Edited by Qiuxue and Noks
The time plate had once again reset to 30:00, indicating that the photo for the third round of testing had been selected.
It was a picture of a blue sky in Turkey, with many colorful hot air balloons floating in the air. The city under this sky looked quiet and serene as it was being shrouded by the warm glow of the orange sunset.
Song Wennuan gradually realized that the larger the scope of the photo, the more difficult it was for the contestants to sense it.
These contestants stood in front of the black curtain with expressions of extreme confusion on their faces.
Of course, there would always be a few who thought that their ability was unquestionably superior to that of any others, and would turn and confidently announce their answers into the camera.
“It’s another beauty! This show seems to like beautiful women very much!”
“A flame, it’s a flame. I can feel the energy and the hot temperature. Can you see it? My face is burning red!”
“It’s a party. A lot of people are singing and dancing together.”
Song Wennuan continued to switch the feeds of the contestants appearing on the various screens, and watched the people who were unknowingly making a fool of themselves.
As she was about to change the contestant displayed on the screen in front of her cousin, the other party firmly pressed down on the hand of hers holding the mouse.
“Don’t change it.”
“Haven’t you gotten tired of staring at him all this while? Till now, he has just been sitting there, without even raising his head.”
Song Wennuan had rarely ever seen her cousin become so interested in a person, and this time, it was almost to the point of obsession.
He knew that all of his current actions would definitely be recorded by the camera and publicly broadcasted, but he didn’t care about it at all.
“Not tired.” What Song Rui didn’t add was that he had already edited all the clips from Fan Jialuo’s interrogation sessions and had brought them home.
In his spare time, he would stare at the other person’s fair white face illuminated and caressed by rays of bright light, and could even do so all day long.
He would carefully observe his every movement, every expression, even every blink of his eye. He would also carefully analyze his every sentence, every word, even every pause in-between, so as to capture any signs that might point to the subtle information that had been intentionally or unintentionally hidden.
How could he get tired of this? It was simply too interesting.
Song Rui stared at the youth displayed on the screen and sighed with satisfaction.
Song Wennuan gave up on switching the camera feed playing in front of her cousin, and instead went to observe the other promising contestants.
Yuan Zhongzhou had answered with—【Remote, vast, laughter and wonder floating in the air.】
Chongming—【Hot air balloon, city.】
Zhu Xiya—【Open, boundless.】
He Jinglian—【Quiet and far-reaching.】
A Huo—【The smell of dusk, a city full of fireworks.】
Ding Puhang— 【Hot air balloons are floating in the sky, and under the sky is the city shrouded in dusk.】
This time, even Song Wennuan felt that something was fishy.
She pointed at Ding Puhang and said, “He is indeed a little strange. His answer is always a combination of the answers submitted by all the other strongest contestants. But he rarely looks at the curtain, and he doesn’t make any gestures indicating that he’s sensing anything either.”
Dr. Qian seemed to appreciate Ding Puhang very much. He affirmed, “But you have to admit that he does possess some ability.”
“Yes, I admit to that.” Song Wennuan switched the screen to the camera feed of the last promising contestant, Fan Jialuo, only to find that he had already handed a black-and-white sketch over to the cameraman.
He could draw the very scene that others would describe using only vague language, and he could do so with his eyes closed.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Such crushing strength!” Song Wennuan sighed and shook her head.
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The judges were then shocked to find that all three of the pictures created a perfect overlap with their outlined sketches, it was as if one had been printed by using a color printer and the other through a monochrome printer, with both these versions bearing the same template.
“Seeing this will surely cause the netizens to blow up.” After seeing the perfectly overlapping images, Dr. Qian shook his head and laughed gleefully. “The faces of those netizens who continue to scold Fan Jialuo for hyping up his presence by using the term ‘psychic’ will be beaten hard, till their faces have swollen red.”
Song Wennuan subconsciously touched her face, her smile awkward. She seemed to fall into the category of being one of those short-sighted but self-righteous netizens.
Another half an hour passed, and the fourth round of testing also finished.
Fan Jialuo’s answer was still submitted in the form of a sketch. The entire bench of judges were already numb to his supernaturally brilliant performance.
The fifth round was about to begin, and the last photo was to be chosen by Song Rui.
He stared at the pictures that scrolled by on the screen too fast for the naked eye, and pressed the pause button just after two seconds into the scrolling process.
A black and white photo appeared on the projector screen behind the curtain.
Dilapidated buildings were hidden amongst clumps of trees, and vines were growing wantonly. There was a scorching bright sun hanging in the sky, but everything still looked so desolate.
“The abandoned nuclear power plant in Qatif!” Song Wennuan exclaimed.
Such an image was something the rest of the judges had not expected at all, and this surprise clearly showed on their faces.
The explosion of the Qatif nuclear power plant held an absolutely pivotal position in human history.
The power plant had blown up in an unprecedented nuclear explosion, and this explosion had razed a small city in Saudi Arabia on the spot, while also affecting two other neighboring cities.
On the day of the explosion, nearly 200,000 people had died. Furthermore, the number of people whose deaths were caused by the resulting radiation had not yet been counted. It was said that the number reached one million.
Since this disaster, the city of Qatif had been abandoned, leaving only the wreckage of abandoned buildings, slowly being reclaimed by nature, along with the wildly growing animals and plants that had been affected by nuclear radiation to remain.
It had become a hostile place that humans shouldn’t think to enter.
“This picture should be easily sensed right?” Song Wennuan guessed.
It was as she had guessed, for many of the contestants showed painful expressions as they stood in front of the curtain.
He Jinglian couldn’t even stand firmly and just collapsed into her mother’s arms.
A Huo pinched his nose, jumped three feet high into the air and cried that he was going to be choked to death by all the smoke.
Yuan Zhongzhou had, as usual, knelt on the ground, and tears could be seen streaming down his face when he straightened up.
Chongming’s expression, which had previously been declaring that he was holding the winning ticket, finally changed to one of doubt. He didn’t seem to understand what everyone was so ‘excited’ about.
Zhu Xiya sat down cross-legged and started to silently recite a mantra for the deceased.
Ding Puhang looked left and right, he didn’t show any signs of experiencing much of a mood swing in the way the others were.
They all wrote down their own answers.
Yuan Zhongzhou—【The God of Death wields a sickle and harvests this land. Human beings are the source of this disaster. Even if the vitality of the Earth is rekindled, everything will be different from before.】
He Jinglian—【Death. Dying in pieces, dying in an instant, or dying after years of torture!】
Zhu Xiya—【The spirits gathered in the sky in the form of dark clouds, and since then, an end to the footprints of living people has been put in place. This is a paradise for animals and plants, but a hell for mankind.】
Chongming—【Dilapidated buildings, lush jungle.】
A Huo—【Stinky! It’s full of stinky odors that I’ve never smelled before. It won’t go away for a few hundred years. I can’t breathe!】
Ding Puhang—【A catastrophe killed a lot of people, leaving only a dilapidated city. It cannot be rebuilt and can only be returned back to nature. It’s because of a nuclear explosion.】
Seeing this, several judges exclaimed, “The information leaking out of this photo is really strong, and all of them were able to sense it! Of all the contestants, it seems that only these few correctly managed to guess the content of all the five photos. A Huo’s prediction in the beginning has now become a reality, and these people will definitely reach the finals!”
Song Wennuan pointed to the screen in front of her cousin and said, “Wait a minute. Fan Jialuo hasn’t started writing yet.”
“Why hasn’t he started drawing yet? The structure of this image is very large, and there are many details in it. I’m afraid it will be too late if he starts drawing it now. There are only eight minutes left on the clock,” Dr. Qian said anxiously.
Naturally, the contestant he was most optimistic about was Fan Jialuo, and he felt that it must be the same for the other judges.
Sure enough, after realizing that not much time was left, everyone in the observation room also showed worried expressions.
Song Wennuan even ordered the technical producer, “Tell Fan Jialuo’s cameraman through the headset to remind Fan Jialuo to pay attention to the time!”
As soon as the technical producer agreed, Fan Jialuo started writing. The cameraman cut to a close-up shot.
However, to everyone’s disappointment, he did not draw a sketch of the image this time. Instead, he wrote four words in a cursive script—【Qatif nuclear power plant.】
The answer was concise and clear, and surprisingly accurate. It was still the best performance out of all the other contestants!
However, Song Wennuan, who was disappointed, sighed and said, “Why isn’t he drawing anymore? Has he run out of energy? Drawing four sketches in a row is really tiring, but then again, his sketching skills are really solid, even better than those of professional art students! Hey, who was the one who said that Fan Jialuo was a good-for-nothing in the past? These rumors on the Internet are really not credible at all!”
“Wennuan, he’s still writing!” Dr. Qian exclaimed.
“Close-up shot!” Song Wennuan ordered in a hurry.
On the screen, Fan Jialuo’s perfectly symmetrical beautiful face appeared, and this was followed by the image of his slender and fair white hand which had no thick joints in sight, it looked as beautiful as a work of art.
He wrote in a single stroke—【Glaciers under the aurora; a group of revelers; a vase of flowers in full bloom, with white roses, yellow roses, baby’s-breaths and hyacinths; a girl with blond hair and blue eyes; sheep grazing in the valley as the shepherd plays the flute.】
“What is this?” Song Wennuan repeatedly checked these words.
She was perplexed and disappointed to the extreme. “What on earth is Fan Jialuo writing? Is he trying to overturn his previous answers? Is he guessing blindly? Playing pick the right one out of so many answers?”
Dr. Qian wrung his wrist and said, “How can he drop the ball at such a critical moment?! This is already the last photo!”
Dr. Lin suggested in a roundabout way, “His thoughts may be a little confused. After all, other people used words to explain it, but he has been sketching till now. It is normal that he has consumed more energy than the others by now.”
Dr. Ouyang hastily added, “Yes, sensing so many details may consume a lot of his energy, so now his perception and sensing ability itself are facing problems. Young people are very strong, but this is not enough, his ability and performance are not stable enough!”
Song Rui stared at the youth being displayed on the screen. His set of his brows changed as they went from a tight frown to a relaxed one, until finally rising as he chuckled.
If it hadn’t been for the fact that his understanding of Fan Jialuo was a little deeper than that of ordinary people, he would also have probably thought that the other party was facing problems with his perception.
But that was impossible.
This person would not allow himself to be disturbed, he would not lose his momentum, and moreso, he would never do anything meaningless.
To him, his body was a temple. As long as the temple existed, his power would never be exhausted.
He possessed an extraordinary control over his body and his consciousness. He was a monster who couldn’t even perceive what tiredness would be like.
As Song Rui carefully recalled the sequence of events from before, a glint of light flashed in his mind, and then he sighed and said, “Let the technical producer replay the recording of when I pressed the pause key. I will explain Fan Jialuo’s answer to all of you.”
“Is he wrong?” asked Song Wennuan anxiously.
“He doesn’t make mistakes,” Song Rui replied decisively.
“Please replay the video from just now!” Soon, the scene of when Song Rui had selected the last photo appeared on the big screen. There were many pictures scrolling past on the screen in front of him in the recording, flashing with colorful lights. It was all so dazzling.
Song Rui had only paused for two seconds before selecting a photo. In these two seconds, several photos had flashed by and disappeared quickly.
It was absolutely impossible for the naked eye to capture even a hint of their exact content.
Song Rui squinted his long and narrow eyes at this replay and observed for a while.
Then he said to Song Wennuan, “Ask them to take accurate screenshots of the images that scrolled across the screen from the beginning until the moment I pressed the pause button. Each and every one of these images should be cut out so that they can be seen clearly.”
“What do you want? Technical Producer, did you hear what Dr. Song just said? Let’s take the screenshots,” Song Wennuan instructed into the headset.
The post-production staff quickly used the screenshot function to capture clear images of the several photos that had rolled by on the screen in those two seconds, and then enlarged these screenshots in high definition before putting them up on the main screen.
After seeing these images all lined up on the screen, Song Wennuan was dumbfounded, Dr. Qian was speechless and Dr. Ouyang and Dr. Lin repeatedly wiped their glasses, fearing that they were actually hallucinating.
Song Rui pointed to the five photos displayed on the big screen, and said slowly, “The image right before my selected pick is the first one, the glacier under the aurora; the second one, the one before the first one, is an image of a group of revelers holding beer bottles; the one before that is of a vase of blooming flowers. Song Wennuan, can you identify the varieties of these flowers?”
Song Rui asked this question without even turning his head to look at his cousin.
Song Wennuan replied with a palpitation in her heart, “White rose, yellow rose, baby’s-breath, hyacinth.”
Song Rui pointed to the other two photos and continued, “The girl with blonde hair and blue eyes; the sheep grazing in the deep valley and the shepherd who plays the flute.
“By the time I chose the last picture, Fan Jialuo already knew about all the pictures that had been scrolling past the screen before it. They were images which had only left a vague light and shadow in the short while that they flashed past my eyes.
“And you all know that there are millions of photos in this gallery, and our set-up is such that their appearance becomes random and unpredictable. Every time we restarted the selection for a photo, their order was completely disrupted.
“Even if we rewind the selection process by starting with the nuclear power plant, the five photos that will appear in the next two seconds will no longer be these specific five.
“Say, how did he do it? How did he perceive all the things that I saw, when even I didn’t know that these were the photos that had flashed past before my eyes.”
Song Wennuan, to whom this question was posed, found that the more she pondered on it, the more she felt her head start to ache.
Dr. Lin was a metaphysician. Naturally, he was very adept at accepting the occurrence of such strange events.
He couldn’t help but excitedly exclaim, “Fan Jialuo really is a psychic! His perception can explore the world infinitely, and can even predict every possibility that could happen in the future! This show has really been an eye-opener for me. I’m very glad that I agreed to your invitation, and thus got to witness this miracle with my own eyes! I must record everything that has happened today!”
“Incredible!” Dr. Qian leaned back in his chair as he continued to stare blankly at the five images on the screen.
The answers that Fan Jialuo had given were very brief, but what he had done was by no means ordinary.
He had taken a glimpse of the events taking place in the observation room whilst situated on a floor tens of meters high, which placed him that much farther away from them.
He was able to break through and view the secrets hidden behind the heavy curtain, and had even managed to obtain all the information contained in the image in an instant.
The millions of photos, the massive combination of laws, and the probability of one in a billion, all of it fell under his scope of observation.
What their naked eyes were observing, he could also see through their eyes. What their naked eyes could not observe, he would mobilize his own consciousness to see.
No matter what happened, no one could escape his perception.
How terrible such an ability was!
“The strongest psychic in the world must be him!” Dr. Qian asserted firmly.
Song Wennuan tried hard to calm the inner turmoil she was experiencing at this time, and it was only now that she finally came to understand the reason why her cousin, who was indifferent to everyone else, lavished so much of his attention on Fan Jialuo alone.
He was definitely the greatest mystery in the world!
Even if they approached him directly, or spied on him and analyzed him, they still wouldn’t be able to understand his existence.
…
Noks: Okay…SR’s fascination with FJL would be inching into creepy stalker behaviour if it happened to any other two regular people. Considering that one of them is a sociopath and the other is a not-alive non-human being, and that this story falls into the horror/mystery genre, it’s okay. …I think.
Qiuxue: +1, oh Song Rui… And, in which Fan Jialuo once again astounds everyone with his awesomeness, we confirm that Song Rui has jumped deep into the FJL pit, and a quick frame of puppy A Huo being cute~
Frozenmirage: Chill… the explosion is fictional… and actually I had a hard time to translate the place name LOL
Thanks for the chapter!
A-Huo really is cute! And damn, FJL never fails to amaze me! :0
Thanks for the chapter! 🙂
Loving this novel so much!
This SR is showing peeping tendency of ML from QWFOD….I am getting surer that he is ML.
FJL is so cool!!
Thanks for the chapter.
+1
Hum… What is QWFOD, please?
I feel like I know the answer but I can’t remember.
Thanks for the chapter!
Nevermind, I found it 😂
I love that story, and I completely agree!
indeed SR is our dear ML ❤❤
Song Rui became a bit of a stalker… But considering the situation it’s not that strange
FJL keeps surprising everyone!! Thank you for the chapter!!! ❤️❤️
FJL you didnt need to say what the other images were, but you did! For what reason? You can’t help but be the perfect puzzle for SR.
Thanks for the update!!
omg SR…his idol phase came late and now there is FJL XD
On another note, Im so curious abt what will happen when FJL and the ML are together. I mean, maybe there will be a new way of feeding dog food? Honestly FJL is such a new character to me I cant imagine his routes 😂😂😂thanks for the chapter!!
Thats true considering FJL isn’t technically human or alive and Song Rui is a sociopath. Plus this does fall into the horror genre, will it get more gruesome that this.
Thank you for the chapter
…I did forget he was a sociopath 🕯️🕯️
FJL is doing his very best to wash the floor with the netizens’ faces… got no chill
thank you for the chapter!
More A Huo please! He’s so cute.
What’s with the other guy?
I was meant to slowly catch up to this and yet I stayed up way too late the last couple of nights as I fell into the FJL pit. sigh
Thanks for the chapters! <3
Thanks for the chapter!!
If I saw Fan Jialuo’s tricks in real life, my first impression wouldn’t be awe, it would be fear. Humans always fear the unknown, but we cope with this fear by slowly unravelling it, only then will this fear subside.
And most of the people there have no idea who they’re sharing the stage with.
Aw poor Song Rui must share his special knowledge of Fang Fang’s psychic prowess with everyone now.
Since FJL can perceive all the things that SR saw, does that mean that he also knew that SR has edited all the clips from FJL’s interrogation sessions—and that SR would watch it whenever he has spare time…? LMAO
If after this someone still dares to say that my dear mc is a swindler I will personally turn them into fish fodder
So tell me why he choose to do this only when it was SR’s turn to select a picture 🤭😏
👏😍😂