A Manual for Surviving a Weird World

Chapter 375 Telepathic Understanding

Ning Zhe casually typed a tentative message on the upgraded network and waited for Tu Yu's reply while opening his notebook to check if Xia Yubing was still alive.

Turning the notebook to the latest page, two lines of text came into view:
No need to reply, I'm just reminding you of something.

You must remember Bai Fugui; never forget him.

"...Did I write those two sentences?" Ning Zhe frowned slightly, remained silent for a moment, and then suddenly smiled with relief.

To distinguish their writing in the same notebook, Ning Zhe and Xia Yubing always used different colored pens: Ning Zhe used black, and Xia Yubing used blue.

The two lines of text on the notebook are indeed in black ink, and the strokes are exactly the same as Ning Zhe's own handwriting. Even the most professional handwriting expert might not be able to identify anything unusual.

If Ning Zhe didn't have absolute confidence in his judgment, he might even think that he might have written those two sentences himself, only that his memory of writing them had been deleted by Fenwu—just like his memory of Ji Bochang pouring out tea leaves and washing teacups had been deleted.

This kind of thing has happened before, so it's reasonable for it to happen again now.

Thinking of this, a chill ran down Ning Zhe's spine.

"If this sentence was written by Fenwu..."

Ning Zhe gently traced the Chinese characters on the paper with his fingertips, muttering to himself, "If my fear of the Tai Sui causes me to lack confidence in my own memory and cognition, and thus creates the illusion that 'this line of text might have been written by me'..."

If that kind of thing really happens, then at this very moment, Taiyi's rules have been triggered, and Fenwu has now obtained the identity of 'Ning Zhe in Ning Zhe's perception'.

This perfectly illustrates the common sense that has been repeated countless times on the Ascendant Network: the moment an Ascendant's core rules are exposed, he is already a dead man.

Ning Zhe's lips curled into a dangerous smile: "It's a pity you ran into me."

He didn't know how Fenwu had discovered the core rules of 'Taiyi,' nor how Fenwu had so accurately grasped Taiyi's weakness in such a short time, launching such an extremely dangerous test against him with just two lines of text. There was only one thing Ning Zhe was certain of:

"I have no doubt about myself."

Ning Zhe picked up the pen, bit off the cap with his teeth, and murmured to himself, "If it were anyone else who had mastered Taiyi, they might have been checkmated at this point. Without knowing the specific rules of Taisui, but knowing that Fenwu can modify other people's memories, anyone would instinctively doubt the authenticity of their own memories."

"Once such doubt arises, even if only for a moment, [Taiyi] will be triggered."

"But I will not doubt myself."

"Because I do not have a superficial understanding of Tai Chong's abilities; on the contrary, I have deciphered Tai Chong's core rules."

There are two conditions for triggering the rules of Tai Sui: 1. You have seen Him, 2. You have forgotten Him. The two conditions are clear and the trigger judgment is clear and straightforward. There are rules and standards, so there is no room for ambiguity or speculation.

Ning Zhe knew clearly that he did not meet these two conditions, which proved that Fenwu was currently powerless to modify his memories.

"If I hadn't deduced the judgment conditions for Tai Sui in time, if it had been even a little later... perhaps Fenwu would have succeeded already." Ning Zhe took a deep breath, his chest feeling icy cold. He had just brushed past death.

After calming his mind, Ning Zhe thought of something else: "I'm not the only one who can see the contents of the notebook; Xia Yubing can too." In the worst-case scenario, Fenwu should now have obtained the identity of 'Ning Zhe as perceived by Xia Yubing'.

"It's a pity that I didn't get the identity of 'Ning Zhe in Xia Yubing's mind'."

In the study, Fenwu took in Xia Yubing's reaction and nodded thoughtfully: "Strange, my judgment should be correct."

As he spoke, he began to walk slowly behind Xia Yubing, the only sound in the small study being his own muttering:
"That guy wields some kind of cognitive anomaly, capable of stealing other people's appearances and memories, and the condition that triggers this theft is cognition... I should be right."

Fenwu stopped, reached out, snatched Xia Chan's notebook from Xia Yubing's hand, and turned to the latest page.

The latest page contains very little content, only two lines:
No need to reply, I'm just reminding you of something.

You must remember Bai Fugui; never forget him.

"Did I overlook something? These handwritings are clearly identical to his. Even if they can't fool him, you should have mistaken him for me the moment you saw these two lines."

"Then the rule about cognition will be triggered, and I will get the memory of him in your mind... But so much time has passed, and I have not gotten anything, nothing has happened."

Fenwu closed her notebook and looked at Xia Yubing, who remained silent in front of her: "Was my judgment of that guy's core rules wrong? Or...did you already know that he didn't write those two lines?"

Xia Yubing remained calm and silent.

“It seems to be the latter.” Fenwu clicked his tongue in puzzlement: “I shouldn’t have done this, I shouldn’t have done this. My handwriting is exactly the same as his, and my cold tone is also imitated perfectly. Even if he himself came, he wouldn’t be able to find a single fault with it.”

"Not to mention that I also proactively revealed information about my own rules, reminding you not to forget Bai Fugui. Logically speaking, you shouldn't have seen through it."

Xia Yubing offered no explanation, simply standing still in the same position as when she had just turned around, without moving an inch.

Fenwu frowned slightly. He smelled something unusual, so he casually tossed the notebook onto the table and turned to leave.

"You can't leave," Xia Yubing finally spoke.

Fenwu stopped and looked at her calmly.

Xia Yubing mustered her courage and did not avoid eye contact with Fenwu. She continued, "I don't know if you noticed, but before entering the villa, I drove around it a few times."

"You might think I'm just scared, or that I have some kind of counter-surveillance awareness... but actually, I just hung a power-granting prop under the car chassis."

Fenwu's expression finally changed, and a hint of surprise appeared on his face, which was as hard as a granite tombstone.

“I drew a circle around the villa with an ink line. From the moment I drove the car into the garage, the initiation tool called ‘Ink Line’ had already completed the spatial division of the villa.”

Xia Yubing's voice gradually faded, and she seemed somewhat guilty, but she still continued, "You can only stay in this prison now, you can't go anywhere. Do you understand, Fenwu?"

(End of this chapter)