"Scumbag."
"My will is the edge of her blade. If dying could raise Ling Qi's place in my heart, she would not hesitate. I understood her, so I fulfilled her wish. From today on, she will live in my heart forever. But you, Jing Shu, you are cold and detached. What is the point of your life?"
Lin Yi moved with unhurried poise, pressing in on Jing Shu. She felt herself about to fall into his rhythm at any moment.
Hypnosis that depended on props and cooperation was the low tier. A hypnotist like Lin Yi only needed to speak. His voice carried a strange power that drew people into a mysterious state where, after listening to him, they would have no idea what they had done.
No wonder he could walk through danger without fear. Jing Shu finally understood why, in the previous life, Zero had been an ordinary man who was captured many times yet always managed to escape.
Of course, his hypnosis had limits. He could not easily use it in crowds or noisy places. That was probably how Yang Yang had captured him with a team before.
Whether it worked on the deaf was hard to say. A good hypnotist could also lay the groundwork ahead of time.
This was a showdown between a master hypnotist and the illusions of the Rubik's Cube Space.
Jing Shu tried several times to seed him with false perceptions and illusions to sway his decisions, but each attempt failed. Meanwhile, Lin Yi's usually unstoppable hypnosis had been greatly blunted here and was outright resisted.
"What a nuisance," Lin Yi finally said, giving up on hypnotizing her. "I really like it here, you know. I liked chatting with Grandma."
"You are out of chances." Jing Shu had barely finished when surprise flashed in his eyes. He collapsed with a thud. She stepped forward and found a small trigger button in his pocket.
After studying it for a while, she figured out the trick. Press the hidden button first, then walk to one specific floor tile. It would turn into a suspended trap. Anyone stepping on it would vanish in an instant, and the tile would immediately reset, never to open again.
It was the same mechanism as the one beneath Xishan. An escape device.
So that was it. The switch was on him. No wonder she could not find anything in the basement earlier. He had intended to use the same routine as Fei Zhuzai, and she had almost missed it. Dealing with people like this was exhausting. One moment they were bluffing or pleading, the next they were slipping away to freedom.
If Lin Yi had blended into the crowd, even a door-to-door sweep of Banana Community would have been a needle in a haystack, especially with people secretly shielding him.
Seeing he could not hypnotize her, he had been about to bolt. He was a psychology major after all, trying to keep hypnotizing her to divert her attention, making her think he had some ultimate move.
Thankfully, Jing Shu stayed sharp. Without spooking him, she sprinkled knockout powder she had collected at the wedding of her Paternal Eldest Aunt's son, when robbers had used it there. She released it from her space. Lin Yi's attention was fixed on her, and in the dark room he could not see the drifting powder. A few seconds later, he went under.
"Wake up." Jing Shu patted the wooden-statue-like Yang Yang. No response. She layered powerful suggestions from the space's illusions several times before he snapped back. "What happened? Where is Zero?"
She rolled her eyes and explained. Yang Yang pressed his lips in a tight line. "So that is it. No wonder the last incident felt so muddled. But how did you avoid being hypnotized?"
He looked at her with suspicion. Even after all this time, he still could not see through her. Jing Shu was a mystery, always full of new surprises.
"I have strong mental fortitude and a stubborn will. Even Zero was shocked he could not hypnotize me. Look, he even tried to run."
Yang Yang pulled out handcuffs, an electric ankle shackle, tape, and more. He bound Lin Yi from head to toe and sealed his mouth. "Let us see how he hypnotizes anyone when he cannot speak. This time we will not let him escape. Now that we know his secret, we can guard against it. He is out of tricks."
Jing Shu had not expected her involvement to change Zero's fate so drastically. In the previous life, it had taken years before he was caught, and even then no one knew his ability. Zero had guarded this secret for many years, using hypnosis with extreme caution. He had not expected it to fail against her.
Still, curiosity pricked at her. Zero had said there was one other person he could not hypnotize. Who was that, and what was special about them?
Whatever the case, Zero was finally taken down. The thorn in her heart was pulled. From this moment, she was done with the Shading-the-Heavens organization. No more hitting the small fry to summon the elders, then the ancestors.
"When will he be sentenced to death?" she asked.
"I don't know. If we follow procedure, a week or a month maybe. But," Yang Yang lowered his voice, "he probably will not die that easily. He stole data from China and even core data from the United States. He knows too much. They will have to make him talk."
Every minute this man stayed alive made people's hearts pound with dread.
"Update me if there is any news."
"Will do. You are owed a first-class merit for this. Interested in joining our First Unit? Wang Dazhao just got another promotion. He says he needs to climb faster to meet your standards."
"I just want to enjoy life in my villa. If you find something good, call me."
Yang Yang left with the unconscious Lin Yi. His stockpile was confiscated too. Jing Shu would not touch it, afraid of hidden surveillance.
The troops withdrew from Banana Community. Li Yuetian had Jing Shu sit for a bit to take her statement, then, seeing she was in poor shape, sent her home. "Alright, come record the full statement when you are feeling better."
Before dinner, Su Mali sent a message. All fifty or sixty of Lin Yi's people seen in the underground casino—alive or dead—had been found and brought to justice. She also reported the day's losses.
As for Su Mali's father, the gas cylinders were the least of it. More than thirty people had died. It turned out that when they went into the underground passage to look for Su Mali, a group ambushed them in secret, swapped into their clothes, and went topside to blow gas tanks and sow chaos. Those saboteurs were all killed.