Do You See It Clearly Now?

Like a pebble tossed into a pot of oil on the verge of boiling, the sound made everyone instinctively turn toward it.

The storage room door had opened at some point.

Lin Yang stood in the doorway.

He wore a wrinkled jacket, and his hair was a little messy from sleep, but he still stood tall.

Everyone's eyes snapped toward him.

The fat man's hand stopped in midair. He looked back at Lin Yang, annoyed at being interrupted.

"Who the hell are you?"

Someone's gaze fell on the storage room behind him.

"Damn it! You could hide someone in there!"

"This kid hid in there all night!"

"..."

Lin Yang didn't answer them. He took two steps forward. His gaze swept over the two bodies on the floor, then landed on the short man slumped there.

Finally, it settled on the knife in the fat man's hand.

"You can't kill him."

The fat man frowned, his lips curling impatiently.

"Who the hell are you? What gives you the right to stick your nose in my business?"

Lin Yang met his gaze, his tone calm.

"Because I'm the real seer!"

The moment he said it, the air in the classroom froze.

Everyone's gaze shifted in unison from the fat man to Lin Yang.

"What? You're the seer?" Everyone's expressions were complicated.

Some drew sharp breaths; others blinked. Shock, doubt, and a faint sense of anticipation mingled together.

It was as though his words were a bomb in themselves.

The flesh on the fat man's face twitched, and his eyes narrowed.

"What did you say?"

"I said," Lin Yang enunciated each word, "I'm the only seer here."

The classroom fell silent for two seconds before erupting into a clamor of discussion.

"He's a seer too?"

"Wasn't Zhang Lei the seer? How come another one's popped up?"

"Just how many seers are there? Didn't the broadcast say there was only one?"

"Obviously. Don't you get it? Zhang Lei was a fake!"

"Then is this one real or fake?"

"I don't know either. He might be a fake too..."

"..."

Lin Yang didn't rush to explain. He waited until the discussion had quieted a little before speaking.

"As soon as the broadcast came on yesterday, Zhang Lei stepped forward and impersonated me. If I were the real seer, what would you have done in my place?"

No one answered, but many people looked thoughtful.

Of course they'd have kept their heads down!

Lin Yang continued.

"The broadcast made it very clear that Facelings would pretend to be the seer too. I didn't know whether the one who stepped forward was human or ghost. If he was a Faceling, he might have been trying to force me out so he could kill me. So I chose to hide. I did it to protect myself, but today Zhang Lei died."

He glanced at the body on the floor, its face twisted.

"And you've started fighting among yourselves, so I have to step forward!"

His words were logical, his tone neither humble nor arrogant. Combined with the measured pace of his speech, they made him seem credible for some reason.

The murmurs in the crowd gradually shifted from doubt to hesitation, then from hesitation to a mixture of belief and doubt.

The fat man, however, sneered and kept his knife raised.

"You say you're the seer, so that makes you one? How do I know you're not another fake?"

He looked at the fat man, his gaze so calm it made people uneasy.

"Simple. I can tell you the results of my checks."

Lin Yang took a step forward. His voice wasn't loud, but every word drove itself into the ears of everyone present like a nail.

"The person I checked on the first day was Zhang Lei."

At those words, everyone's attention was drawn to him.

"Zhang Lei? You checked him?"

"What was the result? Was he a Faceling?"

Lin Yang shook his head, his tone certain.

"An ordinary person. My result showed he was an ordinary person."

A low stir ran through the crowd.

He didn't need to explain why he'd checked Zhang Lei. Zhang Lei had claimed to be the seer, so it was only natural for the real seer to check him.

"No wonder! By rights, he should have told us his check result after twelve on the second day, but that guy never dared to give us one!"

"I think... Zhang Lei was a fraud pretending to be the seer!"

"So that's how it was..."

Someone else asked, "What about the second day?"

"The second day." Lin Yang didn't give them much time to digest that. He raised his voice slightly, lifted a hand, and pointed straight at the fat man.

"I checked him."

It was as though a layer of air had been suddenly sucked away.

Everyone's eyes followed Lin Yang's finger and turned back to the fat man!

"He's a Faceling!!"

The fat man's face changed color several times within seconds, from red to white, then from white to ashen.

He instinctively pulled the knife in his hand back half an inch. His Adam's apple bobbed, and he roared as though someone had stepped on his tail.

"Bullshit! You're not the seer at all! I'm not a Faceling! I'm not!"

His voice was so loud the whole classroom rang with it. But Lin Yang noticed that the hand holding the knife was trembling.

He was panicking, scared to death.

Lin Yang didn't try to shout him down. He merely tilted his head slightly and asked in an almost innocent tone.

"How do you prove you're not a Faceling?"

The fat man opened his mouth, but couldn't get a single word out.

Lin Yang took a step forward. His voice wasn't loud, but he pressed him at every turn.

"Didn't you just say it was better to kill the wrong person than let one go? Didn't you say that those who accomplish great things don't concern themselves with trifles? You said those things yourself, didn't you? I haven't remembered wrong, have I?"

"I... I... This is different!"

The fat man's mouth opened and closed, and the flesh on his face twitched.

He wanted to argue, wanted to say something, but with so many pairs of eyes on him, the words he'd spoken so confidently just now seemed stuck in his throat. He couldn't get a single one out.

Lin Yang didn't give him a chance to catch his breath.

He turned and swept his gaze over every face in the classroom. His voice wasn't loud, but every word carried force.

"When he wanted to kill that short brother just now, he said it didn't matter whether someone was the seer or not. As long as they'd been pointed out,

it was better to kill the wrong person than let one go. And now he says it's different? What kind of logic is that?

You won't own up to the rules you set yourself when it's your turn? Aren't you just bullying an honest man?!"

After those last few words, the classroom fell silent for about three seconds. Then the crowd erupted in anger.

"That's right! You set the rules yourself, so you have to abide by them!"

"How do you prove you're not a Faceling?"

"..."

A few men stepped forward first, then more followed.

Their faces showed serious thought.

More than that, they showed the look of people grasping at their only lifeline amid fear.

Whether or not Lin Yang was really the seer, at least everything he said added up, and at least his logic was flawless.

As for the fat man, from the moment he'd raised his knife to kill someone, there had been no trust left for him in this group!

The fat man finally panicked.

He backed away until his back hit a desk, waving the knife wildly in front of him, its blade flashing coldly through the air.

"Stay back! Don't come near me! I told you I'm not a Faceling! He's lying to you! He's..."

Just as everyone was closing in on the fat man, preparing to kill him, Lin Yang finally spoke.

"That's enough! Stop."

Everyone froze. "What?"

"Do you see it clearly now?" Lin Yang looked at the fat man.