Layers of Lies

Another sleepless night, Lin's mental state deteriorated further; his brain was protesting, telling him he needed to rest.

But the two people didn't even glance at Lin before walking past him.

"..."

At that moment, Lin realized something was wrong. He frowned and stared at the backs of the two people, who were heading in the direction of Qianqi's room.

Why?

Lin is certain that he left behind all the evidence that could prove he was responsible for the database theft, so why did they still go to Qianqi this time?

Lin immediately followed, his pace quickening, and just as they knocked on Qianqi's door, Lin arrived right behind them.

"Click..."

"Huh... what's up so early in the morning... huh?"

Qianqi was stunned to see three people standing at her door, and her sleepy eyes instantly cleared.

"MSA-999, you are suspected of stealing and destroying important data from the database. Please come with us," the arresting officer said coldly.

Qianqi looked completely bewildered. "Wait... what was stolen? When did I...?"

"I can vouch for her; she is not the criminal."

At this moment, Lin suddenly spoke up. The arresting officer, who had noticed him standing next to him but hadn't paid any attention to him, glanced at him, then looked at Qianqi and said coldly, "Then come with us."

Perhaps Qianqi was not yet familiar with the interrogation process of the Fire Moth, but Lin had a complete understanding of it. He briefly recounted how he and Qianqi left the ball together last night to go to Mobius's laboratory and finally returned to their room.

"The surveillance footage shows that what you said is correct, but after you left, you can't prove that she didn't leave..."

"What about the surveillance footage?"

"The subsequent surveillance footage was deleted, so it's impossible to make a judgment."

Here we go again?

Even though he was the one who did it this time, the mastermind still managed to disrupt the monitoring system. What does that mean?

However, Lin was prepared this time as well.

"I can testify that she did not engage in any activities afterward."

Lin said indifferently to the interrogators.

"What evidence?"

Even Qianqi, who had been looking embarrassed and unsure of what to say from the beginning, was curious about what evidence Lin could produce.

"I installed a miniature camera in her room, and the footage shows that she never left the room from beginning to end."

Upon hearing this, even the interrogators looked at the composed Lin with strange expressions, and Qianqi was stunned for a moment before her face instantly turned red.

Yes, Lin actually left a camera in Qianqi's room when she left, just to monitor whether Qianqi would do anything that night.

After submitting evidence to verify its authenticity, Lin and Qianqi were released. This time, Qianqi was not injected with Truth Serum, the whole process was short, and she didn't suffer much hardship, so her mental state was much better than last time.

Not necessarily.

After leaving, Qianqi kept clenching her fists and staring at Lin's retreating figure, gritting her teeth in hatred, but not daring to make a loud noise.

Her privacy was exposed to Lin, and she felt she had the right to be angry.

But Lin's actions, in turn, proved her innocence.

He was exonerated, but then he lost his innocence.

"Bang!"

Lost in thought, Qianqi didn't notice that Lin, who was walking ahead, suddenly stopped and bumped into him. She clutched her head as if she had hit a steel plate and jumped back a few steps.

Just as she was about to reprimand Lin, she realized that the place looked very unfamiliar.

Lin raised his hand and knocked on the door. After a long time, he heard a soft rustling sound coming from inside the bed.

Did you sleep in?

"Who is it..." The weak voice hadn't been heard for a long time.

Pardo opened the door and saw a helmeted man standing in front of her.

"...Who are you?"

"Fine."

Lin glanced at her, said nothing more, and left.

There's no time to worry about Pardo now, since it's confirmed that both she and Erwin are alright...

Pardo was left completely bewildered, unaware of what had happened.

Chapter 138 Levels of Lies

"What exactly do you mean? Why did you put a camera in my room?"

When asked the question that Qianqi had hesitated over for a long time, Lin responded with the answer he had prepared long ago.

Is it just his imagination? He feels like he's becoming better at lying lately.

However, the question didn't linger in my mind for long—lying isn't necessarily a bad thing.

"Because I care about you a lot." Lin said this while still observing Qianqi's reaction.

He wanted to send a signal through this sentence.

He had been keeping an eye on her, warning her not to do anything rash.

"Do you... care? Um... okay, you seemed to say the same thing last night." Qianqi was still a little unaccustomed to Lin's way of speaking. "But don't have any strange expectations of me. I'm very grateful for your help, but you absolutely have to go and take the camera back from my room."

Compared to before, Qianqi seemed to have lost some of her eccentricity, and it was unclear whether Lin's series of actions had made her completely fear Lin.

"Um."

Lin nodded; he never expected the cameras to constantly monitor Qianqi.

After that, the two of them didn't speak again and quickly went back to Qianqi's room. After entering, Lin Cong under the table and put it back in his pocket in front of Qianqi, who had a dark expression on her face.

Lin was about to leave when Qianqi called him back.

"Wait a minute, you said yesterday... that you wanted to hear me talk about my past today."

"..."

Lin did say that, but I was still a little surprised that Qianqi brought it up on her own initiative.

A strange feeling crept into his mind, but because he was a person whose thinking was dominated by rationality, this inexplicable feeling made it impossible for him to refuse Qianqi at this moment.

"First, you have to make sure you don't tell anyone else what you're saying."

"I promise."

Lin answered quickly, which made Qianqi puff out her cheeks. "You agreed too quickly! You didn't even think about it! That's so irresponsible!"

"..."

However, she misunderstood Lin. Lin always keeps his promises.

The speed at which he agrees is not a basis for whether he will keep his word.

"..."

"..."

The two remained silent for a moment. After a full fifteen minutes had passed on the alarm clock, Qianqi cautiously asked, "You..."

"I promise."

"Ah?"

"I've been thinking about this for fifteen minutes. After much consideration, weighing of options, and agonizing, I've decided to promise not to tell anyone about your situation."

That's a lie.

Qianqi's expression had completely turned to disdain.

This made Lin even more silent. Agreeing too quickly was wrong, and agreeing too slowly was also wrong. Why did this happen? He thought that there were already enough of these contradictory things with Mobius, but he didn't expect that Qianqi would be the same.

Is it possible that all women are born this way? Or is it that he is the one who is special?

"You're not being sincere at all! How about this, you tell me something important about yourself, and we'll exchange secrets, okay?" Qianqi put away her disdainful expression and tentatively asked helplessly.

"Okay," Lin replied without hesitation.

"It has to be the kind of person you can't tell a lot of people."

"This is about my birth..."

After Lin finished recounting his birth and upbringing, Qianqi's expression was incredibly complex.

She seemed to be debating whether or not to slap herself twice.

"...Although your experiences in the database were already outrageous enough, I didn't expect the hidden parts to be even more...sigh..." Qianqi sighed, "Well...this is indeed a secret that cannot be told to others."

"But I still really want to ask, do you really... really care about me?"

"Um."

This time, Lin wasn't lying.

He cared about everyone in the Moth of Fire, and you could even say he cared about everyone he saw and came into contact with.

This one sentence is absolutely not a lie.

"I think I know them..." Qianqi didn't finish her sentence. She seemed to have completely let down her guard, a smile on her lips. "You're really incredibly stupid. How could someone like you exist?"

"What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, it's just that you don't understand what it means when you say these things to someone of the opposite sex. Whether it's you, me, or anyone else, you're all being too self-centered."

Qianqi reverted to her proud hacker self, waving her hand dismissively. "You don't understand its meaning, others misunderstand the type of feelings you have, but I understand and won't misunderstand, I'm just still enjoying it."

"... What are you saying?"

"It's nothing, let's start talking about my past."

Qianqi's indifferent gaze filled her pupils as she looked at Lin and said, "Then, I have to admit one thing: all the information about me, including what the Fire Moth investigated, was deliberately fabricated by me."

"..."

Is that really the case?

"You don't seem very surprised? I think you should have already investigated me."

"Because those documents are too normal," Lin replied.

"Normal? No way. Compared to a normal person, what I write is already quite unusual."

"The best way to avoid being noticed is to be 'conspicuously ordinary'."

Qianqi's expression changed for a moment, but quickly returned to normal. "It seems you understand too. That's right. If a hacker is born into an ordinary family, it will definitely arouse suspicion, but if she has a difficult birth, it will seem ordinary. Just like the protagonist in a novel, the identity of an orphan is special compared to others, but it is commonplace and more convenient for the protagonist."

Lin recalled what he saw after finding Qianqi's information in the database last time, and considering Qianqi's own words about "conspicuous ordinariness," it was not hard to guess that the information was compiled.

Moreover, through this incident, he also discovered another thing.

Qianqi is conveying a certain signal.

"Are you a little surprised that I just told you this? But I'm different from you. I value emotions more than rational thinking."

Qianqi's smile looked desolate and lonely.

"If someone could set aside their rationality for me, I would definitely be moved to tears."

"After all, I'm a liar who's been lying from beginning to end."

"Even the name 'Qianqi' is fake."

These words were like a bombshell, but Lin remained silent, waiting for her to continue.

He remembered what Vill-V had said.

He doesn't trust anyone now.

The revelation of a lie does not mean that what lies inside is the truth; it may simply be another lie.