Chapter 30 Sister Ruohuo is gone

When Jiang Shu opened his eyes, the sunshade of the sports car was already open, and the glaring sunlight flooded the interior, heating up the air.

"Awake, huh?" Wolf was driving, and he glanced at the navigation, "We're almost there, about an hour left."

"How long did I sleep?" Jiang Shu squinted his eyes, feeling slightly carsick. He had spent more than half of the past two days in the car, and waking up from this sleep felt no different from a hangover.

"Fourteen hours," Wolf responded. "The automatic driving is slow."

"Uh-huh." Jiang Shu nodded and closed his eyes again, lying back on the passenger seat to rest for a good while.

Why didn't I dream? The sleep last night didn't trigger "Past Life and Present Life"...

Then, something even more annoying than cliffhangers happened...

No update.

Jiang Shu opened his eyes, glanced at Wolf who was focused on driving, and realizing he wasn't paying attention, he turned on his wristwatch to quickly check his Character Card.

-- Passive·Deception - Cutting Shadows: When you cut a shadow, the physical entity will suffer the same damage.

Is that the only ability left?

He closed his eyes again.

This means "Past Life and Present Life" had been cracked by someone yesterday.

He turned on his Tablet Spirit, logged onto the network, and searched for the keywords "Magic" and "Past Life and Present Life," only to discover that Lonely City was once again stirred up because of his magic.

Another war erupted on the internet, but this time, the trolls deeply realized that Tangtang's fans were not to be trifled with, so no one directed the topic there.

The war started from a sarcastic comment— "Really? If it's not rigged, could it actually be true Prediction? At most, they hired a whole theater to keep Tangtang in the dark."

Then an audience member from the scene countered, "There were no plants at the scene, use your brain, will you?"

Next, a supposedly rational bystander chipped in, "No need to argue, guys. The person just wants the buzz. As for the magic, people involved might find it hard to speak the truth."

Thus, the second online war officially commenced.

Jiang Shu found it somewhat amusing, but then he wondered, if that was the case, how did his ability disappear?

At that moment, the Tablet Spirit automatically opened a background program and presented him with a video titled "A Guess About the Magic 'Past Life and Present Life'."

"Huh?" Jiang Shu clicked on it. The video was posted last midnight by a new account with hardly any traffic, currently only having a few dozen views and not a single comment.

The video was very short, mostly text, and oddly enough, made one involuntarily think "too long; didn't watch," probably one of the reasons the video was unpopular.

Besides that, the video was concise, and the uploader pointed out several succinct points about the magic trick's effects and process, and related props.

Regarding the video, this uploader understood more clearly than Kirie, although not entirely correct, but mostly deciphered the magic trick.

Jiang Shu thought for a while and then entered a comment, clicking send.

"After watching, but why could the Magician predict?"

Shortly after, he saw a few more comments.

"Right, Prediction and such are too unscientific, right?"

"It makes no sense, there was really a Past Life and Present Life."

"The Magician is so cool, I want to dream about my past life too."

"Yikes—" Jiang Shu gasped. This tacit cooperation...

Then he saw the usernames—"Durian Alpha", "Hello Big Beta", "Paid for Ding".

He quickly looked at Alpha, Beta, and Ding, whose Tablet Spirit screens showed this same video.

Alpha, Beta, Ding: Grinning_Teeth.JPG

"You guys have accounts too?" Jiang Shu couldn't help but ask.

Beta: Of course, just created them.

"Fine," Jiang Shu couldn't be bothered to deal with them anymore. He let them have fun. What kind of tricks could four Tablet Spirits play online?

Before long, it seemed the video creator was online, as he replied one by one to the comments from Jiang Shu and the Tablet Spirits, "It's not a prediction, but a problem with the process and props. Let me draw you a diagram."

Soon, the uploader posted another video, this time using simple diagrams to recreate the process, making it clear and intuitive.

This time, the uploader also specifically tagged Jiang Shu and the Tablet Spirits.

Jiang Shu took the lead, commenting under the video, "Great diagrams! So what exactly did the magician learn to make predictions?"

Beth: "Looks impressive! Is it because the magician has the superpower of prediction?"

...

The uploader didn't reply to them but posted another video half an hour later; this time, he had invested heavily in a 3D dynamic analysis video.

Jiang Shu, along with the four Tablet Spirits, watched the video with great interest and then commented, "I understand what you mean, but why would the magician make predictions?"

Cee: "Predictions are so cool. I want to learn too."

...

The uploader went offline; he had given up resisting.

However, the video series wasn't deleted; in fact, it even hit the trending lists, as silly Internet users flooded in, making the comment section of the decryption video strange.

Jiang Shu smiled satisfactorily.

"Why are you laughing?" Wolf asked Jiang Shu, puzzled.

Jiang Shu and the others turned to him: baring teeth smile.JPG

Wolf couldn't grasp the meaning of the smile, but he asked again, "We're almost at the Seventh District, should I drop you home first?"

"Okay." Jiang Shu had no objections; after not seeing Tangtang for a day and a half, he figured she must be starving.

A quarter of an hour later, Wolf parked the car in front of Jiang Shu's house, but as soon as he got out, his expression darkened, "Something's not right."

"Hmm?" Jiang Shu, looking at the familiar house in front of him, asked, "What's wrong?"

"There's... the smell of machine oil in the air." Wolf continued, reaching toward his waist and cautiously approaching the villa, but when he reached the main entrance, he was stunned.

After a while, he turned back and asked Jiang Shu, "Did you move?"

"Ah?" Jiang Shu was also taken aback, quickly stepping forward. He saw the villa's front door wide open, with several boxes of miscellaneous items piled at the entrance, and with his keen sight, he could see busy workers inside the villa.

Right away, one man and four spirits slowly formed a "?" on their faces.

"Tangtang?" Having regained his composure, Jiang Shu walked into the villa and called upstairs.

As usual, there was no response, so he stepped toward the staircase.

"Sir, who are you?" one of the workers asked, not clear about his identity.

"This is my house. Did Liu Tingruo hire you? To manage the household?" Jiang Shu went upstairs, straight to Tangtang's room, then pushed the door open.

For the first time, Tangtang's room was clean and tidy, with only a desk, a bed, and a wardrobe. Everything else was gone.

Her traces also disappeared.

Jiang Shu was stunned at the door until a worker hurried over to stop him.

"Sir, I just checked, this isn't your home. In fact, this house hasn't had an owner for three years," the worker said politely, but there was a hint of disdain in his eyes.

Being a veteran worker in this field, he had seen wanderers take over temporarily uninhabited houses.

"But now, this house has been bought, sir. Your belongings are outside. If you need to dispose of them, we will assist you," the worker continued.

Jiang Shu looked towards Tangtang's room but didn't answer.

—

It wasn't until five minutes later, sitting on a box, that Jiang Shu finally snapped back to reality. He looked up at Wolf, a hint of confusion in his eyes.

"Tangtang, Liu Tingruo, you've seen her. She... truly exists, right?"