funbook-pk Chapter 1143 Aren't they all the same?
Chapter 1143 Aren't they all the same?
"Cousin, I don't understand what you're saying. We might really just be lucky!" Shen Suqiu forced a smile.
“Luck?” Xu Tian gently interrupted her potentially feeble rebuttal, shook his head, and revealed an expression on his face that Shen Suqiu had never seen before, a mixture of understanding and faint sorrow: “Suqiu, luck is something that only those who believe in the logic of the world and the rules of good and evil will rely on.”
He paused, his gaze seemingly passing over Shen Suqiu and looking into a more distant place, where there were only cold walls. But his eyes seemed to pierce through the walls, seeing the crueler truth of this chaotic world.
"In this world, those who survive and want to continue living, especially those who don't want to live according to rules set by others... usually don't believe in luck."
His voice was soft, yet every word was clear, striking Shen Suqiu's heart and penetrating the thin door panel, reaching the ears of Jing Xiongda on the outside:
"They only believe in one thing: scheming."
Furthermore, at crucial moments, make the choice that is most beneficial to yourself.
There was dead silence in the room.
Shen Suqiu stared blankly at Xu Tian, as if she were truly getting to know this always gentle and silent cousin for the first time.
His words, like a cold scalpel, stripped away all her hopes and illusions that she had tried to hide, leaving them raw and bleeding.
Outside the door, in the shadows, Yudai Itai slowly loosened his clenched fist, his fingertips slightly numb from the force.
The rage on his face gradually faded, replaced by an extreme coldness and... intense interest.
This Xu Tian is more than just extraordinary.
Beneath his calm exterior lay a chillingly sharp mind, logical thinking, and insightful understanding of human nature and the current situation.
His last sentence was more like a... declaration, or rather, a test.
In the room, time seemed to be stretched out by an invisible hand, each second thick and heavy.
The light shining through the high windows cuts out slanted spots of light on the cracked concrete floor.
The silence lasted for about a minute and a half—which felt like half a century to Shen Suqiu.
Xu Tian finally spoke again. This time, his voice was lower than before, with a persuasive tone. He spoke very slowly, each syllable clear and full, as if he were not asking a question, but guiding the other person to think about a complex puzzle.
His usually mild-mannered, even somewhat wooden face now strangely displayed a patience almost like that of a teacher, but behind this patience was a cold and piercing scrutiny.
"Think about it again... carefully." Xu Tian spoke slowly, pausing briefly to give Shen Suqiu time to concentrate: "That Section Chief Banjing..."
When Xu Tian read the name, his tone was steady, without any special emphasis, as if he were talking about an insignificant passerby.
"The way he looks at you, and the way he looks at me..." He paused again, as if to confirm whether Shen Suqiu was listening attentively: "Is there... anything different?"
Xu Tian spoke the words "different" very softly, with a slightly drawn-out ending, leaving a lingering impression that prompted deep thought.
This is not an interrogation, nor even a strong suspicion, but rather a exploratory stance of "I noticed certain details, have you noticed them too?"
It is precisely this attitude that is more penetrating than direct questioning.
Shen Suqiu's heart trembled violently!
It felt as if someone was scraping her taut nerves with their fingernails, sending a sharp shiver down her spine.
The color drained from her face instantly, and even her lips lost their color.
Different? Of course they're different! This realization struck her like a cold needle the moment Yudai Itai took her from the Kagesa Agency and shoved her into the car.
The way Yudai Itai looked at her... it was an extremely complex mixture.
On the surface, it was undisguised coldness and brutality befitting a Japanese military police officer, with an impatience as if looking at ants.
But when that gaze occasionally swept across her face, in that extremely brief moment of eye contact, something else seemed to flash very quickly through the deepest part of that icy shell—not kindness, that would be too extravagant.
It's more like a resigned scrutiny, with the sharpness of assessing risks and a hint of annoyance at "Why is it you who's such a nuisance?"
Deep within those eyes, there seemed to be something else, something Shen Suqiu dared not and did not want to delve into, like a faint spark glimpsed in the darkness, something she knew was dangerous but could not completely ignore.
However, the way Yuta Itai looked at his cousin Xu Tian was much more "pure".
That was utter indifference and impatience towards something that was in the way or bothersome, like seeing a stone blocking the way or mud stuck to the sole of your shoe, wanting only to kick it away or wipe it off as soon as possible, feeling that even looking at it for a second was a waste of time.
That sense of detachment, as if she were nothing, contrasted sharply with the fleeting complexity that crossed his mind when he looked at her.
This difference is so subtle, yet so fatal.
Shen Suqiu believed that only she, as the person directly involved, could capture that fleeting difference amidst extreme tension and fear.
She even comforted herself, thinking that it might be her own illusion, a fantasy born out of desperation.
But my cousin... my cousin Xu Tian, who always keeps his head down, doesn't talk much, and seems indifferent to everything around him, actually... noticed it too?
He not only noticed it, but also grasped the crux of the matter with such precision, pointing it out in such a calm yet frightening way!
A wave of immense panic washed over her instantly, like an icy tide.
She felt her fingertips were icy cold, while a fine layer of cold sweat seeped out on her back, clinging damply to her thin inner shirt.
"No...no, that's not it." Shen Suqiu denied it almost reflexively, her voice dry and hoarse from extreme tension, like rough sandpaper rubbing against wood: "They...they're all fierce. Aren't all Japanese people like that?"
She tried to cover it up with a vague conclusion, but the trembling in her voice and her evasive eyes revealed the turmoil in her heart.
"Oh..." Xu Tian uttered a short, drawn-out interjection, leaning back in his chair. The movement was relaxed, as if his sharp question had been casually asked and received an expected, rather uninteresting answer.
He stopped asking questions and didn't even look at Shen Suqiu again. His gaze returned to his fingers, as if the conversation was over, or that the question itself was no longer important.
But Shen Suqiu knew that it couldn't be like that. Her cousin's silence was more suffocating than any questioning.
A chilling silence fell over the room once again.
Only the faint, indistinct sounds of Japanese conversation and their own suppressed breathing could be heard from some unknown room in the distance.