Proof (Continued)

"..."

It was so quiet that the only sound was their breathing, and then the other person's smiling face appeared before them.

"Hehe, so cute."

Before Yan Luo could react, a soft touch flashed across his lips.

"A kiss that just touches lips doesn't count as a first kiss~ and a girl's kiss doesn't count either!"

The other party fled like lightning before Yan Luo could unleash his power, leaving the remaining words floating in the air.

"Remember to come to the banquet!"

Yan Luo silently stood up, sighed, picked up her coat, and felt around in her pocket...

"..." She stared blankly at the empty, unclosed gym door.

My lollipop was stolen.

"You really can sleep well."

Lin was awakened by the cold night wind. He shivered and woke up from his deep sleep, seeing a head of silver hair dancing in the faint starlight.

"Time is almost up."

Yan Luo kept his eyes fixed on the clock above his head, where the hour and minute hands were about to coincide at the top again, signifying that the next twenty-four hours would soon begin.

Lin gasped for breath, leaned against the wall to stand up, her tongue still burning with pain; just having it in her mouth was torture.

Even Lin couldn't get used to this kind of pain. The intensity was nothing compared to what he had suffered before, but it was still unbearable.

"Will the next one be a hundred years or a thousand? But it won't make much difference, will it?" Her gaze shifted to the right, landing on Lin's face as he stood up. "What do you think?"

"..."

"..."

"... You didn't make a wish last time, did you?"

A low-pressure night wind blew in from the distant horizon. Lin gazed at Yan Luo's long hair fluttering in the wind. He knew she would answer any question, but how much she said and whether it was the truth depended on her.

Lin carefully recalled how she looked after failing to make a wish at home. There was a sense of familiarity. Later, he found a similar part in his memory, which was that Mobius would occasionally show that kind of look and expression.

Outraged and humiliated by the resentment of having one's lie exposed.

But no one noticed she was lying at that time; it was she who realized she was lying.

She couldn't bring herself to wish for those two people to disappear. Even when he tried to stop her later, she could have easily snapped their necks before dealing with him, but she still let them go.

So... she's angry with herself.

"So what? I can only be ruthless with you." She was quite calm, turned around, and tucked the hair that had blown in front of her behind her ear. "If you feel it's unfair, I don't care. This is just the kind of person I am, and this is the only way I will treat you."

"No... I mean, why don't you try making a wish and bring the people of this world back?"

"... Why? Their demise is their inevitable fate."

"If you truly believed the future was unchangeable, you wouldn't be hunting me down."

"..."

Yan Luo clenched her fists, lowered her eyelids, and stared intently at Lin, who was looking up.

"It's not that it can't be changed, it's that the only way is to kill you..."

"Then you can also wish for me to disappear."

"Why do you believe that you can get what you want by using that nonsensical monkey paw!" Yan Luo pointed at Lin, as if he would rush over at any moment. "Do you think that you can get what you want just by believing without reason? Doesn't your wish prove that it is wrong?"

"... proved."

Lin and Yan Luo looked at each other calmly. He gazed into her pure black eyes and breathed softly. "It proved my mistake, my selfishness. Just like you said, I didn't follow my own principles as I said I did. I want the people I lost to come back, I want to go back to the past, I want... a completely different future."

"It's best if you know it yourself."

Yan Luo turned away again, no longer looking at him.

His eyes were too clear.

"So it also proves that you're not as indifferent as you claim, that you're willing to give up without even trying?"

"I've tried countless times," Yan Luo, suppressing a shout from his throat.

"Then let's try again."

"This makes no sense."

"You said I was special." Lin stepped forward. "Does that mean nothing?"

"I've already seen the future of another 'special forest.'" Yan Luo's breathing was erratic. "Who else do you want me to believe?"

"Believe in yourself, believe in... hope."

A voice echoed in my mind, along with her flawless smile, "One day, I will prove it to you."

"Okay, I'll trust you one more time."

Finally, the emotions in her eyes calmed down, and then she took the monkey's paw out of her bosom.

As time went on, the monkey's paw returned to her hand, seemingly determined to grant her wish.

"If it doesn't happen..."

She glared angrily at Lin.

I'll bite your tongue off.

"Ding-dong."

The bell tolls, and another cycle begins.

Special Feature: Assassins and Academic Research (Part 1)

"Code name: Yan Luo, commence infiltration operation."

"Mission confirmed: Rescue designated target."

"It is expected that they will arrive at the designated location after 1930, avoiding contact with civilians."

An uninvited guest has arrived at the shrine today.

A woman dressed in a jet-black stealth suit that perfectly accentuated her curvaceous figure pressed herself against the sliding door of the shrine, her head-mounted thermal imaging device searching for the location of the people inside. She quickly found them.

The three people, all in the innermost bedroom, had relatively high body temperatures...

What does it taste like?

The woman sniffed the indescribable smell in the air and frowned, feeling somewhat uncomfortable.

Do they still plant photinia in shrines?

The strong smell made her think that the shrine was full of photinia flowers, but the problem is that it is not the season for photinia flowers to bloom now.

However, for her, getting used to this taste was a piece of cake. If she couldn't even stand the taste, what kind of assassin would she be?

Because the mission was a rescue operation and the employer had specifically emphasized avoiding contact with civilians and unrelated personnel, the woman found a secluded spot and waited for the people in the room to come out.

About half an hour later, there was finally a change in the room. Two people came out of the room, and she quietly climbed onto the roof to eavesdrop on their conversation to confirm whether they were the target she was looking for.

"Sister, is this really okay? Brother Lin seems to be in a lot of pain..."

"Rin, I didn't hurt or abuse him like others did, and besides, didn't you do the same..."

The two girls, the woman's target was the man, so she stopped paying attention to them and quietly slipped into the darkened room.

The moment she stepped into the room, a cold male voice rang out. "Isn't today enough? I'm already exhausted."

When the woman walked in, Lin realized that she was not Sakura. The woman was wearing a tight-fitting suit that allowed her to move around easily, and she was also wearing a very professional thermal imaging device. It didn't seem like something that would be found in the simple and honest folk culture near the shrine.

"Who are you?" Lin asked cautiously, moving slightly away from the woman; he was now really allergic to women.

Compared to those nightmarish and hellish months, the month and a half at the shrine was slightly better. Sakura and Rin were indeed much better than Mobius and Prometheus. At least they knew what restraint was and wouldn't deprive him of rest from morning till night. They were also much gentler and didn't take from him one-sidedly.

But that's only "relative to"!

No matter how gentle Sakura's whispers were, no matter how softly Rin called him "brother," he was still bound here, and to put it bluntly...

He's the one on the bottom, not the one on top!

"You who came to save you, now shut your mouth."

Without offering any explanation, the woman grabbed Lin by the collar, hoisted him onto her shoulder, and left through the door without waiting for his response.

And when Sakura and Rin discover that their good brother, good friend, and good "beep" is gone, it will be tomorrow morning.

"You stink! Why do you smell so strongly of heather? Don't you ever shower?"

Pushing open her temporary residence, Yan Luo irritably threw Lin to the ground. She raised her delicate nose and sniffed the scent on her hands. Although her face was expressionless, her eyes revealed her displeasure.

"Heh... I'd like to take a shower..." Lin lay on the ground with a sigh, "But they only shower once a day, and then they shower again the next day, so they'll definitely have a strong smell on them..."

Yan Luo sighed. Why did she have to come and save this guy? Was this employer alright?

On the other hand, what kind of person is he that would make people pay such a high price to find and rescue him?

Thinking of this, Yan Luo casually turned on the light and looked at the person lying face up on the ground.

Lin also looked up to see who the guy who had rescued him was.

"..."

"..."

After about two minutes of silence, the same thought popped into their minds—this guy is so cute.

Lin was quite confident in his appearance, and after experiencing so much, he was even more confident. He always felt that almost no one could be more perfect in appearance than him, but today, seeing this girl actually made him subjectively feel that her appearance was about the same level as his.

Her long silver hair, in particular, is a big plus.

But!

Lin swallowed hard and pulled his hands and feet back.

But now he has absolutely no desire to have anything to do with women. He can no longer figure out whether it's a problem with his friendships or something else, but they all seem to be acting like a chain reaction, as if they want to swallow him whole.

He should stop contacting women; if all else fails, he'll become a monk.

After the silence ended, Yan Luo had originally planned to take a shower to wash off the smell, but now she plopped down in front of Lin and asked seriously, "Your name is... Lin, right?"

"..."

"I am a kind-hearted person hired by someone to save you. You can call me Yan Luo."

"... Who is it?" Lin asked cautiously, searching his mind for names, praying that it wasn't Mobius or Prometheus.

"I don't know who He is."

"..."

Lin's mood plummeted. He had twice escaped one danger only to fall into another, which led him to develop a habit of silence, so that talking too much would arouse their "interest".

"Lin." Yan Luo's expression was exceptionally solemn and dignified, making Lin immediately realize that she was different from the others.

"Actually, I'm a biology graduate student in the Far East. The moment I saw you, I thought of a research topic I've been working on recently. As we all know, human behavior affects the release of adrenaline and dopamine in the blood, but there are no reports on the changes in the concentration of adrenaline and dopamine released by different social behaviors. So I'd like to study with you the secretion of adrenaline and dopamine when we eat together, take a walk, and hold hands."

"Using the secretion levels during daily life as a reference group, I believe this work will provide guidance for future research on the molecular biodynamics of people's social behavior. After I finish it, I will add your name to the project, which will be more helpful for your future academic career. I can also complete the targets and submit my work to academic journal columns to earn research funding, and I can share a portion with you at that time."

After listening to her words, Lin stared coldly at her, his eyes now frozen with ice. His lips trembled slightly as he said:

"I get it, you want to fuck me, right?"

Special Feature: Assassins and Academic Research (Part 2)

"Go wash yourself."

Yan Luo casually tossed the towel, still smelling of shampoo, aside, stretched, and crawled into bed, the light from her phone screen shining on her face.

Lin, with a bright red handprint on her face, walked expressionlessly into the steamy bathroom and began to wash away the smell from her body.

I got hit.