Chapter 1: The Girl Who Controls People’s Hearts
The morning sunlight was like a cheap filter, attempting to smear a bit of unrealistic warmth onto this mundane world.
But for Jiang Yuxin, the only difference between this light and the spotlight on stage was that it was more glaring, and there was no choice to avoid it.
This was already the sixteenth year that she, or rather “Jiang Yan,” had lived in Jiang Yuxin’s identity.
In her previous life as the dull Jiang Yan, he had struggled through twenty or thirty years of mediocrity, only to have it abruptly ended by a meaningless car accident.
When he opened his eyes again, he was stuffed into the exquisite shell named Jiang Yuxin, gifted with a brand-new life script—a privileged family background, outstanding appearance, but destined to be entangled by the indifference and hypocrisy of her original family, ultimately heading toward an ending that couldn’t be called bad, but certainly wasn’t good either.
However, the script went off track from the very beginning.
Because the current Jiang Yuxin not only possessed Jiang Yan’s mature and overly rational soul, but one day, she awakened something bizarre enough to be called a “power.”
“Yuxin, breakfast is ready, come down and eat quickly.”
Downstairs came Madam Chu’s polite yet distant call.
Jiang Yuxin sat in front of the dressing table, the girl in the mirror having a face as delicate as a carefully crafted doll, with fair and translucent skin, without a single flaw.
She extended her slender fingers to smooth down a slightly curled strand of hair, the action carrying an almost obsessive compulsion.
She could hear the voice conveyed by the beating heart of the person downstairs.
[What a gloomy child… If it weren’t for maintaining the image of a couple with her dad, I really wouldn’t want to face this cold face every day. But then again, this kid is really beautiful; she’ll definitely bring a lot of benefits to the family’s business in the future…]
Jiang Yuxin picked up her schoolbag expressionlessly, thinking in her heart that this was probably what humans were like—boring, hypocritical, yet so simple and easy to understand.
She didn’t even bother to use her ability to correct the other’s thoughts, because it was meaningless; these people’s ideas were stubborn and outdated, and even glancing at them felt like a waste of energy.
Madam Chu was not Jiang Yuxin’s biological mother; her mother in this life had died during her birth.
Later, her cheap old man found a young and beautiful woman to remarry, and Madam Chu became her stepmother.
She walked downstairs, politely refused breakfast, and changed her shoes in the hallway.
“Be careful on the road, do you need me to drive you?”
Madam Chu instructed formulaically.
Jiang Yuxin didn’t speak, closing the door behind her without looking back.
The morning in South River City was full of the hustle and bustle of daily life, but that was all there was to it.
Walking on the road to New Second High, Jiang Yuxin passed through the crowd like a ghost, the surrounding noise and the heart voices of strangers flooding into her mind, converging into the lowest-quality background noise.
[Why are they making me work overtime again? I only slept for two hours…]
[Is the client an idiot? The plan has been revised a hundred times and still not approved! I really want to punch him through the internet!]
[Why does the guy in front keep staring at me… So creepy… I really want to poke out his dog eyes!]
When her ability first awakened, she found it quite novel and interesting, but gradually, she discovered how boring and even curse-like this power was.
Others’ thoughts were absolutely transparent in Jiang Yuxin’s eyes; as long as she wanted, she could sense any ideas, distractions, malice, or desires from others.
Those chaotic thoughts were like dust floating in the air, dirty and omnipresent.
Jiang Yuxin slightly furrowed her brows, her mild cleanliness from her previous life now amplified countless times on the mental level.
She needed a little “fun” to dispel the bad emotions accumulated from peering into people’s hearts and malice.
Just then, at the entrance of a small alley not far ahead, a few little punks in loose school uniforms with hair dyed in various colors were surrounding a girl who seemed to be from a nearby school, spewing filthy language nonstop, and one yellow-haired kid even tried to pull the girl’s arm.
Jiang Yuxin’s lips curled into a barely noticeable arc, as if she had found a suitable outlet for venting.
Her footsteps didn’t stop, her gaze merely sweeping over those punks.
Almost instantly, those originally arrogant punks became like puppets controlled by invisible strings, their movements stiff and comical.
The yellow-haired kid suddenly let go of the girl’s arm, starting to dance awkwardly on the spot, repeatedly chanting “I’m wrong, I’m wrong” from his mouth.
The green-haired punk beside him suddenly hugged a greasy trash can nearby and began a passionate confession, followed by fiercely kissing the trash can, which was truly unbearable to watch.
Another red-haired one knelt on the ground, slapping himself while cursing that he deserved to die, having betrayed his parents’ upbringing and wasted society’s resources.
The harassed girl stared at this absurd scene in shock, then took the opportunity to hug her schoolbag tightly and fled the scene quickly.
The passersby around seemed to ignore this abrupt street performance art, at most casting a puzzled glance before hurrying away, as if their brains automatically categorized this scene that couldn’t be explained by common sense or experience as some attention-seeking prank and quickly forgot it.
Jiang Yuxin hummed lightly, her mood slightly improved, the irritability from peering into hearts somewhat eased, but what followed was a deeper sense of emptiness and loneliness.
This was her power—the ability she named “Mind Control”: arbitrarily tampering with others’ wills, arranging their lives, literally complete control over others.
Even in fantasy works, it would be the most troublesome ability for a “villain” to possess.
Perfect, and powerful.
But also, how boring.
When everything was under control, when everyone’s thoughts, memories, and wills were just parameters that could be freely modified, the world lost all suspense and surprises, leaving only eternal emptiness and tedium.
The campus of New Second High was essentially no different from any high school in Jiang Yuxin’s memory, with the sound of reading aloud, figures running on the playground, and students laughing and playing in the corridors.
Everything was full of youthful vitality, but in Jiang Yuxin’s view, it was just a large-scale stage play performed for others.
She could hear the teacher writing furiously on the blackboard inwardly complaining about mortgage pressure; the seemingly quiet library committee member was jealous of her best friend’s new designer bag; the sunny boy on the basketball court was thinking about how to avoid being discovered by his girlfriend for cheating.
Everyone wore masks, playing roles that met societal expectations.
And Jiang Yuxin was the only audience in this play, and the only one who could see through all the actors’ true faces.
When she passed through the crowded corridor, everyone consciously made way before her arrival, automatically forming a subtle vacuum around her.
The boys’ gazes carried amazement, infatuation, and instinctive fear, daring only to sneak peeks at that overly delicate figure with the corner of their eyes; the girls’ emotions were more complex—envy, jealousy, and an indescribable sense of inferiority like a candle overshadowed by the sun.
Whispers buzzed like mosquitoes as she passed, instantly silencing before her gaze swept over.
She ignored them, walking straight through the crowd into classroom 204.
Her seat was in the front row by the window, a perfect spot where she could clearly see the scenery outside without being too noticeable and disturbed.
After sitting down, she propped her chin with one hand, looking out the window.
The sky was a monotonous blue, and the shapes of the clouds had no aesthetic appeal.
Perhaps this was what was called a relatively failed life, Jiang Yuxin sighed lightly in her heart.
Not in terms of material aspects, but spiritual ones.
In her previous life, although Jiang Yan was mediocre, he at least had pursuits, joys and sorrows, expectations for the unknown, while the current Jiang Yuxin possessed everything ordinary people dreamed of—family background, appearance, and god-like power—but had lost the most basic fun of being “human.”
Her life script, from the moment she awakened her ability, had been written to the end by herself.
The process could be modified infinitely, but the endpoint was always that station named “boredom.”
She hated this feeling.
This sense of everything being under control, yet utterly meaningless emptiness.
Jiang Yuxin hadn’t thought that since there existed mind controllers like her in the world, there was no reason other superpowers or similar things wouldn’t exist; however, unfortunately, no matter how she tried to search with her own ability, it always yielded no results.
It was as if the entire world truly had her as the only anomalous existence.
Thinking of this, Jiang Yuxin’s mood soured again.
She stood up, ignoring the varied looks from her classmates and the sudden ringing of the class bell, walking out of the classroom without any burden.
The rooftop of the teaching building was a restricted area of the school, usually forbidden for students, with the iron door firmly locked.
But for Jiang Yuxin, locks were virtually nonexistent.
She just needed to implant a thought in the passing dean like “The weather is nice today, I should go to the rooftop for some fresh air,” and the other would dutifully open the door for her.
The wind lifted her long hair and skirt.
Jiang Yuxin stood at the edge of the rooftop, overlooking the tiny, ant-like students below, the feeling of controlling everything giving her a bit of peace, but more so, a bone-deep weariness.
This world was like a trashy novel she had read countless times, with every character’s motives and every plot development known to her by heart.
She could easily tamper with it all, making the school beauty fall for an ugly guy, making the top student suddenly hate studying, making the strictest teacher dance in public.
But so what?
It was just another way to kill time in boredom.
She spread her arms, closed her eyes, feeling the high-altitude wind, enjoying this brief solitude of towering above all beings.
Suddenly, with a “bang,” the rooftop door was slammed open with almost barbaric force.
A figure gasping for breath rushed in.
Who?
Jiang Yuxin slowly opened her eyes, her cold gaze sweeping over.
She was somewhat displeased, her peace disturbed in such a rude manner.
It was a boy, wearing the same school uniform as her, about 1.8 meters tall, looking like an utterly ordinary high school boy.
At this moment, he was supporting himself on his knees, sweating profusely, appearing utterly disheveled.
The boy lifted his head, his eyes mixed with numbness, pain, and a resoluteness she couldn’t understand.
He stared fixedly at Jiang Yuxin, as if gazing at some destined endpoint, without hesitation.
Then, he used all his strength to let out a shout that echoed across the rooftop and was inexplicably absurd:
“Don’t jump down!”
Jiang Yuxin was stunned, her delicate face showing unmasked astonishment for the first time, as if she had heard the funniest joke of the century.
Jump off the building? Me?
The astonishment quickly turned to anger, a sense of humiliation and fury from being misunderstood by an ignorant person surging up, she didn’t even bother to speak to refute this stupid misunderstanding.
‘Shut up, then roll out like a dog.’
Jiang Yuxin habitually activated her ability, directly injecting this simple and clear command into the other’s brain.
This was her most commonly used method, efficient, effortless, and bringing absolute control.
However…
One second, two seconds, three seconds passed.
Not only did the boy opposite not shut up in terror and flee as she expected, but instead, as if making some determination, he suddenly charged toward her!
Jiang Yuxin’s pupils contracted sharply.
What was going on?
Her ability, which had always been invincible and could arbitrarily dominate others’ wills, sank like a stone into the ocean, without stirring a single ripple!
The boy’s mental world was like an isolated island wrapped in absolute barriers, her will couldn’t invade at all!
This was the first time in her sixteen years since rebirth that she experienced the feeling called “loss of control.”
In the instant her shock halted her thoughts, the boy had already rushed to her front.
Without any hesitation, he tackled her in an extremely clumsy flying pose, desperately hugging her and slamming her back from the rooftop edge to the ground.
The hard ground hit her back, bringing real pain.
But far stronger than the physical pain was an unprecedented, absurdly overwhelming shock.
Jiang Yuxin lay on the ground, looking at the unfamiliar boy pressing on her, gasping for breath, her mind blank.
She, Jiang Yuxin, this “villain” who took pleasure in controlling hearts, this “god” who viewed all beings as playthings, was actually roughly pinned to the ground by an ordinary high school boy who appeared out of nowhere, in a savior’s posture.
On her delicate face, for the first time, emerged a mix of shock, anger, humiliation, and a curiosity so intense that even she hadn’t noticed it.
“You… why?”
She heard her own voice trembling slightly.
The boy didn’t answer, just breathing heavily, his eyes surging with the relief of surviving a disaster, murmuring in a voice only he could hear, as if a weight had been lifted:
“…It worked?”