The sun has not yet risen, the sky is already dark, and the chirping of birds can be heard one after another in the forest.
They shuttle back and forth among the branches, looking for early-rising bugs and intend to feast on them.
A sparrow landed on the boulder with a caterpillar in its mouth, and quickly pecked at the hard-earned breakfast like a sewing machine.
Suddenly, the boulder moved. The sparrow was frightened by the movement. It quickly picked up the insect and flew aside. As soon as it left, the boulder was overturned to the ground. A white palm lifted up the fallen leaves and placed it on the edge of the pit.
"This is what it feels like to be alive."
Ai Liang climbed up from the pit and breathed in the fresh air, his face full of intoxication.
Just looking at his current behavior, it is difficult to associate him with the cold-faced academic master. If others saw him, they would probably think that he was Ai Liang's twin brother.
"Five years, who knows how I spent these five years."
Ai Liang was like an old ghost who had just lost a young body, or a muscular dystrophy patient who had been paralyzed for many years and recovered from health. He kept turning his palms, repeating the simple movements of making, releasing, and making fists.
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Ai Liang felt everything around him with his body, the cool breeze blowing on his cheeks, the down-to-earth touch, and the fragrance of wild flowers in the air. All these were so nostalgic that he couldn't help but recall the past.
Ten years ago, Ai Liang had just awakened. With a twenty-year-old mind and a five-year-old body, he embarked on the path of a superhero with great expectations. However, after just a few months, he tasted the abuse of super powers.
The consequences will come.
During a police chase, the criminal gang got the information in advance and fled due to the leakage of information. The police roundup failed.
When everyone was at a loss, Ai Liang, who was secretly observing the progress of the police, planned to be a hero. He covered the entire Neihua City with his mental power, trying to use this method to find the fleeing criminals.
There must be more trouble than happiness in this world, and tragedy far outweighs comedy.
That time, Ai Liang read not only the voices of the arrestees, but also the voices of nearly ten million people in the entire city.
Hired murders, organ smuggling, patients' cries, school bullying, and the darkness hidden in the corners of the city were all clearly visible to Ai Liang.
The despair and fear before death, the torment of illness, the anger in the heart of the victim, as well as the jealousy and greed of people in daily life, all of these were accepted by Ai Liang.
In comparison, those positive emotions of happiness and optimism are not worth mentioning under the huge evil.
Since then, Ai Liang has never provided any information about criminals to the police. The evaluation file on him in the police station has turned 180 degrees, and the Chaoyang people who have a righteous mind have turned into treating human life as nothing.
The executioner's name also changed from the 'hermit' that Ai Liang claimed to be at the beginning to the police code name of 'the cut-throat demon'.
In the next five years, Ai Liang put on a windbreaker and a short knife and transformed into Ai Tusheng.
Later, Shi Feng changed Ai Liang's codename to 'Extralegal Sanctioner' under the pretext that the title was too bloody. Although the old title was erased from the files, the black zone was passed down.
Five years later, when Ai Liang was ten years old, Neihua City changed from a notorious crime city with a perennial crime rate in the top three in the Asian League to an excellent model city with good public security.
At that time, there was a saying circulating in the black zone: 'If you are caught by the police, you may still be able to be saved. But if you are targeted by the maniac who cuts his throat, you can either choose to kill yourself or surrender. The former can give yourself a happy life.
If his schedule is full, how long you can live if you choose the latter depends on how many years you were sentenced.'
At that time, Ai Liang was the Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of all criminals. As long as he crossed a certain line, he would inevitably be attacked by him. He would not accept mediation and could not communicate, just like a bird hiding in the dark.
The hound of Tindalos secretly watches your every move. Once you touch that blurred line, he will drag you into the darkness and rip your throat out.
Since Ai Liang knew everyone's secrets, he could find the criminals just by following the impressions in his memory. In the first two months, he eliminated more than a dozen underground forces.
Therefore, he was once rumored to be a vengeful ghost, and there were various versions of him with strange powers and chaos. One of the reasons for his retirement listed by Moose was adapted from this.
Seeing this, everyone should think that Ai Liang is a super-powered young man who was affected by negative emotions and turned into a black man, embarking on the path of hunting evil people, but this is not the case.
Ai Liang was indeed affected and was indeed hunting down criminals, but in fact it was just a method he chose to vent his negative emotions.
After receiving the ill will from the entire city, Ai Liang quickly used his mental abilities to transfer all these negative emotions, but it was inevitable that he would still be affected to a certain extent.
Ai Liang was worried that one day he would break through the bottom line and turn into a violent demon. In order to vent the darkness in his heart, he picked up a short knife and pointed it at the criminals.
To put it bluntly, the ratio between punishing evil people and venting them was about 50:50. From this, he saw clearly that he was not suitable to be a superhero.
If you want to divide the camps, Ai Liang most likely belongs to the chaotic and kind category. He will only do what he thinks is right. On weekdays, he will abide by the rules and be polite, but at certain special times, he will treat the rules as if they are nothing.
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For example, if a friend with whom you are not on good terms is handed over a bottle of canned beer and wants to buy Ai Liang two drinks, he will politely thank you first, then refuse, and then throw the beer into the trash can.
Or while cleaning up gangs, he would accept commissions to make money, but he would disdain the gold banknotes in the safe in the villa and not take any of them.
When Ai Liang was ten to fifteen years old, the public security environment in Neihua City was very good, with almost no major criminal cases. Therefore, Ai Liang retired and focused on his school life, which was the three years of junior high school.
Because he was deeply affected by negative emotions and five years of hunting career, his temperament was completely different from that of normal students.
Ai Liang had no choice but to choose a stupid way, that is, to withdraw his consciousness from the body. The reactions of joy, anger, sorrow, and joy are all controlled by the brain and are passive. And those memories belonging to the soul consciousness are controllable. In this way, only
Just make sure that the memories that remain in your body won't affect you.
Daily life is like playing a virtual reality game, manipulating his body to complete various actions. This results in Ai Liang rarely showing any mood swings on his face and almost never smiling.
As a result, he became a cold-faced weirdo and an aloof genius in the eyes of his classmates. No one wanted to be friends with him, but this result was better than scaring people to tears just by looking at him.
Ai Liang had a total of three psychological treatments in the past ten years: the first time was when he first received the ill will, the second time was when he retired as a 'hermit' five years ago, and the third time was just now.
This time he cleared more than 90% of the negative memories in his brain. In the words of the game, the degree of confusion dropped from 99% to 9%, and it will no longer affect normal life.
Ai Liang pressed the power button, and the phone vibrated once and then stopped.
"My phone is out of battery. It looks like I slept for a long time this time."
Ai Liang stuffed his phone into his pocket and turned around and walked to the edge of the pit.
"It's better to bury these things here. They won't be needed anyway if you take them back."
With just a tap of Ai Liang's toe, the surrounding dust poured into the pit, burying the motorcycle and tent. After he was done, he moved the big rocks to the top of the pit and compacted them.
After doing all this, Ai Liang stretched out. It would not be so troublesome to go back. He saw Ai Liang floating in mid-air and flying straight towards the downtown area of Nevada City.
He came out to ride a motorcycle just to show the camera. After all, he couldn't hide the meeting with Moose even if he wanted to. Today's Nevada is not the 'San Andreas' of ten years ago. Nearly 70% of the underground forces or
More or less, the police deployed manpower.
When you come back, you don't need to worry about the surveillance along the road. You don't need to follow the road when flying. Just lock the destination and rush forward. The route Ai Liang chose is all over the mountains and forests. If you keep the sensor on along the way, you will definitely not be spotted.
Discover.
In order to avoid a sonic boom, Ai Liang flew at a speed of about two hundred meters per second. I have to say that telekinesis is really convenient.
Ai Liang stopped as he approached the city.
He stared at the city he had lived in for more than ten years, and the joy of regaining his five senses was washed away by the memories of the past.
Ai Liang knew in his heart that if he continued to use mental abilities such as mind reading, sooner or later he would fall into darkness again.
No one is perfect, and no one can guarantee that he has never done anything wrong.
There are no hypocritical people under great reputation, and there are no sages under the heart.
Moreover, some abilities are not controllable at all. Telepathy, perception of good and evil, etc. are passive skills. Ai Liang can clearly perceive the true feelings of others hidden under the smiling mask.
Even if you don't use your mental power to spy on other people's brains, Ai Liang will still be disturbed by the junk information floating in the air, just like your neighbor will use an electric drill to decorate next door every night when you sleep, making you want to pierce your eardrums.
At first, Ai Liang was interested in observing other people's emotions, but it didn't take long before he got tired of it. Would you care about the mood of the pedestrians you passed by? This ability is still passive observation. It's okay if others are in a happy mood. If you encounter
Guys who are in a bad mood feel like a perverted and wretched man trying to show you the women's underwear he is wearing today. It is simply hard to describe.
Every five years, Ai Liang's abilities will undergo a qualitative change, and a bunch of messy knowledge will suddenly appear in his brain. The ability to seal is exactly what he has just learned in the past few days.
Ai Liang looked at the tall buildings in the distance and silently closed his eyes, shutting down all his abilities, leaving only telekinesis. After all, he had had enough after so many years.
The telekinesis is extremely concealable, so there is no need to worry about being discovered, and it would be very unaccustomed to him to suddenly disappear after being with him for many years. It is not too late to unblock other abilities when necessary.
After returning home from the balcony, Ai Liang opened the bedroom door. The lights in the room were still on, proving that no one had been here in the past few days.
Ai Liang looked at the electronic calendar and saw that four days had passed since the day he left. No wonder the phone turned off automatically.
After turning off the desk lamp, Ai Liang connected the phone to the data cable. Although there is wireless charging, wired charging is faster.
Five minutes later, Ai Liang turned on her phone and several missed calls immediately popped up.
They were all called from Yue Qihua, Ma Yu and others, exactly as Ai Liang imagined.
Ai Liang chuckled lightly.
'Sure enough, I am indispensable to them. They don't even know that their son has been missing for several days, or they know but don't care.'
Ai Liang discovered a long time ago that his situation in this family is like the vending machine placed in front of a beverage store. They are a family, but there are many redundancies.
Growing up, Ai Liang had almost no contact with the two of them except during the Chinese New Year. He even hired a nanny to attend parent-teacher meetings in elementary school, and even New Year's Eve was spent alternately between his parents every year.
When he was ten years old, Ai Liang never spent the New Year's Eve with his family. He always spent time reading alone in a deserted room.
But this is fine. When you reach adulthood at the age of sixteen, you can legitimately draw a clear line with them and live alone without any psychological burden. This is a decision that is beneficial to both parties.
After thinking about it, Ai Liang called back Yue Qihua's number.
"Who is it? It's so early in the morning." Yue Qihua's voice was a little hoarse, and she murmured in a low voice with an accent that she had not yet woken up from.
"Ai Liang."
"Ai Liang. Where have you been these past few days? You don't answer calls."
"My phone suddenly stopped charging. I just fixed it."
".I thought you blocked us all."
Yue Qihua and the others called Ai Liang for several days but no one answered, so they aroused this suspicion.
"Are you at home this afternoon? I'll get my schoolbag."
It doesn't matter if your schoolbag is always left at someone else's house. You have to get it back sooner or later anyway, so why not go today.
As for why it is in the afternoon, the reason is very simple. Yue Qihua once said during a chat at school that the nanny hired by the family usually comes to clean the room and make lunch in the morning and leaves in the afternoon.
Ai Liang chose to meet in the afternoon to avoid meeting their nanny.
But after hearing this, Yue Qihua was strangely silent for a while.
"What's wrong?"
Ai Liang asked with some confusion. He was keenly aware that Yue Qihua was a little different from usual today, and she seemed to be in a dull mood.
"There is no one in that apartment now. Xingyue and I have moved back to my grandpa's house."
Back then, Yue Qihua and Yang Xingyue rented a house nearby for the convenience of going to school.
I'm about to graduate and I don't need to go to school soon, so it's quite normal to move back in.
I just didn't expect it to be so sudden.
"Then come out and gather in the library or bookstore. It's the same place as before."
Ai Liang took off his windbreaker and stuffed it back into the password box while talking on the phone.
"Actually, Xingyue and I can't go out recently. How about you come to my house."
Yue Qihua's voice sounded a little tired. Different from her cheerful attitude in the past, every word she spoke was slightly hesitant.