Se connecterHearing the crowd turn on her, Jane completely lost it and lunged at me.I shoved her aside without thinking, and she crashed to the floor.Calmly, I pulled a small vial from my pocket and sprayed its contents straight at her face.Almost instantly, Jane doubled over, writhing on the ground with her arms wrapped around her stomach. Then she dropped to all fours and started vomiting.A moment later, a small black insect came out of her mouth.I pointed at it and explained to the room, “That is a mind-link parasite. There used to be one inside me too, but Elias Rowan removed it for me.“Jane used a parasite like this to read my thoughts and steal all of my results.“Just now, I used the parasite-control technique Elias taught me to force the one inside her to reveal itself.“She never had any clairvoyant sight. She’s a fraud.”The moment people saw the insect she had coughed up, the room changed.“So this kind of sorcery is actually real? That’s terrifying.”“The sorcery isn’t
When Jane realized the audience wasn’t responding with the usual applause but with a storm of angry shouting instead, her face turned deathly pale. Even the hand holding the microphone began to shake.Still, she forced herself to keep talking.“Please, everyone, hear me out. I know all of you had high hopes for the Thousand Isles Lake project, but the truth is exactly what I said. There really is no gold deposit under the lake.“I already used my clairvoyant sight to examine the whole lake. There really isn’t any gold…”“Get down from there right now. Who told you to go up there?”Before Jane could finish, Director Chancer cut her off with a sharp rebuke.After scolding Jane, the director turned to me with a warm expression.“Claire, go ahead. Give them the real report. Win back the dignity that idiot just threw away.”Jane looked at me with a wounded expression, but the moment she caught the strange smile at the corner of my mouth, her face changed instantly.“You… you set me
The moment I sat down, Jane patted me on the shoulder and greeted me with a bright smile.“Claire, you’re finally back. Everyone’s missed you.”I turned to look at her, pretending to be surprised.“Weren’t you out on sick leave? What are you doing back here? All better now?”Jane giggled.“Well, the second I saw you, I felt completely cured.”The fake sweetness on her face made my stomach turn, so I immediately shut her down.“I’m busy. I don’t have time to chat. Go back to your own desk.”Jane clearly hadn’t expected me to reject her little show of friendliness so coldly. Her face darkened, and she stormed off in a huff.Watching her furious back as she left, I let out a silent laugh.She thought I didn’t know what she was after.There was no way I was going to let her pull the same trick again.If one little snub was enough to upset her, then she had no idea what was coming next.At the next gold exploration briefing, I was going to strip away her mask for good.The ver
“Just come back to work,” Ryan said over the phone. “As long as you return and kneel down to apologize to me, I’ll forgive you.”Even while asking me to come back, his tone was still arrogant.It was my fault. I had treated that jerk too well over the years, and it had made him both arrogant and stupid.“Ryan, I’ll say this one more time. We’ve already broken up. Stop harassing me.“And let me be clear— even if you were the one kneeling in front of me, I wouldn’t spare you another glance.”I hung up immediately and blocked his number, leaving him no chance to argue.Not long after I ended the call with Ryan, the director called.“Claire, why haven’t you been answering your phone? Something came up at the institute and no one could reach you.”“Director, I’ve already resigned. The only reason I even answered your call is out of respect for the years we worked together. If you keep talking like that, I’ll hang up.”Remembering the way he treated me on the day I resigned made me
“And that boyfriend of yours,” my father grumbled, “what was so special about him? He wasn’t even as handsome as the guy who runs milking at our ranch.”My mother immediately stepped in and shoved him aside.“You old fool! Our daughter’s finally willing to come home and take over the family business, and you’re still nagging her?“Let me warn you. If you nag her so much that she runs off again, I won’t forgive you!”Watching my parents argue over me like that, I felt a warm ache in my chest.They were so familiar. So alive.In my previous life, they had tried to seek justice for me but ended up being killed by Jane and the others.The thought made my heart twist with pain.After scolding my father, my mother turned back to me with a bright smile.“Sweetheart, the most important thing for you now is finding a good husband and giving me a grandson.“Recently we’ve had marriage proposals from the Nepalese royal family, an Indian steel tycoon’s family, and a Thai shipping magnate
Since I couldn’t figure out how she was stealing my results, I simply gave up.If I stopped surveying for gold altogether, I wanted to see whether her so-called “clairvoyant sight” was real or just a lie.The engineering crew, who had already been full of complaints about me, immediately began making sarcastic remarks when they heard I was quitting.“About damn time you quit. I’ve been busting my ass following you around for six months and got nothing to show for it. If you’d left earlier, maybe I’d have gotten a commendation by now.”“Honestly, good riddance. Once you’re gone, I’m putting in for a transfer to Jane’s team. Work with her and you don’t have to slog through rivers and dig pits all day, and you still get the credit.”“Finally figured out you’re not cut out for this, huh? We’ve been putting up with you for long enough.”“With Jane around, who needs a fake like you pretending to be chief prospector?”Listening to the people who had once been my teammates hurl insults







