Consciousness Puppet

She slowly withdrew her hand, took a step back, and silently looked at Shangguan Yunying.

Soon.

Deep within Shangguan Yunying's eyes, something was rapidly surfacing.

Like a consciousness sunk to the bottom of the water finally breaking free from its bonds, like a soul locked in darkness finally finding an exit.

Her pupils began to contract, and her gaze started to focus.

Finally, came the violent gasping of a drowning person breaking the surface.

"Hah! Hah! Hah!"

Shangguan Yunying suddenly leaned forward, propping her hands on the ground as she panted heavily. Her chest heaved violently, and a fine layer of cold sweat seeped out on her forehead.

Only then did Gu Xiaoli speak again.

"Welcome back."

"Sister Yunying."

Shangguan Yunying kept her hands on the ground, panting heavily.

Her mind was a chaotic mess.

The sense of a memory gap was extremely strong. One moment she was being pinned against the wall by Gu Chengyin, his deep eyes so close, their breaths intertwining, her heart pounding like thunder.

The next second, she found herself gasping for air on the ground, as if she had just endured a prolonged suffocation.

What happened?

Where did the time go?

Where was Gu Chengyin?

Shangguan Yunying jerked her head up and looked around. Moonlight spilled in through the open door, illuminating the familiar furnishings.

There was nothing unusual, no signs of a struggle, and... no Gu Chengyin.

Shangguan Yunying looked at the world-weary little girl in front of her.

Standing in the moonlight, calmly watching her.

In those large eyes, there was no childlike innocence, only a near-divine clarity.

"Xiaoli?"

Shangguan Yunying spoke, her voice hoarse from panting. "When did you get back? Where is Gu Chengyin?"

Gu Xiaoli did not answer her questions.

Instead, she raised a finger and pointed at Shangguan Yunying's neck.

"It will tell you everything."

Shangguan Yunying froze.

She looked down at her neck.

Hanging there was a tiny jade Buddha.

Shangguan Yunying reached out to touch it, her fingertips brushing the smooth, warm surface of the jade.

Suddenly, a terrifying guess flashed through her mind.

She snapped her head up to look at Gu Xiaoli, her voice trembling.

"Did he... hypnotize me again?"

Gu Xiaoli did not reply.

She merely looked at Shangguan Yunying quietly, and then, gave a gentle nod.

As expected...

Shangguan Yunying took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the emotions churning in her heart.

Then she circulated her true qi, letting it flow through her meridians and infusing it into the jade Buddha from her fingertips.

The jade Buddha lit up.

A milky white halo emanated from within the jade, warm and gentle to the eyes, like concentrated moonlight.

A halo slowly unfolded before Shangguan Yunying's eyes, transforming into a hazy screen of light.

Then, it began to play back the recording.

Act One:

It was the side hall, the moonlight, and Gu Chengyin.

But the time was clearly after her memory gap.

On the light screen, Gu Chengyin stood before her, his eyes as deep as the night, with starlight swirling deep within his pupils.

He spoke, his voice terrifyingly calm.

"Do you have any magical artifact on you that can dispel hypnosis?"

And the version of her on the screen, with vacant eyes and a numb expression, answered in a flat voice.

"No."

Act Two:

Gu Chengyin continued to ask.

"Then how did you find out you were hypnotized by me?"

The her on the screen answered.

"Because Her Highness was acting strange."

Act Three:

"When did you find out?"

"In Beihe City, when I saw you sitting together with Her Highness."

Act Four:

"Why didn't you expose it?"

"I needed to determine how you were controlling Her Highness."

...

Scene after scene.

Question after question, answer after answer.

Those probes and approaches that Shangguan Yunying thought she had hidden perfectly, those emotion-inducing investigations she thought she was leading...

They all became a joke.

It turned out he had known she was acting all along.

It turned out he had seen through all her probing long ago.

The light screen continued to flow.

It played back the segment where she followed Gu Chengyin to Luo Zhao's bedchamber.

She saw herself acting like a marionette, expressionlessly removing all of Luo Zhao's defensive magical artifacts, one by one.

She saw Luo Zhao wake up with a start, her eyes shifting from confusion to anger, then to disbelief, and finally turning into cold despair.

She saw herself using the pressure of the Foundation Establishment realm to suppress Luo Zhao, watching as she was forced to strip off all her clothes and change into that ordinary everyday outfit, before having her hands bound by the Dragon Binding Silk and being hoisted up to the roof beam.

She saw Luo Zhao staring fixedly at Gu Chengyin, using her last bit of lucidity to let out a hoarse roar.

She saw the starlight in Gu Chengyin's eyes erupt, and Luo Zhao's eyes went completely vacant.

She saw Gu Chengyin make it as if nothing had ever happened.

Finally.

She saw herself returning to the side hall, and as she turned to close the door, she saw Gu Xiaoli standing outside.

The light screen froze on this final scene.

Gu Xiaoli raised her hand and gently pressed it against her forehead.

A small palm, a warm touch.

Then, the light screen extinguished.

The jade Buddha's light slowly retracted, returning to its state as an ordinary milky white jade Buddha.

Shangguan Yunying let go of her hand.

She slumped powerlessly onto the ground, leaning against the doorframe, staring blankly ahead.

Everything that had played back washed over her mind repeatedly like a tidal wave.

Every scene, every sentence, every detail was so clear, so real, so suffocating.

Shangguan Yunying finally understood.

Understood everything.

She indeed did not have any magical artifact to dispel hypnosis.

Because the sole function of this jade Buddha was to record.

To record everything she experienced, every moment, every detail, every word, and every expression.

As the Chief Female Official of the Internal Affairs Department, she had to handle countless extremely meticulous and complex matters.

Sometimes, a tiny oversight could lead to irreversible consequences.

So her grandfather had given her this jade Buddha.

It was not an offensive or defensive magical artifact, nor a protective spiritual tool; it was simply a visual recorder.

When encountering work that required tracing back details, she could use her true qi to activate the jade Buddha and replay past records to ensure nothing went wrong.

But it had also recorded those memories that had been cut off by hypnosis.

Including everything that had just happened.

And including that night in Beihe City.

A thousand tangled thoughts twisted in Shangguan Yunying's mind like a chaotic ball of yarn.

Eventually, she forced herself to calm down.

She looked up at Gu Xiaoli.

"Xiaoli," Shangguan Yunying asked. "You dispelled my hypnosis, will Gu Chengyin find out?"

This was the question she worried about the most.

Gu Xiaoli shook her head and replied:

"I didn't dispel it; I just modified the underlying logic."

Modified the underlying logic?

What did that mean?

Shangguan Yunying blinked, clearly not understanding.

Gu Xiaoli continued, "If my brother finds out the hypnosis is dispelled, he will definitely leave."

"Xiaoli doesn't want her brother to leave."

"But Xiaoli also can't let you and Sister Her Highness be controlled."

"So Xiaoli left behind a consciousness puppet."

Gu Xiaoli paused, seeming to search for a way to make Shangguan Yunying understand.

"Sister Yunying, you can try handing your body over to the consciousness puppet."

"Then you will understand what I mean."