The Clingy Spirit and the Superpowers

“Where were the books about superpowers again…”

“The place Auntie Zhang mentioned should be here.”

In the corner of the library, piles of untouched old books were stacked in rows.

The children didn’t particularly like to read, so this place was usually empty, which in turn made it the place Yang Yuan frequented the most.

Yang Yuan squatted in front of the bookshelf for more than ten minutes before finally finding a book with a faded cover titled “Superpower Appreciation Manual, Eleventh Revised Edition.”

The boy’s gaze swept across the pages filled with text and illustrations, his expression remaining largely unchanged, only occasionally frowning or slightly raising an eyebrow.

“Can summon heavenly lightning… but it can only strike oneself?”

Yang Yuan stared at that line of description and muttered to himself, his tone carrying obvious doubt and ridicule.

“Can cure diseases… but only limited to curing canker sores?”

“The ability to control fire… but can only control the size of the flame in a lighter?”

He stared at the accompanying picture in the book for two seconds. A girl with an extremely serious expression was adjusting the height of a lighter flame.

“This is a bit humorous, isn’t it…”

Yang Yuan was somewhat speechless about these superpowers. He leaned back in his chair and sighed heavily, looking up at the old light bulb on the ceiling.

After seeing all these varied, yet exceptionally useless and bizarre abilities, Yang Yuan finally understood something.

Although in this world only females could awaken superpowers, the vast majority of superpowers awakened by females were either weak abilities that could only provide a tiny bit of help in daily life, or like the heavenly lightning ability he had just mocked, the cost was too great.

It now seemed that the so-called awakening was nothing more than a functional deviation with a very strong random nature.

Many women had hoped to change their destiny after awakening, but in the end, their abilities were either useless or just too boring.

Those with superpowers that could truly change the world and were powerful enough to determine the social structure were as rare as a phoenix’s feathers.

The vast majority of people who had awakened superpowers were probably no different from ordinary people in any substantial way.

Their abilities might not even be as useful as a robotic vacuum cleaner or a multifunctional smartphone.

Pulling back his thoughts, Yang Yuan’s gaze returned to the book, and he continued to flip through the pages.

“Telekinesis, but can only move plastic bottle caps.”

“Language Confusion Spell, can make the other person think of a duck after hearing the word ‘refrigerator’.”

“Water Flow Manipulation, but can only affect the movement trajectory of bubbles in a boiling kettle.”

“…”

He really couldn’t read anymore. He closed the book and muttered.

“Why isn’t there a single one that can ‘ZA WARUDO‘?”

“Wa… warudo?”

Just then, a familiar girl’s voice suddenly came from the doorway.

“Hmm?”

Yang Yuan turned his head to see Su Dai-dai’s little head, covered by long bangs, peeking out from the crack in the door.

She was clearly peeking from outside the door and had heard Yang Yuan’s self-deprecating comment just now.

“Why are you peeking at me from the door again?”

Yang Yuan didn’t expect this little one to be pressed against the door, peeking at him from outside. This filled his heart with a mix of helplessness and amusement.

Su Dai-dai stood where she was. Even after being discovered, she didn’t run away. She lowered her head and said softly.

“I wasn’t peeking, I just… just happened to pass by and heard you talking.”

“What were you just saying? Wa… what was it?”

As Su Dai-dai asked softly, she secretly took a small step towards the library door, her little hand still clutching the hem of her uniform.

“ZA WARUDO, an ability that can stop time.”

“Oh… so amazing!”

“It doesn’t exist in reality. No matter how amazing it is, it’s useless. Don’t take this seriously either.”

Su Dai-dai nodded seriously. Although she didn’t quite understand, in her heart, whatever Yang Yuan said was absolute truth.

Yang Yuan glanced at the girl, his gaze sweeping over the rabbit keychain on her shoulder and the newly patched spot on the corner of her clothes.

“How long have you been following me today?”

“Not long!”

Upon hearing Yang Yuan take the initiative to speak to her, Su Dai-dai immediately replied.

“From the moment you left the activity room, I was behind you, but you walked too fast and I almost couldn’t keep up…”

Her voice was soft and sweet, and by the end, it even carried a hint of grievance.

Yang Yuan raised an eyebrow, unable to resist the urge to tease Su Dai-dai, the corners of his mouth lifting uncontrollably.

“Didn’t you just say you were just passing by?”

Su Dai-dai froze for a moment before realizing she had let it slip. Her little face instantly turned red, and her eyes darted around in a panic.

“I’m sorry, I lied…”

“But, I… I didn’t enter the library, I really didn’t!”

“I was always… always standing at the door and didn’t disturb you.”

The girl stood alone at the door, her sense of loneliness making Yang Yuan feel a little soft-hearted.

“I never said you couldn’t disturb me.”

“The library doesn’t belong to me alone. If you want to come in, just come in. Sit over there.”

He pointed to a chair not far from him, against the wall.

“But don’t get too close.”

“Mhm!”

A happy expression appeared on Su Dai-dai’s face. She sat down on the chair Yang Yuan had pointed to and stared at him without stopping.

Yang Yuan ignored the girl’s gaze and lowered his head to continue reading his book. Five minutes later, he still felt a scorching gaze nailed to his face.

He slowly looked up and saw Su Dai-dai sitting bolt upright, holding a book in her hand but holding it upside down, the cover facing inwards and even the words were inverted.

Her eyes didn’t move, just staring intently at Yang Yuan, barely even blinking.

“Aren’t you going to read a book while you’re here?”

Su Dai-dai blinked and innocently stated her needs.

“Looking at you is good enough.”

“…”

“…”

Silence spread, and the air seemed to freeze at that moment.

Yang Yuan leaned back in his chair and couldn’t help but rub the corner of his eye, considering whether he should make this silly girl disappear for a bit.

But after thinking about it, he finally stood up, took his book, and sat down next to Su Dai-dai.

“I’ll sit here and read with you. Stop staring at me, it’s really uncomfortable.”

“Mhm!”

Su Dai-dai nodded again, her little face showing an expression of extreme happiness. She flipped the book over and pretended to read it with great concentration.

Yang Yuan casually glanced over and found that the book Su Dai-dai was looking at was a foreign classic, and it was even the original text without translation.

“Can you… understand this?”

“I can!”

Su Dai-dai looked at the content with full confidence, only to realize that the book in her hand was entirely in English.

“Um… I can’t.”

“If you could understand this at your age, you’d be invincible.”

Too lazy to find her a new book, Yang Yuan spread his own “Superpower Appreciation” open and said softly.

“Then I’ll read it to you, okay?”

“Okay!”

The girl nodded excitedly, leaning forward slightly, looking eager.

“A certain awakener’s ability is… [Five-Second Heating Palm].”

“It can heat the palm in a cold environment for five seconds, with a thirty-minute cooldown.”

“Wow!”

Su Dai-dai’s eyes were full of admiration, as if she had heard about some super-powerful secret weapon.

“You can ‘wow’ at this?”

The corner of Yang Yuan’s mouth twitched. He thought to himself, isn’t this just a hand warmer?

“A certain awakener possesses [Rapid Shoe Removal Technique]… can take off shoes in one second.”

“Wow!”

Su Dai-dai still cooperated with a gasp of amazement, her expression quite serious, as if she really thought it was amazing.

“…”

“Do you think everything I read is amazing?”

Su Dai-dai nodded and then shook her head, thinking seriously.

“It’s not the book that’s amazing, it’s you.”

Yang Yuan didn’t expect her to say that. The back of his ears felt a little hot, and his hands flipping through the book slowed down a bit. He cleared his throat and continued.

“Don’t say silly things, how is this amazing…”

“It just is amazing~”

Su Dai-dai tilted her head and smiled lightly, then obediently sat up straight again.

While listening to Yang Yuan read, her eyes would secretly drift over to look at his side profile.

The girl’s pure and cute demeanor unexpectedly made Yang Yuan’s heart flutter.

‘Can’t fall for her… can’t fall for her…’

But in his peripheral vision, Su Dai-dai’s gaze seemed to want to entangle him. Her soft and cute presence was hard for Yang Yuan to ignore.

Just then, the old wall clock in the library ticked a few times, reminding the children to pay attention to the time.

Yang Yuan closed the book, stood up, and stretched, then walked out.

“I’m going to the bathroom. You sit here by yourself for a while.”

“I’ll go too.”

Su Dai-dai immediately stood up and followed him, not leaving his side.

“You even follow me to the bathroom?”

“I won’t go in, I’ll just wait for you at the door.”

“That’s not the point, okay? The point is, can’t you leave me alone for a few minutes?”

“I can’t…”

Su Dai-dai said it with righteous conviction, then immediately lowered her head and added in a small voice.

“I just… want to look at you a few more times.”

Yang Yuan stared at her for a few seconds, seeing her slightly wronged yet trying to be strong little face, and his heart soured.

“How about this, you just wait for me in your seat, okay?”

“I’ll be right back, very quickly.”

Su Dai-dai had been isolated alone for too long. Now that she had finally found someone willing to pay attention to her, she was naturally reluctant to let go.

“Then… can you be quick?”

“Alright, I’ll try to break a record.”

Watching Yang Yuan gradually walk away, Su Dai-dai stood where she was, her gaze glued to his back until he turned into the bathroom entrance before she slowly retracted it.

Then she turned around, silently walked back to the library entrance, sat down hugging her knees, and giggled foolishly.

“Hehe… you have to come back quickly.”