Chapter 14: Be Good, Tell Big Sister Who You Like?

Lu Yiyi was held firmly in that fragrant embrace, her head obediently resting against Xia Qimeng’s shoulder, her whole body going limp and sinking down.

That subtle cool fragrance mixed with cloying floral scent swept straight into her airways, easily dissolving all her defenses.

‘Set conditions?’

‘Miss Xia… what conditions does she want to put on me?’

Lu Yiyi’s mind was moving slowly.

Her thoughts soaked in warm water, too dizzy to turn.

She didn’t even have the strength to break free from the embrace.

She could only let the other girl’s arm stay around her waist.

“Relax.”

Xia Qimeng switched to that distinctive hypnotic voice.

Low, charming, captivating.

She whispered against Lu Yiyi’s ear, like a lover sharing a secret.

“My condition is very simple.”

Her long fingers lifted.

The pads of her fingers pressed against Lu Yiyi’s temples, kneading in slow circles.

“Yiyi is a good child who knows gratitude. Just now I helped you take care of those who bullied you, so from now on you can walk tall at the Paranormal Bureau.”

Xia Qimeng’s voice seeped into Lu Yiyi’s subconscious, bit by bit.

“You’d be happy to repay me, right?”

Lu Yiyi started to feel hazy again.

The scene before her grew misty.

Her vision couldn’t focus.

‘Miss Xia is right.’

‘She is someone who knows gratitude.’

‘Sister Zhang bullied her. Wang Li threw away her sandwich. All those people got what they deserved.’

‘All of this was thanks to Miss Xia having her back.’

‘She should repay in whatever way she could.’

“Yes, Miss Xia…”

Lu Yiyi answered purely on instinct, her voice so light it seemed to float away.

“I’m very willing to repay you…”

“Good.”

Xia Qimeng stopped kneading her temples.

She extended her index finger and tapped Lu Yiyi’s brow.

“Before the repayment, I want to get to know Yiyi a little deeper.”

She leaned down to look at the person in her arms.

Her eyes, a mix of black and color, reflected the girl’s dazed face.

“Yiyi has to answer all my questions honestly, okay?”

“Okay… answer honestly.”

Lu Yiyi uncontrollably fixed her scattered gaze on the finger pressed against her brow.

Her mind was empty.

All stray thoughts were swept away, leaving only absolute obedience to the voice before her.

She was now a blank sheet of paper, ready for the writer to fill.

“Hmm…”

Xia Qimeng’s fingertip slid down the bridge of her nose and stopped at the tip, giving it a light scratch.

“I remember you said you just became an adult this year, right?”

“Yes, I just turned eighteen last month.”

Lu Yiyi answered obediently, without hiding anything.

“Then why did Yiyi come to work at the Paranormal Investigation Bureau?”

Xia Qimeng asked her first question, stroking Lu Yiyi’s smooth cheek.

“Why aren’t you studying at university at this age?”

The containment room was very quiet.

Only the sound of the electronic clock ticking on the wall.

Under hypnosis, Lu Yiyi’s eyes were unfocused, and she recounted everything in a gentle voice.

“I underperformed on the college entrance exam…”

The girl’s voice carried a note of grievance, as if she had suffered some enormous setback.

She had always been near the top of her class in high school.

Her parents held high hopes for her, and her teachers all praised her as a future top student.

But on the two days of the exam, she felt inexplicably off.

Many questions she knew how to solve left her completely baffled.

She couldn’t even read the text on the exam paper clearly.

When the scores came out, she only made the cutoff for a first-tier university.

“I refused to go to an ordinary university, but I didn’t want to repeat the year either.”

Lu Yiyi pouted, tears welling in her eyes.

Going to an ordinary university wouldn’t sit right with her, and repeating her senior year was too exhausting.

She didn’t want to add anxiety.

Just then, the Paranormal Bureau was aggressively recruiting women to work as operators.

“Their recruitment was so strange.”

Lu Yiyi sank into her memories and told her about the interview.

The job posting said no education required, no work experience needed.

Only women.

Youth preferred.

Sweet-looking.

Gentle.

Patient.

Obedient to management.

The salary was also extremely high.

Benefits started from the day of hiring, with six insurances, two funds, and free lunch.

Work at the Paranormal Bureau meant dealing with all kinds of paranormal incidents.

Operators didn’t have to go out on field assignments, but they often received calls contaminated by paranormal energy.

Some calls, once answered, drove the operator crazy at best, or killed them in bizarre ways at worst.

They could even be sucked into ghost domains through the phone line.

High salary came with high danger.

The paranormal stage: if you’ve got the life, come on in.

“When I went to the interview, the interviewer looked at me and passed me on the spot.”

Lu Yiyi sniffled.

“He said I had a very pretty face, the type spirit masters like most.”

Hearing this, Xia Qimeng was a little surprised.

She stopped what she was doing and quietly studied the silly little thing in her arms.

Earlier, she had assumed that Lu Yiyi, a sweet, pretty girl in full bloom, had come to work in this godforsaken place because her family was poor, couldn’t afford college, and she had no other choice.

A brother with a serious illness, or a father with a gambling problem.

Selling herself to save her family.

That kind of story was common.

But then?

It turned out she only came because she underperformed on the college entrance exam.

She couldn’t swallow her pride, and she didn’t want to suffer through a repeat year.

So she came here to throw her life away.

Oh my.

What a little fool.

Xia Qimeng couldn’t help but laugh at her again.

Those old dogs at the Paranormal Bureau really had a unique way of recruiting.

Look easy to bully.

Run slow.

Obey management.

Isn’t that just selecting cannon fodder?

When they met a paranormal incident they couldn’t handle, they’d push out a girl with no background and no power to take the hit, or use her as a sacrifice to placate a contained entity.

Like yesterday, when Sister Zhang sent her to the seventeenth basement level.

That was exactly the plan.

Use one cheap new life to test the bottom line of a calamity-class spirit master.

If it succeeded, they could claim good command.

If she died, they’d just go through the process, pay compensation, and recruit the next one.

Xia Qimeng sneered inwardly.

Too bad the sacrifice they sent had become her cure.

She closed her eyes, rested her chin on the girl’s fluffy hair, and took a deep breath.

That milky, condensed-milk scent reminded her of the Want Want milk she drank as a child.

A bit childish, but strangely reassuring.

With each shared breath, the restless paranormal power inside her that had been tearing at her nerves for years grew gentler, lying quietly deep in her meridians.

Two years.

Since being locked in this cage made of pure gold, she had never felt such complete peace.

No sense of spatial dislocation.

No sharp noise in her mind.

Only the warm, soft, living body in her arms.

Once you experienced this feeling, you could never let go.

“Yiyi is so brave.”

Xia Qimeng pulled her thoughts back.

Her fingers slid up the girl’s pale neck and stopped at her small chin.

She gave it a light scratch, like teasing a cat.

Soft and tender.

Truly hard to keep her hands off.

“From now on, Yiyi will be my personal operator alone.”

Her voice was seductive, seeping into Lu Yiyi’s subconscious.

“You just need to be responsible for me, take care of me, and do the things I like with me.”

As she said the final sentence, Xia Qimeng leaned in slightly.

Her index finger pressed against Lu Yiyi’s brow, pushing down gently as an anchor to deepen the hypnosis.

The cool touch of her fingertip pierced through skin, hammering that overbearing, possessive command into the girl’s mind.

“You don’t need to care about any other troublesome things.”

Xia Qimeng leaned close to her ear, her breath as soft as orchid.

“You just need to stay by my side obediently.”

Lu Yiyi was soaked in the thick floral fragrance.

Her mind spun, too dizzy to move.

The cool sensation at her brow spread through her nerve endings.

She couldn’t think.

She couldn’t resist.

She could only follow her instincts and echo that gentle, seductive voice.

“Okay…” she murmured obediently, her eyelashes half-lowered.

So obedient.

Satisfied, Xia Qimeng withdrew her hand.

She then grabbed Lu Yiyi’s chin and forced her head up.

“Now, the next question.”

Her eyes, a mix of black and color, locked onto the hazy, big eyes.

“What about Yiyi’s relationships? Can you tell me about them in a bit more detail?”

Xia Qimeng slowed her speech, guiding patiently.

“For example, how is your relationship with your parents? How many friends do you usually have?”

She paused.

A sudden depth appeared in her eyes.

Her fingertip traced back and forth on the girl’s delicate cheek.

“And also… is there someone you’re dating, or someone you like?”

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