Invasion - Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"You must be feeling terrible?" A male Guide was speaking to Lin Yuan. "It's just so pitiful."

He dabbed at the corner of his eye with an elegant handkerchief, gracefully wiping away sympathetic tears. "I can hardly imagine how I would cope if something like this happened to me."

This was already the fifth one today.

The fifth person who had approached Lin Yuan at the banquet to say these words.

Lin Yuan realized she couldn't even remember this Guide's name. He might have been a classmate from their time together at the Guide Academy in the White Tower.

Lin Yuan wanted to seriously ask this classmate what sadness and grief actually felt like.

But she knew such words would be inappropriate.

She was a Guide with emotional deficiency syndrome, and her memory wasn't very good either. It had been a long time since she had experienced what normal humans called sorrow, anger, sadness, happiness, or any other typical emotions.

Others wouldn't understand.

All she could do was try her best to disguise herself, striving to make the appropriate reactions when certain emotions were expected.

So Lin Yuan nodded in agreement: "Yes, it's truly heartbreaking."

Finally, the Guide left satisfied, allowing Lin Yuan to return to her peaceful state, sitting by the window lost in her thoughts.

The tentacles were excited about exploring this new place, investigating various corners where no one was present. Their faint whispers constantly echoed in Lin Yuan's mind.

Lin Yuan listened to their dream-like murmurings while gazing at the water lilies in the artificial lake, their purple petals of varying shades slowly closing in the night.

That was how Jiang Yangshuo found Lin Yuan, sitting by the lakeside. His group of friends pointed her out to him.

"Look, there's your former fiancée." His friend deliberately dragged out the word "former" with a mocking tone.

"Look at what she's wearing, is that how a Guide should dress?"

"I always said Yangshuo should have broken it off with her earlier. With the Jiang family's status, finding a Guide with high compatibility isn't difficult. Why compromise with someone so dull?"

In the past, when these people joked about Lin Yuan, Jiang Yangshuo didn't mind - Lin Yuan was indeed an odd Guide, not particularly likeable.

Now that things were over between them, somehow these words seemed rather harsh to his ears.

His former fiancée sat by the window near the lake, wearing an austere black dress that was too somber, without any accessories, her small face pale as porcelain with just a touch of red on her lips.

Her wrist, white as fine porcelain, supported her chin as she stared absently at the lake view outside.

Indeed, it wasn't how a Guide should dress. She had always been stubborn this way, barely maintaining basic etiquette.

But actually, Jiang Yangshuo admitted to himself, there was a strange kind of beauty about her. Striking enough to make people want to look at her.

As a high-level Sentinel with exceptional vision, Jiang Yangshuo noticed with just a glance that several Sentinels in the banquet hall had their gazes subtly fixed on Lin Yuan, appearing eager to make a move.

Lin Yuan was beautiful. He had known this since the first time he saw her in his youth.

Back then, his father had brought him to a banquet and pointed out a little girl sitting on the terrace, lost in thought.

"Go try talking to her. That child has extremely powerful mental energy. If your compatibility is high, she'll be your fiancée."

The tiny girl, wearing a proper white dress, sat alone tilting her head amidst an ocean of flowers, lost in thought.

The sunlight softened her features, making her look as beautiful as an elf, even the flower fragrance becoming mysterious because of her presence.

Young Jiang Yangshuo's heart had begun to race intensely in that moment.

Their compatibility test showed a remarkably high result of 70%, rare in the current environment.

Jiang Yangshuo's father was delighted. He himself was happy too.

He had heard that both her parents had passed away. It didn't matter, he would take good care of her from now on.

That's what the young boy had thought then, his face flushed.

But somehow, as time trickled by, they had ended up where they were now.

Jiang Yangshuo pushed aside his laughing friends and walked toward Lin Yuan.

"I heard you applied to the Special Research Department?" He beckoned a waiter, took a glass of juice, and smoothly replaced the wine glass in Lin Yuan's hand.

Lin Yuan's hand suddenly emptied as her low-alcohol drink was taken away and replaced with juice.

She looked up, only then noticing the man before her.

That Sentinel who had been her only familiar person these years, once called her fiancé.

By this lakeside suffused with flower fragrance, Lin Yuan remembered how this person had once held her hand and told her many beautiful things.

He had promised to stay with her for a long time, to wait patiently for her to recover from her illness and become a normal person.

He had also said he wouldn't let her have nightmares like in her childhood anymore, wouldn't let her be alone. He said they would hold hands and help each other walk a very long road together.

Lin Yuan had almost believed it.

But not long ago, this person appeared before her holding another Guide's hand.

Just as everyone said, they weren't suitable for each other, it would end eventually.

So their bonded relationship had ended, hadn't it?

Lin Yuan made a confused sound. Before she could speak...

At that moment, the tentacles had crawled somewhere unknown and transmitted some strange information, distracting her attention.

"Ah yes, um, I did apply for a new job," Lin Yuan answered while trying to decipher those messages.

Jiang Yangshuo frowned.

The Sentinel was very tall, the lights stretching his shadow long, covering the small Guide before him.

He leaned one hand against the wall, looking down at Lin Yuan sitting in the shadows.

In the darkness, Lin Yuan's eyes were animated, as if decorated with scattered stars.

But those beautiful eyes weren't focused on him at all.

The brightened pupils carried a hint of barely noticeable excitement, thinking about something else entirely.

She was lost in her own thoughts again, she would never be like a normal Guide, keeping her eyes only on her Sentinel.

This was what Jiang Yangshuo disliked most about Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan was always absent-minded, uninterested in everything that should concern a Guide. She didn't even place him, her fiancé, in the most important position.

Thinking of their now-broken relationship, Jiang Yangshuo suppressed the irritation in his heart.

"Even if we're over, you don't need to be like this," Jiang Yangshuo said in a deep voice, frowning. "Lin Yuan, you don't need to deliberately torture yourself. Those border pollution zones are not places a Guide can adapt to."

"No, it's not because of you," Lin Yuan wanted to explain seriously.

【The fuzzy feeling, I think I've touched something like this before,】 a tentacle suddenly transmitted back, derailing her train of thought.

"What's fuzzy?" Lin Yuan accidentally spoke out loud.

Jiang Yangshuo's brows completely locked together.

"Ah, sorry. I wasn't talking about you," Lin Yuan apologized to him. "I mean, going to the border for research has always been what I wanted to do, it's not because of you all."

Jiang Yangshuo said with furrowed brows, "If you can't stand the rumors and gossip, you don't have to."

"Although we don't have a relationship anymore, if anyone dares to bully you, you can still come find me."

【No emotions at all, not a living thing. But it feels warm,】 another tentacle's voice came through.

Not a living thing, but warm, how strange, what could it be? Lin Yuan's thoughts were diverted again.

【Feels familiar, it's not fuzzy.】

【Very soft, nice to touch, has elasticity, I want to touch it a bit longer.】

【Very smooth, has thin skin, and protruding bones.】

The voices kept coming one after another in her mind.

No emotions, warm, fuzzy, elastic, smooth...

What on earth had they discovered in that ventilation duct-like place?

【Did you hear it make a sound?】

【Nonsense, how could a dead thing make sound.】

【I heard it too, I heard it too, such a cute sound, like it's being coquettish.】

【It might like us】

【Really? Let me touch it too.】

【Me too.】

【Really, it feels nice. Brings a comfortable feeling...】

【I think it feels sweet when touched.】

【Sweet? I like sweet things.】

【Make way, I want to touch it a bit more.】

The voices became chaotic,

Lin Yuan's attention was completely drawn away, not hearing clearly what her former fiancé standing before her was saying in what he thought was a meaningful way.

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