Jiang Yuan had fully accepted the situation. He’d given up on wishful thinking and was ready to fight.

If he was still naive enough to seek understanding from others, he might as well kill himself right here and now.

“So that’s what you think?”

Yi Nanye looked rather surprised.

Jiang Yuan wasn’t doing this to win Yi Nanye over. He was training his mindset from this point on. He knew he’d face all kinds of utterly disgusting things in the future, and without a strong enough heart, he’d end up with a cerebral hemorrhage sooner or later.

After washing the dishes, Jiang Yuan returned to the living room and found Yi Nanye sitting obediently on the sofa, playing on her phone. He went to his own room, where all his personal belongings had been moved.

The room’s layout was an exact replica of his own.

Jiang Yuan turned on the computer and started gathering information online. He tried searching his own name, never expecting the keyword to take him straight to a dedicated page.

Jiang Yuan, one of the three prime suspects in the Codename Jiang case.

That was the title of the page. Below it was a brief biography. The government had probably put the page together. It mostly painted him in a positive light, presenting him as a model student at every turn.

At the bottom, the comment section displayed a long string of digits. That was the number of comments. Jiang Yuan counted nine digits.

The page had been up for no more than a day or two, yet it already had seven hundred million comments—roughly a tenth of the world’s population.

Jiang Yuan skimmed a few comments. He could barely find any that were even halfway fair, let alone kind. It was as if netizens were savoring the chance to bully someone with impunity while standing on the moral high ground, reveling in a violent mobbing of a minor.

People were chasing him down in the real world, and there wasn’t a single place online where he could find peace. Countless people discussed him, making him the topic of their casual conversations.

Time slipped by. When Jiang Yuan unconsciously yawned and came back to himself, it was already nine at night—time for bed.

“Come to think of it… why hasn’t that woman come to bother me?”

Jiang Yuan suddenly realized it. He glanced over his shoulder. Yi Nanye hadn’t followed him into the room, which surprised him. Curious, he stepped back out and saw her still on the sofa, playing on her phone.

At first, Jiang Yuan had thought she’d left him alone because she’d fallen asleep. Apparently, that wasn’t the reason.

“Aren’t you going to keep an eye on me?”

“I need to rest too. Besides, someone’s monitoring the network traffic here, so I’m not worried about you causing trouble online.”

“You know what I was doing?”

Jiang Yuan frowned. Yi Nanye hadn’t even come into the room, yet she knew he’d been using the computer. She didn’t explain in words. Instead, she tapped her neck twice with a finger, and Jiang Yuan understood at once.

His collar probably had a camera, or even a microphone. Even when Yi Nanye wasn’t beside him, she could more or less keep track of where he was and what he was doing at any moment.

“By the way, can’t you go to sleep?”

“You’re going to control when I sleep, too?”

“Of course.”

As she spoke, Yi Nanye raised her right hand. She was wearing a wristband, too. Jiang Yuan had noticed it earlier, but hadn’t bothered to ask.

“I can’t fall asleep until you do. Otherwise, this thing keeps sending weak electric shocks to stimulate my nerves. And when you wake up, the current jolts me awake too. In other words, even our sleep schedules have to be perfectly synchronized.”

“What…”

Jiang Yuan frowned deeply. He hadn’t expected Yi Nanye’s supervision to be this strict. They even had to sleep at the same time.

“Then what if I get up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night?”

“Then I wake up with you.”

“What if I can’t sleep?”

“Then I stay up with you.”

“So you can only rest once I do? If I don’t sleep, that’s basically me torturing you?”

“That’s assuming you can keep it up. I can get a good night’s sleep while you’re just dozing off. You should understand that our sense of time isn’t the same. And if all else fails, I can always force you to take a sedative. What could you do to me in return?”

Yi Nanye wasn’t worried that Jiang Yuan could use this against her. Her ability might not be the best one for keeping tabs on people, but if she wanted to, she could cut the time she needed for daily chores down to almost nothing.

Like using the bathroom earlier. One second was all it took!

“Fine… I’m going to bed. Also, I’m going to school as usual tomorrow.”

Jiang Yuan told Yi Nanye what he planned to do. He wasn’t going to hide here. He’d prove through his actions that he was an innocent victim.

“You still dare to go to school?”

Yi Nanye was stunned by Jiang Yuan’s plan. Was he really that clueless about the situation? He’d probably be safe enough if he stayed hidden here. Going to school was practically asking to get himself killed.

“I have to go!”

“Aren’t you afraid someone will beat you to death with clubs on the street?”

“You care whether I live or die? So your job isn’t just to supervise me—you have to protect me too. As long as you can’t confirm that I’m Codename Jiang, you have to keep me safe while you watch me. Am I right?”

Jiang Yuan picked up on the point in Yi Nanye’s words: her job of supervising him also involved protecting him. That was why she didn’t want him to go out. She couldn’t be bothered to protect him—and she certainly didn’t want to.

“Tch…”

Yi Nanye clicked her tongue, annoyed. Jiang Yuan had it right. As his supervisor, even if she wanted him dead, all she could do was pressure him with words or search for something suspicious about him.

If anyone else tried to hurt Jiang Yuan, she really would have to step in and protect him.

“So you’re going to school just to spite me, is that it?”

Yi Nanye figured that if Jiang Yuan was still going to school, he was obviously just trying to make trouble for her.

“You think way too highly of yourself. I’m just doing my duty as a student.”

Going with the flow and letting the rumors spread would only make things worse. The only way to prove he wasn’t a threat was to face the situation head-on.

An hour later.

In Jiang Yuan’s room.

Jiang Yuan lay in bed, unable to fall asleep no matter how he tried. It wasn’t for any other reason than that Yi Nanye was lying right beside him, completely at ease.

He really disliked her, but she was still a beautiful young woman. A faint, cool fragrance drifted from her—whether it was shampoo or perfume, he couldn’t tell—and it made him feel a little unsettled.

Even with his actual girlfriend, Qin Xin, he’d only gotten as far as holding hands. Yi Nanye, on the other hand, had skipped straight to sleeping beside him. It was hard not to let his imagination run wild.

“Hey…”

Jiang Yuan tried nudging Yi Nanye, who was already fast asleep, hoping to wake her and get her to move somewhere else.

Earlier, when they’d talked about him going to school, Yi Nanye had argued for a bit. When she saw it was no use, she seemed to realize tomorrow would be busy, and without another word, climbed into bed and went straight to sleep.

But that left Jiang Yuan feeling awful!

“Hey!”

Jiang Yuan nudged her harder and raised his voice. This time, it worked. Yi Nanye woke up, yawned, then shot him an irritated look.

“What is it?”

“There’s an empty room next door!”

“And?”

“So why do you have to sleep with me?”

“It’s not that I insist on sleeping with you. We just can’t be more than ten meters apart once we’re asleep. By default, that means we sleep in the same room.”

After explaining, Yi Nanye showed him the wristband again. If they got more than ten meters apart, it would send an electric shock to force them both awake.

“To stop someone from moving me after I fall asleep?”

“More or less.”

“But the next room isn’t ten meters away!”

“But are you asleep? I can sleep as long as you’re within three meters of me, even if you’re still awake. It’s that simple. So stay up if you want, but don’t disturb my rest. If you don’t like it, buy a single bed tomorrow and set it up. I’m going to sleep now!”

“You!”

“What? You’re still unhappy? I’m not some hulking muscleman. I’m at least a cute girl, aren’t I? You’re getting the benefit and still acting like you’re put out. If you don’t like it, sleep on the floor. It’s already pretty generous of me not to force you to.”

Yi Nanye’s words left Jiang Yuan speechless. Technically, he was getting the benefit of the deal, but he couldn’t bring himself to be happy about it. Yi Nanye was too forceful, too direct. Somehow, that only made Jiang Yuan seem more awkward and fake by comparison.

Maybe this was exactly the sort of talent it took to become a supervisor.

Her personality suited the role just as well as her ability. The difference between men and women simply didn’t exist for her. She’d never get embarrassed about something like this. To her, there were only supervisors and those being supervised.

“I give up.”

“Then stop talking.”

After saying that, Yi Nanye flopped back down and went straight to sleep. She really wasn’t embarrassed at all, and she wasn’t afraid Jiang Yuan might try anything. For now, he was just an ordinary person. He couldn’t pose a threat to an Esper.

“Sigh…”

After turning it over in his mind, Jiang Yuan could only sigh. The road ahead was unclear, and hostility surrounded him from every direction. Yi Nanye was both his supervisor and his protector. He didn’t doubt she could react the instant a gun went off.

He might have to rely on her to keep him safe from now on…

As Jiang Yuan thought, he turned to glance at Yi Nanye. Once she was asleep, she was much quieter. Her sleeping face was pretty cute. But after he stared at it for a while, another image suddenly came back to him.

It was a scene from one of the videos provided by the people of the future. At Codename Jiang’s feet, beside the monsters crawling on the ground, a girl with a badly mutilated body lay by the roadside. Tears ran from her dilated pupils, mingling with blood.

She’d been tossed aside and trampled like garbage.

If that person were him, and the one responsible were right beside him, what would he do?

Without a doubt, he’d be a hundred, a thousand times worse than Yi Nanye.

“I don’t know why, but I’m a little grateful for how cruel you’ve been to me. If you’d treated me gently and made me lose my fighting spirit, leaving you as the only person I could rely on, I might have let you do whatever you wanted—even died for you.”

Jiang Yuan had realized that when he’d most needed someone to rely on, Yi Nanye’s clean, unflinching hostility had forced him to abandon his fantasies and face reality. She’d made him unwilling—unwilling to simply die.

Jiang Yuan reached out and tugged the blanket over Yi Nanye, covering her so she wouldn’t catch a chill. Then he curled up in the corner with only half his body under the covers. April nights were a little cool, and the cold wind coming through the window still made him shiver.

And then…

He fell asleep.

On the other side of the bed, Yi Nanye opened her eyes. She’d been pretending to sleep. She’d expected Jiang Yuan to do something weird so she could make fun of him, but instead, he’d thanked her.

He’d thanked her for being cruel. Even as he spoke, there had been a self-mocking edge to his voice.

Yi Nanye bit her lip. Her feelings were complicated in that moment. Thinking about it, it really was strange. In the future…

Codename Jiang stood high above, like a god, while she was tossed aside like garbage. Yet now she was sharing a bed with someone who might be Codename Jiang.