Edited by Noks and Qiuxue
The audition’s fifth round of testing was over. The off-site host once again came up onto the stage.
“Dear contestants, the judges sitting inside our monitoring room have been observing your performances since the beginning of the audition. Whether or not you can pass the audition and enter the preliminary round is dependent on their judgement.
“You have a 15-minute break now, while we wait for the judges’ discussion to be finished. Our Chief Director will come here with the result soon, and at that point, she will also reveal the images which were hidden behind the curtain.”
All of the contestants nodded their heads and then chose a corner to rest in.
A confident contestant said into one of the cameras, “I have been using my power continuously for two and a half hours, and my spiritual power has now been exhausted. I can only recover through meditation. Don’t surround me with cameras, it will disturb me. By the way, your test was not difficult at all. I could easily feel all of them.”
The mischievous technical producer immediately displayed this contestant’s prediction results to the people in the observation room.
He had guessed all five out of five wrongly. Could such a result be called ‘not difficult at all’?
Song Wennuan pointed to the man and said, “Out of a total 309 contestants who signed up, only 16 of them passed the audition, with 7 out of the 16 having guessed all the images correctly. It seems that the overwhelming majority of the contestants are still pretending to be psychic.
“What do they think they are? Do they really think that they can get their hands on one million just by depending on either luck or by cheating? This is a reality show which will be broadcast across the network. Aren’t they afraid of making a fool of themselves?”
The metaphysician Dr. Lin explained, “Miss Song, you might not know this, but in fact, the term ‘psychic’ itself is a very idealistic thing. Some people are born with the talent for it, while some become particularly interested in this subject, even though they do not possess any talent for it.
“After pursuing and exploring this subject for a long time, this interest will turn into experience for them. Even if they possess no innate talent for it, they will still start to believe that they too can be a psychic. In your opinion, these people are tricksters who are purposely making simple things seem very mysterious. But in fact, they do this because they truly do believe in their own ability, never even considering the idea that it may just be a figment of their fevered imagination.”
Song Wennuan nodded in response. “I understand. There’s a saying, ‘The highest level of deception is to deceive oneself.’ And that applies to these people, they’ve even deceived themselves.”
“Yes, that’s the case. That is why you must notice that most of these contestants, when they came to sign up for the show, displayed a very strong self-confidence.”
At the end of this discussion, Song Wennuan looked at her cousin and asked him the question that she was very curious about.
“Dr. Song, we all know that you are a world-renowned psychological expert. Observing and analyzing a person is what you excel at. Can you analyze these chosen candidates for us and rank them according to what you believe their strength is? Our staff will place the pictures of the contestants in front of you, and you can explain their rank and the reasoning behind your evaluation one by one.”
The staff quickly delivered the photos to the judges’ table.
At this time, all the monitors had been turned off, and so the people in the observation room could no longer see the events happening in the auditorium.
As he wiped his glasses, Song Rui recalled everything he had seen about Fan Jialuo so far. The other person seemed to have become even more mysterious than he had been the first time he had met him.
Moreover, his appearance had also changed.
It seemed as if the current Fan Jialuo had gradually emerged out of the original Fan Jialuo and had been refined to the point of having become a completely different person—a more beautiful but more detached person.
What will you look like the next time we meet?
As the thought flitted through his mind, Song Rui couldn’t help but frown.
Song Wennuan noticed that he was distracted and could only secretly step on his feet from under the table to bring his attention back.
“I can only draw conclusions based on my observations, and they’re not necessarily accurate.” Song Rui cut off his wandering train of thought and returned back to reality in an instant.
He took the stack of photos and scrambled their order before laying them onto the table. He then selected six photos and, one by one, explained each of his choices to the camera.
“This is Yuan Zhongzhou, a practitioner. Since he rings the bell every time he carries out his divination, I think his ability should be related to the auditory sense, and is similar to the way bats use ultrasonic waves.”
He picked out the photos of He Jinglian and Zhu Xiya and put them next to each other. “Their abilities are very similar. They both depend on their keen perception.”
He then placed Chongming and A Huo’s photos to the side together and said, “Their abilities are also very similar, one depends on the sense of sight, the other depends on the sense of smell. Note that the sight I’m referring to should be similar to that legendary X-ray vision, because Chongming’s answer only described the original image each time. He can accurately identify the primary subject of the photo, but can’t perceive the emotion that the photographer wants to convey through these images.”
Finally, he held up Ding Puhang’s picture. “His ability is something similar to mind reading. I am still observing how he does it.”
He reorganized the photos and continued, “This is my opinion of the contestants who showed real psychic ability. I still have doubts about the abilities of the other contestants. If I were to rank them, I would rank Yuan Zhongzhou in first place.
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.
“If you integrate and then analyze all of his answers, you will find that the scenes and emotions he is able to perceive are very grand. In some sense, he can even see the past and the future. Although I am an atheist, I have to admit to the existence of his ability.”
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“In fourth place is A Huo. In addition to being able to smell specific things, he can also discern the hidden emotions behind them. This kind of ability is similar to animal instinct, a phenomenon which occurs in nature as well.”
“Chongming ranks fifth. As I previously said, he can only see the appearance, but can’t sense the essence. His ability is very limited.”
“Ding Puhang is at the bottom of the list. He is just a speculator.”
Song Rui took a sip from his cup of water. It seemed that he was not going to explain any further.
However, Song Wennuan poked hard at one of the photos, asking, “Is your explanation over? Haven’t you forgotten someone?”
Song Rui glanced at her beautiful, long and sharp nails with a frown.
He pulled the photo away from under her fingertips, gently smoothed out the faint scratch that had been created, and then placed it on the top of the pile of photos.
He calmly replied, “It’s not that I forgot about Fan Jialuo, but rather that I don’t think that he’s on the same level as these people, and so, he can not be compared with them. His ability is beyond my understanding, I dare not speculate.”
The more he learnt about Fan Jialuo, the more soberly aware Song Rui became of just how arrogant and ignorant he had been when he had first analyzed this man in the police station.
If he truly wanted to see through this person, how could one or two meetings be enough?
Even spending ten or twenty years researching him would be futile.
Song Wennuan had never seen her cousin give such a high evaluation to anyone.
“And even you are not on the same level as him?”
She knew her cousin quite well. In his eyes, everyone in the world was dispensable, stupid and boring.
He had never put anyone in his eyes, let alone in his heart. His arrogance could be ranked number one in the world!
“No, I’m just an ordinary person,” Song Rui said naturally.
Song Wennuan was stunned at this reply, and stared at her cousin with widened eyes, unable to believe that such words had just been uttered through his mouth.
It was unimaginably difficult! It was really too amazing to have been able to make this seemingly modest—but in actuality, an extremely arrogant person—say such humble words!
“Do the rest of the judges have any differing opinions?” Song Wennuan asked, suppressing her surprise and turning to look at the other three judges.
“There is no doubt that Fan Jialuo is the strongest,” the three of them said in unison.
“But I think Ding Puhang can rank ahead of A Huo,” Dr. Qian objected.
“We also think that the strength displayed by Ding Puhang shows that he should be higher up in the ranking. He is even stronger than He Jinglian and Zhu Xiya,” Dr. Ouyang and Dr. Lin said, also adding their opinions.
Song Rui was no longer interested in the words of the other three judges.
He just continued to stare at the photo of Fan Jialuo that lay on the table.
The videographer quietly approached him to take a close-up shot of his facial expression, only to discover that he was not lost in thought, but simply in a daze.
The long and narrow eyes were condensed with floating light, focused and indulged, already shielding against everything except a certain photo.
Song Wennuan discussed with the three judges for a long time before deciding on the ranking of the contestants.
Then, as if awakening from a dream, Song Rui said, “Bring a few security guards with you when announcing the results. Contestants 12, 66 and 109 are easily susceptible to violence, and may go out of control. I won’t be going there. I’ll be leaving first.”
“Ah? You’re leaving?” Song Wennuan had no time to stop him.
The man had already left with the photo of Fan Jialuo. The image his back projected as he left was one of carefreeness and ease, of someone who was completely unaffected by his surroundings.
Song Wennuan had no intention to ignore his advice. So, while leaving the observation room, she brought along a few security guards as she headed downstairs to the auditorium to announce the result.
She asked the program staff to raise the curtain, then presented each of the five photos in turn.
“The answers have now been revealed. You should know whether or not you have passed the audition, right? Now, all of you can open the cards in your hands and look at the result. Those whose names are not written down have been eliminated. Those with their names written on the card, please follow me to the recording room next door.”
Seeing the beautiful and elegant Song Wennuan, Ding Puhang’s eyes suddenly sparkled, and he walked over gracefully, as he attempted to sell a favor.
“Beauty, you should pay attention to contestant 12—”
Before he could finish speaking, the contestants numbered 12, 66 and 109 had already started to make trouble.
One of them even pulled out a knife and sliced it against his palm, saying that he wanted to place a blood curse on the show.
They were not willing to accept the fact that they had been eliminated. They relentlessly insisted that the show was playing tricks on them. The five photos that had been shown just now must be false, and only what they had sensed was true.
Without her cousin’s forewarning, this sudden eruption of violence would have pushed Song Wennuan into a state of anxiety. Fortunately, she trusted her cousin very much and so had taken his warning to heart.
The security personnel she had brought along with her had long been lurking around these three contestants and so managed to immediately control them upon seeing the situation.
Ding Puhang angrily returned to his original spot and then glanced at the card in his hand, only to find that there was a ‘6’ in addition to the word ‘pass’.
What does this mean?
Fan Jialuo did not open the card he had been given. Instead, he simply stood up, brushed off the non-existent dust on his shoulder, and then silently walked out of the auditorium with Song Wennuan.
The three cameramen following him continued shooting him, not even daring to miss his profile, covering his front and his back, making sure to capture his every expression and every gait, and even every inadvertent movement of his eyes.
Numerous monitors installed on the stage truss also rotated, following along with his movement, and all of this made him the focus of all the people in the auditorium.
Most of the contestants who were able to enter the preliminaries possessed a keen sense of perception and were naturally aware of the disparate treatment that Fan Jialuo seemed to have obtained secretly.
However, their reactions to this were quite varied.
Yuan Zhongzhou was always immersed in his own world and didn’t pay any attention to others.
Zhu Xiya looked curiously at Fan Jialuo for a moment before shifting her gaze away.
Ding Puhang followed Song Wennuan the entire way to the recording room, keen to find any kind of opportunity to strike up a conversation, and did not care whether or not there was any camera focusing its lens on him.
On the other hand, Chongming, the ‘Taoist priest’, who should theoretically have been indifferent to fame and fortune, was the person most jealous of the treatment being given to Fan Jialuo and so glared at him several times in secret.
Fan Jialuo was walking along the crowded corridor, but the manner being exuded by his entire being made it appear as though he was walking in the empty wilderness.
He was a world in himself.
He Jinglian, who was still feeling intensely uneasy, even when being held by her mother, began to look at him frequently, and her eyes showed a conflict between struggling and longing.
A Huo was circling around Fan Jialuo, almost orbiting around him, and seeing that despite being ignored, the latter did not drive A Huo away, she finally extracted herself from her mother’s arms and staggered close to the man.
In an instant, the whole world seemed to quieten. Those noisy, cold, greedy, and jealous emotions disappeared completely, leaving behind only a comfortable feeling, like that of being near clear and warm spring water.
As she drew closer to Fan Jialuo, He Jinglian’s pale face returned to a ruddy color at a speed visible to the naked eye. She stepped forward to catch up with the dazzling youth, just like a star chasing the moon.
Her mother followed after her, calling out her name with a very anxious expression.
“Mom, you can go back. I’m much better now. I can do it myself. ” He Jinglian faced her mother and waved her hand while walking backwards with a relaxed smile on her face, one which even her mother had never seen before.
At this point, He Mu was being blocked by the staff from entering the recording room. After all, she was not a contestant and thus, was not qualified to participate in the filming of the show.
The thick door, overlaid with a sound insulation layer, was soon closed, and Song Wennuan then asked everyone to randomly choose their seats.
As soon as Fan Jialuo sat down in the last row, the two empty seats beside him were immediately occupied by A Huo and He Jinglian. Because they were too anxious, they even ended up bumping into each other on the way, almost starting a commotion.
It was not until then that Fan Jialuo finally raised his head and looked quietly at the 16 contestants who had been selected.
His deep eyes only skimmed over some of the faces, but he gazed at Yuan Zhongzhou and three other people for a long time.
Yuan Zhongzhou sensed his gaze almost immediately and suddenly turned back to catch sight of the face of the person staring at him— three young people sat in the back row, all of whom were very beautiful.
Two of them were full of vitality, and the other had a weak breath, there was nothing special or odd about it.
Yuan Zhongzhou retracted his sight, but his whole body was alert, and his heart was shaking uncontrollably.
He had only experienced such a feeling one other time in his life—the feeling of being watched by a large beast—and at that time, he was less than a tenth of a second away from death.
Fan Jialuo hooked up the corner of his lips and continued to observe the other people.
When his line of sight stopped on Chongming, his left eyebrow raised slightly, as if a little surprised.
Chongming was holding his card and talking to Song Wennuan, “Miss Song, what does this number mean?”
“Ah, this is your ranking,” Song Wennuan replied casually.
“Our ranking? According to strength?” From his tone, anyone could easily tell that Chongmin was obviously angry.
“Yes, we have ranked you according to your comprehensive performance. You are the seventh. Your score is pretty good,” said Song Wennuan as she sorted through the papers in her hands.
Chongming sneered, “Why did you rank us? Do you really understand our true strength? Who are the six people ranked ahead of me? Can you show me?”
Song Wennuan read out the names of the 16 contestants in order of rank, and everyone soon found out that the holder of the first place was Fan Jialuo.
The rest of the contestants began to whisper among themselves, showing unsatisfied expressions.
They firmly believed that Fan Jialuo’s successful entry into the preliminary round was only achieved by him taking the backdoor into the show and using his connections.
It was understandable. After all, the rest of the contestants were ordinary people, while only he was a celebrity.
His appearance and popularity could raise the ratings of the show.
But even so, they couldn’t just blatantly give him the best evaluation result! Such a result seemed too unconvincing to the contestants, let alone to the audience who would eventually see the show.
Weren’t they afraid of being criticized by the audience after the show was broadcast?!
The contestants voiced their protest toward the rankings one after another, and among them, Chongming was the loudest.
He was young and conceited. He was not willing to accept the fact that there were 6 people stronger than him, and even threatened to quit the show on this.
Ding Puhang also seemed to be dissatisfied. He stood up from his seat and was preparing to negotiate solemnly with Song Wennuan when something caught him unprepared.
His sight connected with a certain person’s eyes for a moment, and that left him thoroughly shocked and full of disbelief.
He could only close his mouth unnaturally, and then quietly return to his original position.
A few seconds ago, Fan Jialuo had carelessly cast his gaze onto the other. Although his attitude was casual, the piercing nature of his eyes did not weaken at all.
Ding Puhang’s cheeks kept twitching for a while, and the calm expression that he tried so hard to hold onto almost collapsed.
…
Hi, I’m back, hehehe… I took a short one week break and starting today hopefully will resume the release as schedule 
Oh, another note, if you see a weird and inappropriate comment please tag me on discord so I can delete it, or just report it on discord. I just saw it on my other project and it so eww…
Thank you lovelies
You can’t do anything about it, FJL is the best~
The cameraman that caught Song Rui looking at FJL’s photo lol
Thank you for the chapter!!! ❤️❤️
One week without this was absolute torture. I didn’t even know you took a break and I was so scared. Then I scavenged through the server and saw your announcement. Silly me haha
Anyway, I can’t wait for these people who doubt FJL’s ability to be slapped in the face!!!
Thanks for the chapter la ~~
Why are there always annoying and stupid people?? Shouldn’t they understand that everything is being recorded so it can’t be such a blatant favoritism.
thanks for the chapter.
FJL is just so kwoolll 😍😍
FJL really is in a different world. :0 But I’m really curious how the romance will progress in this. I mean, Song Rui is most definitely more than just very interested in FJL as a whole being, but it’s FJL himself that I’m curious abt 👀
Thanks for the chapter! 🙂
The two young ones circling around FJL was super cute. He’s like a calm oasis for them.
Thanks for the chapter <3
Lol yesss
my daily dose of serotonin 😌
FJL got 2 new kids and now he has three children 🙂
FJL is the moon that will shine on water and make everyone drown trying to reach its presence (not that I mind drowning for our king)
Thank you thank you!!
FJL its only a matter time until all the other contestants understand. I wonder how SR would react.. he does appear to have an obsessive personality.
Thanks for the update! And hopefully you can update as normal, but no pressure! Your health is a priority, so take breaks when appropriate.
I just binge read this! What an interesting story, thanks for the awesome translation!
I wonder if DPH can hear thoughts, so he may have been worried by not hearing anything? Like, if that’s never happened before it would be weird for him, or maybe he felt the one dude’s fear of FJL?
Only the young boy and girl have enough abilities to recognize Fan Jialuo’s True skills. Too Bad for the other cannon fodders.
Thanks for the chapter! And welcome back!
Ааааааа это конец ннеееееееет
I love how the only two kids automatically gravitated towards FJ. Like sure it’s because he has some kind of aura that makes it easier for them too, but the recurring theme of the big bad psychic attracting children everywhere is hilarious and adorable.
XD Super cute that A Huo and He Jinglian immediately attach themselves to Jialuo after figuring out his presence mutes their abilities XD
HAHAHAHAHA