Chapter 697: A New Brother

Sister Siwei and I were walking down the road when suddenly two men rushed out and stood in front of us, demanding the “jade” we had on us.

But we didn’t have any on us—it was all with Uncle Wan.

I thought we were about to get beaten up when, out of nowhere, a young man appeared. He threw out a few cards, and suddenly a flame burst to life in his hand, quickly scaring the two men away.

He was amazing, like a superhero.

Sister Siwei took my hand and stood in front of the man.

He looked at the two of us curiously, then calmly tucked his small cloth bag into his pocket.

“Women and children shouldn’t be walking alone. Find somewhere to hide,” he said.

I noticed he was dressed all in black and had long hair. I’d never seen a man with long hair before.

He gave us a casual nod and turned to leave.

His scent was different from others—aside from a hint of “freshness,” there wasn’t much “despair.” Mostly, it was “confusion.”

“Sister…” I squeezed Sister Siwei’s hand, and she understood what I meant.

“Um… could you wait a moment?” she called out.

The man stopped and turned to look at us. “What is it?”

Sister Siwei glanced at me and said, “Hero…”

I nodded, took a deep breath, and the words appeared clearly in my mind.

“Concealment.”

“It’s the scent of ‘Concealment,'” I said.

Sister Siwei nodded and stepped forward. “Excuse me… have you noticed anything strange lately? Like… gaining some kind of unusual ‘ability’?”

“I…”

A wave of “caution” radiated from the man, but after looking at Sister Siwei and then at me, it quickly faded—he must have decided we weren’t threats.

“Who are you two?” he asked.

“I’m Li Siwei, and this little brother is Zheng Yingxiong. We’re just ordinary ‘participants,’ like you.”

When Sister Siwei introduced me, I quietly corrected, “It’s ‘Yingxiong,’ with the fourth tone.”

The man nodded. “Nice to meet you. I’m Gu Yu… So, about this ‘strange ability’ you mentioned…”

Sister Siwei scratched her head. “This is going to sound a bit mystical… I don’t know if you’ll believe it…”

“Given where we are…” Gu Yu chuckled dryly, “is there anything left *not* to believe? I did feel something odd during the ‘game’ just now… But what do you mean by ‘Concealment’?”

Sister Siwei gathered her thoughts and explained the situation to Gu Yu.

She told him that I seemed to be able to *smell* the names of people’s supernatural abilities and tried her best to make him understand.

Gu Yu absorbed it surprisingly quickly, listening intently and nodding along.

“So that’s how it is…” he murmured after Sister Siwei finished. “Earlier, in the ‘Human Monkey’ game, I made a card disappear from my hand without a sound…”

He looked down at his palm, then flicked his fingers—a playing card materialized out of thin air.

The sudden movement startled Sister Siwei.

“Wait… is *that* your ability?”

“Oh, no, no…” Gu Yu shook his head. “Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m actually a magician. I’ve tried all sorts of ways to make cards vanish, but never like this—it wasn’t hidden behind my hand or in my palm. It just… ceased to exist.”

Sister Siwei nodded. “So that fireball earlier was just a magic trick? Your ability is making things ‘disappear’?”

“‘Disappear’ isn’t quite the right word…” Gu Yu frowned. “It’s hard to explain… I could still *feel* the card, but neither I nor the ‘Human Monkey’ could see it. So from an outsider’s perspective, it was gone.”

“That *is* hard to grasp…” Sister Siwei scratched her head again. “So you made the card ‘invisible’?”

“Exactly.”

Gu Yu flicked his fingers again, and the card vanished.

I couldn’t tell if he had made it disappear or simply turned it invisible.

“What a bizarre place this is…” Gu Yu sighed, looking up. “I thought I was the only one who was… different. But there are others here with this ‘scent’?”

“I don’t know about that,” Sister Siwei said, smiling at me. “Only Hero can tell if someone carries this ‘fragrance.’ Maybe *he’s* the special one, not the rest of us.”

Gu Yu fell silent for a moment before suddenly asking, “By the way… do you two have a team?”

“Huh?” Sister Siwei blinked. “You mean…”

“According to the referees, we’ve only got two days left. The people in my room decided to split up as soon as we stepped out, and now I’ve completely lost contact with them. I should’ve kept everyone together.” He sighed. “So, are you two alone? Want to stick together?”

Sister Siwei glanced at Gu Yu, then at me, as if waiting for my input.

I understood what she wanted. I took a deep breath—Gu Yu’s scent was clean, but with an undercurrent of something else. There was a trace of “ruthlessness” beneath the “purity.”

But overall, his scent was a thousand times better than Uncle Wan’s. So I nodded at Sister Siwei.

She got the message. “We don’t have a team. Let’s go together.”

I shot her a look but didn’t argue.

I never liked Uncle Wan anyway. If we didn’t have to stay with him, that was fine by me.

Just as the three of us were about to leave, a voice sent chills down my spine.

“Well, well, Xiao Li—making new friends?”

We turned to see Uncle Wan approaching from a distance. Had he been following us this whole time?

“W-Wan-ge,” Sister Siwei forced a smile. “What a coincidence… You’re here too?”

“You two were gone so long, I got worried…”

My stomach twisted. Sister Siwei had just told Gu Yu we didn’t have a team. Now that Uncle Wan was here, wouldn’t Gu Yu realize we’d lied?

I nervously glanced at Gu Yu, but he acted as if nothing was wrong, stepping forward to shake Uncle Wan’s hand.

“Siwei, is this the Wan-ge you mentioned? He does seem reliable.”

Sister Siwei hesitated for a split second before nodding. “Ah, yes! Gu Yu, let me introduce you—this is Wan Cai, Wan-ge.”

Uncle Wan, his scent thick and oppressive, gave a hollow smile. “Young man, you seem sharp. How about joining our little family?”