Reversing Falsehood and Preserving Truth: All Gods and Gods Are in My Hands

The blood-red countdown on the electronic screen pounded wildly in the cold, gray world, like the pulse of a dying man. A cold, mechanical voice suddenly ripped through the silence, like an icy steel needle piercing the taut nerves of everyone. The sound, crackling with electrical noise, echoed repeatedly in the empty space, chillingly eerie.

The first round is "Multiple Choice Questions," with a time limit of 10 minutes. The rules are as follows:

1. All participants are randomly paired up and enter individual cubicles;

2. The cubicle is equipped with four buttons: A, B, C, and D. Both parties must make their selection within 10 minutes.

3. If two correct answers are selected, each person will receive 100 points; if only one incorrect answer is selected, the person who answered incorrectly will receive 200 points, and the person who answered correctly will lose 100 points; if two incorrect answers are selected, both parties will lose 50 points.

4. Those whose points are below 0 or who fail to make a selection within the time limit will be subject to "expulsion" punishment by the disciplinary officer.

Before the words were finished, the ground suddenly cracked open with spiderweb-like fissures, and illusory mist, carrying a bone-chilling cold, gushed out, instantly breaking the crowd into countless pairs.

The densely packed glass mirrored partitions float in the void like a honeycomb, nesting and overlapping each other, with mirrors reflecting each other, weaving an endless geometric trap.

A wave of weightlessness washed over him, and Lu Yu felt dizzy as his back slammed heavily against the cold glass wall before he could barely regain his balance.

The suspended glass mirrored partition was so cramped it was suffocating. In the space of no more than two square meters, a faint mist swirled and did not dissipate. The reflection of the mirrored wall was distorted in an eerie way, making the figures look crooked and twisted, like paper figures that had been forcibly crumpled.

Lu Yu rubbed his aching back and just as he raised his head, he met Jiang Zhehao's gaze.

Jiang Zhehao landed a few seconds earlier than Lu Yu. He was currently bending over and staring at the ABCD buttons in front of him, his brows furrowed, clearly trying to quickly digest the rules.

His face, which usually wore a shy smile, was now shrouded in an indescribable melancholy. His jawline was taut, and even his breathing was heavier than usual.

After a long pause, Jiang Zhehao slowly straightened up, his gaze shifting from the button to Lu Yu's face. At first, his eyes held a hint of confusion, but when his gaze swept over Lu Yu, his pupils suddenly contracted.

A faint, ethereal purple mist began to seep in through the cracks in the mirror, like sticky spider silk, silently wrapping around their ankles. The cool touch carried a strange suction, as if trying to pull them into an endless abyss.

"These rules... are quite interesting."

Jiang Zhehao spoke first, his voice eight octaves lower than usual, with a barely perceptible hoarseness. He didn't look at the button, "Both correct selections will earn points, but..."

Lu Yu's heart skipped a beat, and an ominous premonition instantly surged up. He then heard Jiang Zhehao continue, his somber tone gradually turning into a torrent of resentment, a resentment that, like a venomous snake, coiled around him along the mist:

"Lu Yu! You know I like Su Wan, so why have you been spending so much time with her lately?"

He took half a step forward, and the reflection in the glass wall instantly distorted, his features contorted into a grotesque grimace, his once gentle face now taut and bloodshot.

"Last week, after she finished painting that picture of Wutong Lane, she showed it to you first. Even I, her deskmate, didn't get a glimpse of it beforehand."

Lu Yu opened his mouth, wanting to explain something, but Jiang Zhehao didn't give him a chance at all. His voice suddenly rose, and bloodshot veins appeared in his eyes.

"And last Wednesday after school! You two actually walked home together. I called her three times downstairs at the school building, but her attention was completely on you, and she didn't even turn her head! I specially bought her some strawberry pastries, but she ended up feeding them all to the stray cats at the school gate!"

The electronic countdown for 10 minutes blared out sharply, piercing the deathly silence of the cubicle like an air raid siren. The glass wall of the cubicle suddenly lit up, the cold white light hurting the eyes and casting flickering shadows on the two people's faces.

Lu Yu forced himself to look away and focus on the question that had suddenly appeared in front of him—a basic classical Chinese function word question testing the usage of "之" (zhi). The answer was obvious: choose A.

But a faint, illusory mist had already enveloped his limbs and bones, like an invisible hand stirring his emotions, and a nameless restlessness welled up from the bottom of his heart:

His interactions with Su Wan were all due to fighting against the ethereal spirits, protecting his family, and safeguarding his classmates. How could Jiang Zhehao perceive all those perilous escapes as deliberate attempts to get closer?

The illusion was trying to provoke his anger at this unfounded accusation. Lu Yu could clearly feel a surge of anger rising in his chest, and the runes on his palms were slightly hot, as if reminding him to guard his true self. However, the mist made the restlessness even stronger.

The illusory mist surrounding Jiang Zhehao was even thicker than that around Lu Yu, almost solidifying into a tangible form. The magnified resentment and unwillingness had completely swallowed up the boy's shyness, leaving only obsession in his eyes.

In another compartment in the distance, Liu Jing steadied herself after landing and looked up to meet Jia Ying's figure standing with her arms crossed.

Jia Ying, the school's most senior Chinese language teacher, was looking down at the button panel, her gaze behind her glasses as cold as ice.

The two were silent for a few seconds, both quickly dissecting the rules, until Jia Ying suddenly smiled, her fingertips tapping the button panel, her nails making a sharp, grating sound as they scratched it: "Teacher Liu... we're really lucky."

"Look at this question. It tests the usage of the word '以' in the phrase '不以物喜' from the 'Yueyang Tower Inscription'."

Jia Ying took half a step forward, her reflection on the glass wall distorted by the fog, but her tone was deliberately calm, even carrying a hint of "we're both in the same boat" sentiment, "We're both from the Chinese language teaching and research office, this question is practically a freebie, the correct answer is B, let's both choose B, and we'll each get 100 points, isn't that great."

As she said this, her fingertip was already hovering above the B button, but she hesitated to actually press it.

His gaze seemed to be fixed on the button, but his peripheral vision was constantly watching Liu Jing's movements, clearly waiting for the perfect moment to drag her completely into the abyss.

Unbeknownst to her, the illusory mist had seeped into Jia Ying's heart through her pores, and the sticky chill, carrying with it a year's worth of pent-up resentment, exploded in her heart in an instant.

Images from last year's performance evaluation flashed uncontrollably through my mind:

Three sleepless nights with bloodshot eyes, five revisions, and annotations filling the margins of the lesson plan, only to be dismissed with a dismissive "outdated teaching philosophy," failing to even qualify for the evaluation.

And Liu Jing? She secured the award by simply giving a public lesson that was rehearsed in advance and even timed with the interactive segments. She also managed to be named a municipal-level outstanding teacher.

The whispers in the office about "Teacher Liu being young and photogenic, so it's natural that the evaluation experts would favor her" were magnified by the fog and became like steel needles piercing the heart.

Jia Ying stared at Liu Jing's face, quickly calculating the rules in her mind:

If you choose both correct answers, you get 100 points each. But if Liu Jing chooses the correct answer B first, and then she chooses the wrong answer—

She can instantly gain 200 points, widening the gap between herself and everyone else, while Liu Jing will have her points deducted from 0 to -100, triggering the "expulsion" punishment on the spot.

She even offered another way out: "You just talked about the usage of the word '以' in the teaching research class last week, so it's definitely correct. Choosing B is sure to be right."

Looking at Jia Ying's gleaming eyes behind her glasses, Liu Jing felt a complex mix of emotions welling up inside her.

She could clearly sense the resentment and bitterness surging in Jia Ying's heart beneath the veil of mist. That obsession had long been entangled in a knot by the illusion, and it couldn't be untied in a few words.

She had long seen through the deadly trap in the rules and guessed the other party's shady scheme.

"It has been an honor to work with Professor Jia for so many years."

Liu Jing's tone remained gentle, as composed as when they discussed lesson plans in the teaching and research office, "I also think there's no controversy about choosing B for this question, so let's press it."

"..."

Back in Lu Yu's cubicle.

Jiang Zhehao's breathing was heavy, like a broken bellows, his chest heaving violently. He stared intently at Lu Yu, a twisted smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, a smile filled with madness, a mist almost enveloping his entire being.

"This rule is giving me a chance... Give Su Wan back to me! You swear you'll never have anything to do with her again! I'll count to three, then press the wrong answer button, even if it means we both die!"

His fingertip was already hovering over the B button—the obvious wrong option.

The illusory mist completely permeated the cubicle, and Lu Yu felt a tightness in his chest, even his breathing felt sticky and sluggish.

Looking at Jiang Zhehao's distorted reflection in the mirror and listening to the other's almost manic whispers, he suddenly realized that the illusion never directly created conflict. Instead, it used the bait of rules to thoroughly dig out and amplify the jealousy buried deep in their hearts, jealousy that even the parties involved were unwilling to admit, and then forced them towards a complete break.

This level corresponds to "envy," one of the seven deadly sins!