? Why?"

Lan Wu smiled slowly, "The president said that it was Xing who helped me in the backyard."

That's why he likes broken mirrors.