Kong Youling sat down on the opposite side of the table with a sketchbook in her arms, lifting her red eyes.
Under the cold light, she stared at Ji Minghuan without moving, as if she were a penguin from Antarctica, dumbly observing a human.
Ji Minghuan couldn't help but laugh, "Is there a penguin sitting across from me?"
Seeing his smile, she finally reacted, gently placing the sketchbook with the pencil onto the table, but her gaze never wavered for a second.
Like Ji Minghuan, she wore a metal collar around her neck. This collar was used to monitor their use of superpowers, allowing researchers to control them immediately if they used their superpowers. If the situation became serious, it could even explode and kill them instantly.
Kong Youling looked at Ji Minghuan, then at the sketchbook, lowered her head, and her snow-white fringe covered her eyes.
She picked up the pencil, the tip touched the notebook but was then put down; she opened her mouth to use lip language to speak, but didn't know what to say.
Finally, she just lifted her eyes to quietly watch him.
She hadn't seen Ji Minghuan for a long time and couldn't help wanting to take a few more looks.
Usually, Kong Youling's eyes seemed shrouded in a layer of mist, making it hard to find a focus, but now they were very bright.
She placed the sketchbook and pencil properly on the table, sat obediently, and quietly waited for Ji Minghuan to speak.
Ji Minghuan said nothing, carefully scanning her body, checking for any injuries.
After confirming she wasn't hurt, he still used lip language to ask, "Are you injured?"
Kong Youling shook her head, her snow-white hair swaying slightly.
She wrote in the notebook and then flipped the paper towards him, "I said so many times, but they wouldn't let me see you."
Ji Minghuan said, "Me too."
After thinking for a bit, he added, "Did they eventually ask you to do something, like question me, before allowing you to see me?"
She wrote and held up the notebook, "They asked me to question you."
"Question me about what?" Ji Minghuan tilted his head slightly.
"Ask you, what's your superpower?" The white-haired girl continued to write.
Her actions now went against their mentor and others' intentions; they would never allow her to straightforwardly inquire about Ji Minghuan's superpower, but Kong Youling didn't care whether she would be punished.
Ji Minghuan was silent for a second, then shook his head.
He silently said, "But even if you ask me like this, I don't know... after all, there's nothing that doesn't exist."
This was the first time Ji Minghuan lied to her. He knew in his heart that if he spoke of his superpower, they would never be able to leave here.
"Alright," Kong Youling wrote, "I understand."
After a pause, she added a few more words slowly with the pencil on the page:
"I really miss you."
Ji Minghuan looked at those four small black characters on the page, unexpectedly didn't say anything, just slightly opened his mouth and watched her for a while, then got up to lean forward.
Raising his hand, as he was about to touch her hair, the collar around his neck sent a current, instantly spreading throughout his body.
His pupils contracted slightly, his body trembled for a while, and his right hand drooped on the table like a kite with a broken string.
"Physical contact is prohibited." From the speaker-like broadcasting device, a voice as cold and harsh as iron sounded, "If it happens again, you'll be knocked unconscious."
Ji Minghuan sat back in the chair, nodded slightly, his drooping bangs hiding his eyes. He pursed his lips and only after a while did he recover from the electric shock.
Looking down, he saw his hands still twitching slightly.
Kong Youling stared at him blankly, the pencil falling from her hand, lightly hitting the floor. Fear filled her eyes as if she had done something wrong.
"It's alright. It's not your fault, it's my problem." Ji Minghuan said softly, then leaned down from the chair, picking up the pencil from the floor, grasping it with his trembling hand after several tries.
Then he took the sketchbook from the table, trying not to touch her.
Ji Minghuan returned to his seat, head down, focus apparent as he drew something with the pencil on the notebook. After a while, he suddenly smiled, lifted his head, and turned the notebook towards the girl.
Kong Youling glanced at the drawing in the notebook. It was a sketch of a very cute and well-behaved spotted cat.
Looking at this seemingly familiar kitten, she remembered an event from three years ago, not long after she arrived at the Welfare Institute.
Back then, the children at the Welfare Institute adopted a stray spotted cat, which Kong Youling liked very much, but she could only watch from afar as other children played with the kitten.
Later, the kitten died due to illness, and the other children were very sad. At that time, Kong Youling would draw a small and cute spotted cat in the corner of the blackboard in the classroom every day before class, as if it were still with them.
The children in the classroom would giggle, and the teacher, seeing everyone in a good mood, would turn a blind eye.
At first, they were all curious about who drew it.
Until one day when Kong Youling got sick, and they no longer saw the spotted cat on the blackboard. That's when they realized the little cat on the blackboard was drawn by her.
The little girl missed that cat too, she also wanted to play with it just like everyone else, rather than sitting at a distance hugging her knees, alone, but everyone disliked her.
After Kong Youling recovered and returned to the classroom on her first day back, she suddenly found the corner of the blackboard still had that spotted cat drawn.