A peaceful life easily dulls a person’s edges; once you become comfortable, it’s hard to throw yourself back into busyness.
It’s been a week of following the same routine to and from school.
Jiang Jian Yue felt that even her weary and “mature” mindset had softened a bit under the monotonous atmosphere of campus life.
Students are supposed to look like students, after all!
But when the week ended, and the new episode hadn’t updated—the computer froze at the last second before the update, rendering it unresponsive—Jiang Jian Yue lost her most important source of entertainment.
With the greatest comfort in her life stripped away, an indescribable sense of loneliness quietly crept into her heart.
There were only a few friends on LINE.
Her fingertip unconsciously slid across the screen, finally stopping on the name “Yuki Asahi.”
The chat history was empty, except for a message she had retracted a few days ago, leaving behind an awkward blank.
What the heck.
If I don’t take the initiative, can you really endure without saying a single word?
Chunan would definitely feel itchy, right? Hehehe…
Just then, someone happened to send a LINE message—the profile picture was a selfie of Kaori Onishi—so confident.
“Jiang-senpai! Today I went on a date with Yuki-kun~”
Jiang Jian Yue’s fingertips paused. She suddenly sat up from the bed.
The towel wrapped around her loosened with the movement, slipping down and piling at the base of her thighs.
“Oh, that’s nice.” She replied with one hand typing.
Her blood-red eyes reflected the cold glow of the phone screen, but her mind was blank, unable to capture any thoughts.
“Yuki-kun is really cute. Even a little physical contact makes his face turn red.”
Chunan is just like that.
“But he was surprisingly generous today! I clearly said we should split the bill, but he secretly paid for everything!”
Jiang Jian Yue’s grip on the phone tightened slightly.
Her body sank back onto the soft mattress, letting the air wrap around her bare skin.
She unconsciously bit her lower lip: the last time they went out together, they had split the bill.
Yuki Asahi’s family situation isn’t great, right?
She felt as if her chest was stifled, making it a bit hard to breathe.
—Of course, it’s not like she likes Yuki Asahi or anything, it’s just a bit unpleasant to be treated differently among friends… That’s all!
Her fingertips hovered over the cold screen for a moment, then finally tapped out a sour message: “That just means Yuki likes you a lot.”
“Haha, it hasn’t reached that level yet!”
“Ah, Yuki-kun is looking for me. Let’s talk later! See you at school tomorrow, senpai!”
Jiang Jian Yue tilted her head, staring at the reply, and let the phone slip onto the pillow beside her.
She turned, her gaze falling onto the pale ceiling.
Mm, isn’t this nice too?
Ding——
The LINE notification chimed.
Jiang Jian Yue spaced out for a while before pulling the phone back in front of her.
Morita Ao: Ojou-sama, there’s word from an informant that a group calling themselves Curtain Cluster has formed a partnership with Tokushu Jishou Taiou Honbu.
Jiang Jian Yue parted her lips, then typed a reply with a hint of exasperation: “Got it.”
All she could do at this point was notify the Japanese government.
That GPRI Hunter named Kanrou probably exaggerated a lot.
Curtain Cluster should be the mildest among the three opposition factions.
The Longyin members of the Extinguishers all acted like normal people, so Curtain Cluster shouldn’t be that bad either, right?
Right?
***
The next day, Monday.
During class, Jiang Jian Yue was scrolling through her phone when she saw a Tokushu Jishou Taiou Honbu press conference: announcing the mandatory enforcement of the ‘Supernatural Census System’; drafting the Non-Human Rights Declaration; calling for the establishment of the World Superpower Forum; exposing the atrocities of GPRI and officially designating them as an illegal terrorist organization.
Some of the content caused a huge stir online—the most trending topic being the so-called GPRI atrocities: human experiments, hunting civilians, ignoring national laws, manipulating governments, inciting wars…
The earlier ones might be true, but wasn’t GPRI banned from contacting national governments?
Jiang Jian Yue had also learned some GPRI history from Kanrou.
GPRI was originally an NGO formed in the early days of the Cold War by Western civilian capital, aimed at researching and preventing abnormal phenomena appearing worldwide after World War II.
Because it was established early and had ample funding, GPRI became a leader in the supernatural world, but not yet a monopoly.
In the beginning, GPRI had close ties with governments, especially NATO countries.
Until the Chernobyl incident.
In this world, Chernobyl wasn’t simply a nuclear leak.
It was a nuclear leak caused by a high-level abnormal disaster.
Under the influence of the organization’s values, GPRI chose to support the Soviet Union at once—but was blocked by the Pentagon.
This led to internal divisions: the radical faction believed they should immediately cut ties with NATO and sever all relations with secular governments.
The conservative faction argued they should continue cooperating with governments and abandon aid to the Soviet Union.
The second-generation GPRI leadership leaned towards the radicals.
In the end, they joined the Soviet Red Army to suppress the Chernobyl abnormal disaster.
This antagonized NATO countries, leading some conservatives to betray the organization.
In their eyes, GPRI was the traitor at that time.
These people later became the foundation of Curtain Cluster.
The leadership decided to break with Western capital completely, at a great cost. The chaos lasted until the dissolution of the Soviet Union—only when a powerful and charismatic iron-fisted leader unified GPRI’s ideology did it end.
He overturned the previous second-generation policy of non-contact with governments.
He was the first to use supernatural abilities proactively against national governments.
He launched a high-intensity purge of research results left in various countries—especially NATO—eliminating all evidence related to the Mind Bug System and GPRI cooperation, plunging them back into ignorance.
With the breakthrough in Aether Dispersion Monitoring Technology, GPRI possessed this exclusive tech and could respond faster than any government.
Over time, this built the secretive state of GPRI hidden behind the Curtain.
Under the third generation, GPRI’s history was divided into the Pre-GPRI Era and Post-GPRI Era… Of course, now it’s the End of GPRI Era.
And the so-called evidence released by Tokushu Jishou Taiou Honbu was manipulating North Puppet—how ridiculous.
But such news did attract the attention of the Japanese public; North Puppet, North North Puppet, and North North North Puppet were all too evil!
The topic barely squeezed into the top of recent trending searches.
By the way, the rift in the sky above Kinshasa had closed, and Dawn Resources Group and United Nations Peacekeeping Forces were conducting the final cleanup.
As for India… let’s pray for them.
Hope bro doesn’t pull another Mumbai Hotel Incident.
Tap——
As Jiang Jian Yue was browsing international news to broaden her knowledge, a small note landed on her desk.
The classmate in front of her, whose name she didn’t know, seemed to have a sore shoulder again.
She unfolded the note. The message was short: Follow me after class.
Jiang Jian Yue raised an eyebrow, sneering inwardly.
Hehe… Going for the domineering president style now?
Let me shatter your delusions!
Hahaha, I’m not going.