"Huh?"
Hearing Wu Liang suddenly speak, Jiang Min was taken aback.
She then said, her eyes slightly evasive, "What... what are you talking about? If I were an Awakened, why wouldn't I join the Paranormal Handling Department and be someone important? Why would I spend my whole day rushing about at the TV station?"
"Is that so? Then what are you afraid of right now?" Wu Liang spoke as he walked into the house.
But as soon as he lifted his leg and took two steps, Jiang Min grabbed his wrist. She was so anxious that she scratched her head, not knowing how to explain to Wu Liang, only holding him back from going inside.
In the end, unable to resist any longer, she had no choice but to compromise and let Wu Liang go outside first to explain things to him.
Upon hearing this, Wu Liang obediently walked outside.
After both of them were outside, Jiang Min finally sighed in relief and started to tell her story.
"Let me tell you a story. A few years ago, a female journalist and three of her colleagues went on a business trip to a remote mountain village for an interview. The interview process didn't go smoothly, and it wasn't finished until night, so everyone decided to stay in the village overnight.
But during the deep night, the female journalist had a nightmare. She dreamt that at dawn, the deity statue worshipped in the village came to life.
The statue exhibited a power beyond common comprehension, enclosing the entire village and cruelly extending its sinister claws at everyone. Corpses lay everywhere afterward.
The dream was so realistic that she was terrified awake and couldn't sleep anymore."
Jiang Min's eyes seemed distant, as if she had returned to that moment when she dreamt of that scene, the realism of which sent shivers down her spine.
Wu Liang didn't interrupt, allowing her to continue:
"Unable to sleep, the journalist, filled with confusion, left her room and went to the shrine in the center of the village, intending to take a closer look at the strange statue from her dream.
Upon close examination, she found the stone statue's chest heaving as if it were breathing, blood mysteriously seeping from its base, and its eyes slowly turning to look at her.
Terrified, she tumbled back to her colleagues and woke them up, urging them to notify the villagers to leave immediately.
Sadly, no one would take a woman's nightmare seriously; they all thought she was just dazed from sleep.
She was unwilling to give up, so she went to the village chief's home and other influential village residents, but they only chased her away.
In the end, as dawn began to break and the sky started to lighten, the fear tormented her so much that she fled the village."
Reaching this point, Jiang Min clenched her fists more tightly, saying with a sense of unwillingness, "The female journalist hid alone in a dilapidated temple not far from the village."
"When daylight broke, she witnessed the statue resurrecting and rampaging through the village, slaughtering all visible living creatures, even dyeing the streams bright red with blood!
Everything happened just like in her dream, with the statue's enclosed area stopping right at the village gate, leaving the dilapidated temple she was in unharmed.
But with the car parked in the village and too afraid to go back, the journalist had no choice but to mountain-climb on foot. It took her an entire day to get back to the county, only to find people fleeing for their lives.
Later, she realized that this day marked the beginning of the great disaster and was also the first day the supernatural phenomena resurfaced! However, in the village, what resurfaced wasn't some deity statue but just a Fierce Ghost."
After hearing Jiang Min's remarks, the shock in Wu Liang's eyes became more evident.
Her Awakened Ability far exceeded his expectations, allowing her to know in advance how the Fierce Ghost would appear and the scope of its coverage.
How is that different from foreseeing the future!?
What's even more surprising is that everyone thought the Awakened appeared in the second year of the great disaster.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Min had Awakened a day before the great disaster?
This might be the earliest discovered Awakened by humanity at this stage!
Seemingly noticing Wu Liang's shock, Jiang Min hurriedly explained, "But I am not an Awakened."
"Huh?" Now it was Wu Liang's turn to be dumbfounded.
You just said something so mysterious, and now you're telling me you're not an Awakened. Can ordinary people foresee the future?
She immediately continued, "I also suspected myself of being an Awakened. I even relied on the sporadic supernatural premonition dreams to survive during the great disaster, but I had it officially checked."
With that, Jiang Min shook her head and said:
"Actually, inside the official department, there is a certain machine that can directly check if someone has Awakened, and no matter how they examined me, the conclusion was always - I'm a normal person, not yet Awakened."
Wu Liang couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth at this.
This is just too abstract. If having the ability to foresee the appearance of a Fierce Ghost doesn't count as being Awakened, the other Awakened people are like a joke.
Before he could make a sarcastic comment, Jiang Min continued, "My sensing the signs of a Fierce Ghost's appearance is actually very unstable and not every time can I know beforehand."
"There have even been instances where I foreseen a Fierce Ghost appearing, but nothing actually happened."
"Moreover, I can only perceive the situation in my current location, so before going upstairs, I didn't sense anything unusual. It was only upon entering the room that I sensed the presence, indicating that the Fierce Ghost's appearance range is confined to the room!"
"But! Wu Liang! There might really be a ghost in your room!"
Listening to the sincere plea from the other party, along with the trace of unwillingness and pain flashing through her eyes.
Wu Liang thought he figured out why she had never revealed her abilities before.
Or rather, she might have actually revealed them before.
Based on his experiences with Jiang Min in the past few days, he felt she was not a cold or ruthless woman, but rather, quite kind-hearted and emotional.
Given her disposition, she likely tried to save others using this ability during the great disaster more than once.
But it seemed there weren't many, if any, who believed her!
Especially after the establishment of the official Paranormal Handling Department, it's needless to say who people would rather trust when faced with an officially recognized organization versus a strange woman?
What's more, this strange woman was officially verified not to be an Awakened.
Plus, Jiang Min mentioned her premonitions are unstable, not every time can be precognized.
There probably have been instances where after she warned someone with all her might, they believed her, yet nothing happened.
In the eyes of others, what she said could have resembled the story of her dazed colleagues in the village—just muddled dreams.
People only thought she was being hysterical.
Yet even then, after bumping into him in the TV station's office building, she still couldn't bear not to warn him and advised leaving the building quickly.
At this moment, Wu Liang recalled Jiang Min's panicked figure fleeing the office building.
Was her figure the same as when she fled that village before, panicked and with no one believing her, being forced to escape alone?
"Sister Jiang, I believe you."
Having said that, Wu Liang lifted his head to look into Jiang Min's eyes, which were on the verge of tears.
He then firmly held her wrist and spoke forcefully, "And if I say, as long as you come in with me and tell me the exact location where the Fierce Ghost appears, I have a way to handle it."
"Would you be willing to trust me?"
Upon hearing this, Jiang Min, who was initially planning to refuse directly and pull Wu Liang to escape, was stunned.
Because she saw an unwavering resolve in Wu Liang's eyes, similar to the one she once held when warning others.
She hesitated.
What if... he's not lying to her either?