The days of studying at Yaoguang were even more boring than before.
The teachers and students here were all too weak—no one dared to criticize her outrageous behavior, at most pointing fingers behind her back like a bunch of cowards.
Qiao Yunxue felt that if she stayed any longer, she would surely go mad, and besides, this kind of place was far too removed from anything supernatural.
It was nearly impossible to encounter anything strange in such a small city.
She was pondering how she might manage another transfer.
Should she intentionally hurt someone? Or destroy school property? Or perhaps try some performance art?
Just as she was considering how to break the rules, someone unexpected came to find her.
That pitiful thing, that little creature, that little monkey living in the woods.
What was his name again?
“My name is Shen Yao.”
Oh, right—Shen Yao, Shen Yao. Ha. She couldn’t help but laugh; it sounded like a woman’s name.
He actually wanted to come to her house to use the printer.
Ha, it must be that irresponsible father of his making decisions on his own again.
She could see the shyness and admiration in the young boy’s eyes; she knew it well.
She had a fine appearance—Mother’s best gift to her—and only such little creatures would forget her venom and be drawn in.
Trampling on the tender affections of young boys was one of her amusements.
At the same time, she was curious: after hearing all those rumors, how did Shen Yao still have the courage to approach her?
“Maybe because I don’t want to believe those things.”
“So? What kind of person do you think I am?” she asked.
“Not as bad as they say, but not as good as I imagined either.”
Qiao Yunxue laughed. Suddenly, she felt this pitiful thing was less boring, less vulgar than the others.
Although he liked her, he wasn’t blinded by that feeling; though affected by the rumors, he hadn’t completely believed them.
In this world, there were always a few people who stood out from the crowd.
She thought of herself as one blessed with talent, and perhaps Shen Yao was an exception among pitiful creatures.
But in the end, he was still just a pitiful thing.
Suddenly, she became interested—if she told Shen Yao about something supernatural, would he believe her? Or would he shy away in fear like everyone else? What if she took it a step further, let him try contacting something supernatural himself? That way, wouldn’t she be safer too?
That night, Shen Yao dialed that number, and the voice that came through the phone stunned Qiao Yunxue.
He had succeeded.
This pitiful thing actually succeeded.
Did he really have the Inspiration to directly contact the supernatural?
You should know, even among the members of the Forum Eye of Berlin, not everyone with Inspiration could contact supernatural beings one hundred percent of the time.
Each person’s Inspiration changed depending on the time—generally, it’s low during the day and high at night; low when spirits are high, high when spirits are low.
But what about Shen Yao? He didn’t need any preparation, he just made the call and came into contact with the supernatural?
After a brief moment of shock, what surged up in her heart was pure, unbridled joy.
She had been searching for the supernatural for years, preparing as much as possible, yet always stuck at the threshold of Inspiration.
Her Inspiration was never enough to reach those truly dangerous anomalies—but Shen Yao could! Didn’t this mean she was only one step away from seeing Mother?!
At that moment, a thought flashed across her mind: She had to keep Shen Yao by her side!
As things turned out, she really did keep Shen Yao, securing herself a sidekick—the process was absurdly easy.
Shen Yao actually agreed to do something so extremely dangerous.
Qiao Yunxue couldn’t quite understand, but she had no intention of probing the pitiful thing’s mind too deeply.
In her eyes, the pitiful thing was just a tool for cracking supernatural mysteries.
Compared to others, maybe the pitiful thing was kinder to her, but he was still just a tool—at best, at most, she would try to keep him alive and give him a big sum of money in the future.
That, to Qiao Yunxue, was already the greatest favor she could bestow.
After that, her team gained another pitiful thing, and it was only natural that they moved on to a second Supernatural Contact.
This time, the supernatural’s actions completely exceeded her expectations, and Shen Yao ended up in danger.
From the standpoint of interests, the supernatural mystery hadn’t yet been solved—Shen Yao couldn’t die. From a personal perspective, Shen Yao had performed well lately; as a pet or sidekick, it would be a pity if he died.
So she rode her Hongse Motuoche, made a daring leap, smashed through the window, and rescued Shen Yao.
She found that Shen Yao hadn’t wet himself from fear. Even in that extremely dangerous situation, Shen Yao was still desperately negotiating with the supernatural.
That kind of astonishing tenacity showing up in a pitiful thing made her see Shen Yao in a whole new light—why “again”?
Because Shen Yao had already impressed her before, from accepting her invitation, to solving the rules of the supernatural, to now facing the supernatural with calm and courage.
For a pitiful thing, he’d done quite well.
Ever since that day she rescued Shen Yao on her Hongse Motuoche, she could feel the pitiful thing’s attitude toward her had changed.
What had been a vague fondness before had become… a more comfortable sort of affection?
It was hard to describe. The way it manifested was that Shen Yao became even kinder and more tolerant toward her.
This made Qiao Yunxue uncomfortable all over—she wasn’t used to anyone but Mother treating her this way.
Or more specifically, she wasn’t used to being liked by anyone.
She was used to a world that met her with knives drawn, and she was used to showing her thorns to the world.
What was the pitiful thing trying to do?
Pity her?
A pitiful thing, actually pitying her?
Could it be that she was also a pitiful thing?
Were they just two pitiful things pitying each other?
She began to learn about Shen Yao, to investigate Shen Yao.
And the second major change in her attitude toward Shen Yao happened that night.
The night when they finally, after so much hardship, cracked the rules of the Phone Urban Legend—when Shen Yao, even in utter despair, still placed absolute trust in her.
That feeling of being trusted deeply moved Qiao Yunxue. For the first time, she thought the pitiful thing might, just maybe, actually be a good person—a good person not inferior to Mother.
But this good person was different from her. She was alone, isolated, a wretched thing whom no one pitied.
And the pitiful thing? After escaping danger, he needed to tell his Aunt he was safe, needed to call his Childhood Sweethearts back. Only then did Qiao Yunxue realize what she had done.
She had taken a boy who had suffered terrible things, who had struggled to survive, who was loved by many, who was not truly alone, who lived under the sunlight—and pulled him onto her side, dragged him into the gutter, into hell, into the abyss.
Shen Yao was different from her. Shen Yao wasn’t pitiful at all. He was brave enough to face his grim fate; even if he had thoughts of dying, he would still live on for the sake of others, would do anything to keep living.
And her? She was just someone who thought she was strong, but was in truth a coward who only knew how to run away.
Shen Yao was not a pitiful thing.
She was the pitiful one.