On the thirty-third day of cohabitation, Lin Xia received an internal notification from the Branch:
A second evaluation of the monitoring target “Su Xin” will be conducted in five days.
A professional evaluation team will be dispatched.
Please prepare the responsible agent for cooperation.
Lin Xia read the notice twice, then walked into the living room and handed her phone to Yin Qi.
“Take a look for yourself.”
Yin Qi glanced at it, nodded, and handed the phone back, her tone calm.
“Let them come.”
“Aren’t you worried?”
Lin Xia asked.
“Worried about what?”
“The evaluation results,” Lin Xia said.
“If your level is higher than E, the handling method will change, and your living situation will change too.”
“How will it change?”
“…You might have to move to the Residence Center,” Lin Xia said, pausing awkwardly.
“Then it won’t be like this anymore.”
Yin Qi set the phone aside, looked down at her ring, and said, “Whatever the instruments measure, that’s what it is. What does that have to do with whether I’m worried?”
Lin Xia stared at her for a moment, then said nothing.
***
Five days later, the evaluation team arrived.
This time, the lineup was larger than the first.
Four people brought higher-spec detection equipment, along with a middle-aged researcher whom Lin Xia recognized—the technical consultant from the Branch, a man named Fang, known as Teacher Fang.
Teacher Fang saw Yin Qi, exchanged a few polite pleasantries, and then began the work.
The detection process was very standard: first a routine scan, then a precise directional test, and finally a simple ability activation test.
In simple terms, they asked the meme to perform some actions that demonstrated its characteristics to help determine the level.
The routine scan result was still anomalous: the instrument could not read the level.
The precise directional test retrieved partial data, but the key indicators remained unidentifiable, and the instrument reported an error.
Teacher Fang frowned and said to Yin Qi,
“Can you cooperate a little more actively? Let our equipment read your data. You need to release a bit of your own special ability.”
“I’m not very good at actively using my abilities,” Yin Qi said.
“I don’t really know what I can do. It’s probably a passive skill triggered by certain conditions.”
That was a lie, but she said it very naturally.
Teacher Fang pondered for a moment on the spot, then changed tack.
“Then do some everyday actions, and we’ll observe.”
Yin Qi nodded in agreement, and under everyone’s gaze, she walked to the living room… picked up the TV remote, turned on the TV, and then sat back down.
The scene was silent for a few seconds.
Teacher Fang: “…Can you do something a little more complicated?”
“That’s one of the few everyday actions I currently know,”
Yin Qi said.
“Other than that, I do dishes and such. Do you want to see?”
Teacher Fang: “…”
Lin Xia stood to the side, trying hard to keep a straight face.
The ability activation test ultimately ended with “insufficient data, results invalid.”
But during the final comprehensive discussion phase, Teacher Fang found Lin Xia and showed her the preliminary conclusion:
“Based on the available data, we still can’t confirm the level. However, the readings pulled from the ring show that energy is indeed being continuously absorbed, but that data can’t estimate her level. It’s like…”
He paused, searching for words.
“Using a cup to hold seawater. The cup fills every time, but the sea is still there.”
Lin Xia chewed over the metaphor in her mind, silent for three seconds.
“So what’s the final conclusion?”
“Still maintain E2 level, continue observation,”
Teacher Fang said.
“This is all we can do for now. If she doesn’t actively cooperate, we have no basis for forcibly obtaining data. She signed a cooperation agreement before, and we have corresponding obligations.”
“…Okay, I understand.”
After Teacher Fang left, Lin Xia returned to the living room.
She saw that Yin Qi had already switched the TV to a nature documentary and was earnestly watching a lioness that had been injured while hunting and was now returning to her territory alone.
“The evaluation results,”
Lin Xia said.
“Still maintaining E2.”
“Mm,” Yin Qi replied, her eyes not leaving the screen.
“I know.”
“…Aren’t you really worried?”
Lin Xia couldn’t help asking again.
This time, Yin Qi turned her head and glanced at her.
Her expression was still calm, but there was a hint of something Lin Xia couldn’t quite define.
“What would I be worried about?” she said.
“The result won’t change just because I worry.”
“What if the result is bad?”
“I’ll take it one step at a time,” Yin Qi said, turning back to continue watching the lioness.
“I can’t run away anyway, so worrying is useless.”
Lin Xia stood there, looking at Su Xin’s profile, and suddenly felt that there was something in her words… a kind of certainty she couldn’t articulate.
She said nothing, went to pour two glasses of water, placed one beside Yin Qi, sat down herself, and together they watched the lioness with a hind leg pierced by a buffalo horn.