Dude, something's really wrong with your abilities.

Chapter 14 In the Laboratory

Just as Chen Shi arrived at the door of the technical laboratory, the door was suddenly pulled open from the inside.

Zhuang Wenzhan grabbed his arm and dragged him inside, his strength far exceeding that of a technician who sits in an office all year round.

After Chen Shi regained his footing, the first thing he smelled was a pungent odor. It was the smell of instant noodles, instant coffee, and the burnt smell of wires from some kind of instrument that had been running for too long. These three smells mixed together to create the unique odor of a mad scientist.

Then he saw a dirty and messy laboratory.

A pile of paper cups lay on the table, most of them dried out at the bottom, and a pen was soaking in one of them. An instant noodle cup sat next to the keyboard, with a pair of disposable chopsticks on top of it. The chopsticks were broken, but the noodles hadn't been eaten, as they were already lumped together.

Various printed data charts were scattered on the ground, some with shoe prints on them. On the table closest to Chen Shi, there was a sticky note that read "Third Experiment in Data Analysis of Old Analyzer".

Zhuang Wen's appearance was even worse than his lab's. His hair was greasy and shiny, clinging tightly to his scalp, with only a tuft sticking up at the back of his head, as if it had been hit by a cannonball. His gold-rimmed glasses were also fogged up, displaying a rainbow-like color under the light. One button of his shirt was fastened incorrectly, and the whole shirt hung askew on his body, revealing a section of gray thermal underwear at the collar. His eye bags were also heavy, as if he hadn't slept in a long time.

Chen Shi stared for two seconds, unsure whether he should laugh or not.

Zhuang Wen muttered to himself, flipping through a notebook, turning a couple of pages and closing it, then opening it again. He exuded the dejected air of a graduate school entrance exam underachiever in the final stretch—the kind of person who no longer cared about his appearance, only wanting to solve the problem.

Then Chen Shi saw another person standing in the corner of the laboratory.

Sun Tiemei.

She was wearing a light trench coat, standing ramrod straight, holding a tablet issued by the management bureau. The screen was lit up and hovering over a certain page. Hearing Chen Shi's voice, she looked up, her gaze sweeping over him from head to toe.

"Team leader?"

"Zhuang Wen sent me." Sun Tiemei flipped the tablet over and placed it face down on the table. "Two hours ago, the patrol team conducted a surprise interrogation of a suspect in the mall. Their initial assessment is that he has mental issues. Facial recognition revealed his name to be Zhao Zhiqiang, 34 years old, unemployed. His ability is strength-based, but his specific abilities still need further clarification."

She paused.

"His strength indicators continued to decline during the transport, and by the time he arrived at the station, they had fallen below normal levels. Toxicology tests were negative, and he had not taken any banned substances."

"No banned substances used?" Chen Shi asked.

"No," Zhuang Wen replied, opening the notebook in front of him, which was filled with dense writing. Some parts were circled, some were marked with stars, and one page had been torn out and taped back on. He flipped through a couple of pages, looked up at Chen Shi, and his eyes, which were surrounded by dark circles, were now very bright.

"During your interrogation of Wei Sheng, the target's heart rate variability coefficient first jumped 47 seconds after you entered the room, corresponding to the dialogue point when you asked him if his tattoo was long or permanent. However, his skin conductance response didn't enter a significant fluctuation range until you asked about the ivy. The time difference between these two physiological indicators is........................"

Zhuang Wen suddenly stopped speaking at this point.

Because Chen Shi was looking at him. Zhuang Wen recognized that expression. He knew that expression from most people in the bureau when Chen Shi was giving them technical analysis.

It's like Wang Jianlou being taken to a planetarium. He sees stars everywhere, but can't understand a single one.

"Chen Shi?"

"Teacher Zhuang," Chen said sincerely, "I recognize every single word you just said individually. But put them together... I'm sorry."

Zhuang Wen felt helpless. He took off his glasses, wiped them with the corner of his shirt, and put them back on. He looked at the notebook filled with technical terms in front of him, and then at Chen Shi's incredibly honest face. Between these two things lay a deep chasm called knowledge.

Okay. I'll rephrase it in a way you can understand.

He slowed down his speaking speed by three levels.

"After Wei Sheng finished talking to you, his passive defense disappeared. Old Yuan's sense of danger was rendered useless by your few words. Today, Zhao Zhiqiang's ability to lose control began to slowly weaken after he met you. Three people, three completely different abilities, the same result: when they encounter you, they either disappear or diminish."

He leaned forward, looked at Chen Shi, and said, "When you were confronting Zhao Zhiqiang in the mall, did you sense anything unusual?"

"Nothing special happened. He was talking mechanically, repeating himself over and over. I just felt that he was very scared..." At this point, Chen Shi suddenly froze. Why could he sense that the other person was scared?

The word "fear" suddenly appeared in his mind, as if it had appeared out of thin air. It wasn't a deduction based on the other person's words, because there was no process involved. To give an analogy, it's like seeing a question on an exam, not even calculating it, and the answer appears on the paper by itself.

Chen Shi told Zhuang Wen about this idea, and Zhuang Wen stopped writing.

When that answer appeared in your mind, in what form? Words? Images? Sounds?

Chen Shi thought about it carefully. "No, it's not that. It's just that feeling of suddenly understanding. It's that instant when you understand something, but there's no process of 'understanding.' It's like the answer just walked in on its own."

Zhuang Wen put down his pen.

"You're talking about empathy. And not just ordinary empathy, but instantaneous empathy. With ordinary people, empathy requires the other person to make an expression or speak first before you can feel it. Your order is reversed. You grasp the core of the other person's emotions first, and then you know what you know."

He turned to the previous page of his notes.

"Besides this feeling, did you see anything else in the mall?"

Chen Shi remained silent for a long time.

"Light."

Zhuang Wen and Sun Tiemei looked at him at the same time.

"Everyone had a light above their head. Zhao Zhiqiang's was dark red, swirling around. The two security guards' were gray, flashing intermittently. The little girl being held hostage had a light pink, very thin and pale, and was constantly trembling. Pang Daqiang's was gold, very thick, but I didn't see any light above the heads of the other customers in the mall."

He paused for a moment.

"Dark red represents fear and pain mixed together. Pink represents unease. Gray represents tension but not panic. Gold represents stability. This correspondence has no process; it's like a traffic light. When we see a red light, we know it means stop."

Zhuang Wen's pen fell onto the table. His hand was trembling slightly, a hint of excitement in it.

"You just said you didn't see light from the other people in the mall. What about those people who were farther away from you?"

"right."

"That means there is a range."

Sun Tiemei spoke, her voice as calm as ever: "You saw it in Zhao Zhiqiang and that little girl. They were closest to you. You only saw Pang Daqiang's light after he rushed in. The security guards were the same; the closer you are, the clearer your perception."

"Less than ten meters." Zhuang Wen drew a line on the paper, then looked up. "Look at me, what's your first impression?"

"You haven't washed your hair for at least three days."

Zhuang Wen was momentarily speechless, then glared at Chen Shi.

Chen Shi smiled and stared at him for a moment. Nothing. He then looked at Sun Tiemei. Nothing there either.

"no."

"Think back to what happened in the mall. What were you thinking at the time?"

Chen Shi closed his eyes. The mall's dazzling lights, the knife, the curve of its blade against Tang Xiaoguo's neck. Zhao Zhiqiang's empty eyes, devoid of any depth. He stood less than five meters from the knife, utterly helpless. Jokes were useless. Shouting was useless. Rushing forward wasn't fast enough. He had never felt so useless before.

"It's despair." He opened his eyes. "A feeling of powerlessness, like you can't do anything."

"Then try to get back into that state now," Sun Tiemei said.

Chen Shi nodded.

He tried to fill in the blanks in his mind. Not recalling the shopping mall, but recalling that moment of despair.

On the empty track, he trudged along, barely managing to stay awake. Sun Tiemei stood on the inside of the track, the stopwatch in her hand reflecting a cold light. "Nine thousand two hundred meters left. If you can't finish, just keep running." She wasn't threatening him, nor was she trying to scare him; she was simply stating a fact.

In the cafeteria, the lady serving the food gave everyone ahead of her an extra half-spoonful. When it was his turn, the lady's spoon trembled.

The security guard at the gate always checks his ID. He asked why he didn't check others. The guard said it was because he ran too slowly, so he was the most suspicious.

His fingers began to tremble slightly. Not from the cold. It was this feeling, this bitter and astringent pain, a mixture of despair and shame.

He opened his eyes.

Above Sun Tiemei's head was a ball of white light, so pure it was almost transparent. At the very center of the white light was an extremely fine vacuum, not a crack or a gap, but a tiny, transparent space, the size of a pinhead, encased within layers of white light. It was completely invisible unless one looked very closely.

Above Zhuang Wen's head was blue, with blue orbs of light constantly jumping and changing shape, turning into bands of light and then back into orbs.