Bai Jie asked curiously, "You drain vital essence, but Zheng Yueling drains something different from you—why is that?"
Wang Miaoyin shook her head. "I don't know either. Perhaps it has to do with our different abilities and traits."
"After you were affected by that thing... do you feel that you are still yourself?" Bai Jie suddenly tossed out a question that had sprung to mind.
"That... does it matter?" Wang Miaoyin hesitated.
"Does it not matter?" Bai Jie countered.
Wang Miaoyin wore a recollective expression as she slowly said, "Probably not. Every minute, every second, we exist in a cycle of life and death. The self of the previous second dies, but in the next moment, we are reborn anew."
"After being contaminated by that thing, all I wanted was to keep this cycle going. Once this cycle stops, pondering the question of 'who I am' becomes meaningless."
"So, in order to keep yourself alive, you went ahead and killed several human lives?" Bai Jie suddenly pressed aggressively.
"I never intended to harm anyone..."
Wang Miaoyin said with a serious expression, "Of the missing persons on campus, only one is related to me. The rest should all be Yueling's doing. As for the deceased in the Southern District, they were the ones who harbored ill intentions toward me first—they even planned to kidnap me and sell me on the black net."
Bai Jie understood clearly: the 'one person' she referred to was He Jun.
"Truthfully, even the men whose vital essence I drained—as long as I exercised restraint, they wouldn't have died. Those few individuals' outcomes were entirely their own fault."
"So then, what did you do to He Jun?" Bai Jie transmitted to Wang Miaoyin privately.
It had first noticed Wang Miaoyin through Chen Zhang's report that He Jun's disappearance was connected to her—and He Jun, as Bai Jie's roommate of over a year, shared a certain friendship with it.
Adding to that, having recently learned through the Criminal Investigation Department's notification that He Jun was dead, it was all the more curious about He Jun's experience.
"He Jun, huh... I didn't expect Lord Bai Zhi to inquire about him. It seems he and Lord Bai Zhi may perhaps have known each other..."
Wang Miaoyin smiled faintly, then began to speak in a measured tone:
"At that time, because Yueling didn't know when to stop, five people had already gone missing from the school. The situation was extremely tense, and I was on the verge of losing control myself. So I had no choice but to set my sights on He Jun, who was pursuing me."
Bai Jie was greatly shocked: ???
Inwardly it thought: Where did that brat He Jun get the confidence to chase after you?!
Truly, good cabbage all gets... ah, forget it, the man's gone anyway.
"In the time I spent with him, I discovered he was quite different from all the people I'd been involved with before. At the very least, he didn't casually try to get handsy with me."
"And... more importantly, even after he discovered the anomaly within me—knowing full well that staying with me would risk shortening his lifespan—he still showed no fear whatsoever, nor any desire to leave me."
"I also promised him I wouldn't harm his life..."
"But I let him down. One night in his sleep, I suddenly neared the brink of losing control and couldn't hold back... causing him to die on the spot..."
"It was after that accident that I secretly fled to the Southern District."
Bai Jie: "..."
What happened to exercising restraint and watching the dosage?!
He Jun, this... I suppose you could say he died beneath the peony flowers, a ghost in bliss?
Bai Jie was silent for two seconds before shifting to a more pressing question: "Then, do you know of Li Jiayu?"
"Li... Jiayu? I've only heard that she's a professor at our university." Wang Miaoyin's tone was natural.
Simultaneously, Bai Jie sensed that she wasn't lying. It seemed she likely didn't know about Li Jiayu being parasitized by the anomaly purple light.
"In that case, who else within the school has a condition like yours and Zheng Yueling's?"
This was Bai Jie's most pressing concern at the moment—and the most critical clue for its evolution!
It was absolutely certain: since that meteorite had fallen into Xingchuan University's lake, there had to be more humans contaminated by the anomaly than just these few!
Unfortunately, Wang Miaoyin shook her head slightly.
"I don't know who specifically, but I only know that among the school's mentors, there is one person who is the same as Zheng Yueling and me—and the mystery surrounding that person far surpasses ours."
A mentor?!
Bai Jie's mind jolted.
"That person is closely connected to Zheng Yueling, and seems to have an informant within the Criminal Investigation Department. As for me, I only know that such a person exists, but I'm not familiar with them," Wang Miaoyin added.
The Criminal Investigation Department? An informant?
Could it be Agent Yao—the one very likely colluding with Zheng Yueling?
When the opportunity arose, Bai Jie also planned to pay a visit to the Criminal Investigation Department.
As for the mentor's specific identity, Bai Jie thought it a pity. Though still unclear, at least the search had been narrowed down. Even if they couldn't be found at the school, catching Agent Yao might bring the truth to light.
If only Zheng Yueling were still alive—surely they could have obtained much more intelligence from her mouth.
Sorting through the thoughts in its mind and feeling that this round of questions was nearly over, Bai Jie transmitted: "Your body—is it you, Wang Miaoyin, in control, or is there something else pulling the strings?"
"I... I don't know." The young woman shook her head.
"What do you mean?"
"I think... I have already merged with that thing, inseparable from it, no longer distinguishable."
Clearly, 'that thing' was what Bai Jie called the anomaly purple light.
"Understood. Interesting."
Bai Jie asked again: "Can you sense it?"
Wang Miaoyin explained: "Usually it doesn't respond to me. Generally, only when I'm about to lose control can I feel its presence."
"Then... would you like me to help you exorcise the anomaly within you?" Bai Jie asked darkly.
"How I feel about it... doesn't matter." Wang Miaoyin bowed at the waist deferentially. "What matters is what Lord Bai Zhi decides."
"Very good. If you obediently comply, I may consider sparing your life."
Because it foresaw what was about to happen, an irrepressible, indescribable excitement surged within the demon spider's heart.
Shhh-shhh.
Two strands of snow-white spider silk shot out from the darkness, wrapping around Wang Miaoyin's slender, barely graspable waist, pulling her directly into the air and vanishing among the lush canopy of leaves above.
"Ah!"
The seductive young woman instantly let out a delicate cry.
A faint blood-red light flickered in her eyes. Instinctively, she wanted to activate her abilities to protect herself, but she forcibly held back.