Dude, something's really wrong with your abilities.

Chapter 2, he confessed already?

The next morning at eight o'clock. Chen Shi stood at the door of Sun Tiemei's office without missing a beat.

He was about to knock when the door opened by itself.

Sun Tiemei came out.

"Walk."

"Where to, team leader?"

"Interrogation room."

Chen Shi only learned what had happened on the way. Last night, the Sixth Squad arrested a Class B plant-type ability user named Wei Sheng for trafficking illegal drugs. These drugs could drastically amplify abilities in a short period of time. Recently, there have been several incidents of ability out of control in the city, and the higher-ups are taking it very seriously. Although Wei Sheng was arrested, he had received specialized counter-interrogation training, and his ability allowed him to control his heart rate, rendering the lie detector useless against him. The most experienced interrogator in the bureau spent six hours with him, but the interrogation yielded no more than 20 words.

The interrogation room was on the seventh floor. When Chen Shi followed Sun Tiemei inside, there were two people sitting in the observation room. Deputy Director Zheng Xinyu was holding a teacup, looking helpless, while Zhuang Wen from the technical department was frantically typing on his keyboard, his gold-rimmed glasses slowly slipping off his face.

"These are the results of last night's interrogation." Deputy Director Zheng handed a piece of paper to Sun Tiemei, saying it was the result, but there were only a few words on it.

Chen Shi leaned over and took a look. It was just a few lines of text, especially Wei Sheng's response, which was not only very short but also extremely vulgar—the kind of thing that would be blocked if posted online.

Zhuang Wen added, "The suspect Wei Sheng's vital signs were abnormally stable, and he showed no physiological fluctuations during the interrogation, so conventional interrogation methods were ineffective."

Chen Shi looked up at the interrogation room. Wei Sheng was leaning back in his chair, with a buzz cut, a face full of fat, and a long green vine tattooed on his neck, which stretched from his neck to the back of his hand, looking like a scorched green snake from a distance.

His hands were firmly locked to the table by power-suppressing handcuffs, but he sat in a lazy posture, exuding an arrogant air that looked down on everyone.

"Hey you, Chen Shi, right? Why don't you give it a try?" Deputy Director Zheng suddenly called out to Chen Shi.

Chen Shi was a little confused: "Huh? Director, this is my first day at work, and I've never interrogated anyone before—"

"New talent needs to hone their skills quickly. This time, your team leader recommended you, so give it a try. Besides, the previous six professionals didn't even pass the initial screening." Deputy Director Zheng interrupted him, "How bad can you be?"

Chen Shi: "........."

He looked at Sun Tiemei. Sun Tiemei ignored him.

Chen Shi entered the interrogation room with mixed feelings. Wei Sheng was already boredly counting the number of light tubes on the ceiling. Seeing a young, unfamiliar face enter, he felt a strange sense of anticipation, not joy, but rather a sense of cruelty in abusing a child.

"Oh, a kid's here," he said, sizing Chen Shi up. "What's wrong? Out of options at the station? Sending someone like you to fill in?"

"Your voice seems a little hoarse," Chen Shi said earnestly.

Wei Sheng paused, then said, "None of your business."

Chen Shi took something out of his pocket and placed it on the table: a box of Jin Sang Zi throat lozenges. He had bought them at the pharmacy last night; since awakening his supernatural abilities, he had been experiencing a persistent sore throat.

"Take a lozenge; it'll make your throat feel better."

Wei Sheng looked at the box of throat lozenges, then glanced up at Chen Shi, and suddenly became serious. He had seen too many interrogation tactics. First, offer a little something sweet, play the emotional card, then use a psychological maneuver, and finally, capture him completely.

Ah, it's an old script.

However, the appearance of this box of Jin Sang Zi was so abrupt that it was completely beyond his comprehension.

"What do you mean?"

"I just started work today, and my boss called me in for a talk with you," Chen Shi carefully chose his words. "So we had to talk about something, right?"

Wei Sheng stared at him for a few seconds, then reached out, plucked out a throat lozenge, and popped it into his mouth. He wasn't worried about the lozenge being poisoned; he simply wanted to see what other tricks Chen Shi had up his sleeve.

Chen Shi was completely at a loss. He had just started working, with no training or guidance, and had only glanced at Wei Sheng's personal information, which was still incomplete.

He thought for a moment and asked a question that he had been particularly curious about in the observation room.

"That tattoo on your neck—did it grow on its own, or was it tattooed later?"

Wei Sheng was somewhat stunned. He had considered many interrogation methods—coercion, bribery, psychological pressure—he had a way to deal with any of them. The only thing he hadn't expected was someone asking him about his tattoos.

Why are you asking this?

"I'm just curious. The file says you're a plant-type ability user, and that chlorophyll can settle on your skin. But it doesn't say what it can turn into, so I'm quite curious."

Wei Sheng didn't know what to say. An interrogator looked at his file, didn't analyze his motives, didn't study his psychological weaknesses, but instead was curious about how his tattoos came about. What kind of tactic is this?

"It grew on its own. It started growing on my body the day I awakened, starting from my neck and slowly spreading to my arms, like vines." Wei Shenggang was surprised as soon as he finished speaking, "Huh? Why did I have to answer this question?"

"Why vines specifically? And not some other plant?"

"I don't know, maybe it's just something I like. When I was a child, the walls of the house I lived in were covered with ivy. Later, when the house was demolished, the walls collapsed, and the ivy was gone too."

He desperately wanted to stop and ignore Chen Shi, but he did anyway. So he immediately became alert, realizing this was a clever psychological interrogation tactic. It could lower the interrogator's guard, increase their likability, and make them relax. The golden throat lozenge was just the opening line; the real killer move was the seemingly serious small talk.

Once he's comfortable, that S-class guy outside can come in and freeze his spine.

Wei Sheng spat out the throat lozenge, stared intently at Chen Shi, and felt that he had finally seen through everything.

"I've seen this before," he said. His voice wasn't loud, but it was very confident.

Chen Shi was taken aback: "Huh?"

"Good cop, bad cop. You play the good guy first, give me a throat lozenge, then start rambling on and on. Once I relax, that ice block outside comes in and messes with me, right?"

"No.........."

"Don't try to deny it, I know this routine like the back of my hand. You think I'm new to this? Huh? You think I'm some kind of lowlife who'd be moved to tears by a little candy? I was out in the black market when you were still a model student in school. I could recite all your interrogation tactics with my eyes closed. What's next? Are you going to ask me who my family is? Are you going to show me family photos? And there has to be background music, right? Why don't you guys do some kind of 'Artistic Life'?"

Chen Shi was very confused. It was the kind of confusion you feel when you do something seriously and earnestly, but others interpret it in a completely opposite way, and you don't know how to explain it.

So the two of them fell silent again.

Wei Sheng stared at Chen Shi's innocent face, still somewhat unsure.

"You...you're really new here?"

"I reported for duty yesterday."

"What kind of superpower?"

"Tell...tell a joke," Chen Shi said, somewhat embarrassed.

Wei Sheng was also confused. One interrogator was joking when he said he had special abilities. Either he was a useless person who got in through connections, or he was a cunning person who was disguised to the extreme.

"My special ability is telling jokes," Chen Shi emphasized again. "I reported for duty yesterday, and today is my first day at work."

Wei Sheng meticulously analyzed every piece of information Chen Shi provided. First, this wasn't an attempt to bribe him—who in their right mind would use throat lozenges to lure someone? It wasn't psychological warfare either; psychological warfare wouldn't involve telling jokes, because the message itself was inherently funny. Furthermore, it wasn't acting; that clear, foolish look in his eyes couldn't lie. He ruled out all the known tactics and arrived at the most improbable truth: this guy genuinely wasn't there to interrogate him.

That's absurd.

But just then, Wei Sheng suddenly noticed that the vine tattoo on his arm was itchy. This was a reaction that occurs during stress. But it wasn't something he activated himself. His superpower had activated on its own when he didn't need it.

"Did you use some kind of power on me just now?" he asked.

"Does chatting count?" Chen Shi asked.

Wei Sheng stared into his eyes for several seconds, but only saw sincerity, so he believed him, but he became even more uneasy.

Chen Shi spoke again, his tone particularly careful, but every word was unexpected by Wei Sheng: "That ivy you mentioned, how many years can it normally live?"

Wei Sheng fell into deep thought, unconsciously popping a throat lozenge into his mouth. When he was a child, his grandfather told him that the Virginia creeper was very resilient and would keep growing as long as it wasn't pulled up.

As he pondered these thoughts, a more pronounced tingling sensation surged from the depths of the tattoo. From his neck to his arm, the vine tattoo was slowly fading, changing from its original deep blue to a light green. The leaves, no longer standing upright, were gradually curling inwards. It was as if a blooming trumpet flower had transformed into a delicate mimosa.

This is a sign that his superpowers are fading away passively.

But all of this was out of his control. He used to control his powers, bringing every indicator of his body to a perfect balance, but now his powers were like a ferocious wild dog, constantly being fed by an unknown entity, displaying an extremely obsequious attitude.

"The information they gave me said you used to own a noodle shop," Chen Shi asked again, "What was the name of it?"

Wei Sheng knew that this guy was asking some unimportant questions again, and he never focused on the important points. The more irrelevant the question, the more he wanted to ask. Fine, he asked, but unfortunately, Wei Sheng even went up to answer, perfectly synchronizing with his superpower.

"Old Wei said, Wei is the Wei in my surname," he said, his voice squeezed out from between his teeth. After saying this, Wei Sheng's mind was filled with memories of running the noodle shop back then: kneading dough, cooking toppings, the satisfied expressions of the customers, the apron that witnessed his hard work in starting the business, and the pot of rich, comforting beef soup. It was as if something had been emptied from his chest, and the faint green light that had been emanating from the edge of his tattoo began to dim.

Chen Shi chimed in, "Ha, that's a pun."

The vine tattoos on Wei Sheng's body faded considerably, from light green to almost the color of his skin. The leaves had fully unfurled, and the attack stance had completely disappeared. Just like an ordinary person, his inner thoughts were extremely complex, a mixture of panic at losing his powers and a comforting sense of security that made him want to groan.

He was interrogated for six hours, with six interrogators taking turns attacking his psychological defenses, but his superpowers remained completely unaffected. Now, a newcomer comes in and asks him some random, irrelevant questions, and his defenses collapse. This is very abnormal.

Every word Chen Shi just said had absolutely nothing to do with his case, yet it shattered the strongest shell that had ever been on his body.

"What exactly is your ability?" he asked in a low voice.

Tell a joke.

"You're lying."

I didn't lie.

"Okay, I know you're not lying on purpose." Wei Sheng's voice trembled. "I mean, you may not have known what ability you were using from beginning to end, but it does exist."

Wei Sheng closed his eyes. He suddenly felt very listless.

It wasn't that being interrogated was boring. It was that kind of feeling where you've endured so much, armed to the teeth, and then a new employee walks in, completely lacking in interrogation skills, sits down, gives you a box of throat lozenges, and starts making small talk. Although he didn't want to admit it, Wei Sheng enjoyed talking to Chen Shi; he even felt a little ashamed.

As a result, he had a very profound philosophical insight.

Life is not worth living.

It's not that he doesn't want to live anymore. It's just that he feels it's not worth missing out on someone who could seriously discuss things like ivy and Lao Wei Dao with him over this batch of medicine, this supplier, and all this mess.

He moved the throat lozenge to the other cheek.

"Old Yuan," he said.

On the other side of the one-way glass, Zhuang Wen's glasses had slipped off his nose and landed on the keyboard. Director Zheng watched all this in shock, then looked back at Sun Tiemei.

Sun Tiemei remained as calm as ever, but in a fleeting moment when no one was watching, a smile appeared on her lips.

Wei Sheng added, "The abandoned chemical plant in the south of the city, warehouse number three. Next Wednesday morning." He paused, feeling he had confessed too quickly and was a little sorry for the six interrogators before him. But then he thought, what does this have to do with me?

"Have you finished taking notes?" he asked Chen Shi. "If you have, I have a few more things about the Virginia creeper that I'd like to discuss with you."

In the observation room, Zhuang Wen was engrossed in taking notes in his notebook.

Deputy Director Zheng leaned over to take a look.

"Based on a preliminary assessment of Chen Shi's ability mechanism, it generates positive emotional fluctuations to collapse the target's defense logic. It does not contain any behavioral control components. The target's behavioral changes are autonomous choices following emotional changes."

Deputy Director Zheng frowned: "Speak like a human being."

"Chen Shi didn't activate any superpowers. Every word Wei Sheng said was what he wanted to say," Zhuang Wen thought for a moment and continued, "Wei Sheng wasn't controlled. He just didn't want to guard anymore."

When Chen Shi walked out of the interrogation room, Deputy Director Zheng looked at him for a long time with a complicated expression.

"You didn't seem to use a single interrogation technique the entire time in the interrogation room, though I know you don't know how."

"Yes, Director, I don't understand either." Chen Shu scratched his head, feeling that the whole thing was a bit strange.

Deputy Director Zheng continued, "But you managed to talk a stubborn individual who only knew how to swear into confessing. Right now, the technical department can't detect what effect your superpower can produce, so this can't be rushed. But starting today, you can go on field missions with your team leader, and you will assist her."

Chen Shi really wanted to say, "No need," but he didn't dare.

Because Sun Tiemei had already approached without anyone noticing.

"You'll be taking the test at nine o'clock tomorrow morning." She paused for a moment. "Also, bring your throat lozenges."