Chapter 55 Resistance

Jiang Pan Yu immediately decided to keep this skill for now. It might come in handy later if she wanted to buy antiques or try her luck with gemstone gambling. It could even be useful for acquiring a family heirloom.

With a heart full of optimism, Jiang Pan Yu drifted off to sleep. Meanwhile, Tan Yanlu, for some reason, had been feeling distracted and absent-minded ever since she returned home.

Jiang Pan Yu had noticed Tan Yanlu’s unusual behavior during dinner. The Gossip System informed her that this was because Tan Yanlu had broken free from the mental suggestion. Without the influence of the suggestion, she naturally felt a sense of dissonance.

In the days to come, as Tan Yanlu gradually awakened and broke free from control, this sense of dissonance would grow stronger.

There was nothing outsiders could do to help Tan Yanlu; she would have to adjust and adapt on her own.

Tan Yanlu looked at the spilled Spirit Spring Water on the floor with frustration. She had intended to water the ginseng in the clay pot but had accidentally spilled it while lost in thought.

She simply placed the cup on the table and decided to call it a day. She didn’t feel like doing anything else. Perhaps she was just too tired?

After washing up and lying in bed, Tan Yanlu tossed and turned for a long time before finally falling asleep.

But not long after she closed her eyes, she found herself in a bizarre dream.

In her dream, she had transformed into a Little Koi Carp, carefreely cultivating in the river, hoping one day to take on human form.

As often happens, there was a twist in the tale. The Little Koi Carp formed a bond with a Fisherman who fed her, and the two companions spent decades together.

Eventually, the Little Koi Carp finally achieved human form. However, being naive and inexperienced, she was deceived by a Weasel.

Not only did the Weasel trick her out of her fish scales, but it also convinced her to repay the Fisherman’s kindness. The Little Koi Carp, in her innocence, reincarnated as a human.

After her reincarnation, the Little Koi Carp, now in her teenage years, met a man who made her heart flutter. Of course, this was only her one-sided infatuation. In reality, she was drawn to him because of her own fish scales and the psychological suggestion planted by the Weasel before her reincarnation.

After the man saved her from a fall down the stairs, the Little Koi Carp fell for him, and the two pledged their lives to each other.

Eagerly, the Little Koi Carp secretly signed up to go to the countryside to find the man, only to discover that she was the one being deceived. The man already had another woman entangled in his life in the countryside.

The Little Koi Carp was in immense pain, but due to the psychological suggestion and the allure of her fish scales, she repeatedly forgave the man.

In the end, she met a tragic death on the streets, lost her Koi Luck, and became a wandering ghost for decades.

She watched as the man, using the items that belonged to the Little Koi Carp, climbed the ladder of success, amassed immense wealth, and lived a life of luxury.

After the man died, the Little Koi Carp finally realized that he was the Weasel Spirit who had deceived her. The Weasel Spirit had stolen her Koi Fortune, allowing his cultivation to flourish effortlessly.

As for the Little Koi Carp, she had lost her luck, becoming a wandering ghost on the verge of dissipating into nothingness.

It was the World’s Will that had given birth to the Little Koi, which then collected her fragmented soul, preventing her from completely dissipating into the void and offering her a chance to start anew.

Although the Little Koi had been given an opportunity to turn her fate around, if she couldn’t break free from the Psychological Suggestion implanted by the Weasel, reclaim her fish scales, and alter her destiny, she would still face the inevitable outcome of dissipation.

Tan Yanlu watched this dream and its outcome, and for some reason, she felt as if she herself were that Little Koi Carp, drawing parallels to her own strange behaviors when encountering Gao Shaolin in reality.

If it weren’t for Jiang Pan Yu’s presence to remind and assist her, and if something were to happen to her in reality without the help of many, would the events in the dream repeat themselves?

Tan Yanlu dared not continue this line of thought; the more she pondered, the more fear gripped her.

No, she didn’t want to be utterly annihilated; she wanted to live, to reclaim what was hers, to change her fate.

In the dream, Tan Yanlu silently screamed, and suddenly, a voice from deep within her heart filled her mind, incessantly repeating a phrase, urging her to devote everything to Gao Shaolin.

Tan Yanlu screamed in her dream, angrily roaring, “I will never compromise, never!”

Suddenly, Tan Yanlu’s eyes snapped open, and in the darkness, only her heavy breathing from the nightmare’s shock could be heard.

Her heart ached terribly, as if countless needles were piercing it, and Tan Yanlu gasped for air.

Previously, she didn’t know why her heart hurt, as she was healthy and medical examinations revealed nothing.

Now she knew it was the implanted suggestion warning her, trying to make Tan Yanlu compromise.

But Tan Yanlu widened her eyes, clutching her chest, telling herself over and over, “Tan Yanlu, you cannot give in, you cannot.

I will never devote myself to Gao Shaolin, never, never.”

The voice within her psyche sensed Tan Yanlu’s resistance and naturally wouldn’t give up so easily; Tan Yanlu was in so much pain she could barely breathe.

Her vision blurred, but the more it hurt, the clearer her mind became. Tan Yanlu gritted her teeth, her rationality constantly battling against the seductive voice.

Meanwhile, far away at the police station, Gao Shaolin suddenly clutched his neck; the fish scale patterns on his neck began to burn as if someone had branded him with a hot iron.

Gao Shaolin trembled in pain but couldn’t make a sound, and then he felt a tearing agony in his flesh, as if something was being ripped from his neck.

Gao Shaolin’s other hand kept feeling his neck, but there was no blood; his stomach wasn’t injured, so why did it hurt so much?

Gao Shaolin couldn’t understand, but he felt an inexplicable dread, as if he was about to lose something important.

If he had a mirror at that moment, he would have seen the fish scale patterns on his neck gradually dissipating, but being locked up in the dark, he couldn’t see his own neck and remained oblivious.

The confrontation between Tan Yanlu and the Psychological Suggestion had reached its peak. Tan Yanlu curled up like a shrimp due to the pain in her heart, her entire body convulsing uncontrollably.

Her complexion turned from pale to blue, then purple, and she was on the verge of suffocation. Yet, she gritted her teeth and held on. Just as her vision blurred and darkened, and she felt she couldn’t endure any longer,

In her daze, Tan Yanlu seemed to see a shimmering golden scale appear before her eyes, then it merged into her forehead. Suddenly, the pain in her heart drastically diminished.

Tan Yanlu finally caught her breath. She gasped heavily, drenched in cold sweat. A voice in her heart surged with a sense of unwillingness, and Tan Yanlu clenched her teeth again, battling against that voice.

This time, it was noticeably easier, as if the return of that scale had given Tan Yanlu infinite strength. As the sky began to lighten, the voice in her heart let out a sharp, unwilling roar, then dissipated into thin air.