Another Way of Communicating with Zhao Yan

The word "Telepathy" above his head was glaring and unmistakable.

Tu Ran froze for three seconds, cleared her mind, and climbed into the car.

Ding Naiqing steered the vehicle, marveling, "Sis Ran, your luck is unreal. You go to a party and still run into this kind of mess."

Tu Ran was equally speechless.

Riding the maglev tram—infected mutant. Attending a graduation party—genetic monster. Finally getting some superpowers—and now she had to deal with a guy who could read minds.

A miserable life, truly miserable.

Zhao Yan, who felt the jab aimed at him: "..."

Tu Ran glanced at him in the rearview mirror and raised an eyebrow defiantly.

See? See? With this power, he couldn't even talk back when scolded.

Zhao Yan turned to look out the window.

He really didn't want to see that smug look on Tu Ran's face.

"Drop me off up ahead. I need to return the laser gun to Yao Bei," Tu Ran said, the laser gun still resting on her lap.

Ding Naiqing glanced at it and said in surprise, "So Yao Bei was the one who borrowed the laser gun. When we went to the equipment room to borrow a gun, they said one had already been taken today and we couldn't borrow another. I was wondering who managed to get the laser gun."

"No wonder she's Yao Bei. She got the same support notification, but she moved faster than us by a mile."

Tu Ran looked at him. "Zero notified you to come?"

"Yeah," Ding Naiqing said, fiddling with a series of buttons as he prepared to descend. "All the pioneers near the base got the message about a genetic monster at the base, impervious to weapons, needing backup. Brother Yan and I happened to be nearby, so we came."

"You two happened to be nearby?" Tu Ran looked at Zhao Yan in the rearview mirror, narrowing her eyes. "I thought your assigned area was Luqing City."

Luqing City was a good distance from the Pioneer training base.

Zhao Yan felt her suspicion almost instantly.

"A genetic monster from Luqing City fled into Pandalim District. We were there to hand off the mission to the pioneers in Pandalim," Zhao Yan said.

He didn't have some hobby of chasing after people to eavesdrop on their thoughts.

Hearing people's thoughts within ten meters was a curse. Ever since he'd gotten this power, the noise hadn't stopped—a jumble of everything, especially in crowded places. It nearly drove him crazy.

What was worse, at night, lying in bed, he could feel the thoughts of people moving around upstairs and downstairs.

He couldn't even sleep properly.

Now he'd give anything to find a place with no one within ten meters, to sit quietly alone. Why would he take the trouble to sneak over and eavesdrop on her thoughts?

The patrol car landed smoothly on the ground.

Tu Ran opened the door and got out. Yao Bei happened to be walking over.

"Here you go. Thanks," Tu Ran said, handing the laser gun to her.

"No problem." Yao Bei's lips curved slightly, then she returned to her usual stern expression.

"Sis Yao!" Ding Naiqing poked his head out of the window. "Hop in too. I'll give you a ride back."

Yao Bei shook her head and declined. "No need. I have to stay and deal with the genetic monster's corpse."

"Alright, we'll head off then."

"Mm, stay safe."

Tu Ran got back into the car, and the patrol began to lift off.

"Sis Yao is something else—a senior pioneer. She has to cooperate with the Research Institute to dispose of the body. People like us just leave and call it done."

Yao Bei was a senior pioneer.

She was one of only two senior pioneers from their cohort.

Now the Pioneer Team had two senior pioneers: one was Li Wenchuan, the other Yao Bei.

Li Wenchuan had already settled into the position of deputy commander of the Pioneer Team.

Yao Bei didn't have an official position yet, but she was all the rage—everyone in the Pioneer Team knew her name.

Compared to now, Yao Bei hadn't been particularly noticeable before.

During those five years at the training base, Yao Bei had been well-rounded—good at everything, but not outstanding in anything.

Alongside Tu Ran at her peak, Xi Chunzhi with her marksman skills, and other pioneers who excelled in specific areas, she could only be called unremarkable.

But after leaving the training base, things changed. Her strengths gradually came to the fore. Her balanced development made it easy for her to gain a foothold inside the Threshold. The speed of her points growth outpaced everyone else, and she was the fastest to enter the ranks of senior pioneers.

Tu Ran, on the other hand, had faded into obscurity.

The instructors who had such high hopes for her all shook their heads in disappointment.

Most of the pioneers who had once stood alongside her had been promoted to mid-level pioneers. Only she lingered at the low-level rank, unable to move forward.

As a result, she often caught sneers, both open and subtle.

Ding Naiqing suddenly realized it wasn't appropriate to talk about pioneer ranks in front of Tu Ran. He snuck a glance at her out of the corner of his eye and, sure enough, saw her eyelids drooping as if she were annoyed.

He bit his tongue, hating his own carelessness.

He forced a change of subject. "Sis Ran, guess who we ran into when we went to Pandalim District for the handover?"

"Who?" Tu Ran lifted her lids to look at him.

She was getting sleepy.

It was already three in the morning. She'd been awake since seven yesterday and hadn't closed her eyes since—plus she'd fought all those monsters. Her eyelids were practically glued shut.

"We ran into this really annoying guy who claimed to be some Security Department director. He lit into us, demanding over and over why a genetic monster from Luqing City had gotten into Pandalim District. He even suspected we'd done it on purpose and said he'd report us." Ding Naiqing grew angrier as he spoke.

"Oh, Dead-Eye? We ran into him our first day there. His name's Diao Hongzhi," Tu Ran said flatly. "He said our attitude was bad, told us to wait, and it sounded like he wanted revenge."

"Revenge? On us?" Ding Naiqing snorted, his tone dripping with disdain.

"But Sis Ran, the name Dead-Eye fits him too well. Those eyes of his... hahaha... first time I've ever seen someone who looked like that." Ding Naiqing mocked him without restraint.

Tu Ran's lips curved slightly in response.

From the back, Zhao Yan, who had been playing the invisible man, suddenly spoke up.

"He's close to the rich people in Pandalim District. You shouldn't underestimate his capacity for revenge."

Tu Ran raised her eyelids and glanced at him through the rearview mirror.

The two locked eyes.

'Did you see his thoughts?'

Zhao Yan leaned back in his seat, tilted his chin up slightly.

He had seen them!

Tu Ran's spirits lifted.

'What does he plan to do?'

She didn't think much of Diao Hongzhi, but she had no idea what he might do.

Still, she didn't have high hopes for Zhao Yan either. His power threatened her, and she wanted him dead.

But she also knew his secret—a ticking time bomb for him.

"Brother Yan has a point. Sis Ran, you should be careful too," Ding Naiqing chimed in from the side.

He still hadn't noticed the other two in the car communicating in a different way.