Chapter 66

Lin Tantan didn't know how to fight, but she had an ability. Her fist wrapped in golden power, and she even spitefully formed a few sharp points, hard and pointed. With the heavy blow, Zhou Li felt as if his stomach had been punched through; it nearly made him vomit.
But he reacted quickly. As Lin Tantan's second punch came down, he hastily raised his hands to block; the back of his hand was struck and then slapped across his own face, as if he'd given himself a slap.
He staggered: "Lin Tantan, "
"Wronged? Which eye of yours saw me as wronged? Hidden away? Disrespected? Do I look like someone who would end up like that? Are you questioning my ability or my judgment?" Lin Tantan fired punch after punch. "It's you who's filthy inside, so you imagine Ye Xiao as dirty as you. You're the one who really wants to control me and turn me into your possession, aren't you?"
The blow from her hand, wrapped in a layer like iron, struck him as if hammered by a sledge; Zhou Li took another hit, but finally seized a chance to grab her wrist. A bolt of lightning shot from his palm, when he used that move, it could paralyze half a person's body with electricity.
Lin Tantan had been prepared; golden barbs suddenly erupted around her wrist, piercing several bloody holes in Zhou Li's palm. He hastily withdrew, but the lightning still shocked Lin Tantan, her whole arm went numb.
But she still had her feet. She kicked out, and Zhou Li hadn't expected her foot to carry an ability too. With a flash of gold he was knocked flat; the arms he had used to shield his abdomen were torn at the sleeves, blood welling out.
This kick Lin Tantan was taking seriously, she kicked especially hard.
Her arm was so numb she couldn't lift it, yet her face remained impassive. She stamped her foot and several green bands shot from beneath her, trying to bind Zhou Li. He dodged and fired a small bolt that shattered the wooden bands. He stood up, looked at his palm and arm, incredulous and angry: "How can you be so unreasonable? I was warning you for your own good!"
"More like you're trying to sow discord. Do you think I don't see what you're up to? Watching me day after day, what nerve. You're just someone who works for others and watches their faces, you don't even have your own turf. What makes you think you can afford to keep me?"
Zhou Li had hit a sore spot and went livid. "Ungrateful, don't you know that back in Yang City Bai Cheng secretly checked into you? Do you honestly think those people are sincere toward you?"
Lin Tantan froze for a moment. Bai Cheng had checked on her? She remembered, there had been such a thing; she'd even asked him to help investigate. So this man had noticed it long ago, kept it in mind, and had been waiting for this moment to use it to persuade her to 'abandon the darkness and join the light'!
Lin Tantan snorted coldly, "You sure know a lot."
"And that's not all, I know your secret too." Zhou stepped closer and whispered. Lin was momentarily stunned, her heart skipping. "What secret?"
Zhou knew a sentimental approach wouldn't work anymore, so he dropped the pretense and stared at Lin. "You're not just a dual-type ability user, are you?"
Lin Tantan nearly screamed; she was afraid he'd blurt out something like "You traveled back in time." Fortunately he didn't.
But how did he know she was more than dual-type?
She had never used any other ability in public...except one earth-type. Could it be? That day the rain had been so heavy and everything so chaotic.
Seeing her frozen expression, Zhou Li thought he'd hit her dead zone. "You've hidden your earth ability. You must know what having three types implies. If you're willing to do things for me, I'll keep that secret for you."
As expected, he only knew about the elemental abilities.
Lin Tantan's eyes went odd; she really didn't know what three types meant, so what, it's just a bit unusual. Even if she revealed all five types, it wouldn't suddenly make her some fabled delicacy; no one would swarm together to tear her apart and cook her, would they?
But trouble would come with it, of course. She said, "If I do things for you and you keep this secret, one day if I don't obey, you can threaten me with it whenever you like, wouldn't that be a guaranteed win for you?"
"If we become partners, we're a shared-interest group. I certainly won't be the one to leak it."
In other words, if they're not partners, not bound by common interest, he'd have no hesitation about selling her out.
Lin Tantan asked, "Where did you learn about this, and who else knows besides you?"
Zhou Li said, "Don't try to draw words from me. You hid this from Ye Xiao too, didn't you? That shows you don't trust him, so choosing me now is the most advantageous for you."
Lin Tantan looked him over, hesitated, clearly undecided. She gritted her teeth. "Let me think about it."
Zhou Li smiled as if he had the whole game in his hands. "Give me your answer tomorrow."
Lin Tantan nodded absentmindedly, glanced at the wounds on his hand and frowned. "I'll treat that for you..." Then she suddenly looked to Zhou Li's right rear, her face snapping into alarm. "Ye Xiao?!"
Zhou Li's wariness of Ye Xiao ran deep, especially while he was trying to undermine him. He turned instinctively, but by the time he heard the rush of wind it was too late. A shock ran through him and he gasped, "Oh no," but there was nothing he could do. The next moment a heavy blow smashed into his head, everything went black, and he lost consciousness.
Lin Tantan let down her trembling right hand, looked at the man unconscious on the ground, and kicked him several times hard. "I'll beat you to death! Using something like that to blackmail me, are you out of your mind? I'm not a murderer, I won't be thrown in jail. What kind of leverage is that? If I want to keep it hidden, I will; if I don't, I'll shout it to the world. Threatening me with this so I'll sell myself to you, have you lost your brain? Crazy!"
This is the result of asymmetric information: one side treats something as immensely important while the other barely gives it a thought. The worried party ends up looking like they're treating a feather like an imperial edict, utterly baffling.
Lin Tantan was both angry and speechless. Her right arm, numbed by the shock and then used like a hammer, couldn't be lifted. Her attempts to heal it with wood-based energy were scarcely effective, and in frustration she kicked him several more times.
Then someone screamed, "Murder! Murder!" Lin Tantan only saw a little kid bolting away in a panic.
Lin Tantan: "..." What a person!
Before long she was surrounded. She had intended to slip away quietly and pretend she knew nothing, what anger!
Lin Tantan was taken away because the man she had nearly silenced was an ability user, and fights between ability users are forbidden inside the base. Besides, Zhou Li was one of Li Qun's people, and Li Qun, always scheming to cause trouble for Ye Xiao and the others, wouldn't miss the chance. On top of that, there were plenty of people who disliked Lin or Ye Xiao...
In short, Lin Tantan was taken in on charges of intentional injury and brawling with an ability user inside the base.
Xu Qin and Xu Li, who were supervising construction at the site, were stunned when they heard the news.
Today Ye Xiao had taken people out of the base; their secondary aim was to hunt mutated animals, but the main goal was to obtain rebar. Bai Cheng went along too, after all, if they managed to get rebar, it was best for him to put it directly into his space.
Spatial abilities are extremely scarce. The major "no-type" category of powers already matches the others in proportion, and spatial powers are just a tiny subcategory within that, so they're very rare. The few who had them had been carved up by the various factions, and Bai Cheng, for one, would rather build more warehouses than put supplies into somebody else's space. He therefore never made a big effort to recruit space-ability users, and naturally he had to go himself.
Everyone else had gone out too, leaving only Xu Qin, now obsessed with metal, and Xu Li, who had to go out to work in the dead of night, to mind the base.
They hurried over.
There was no police station in the base, but there was a jail for locking up troublemakers, conditions so appalling they were shocking. Lin Tantan, of course, wasn't taken there; she was brought to Lu Jianping's large office, where she sat calmly in a chair.
Lu Jianping sat at his desk, rubbing the few pitiful hairs on his head in frustration. Li Qun stood beside him, listing Lin Tantan's crimes; the gist was that she had badly injured his man, who was now unconscious, and an explanation was demanded.
Li Qun pointed at Lin Tantan. She looked back at him innocently and murmured, "Huh, Zhou Li still hasn't woken up? Looks like that hit landed pretty hard."
Li Qun: How infuriating, what's with that attitude!
Lin Tantan turned to Lu Jianping. "Commander Lu, right? The essence of my ability is actually to inject vitality into a body, to promote cell growth."
Lu Jianping asked, puzzled, "Oh? Is that so?" though he wondered why she suddenly said that.
Lin Tantan went on, "So it also helps promote hair growth." She glanced at his poor hairline.
Lu Jianping reflexively touched his bare forehead, almost asking, "Really?" He stopped himself when he noticed Li Qun and the others, but a trace of approval showed in his look toward Lin Tantan.
Li Qun also touched his forehead unconsciously. He had slightly more hair than Lu Jianping, but middle age and constant scheming had taken its toll, how could he not worry about hair loss? He nearly asked whether Lin Tantan's plant-type ability could regrow hair.
But he restrained himself and slammed the table. "Comrade, be serious."
Lin Tantan fell silent.
Lu Jianping tapped the desk and cleared his throat. "Why did you start fighting?"
Lin Tantan looked at him but said nothing.
Lu Jianping didn't seem intent on getting an answer. "According to base regulations, you'll have to compensate the other party's medical expenses."
Li Qun shouted, "Old Lu, this is too unfair!"
Lu Jianping continued, calm as ever, "Normally she should be detained for two days for reflection, but Miss Lin needs to treat patients. Those two days would endanger many patients. Old Li, you need to weigh what's more important."
Li Qun sneered, "By your logic, she wouldn't even be held responsible if she killed someone?"
"She didn't kill anyone, did she?" Lu Jianping rubbed his forehead again; it was obvious he intended to smooth things over.
He wasn't stupid, what good would punishing Lin Tantan do him? If Li Qun had the skill, he could come at him and try to use the base rules to trap him. The rules changed all the time; how could a few lines bind truly capable people?
Don't even say she hadn't killed anyone, if she had, it would be because the other ability user was outmatched. Expecting someone to pay with their life? Dream on.
Li Qun snapped, "No, this can't be let go. My people weren't beaten for nothing, she has to pay."
"Who will pay?" came a cold voice, like an ice block hauled up from the bottom of a frozen lake. Then the crackling of many footsteps sounded. A familiar figure swept in on a gust of wind, bristling with momentum and followed by several people. One of them hurried to Lu Jianping and said, "Director, we couldn't stop him."
Lu Jianping waved a hand. "It's fine. You can go."
Lin Tantan looked surprised at the arrivals. She had told Xu Qin what happened, and she hadn't expected Ye Xiao to be the one who showed up, back so soon? She smiled at him. When Ye Xiao saw she was unharmed he relaxed, then turned his gaze to Li Qun.
Ye Xiao was still in his black combat suit, he must have rushed straight back to the base, and he bore quite a bit of blood and a fierce aura. Li Qun's expression flickered; his earlier bluster immediately dampened, though he tried to put on a threatening front: "Do you think this is your backyard to come and go as you please without filing a report!"
Ye Xiao ignored him and asked Lu Jianping directly, "Commander Lu, may I take my team and leave?"
Lu Jianping: "Take them, take them."
Li Qun stamped his foot, "Too arrogant! Too arrogant! Walking out like this without any explanation, Old Lu, once you set this precedent, how will you manage the base in future?"
He had a point.
Lu Jianping said, "Then, Comrade Lin, why don't you explain why you clashed?"
Lin Tantan looked at Ye Xiao. Ye Xiao thought she might be reluctant to speak, who knew what Zhou Li had said, and in a gentle voice he said, "If you don't want to say, then don't."
"There's not much to tell, it's just..." Ye Xiao understood, she didn't know whether to speak and wanted his opinion. He told Lu Jianping, "Let us speak privately for a moment." Then he led Lin Tantan out.
Li Qun widened his eyes, even angrier, at least Lu Jianping had stopped them.
In the corridor outside, after taking Lin Tantan a short distance away, Ye Xiao asked, "What exactly happened?"
“It's nothing, just that idiot trying to threaten me.”
A chill flashed through Ye Xiao's eyes. “What did he threaten you with?”
Lin Tantan scratched her cheek; Ye Xiao immediately pieced it together and grabbed her hand. “What's wrong with your hand?”
Lin Tantan's hand trembled a little, really only slightly, she hadn't expected to be noticed. “Nothing, he shocked me a bit. His lightning is pretty strong.”
Ye Xiao took a deep breath. Good, he filed that away. He asked if anything else hurt or if she had any injuries; Lin Tantan said no, then thought for a moment and whispered, “He threatened me by saying I'm a three-ability user.”
She didn't think it was much of leverage, but saying it made her uneasy, after all, she'd been hiding it even from Ye Xiao.
To her surprise, Ye Xiao wasn't shocked. Instead he said, “He actually knows?”
Now Lin Tantan was the surprised one. “You don't seem surprised, do you know too?”
Ye Xiao said, a little helplessly, “You forgot, I was there when you used your earth ability.”
“You saw it? Why didn't you tell me sooner?”
They'd never brought it up, and since she had deliberately kept it secret, he hadn't pried, he didn't want to trouble her.
“Do you think he's out of his mind, using that to threaten me? Gaining an extra ability isn't like catching a disease.”
Ye Xiao ruffled her hair like one would pet a naive little creature, then after weighing his words, told her about the situation at the Academy of Sciences.
Lin Tantan frowned. “So... I'm actually in demand?”
“Don't worry. I won't let anyone hurt you.”
“Mm.” Lin Tantan believed him, but she thought these people were hopelessly naive. Could being a three-ability user carry that much clout? She decided she had to hide the other two abilities carefully.
In three hundred years people with many abilities might die; in this age, having too many marks you as a lab rat. Being a five-ability user was wildly unfriendly to her!
She sighed, “Since Zhou Li knows now, others might find out too. Rather than have those idiots use it as leverage, maybe I should expose it myself.”
“Fine,” Ye Xiao said, rubbing her head. “But no cursing.”
After they finished discussing and returned, Li Qun assumed they'd coordinated a line and couldn't be bothered to listen. He just wore a nasty little sneer.
But what Lin Tantan actually said shocked him.
What did she say?
She has a third ability? Earth? She alone has wood, metal, and earth abilities?!
Li Qun, who still hadn't manifested a single ability, was stunned, and then deeply jealous. Life was so unfair!
Lu Jianping was also taken aback. He looked at Lin Tantan intently, thought quickly, and decided, “If you make this public, the capital may take action. Be careful.”
Then he smiled and said to Lin Tantan, “Xiao Lin, drop by my place sometime.”
Just like that, she became “Xiao Lin.”
Lin Tantan glanced at his brow and smiled, nodding in agreement.
At the same time, Zhou Li still lay unconscious. Zhou Yan, however, didn't hover like a caring brother; he looked at him with contempt. He must have gone to confront Lin Tantan about the three abilities and ended up beaten like this.
He accomplishes nothing but causes trouble.
So does Lin Tantan really have three abilities?
He still stuck to his plan.
Because Lin Tantan was taken away, the shantytown's order was chaotic. When she was led off, Jiang Zhongyi went with her, so Xu Tianjin was left to his own devices.
Wenzi, the one who'd been closest to him during the time with Zhou Yan, suddenly showed up to find him. Xu Tianjin, off guard, went with him to talk, and then Zhou Yan suddenly appeared. He looked Xu Tianjin in the eye and asked, “Does Lin Tantan also have an earth ability?”
Xu Tianjin's eyes went blank and vacant; he said dully, “Yes.”
Zhou Yan asked again, “What exactly is your relationship with her?”
Xu Tianjin's mouth moved, then he suddenly snapped back to himself and took a step back. “Zhou, Brother Zhou, what are you doing here?”
Zhou Yan's head throbbed; he cursed his useless ability under his breath!
Yes, he had an ability too, one that made people lower their guard and compelled them to answer questions. But damn it, the power was feeble. When he first tried to use it, seven or eight times out of ten it failed. Eventually it worked, but only to force one question.
He suppressed the headache, patted Xu Tianjin on the shoulder with the easy air of an old friend and said, “Kid, you suddenly vanished, really made people worry.”
Xu Tianjin hurriedly dodged back, glanced at Zhou Yan and then at Wenzi, realized he'd been tricked, and turned and fled.
Zhou Yan: “……” Damn, does he think I'm some kind of danger?
But never mind, he finally had a clear answer to the question he'd wanted answered.
He pressed his throbbing head, thinking how he could turn this situation to his best advantage. He hadn't yet found the perfect plan when someone nearby said, “Have you heard? Doctor Lin is actually a three-ability user, besides wood and metal, she also has earth!”
“Oh my goodness! Is this for real?!”
“Unbelievable, she has three abilities all by herself!”
“How on earth did she manage that?”
“Am I the only one thinking we should never mess with her in the future?”
“Yeah, yeah, I heard that powerful lightning ability user went after her and had his skull split open.”
“Who's that lightning ability user?”
“I know, I know, it's Zhou Li.” The man who said it suddenly spotted Zhou Yan and hurriedly dragged his companion away. As they left Zhou Yan heard him say, “He's the brother of that guy from earlier. The brother crossed a three-ability user, the brother's done for, and the little brother's toast too. Stay away from him.”
Zhou Yan: “……”
What on earth is going on? Where did the news leak from? This is so infuriating!