# 872
Chapter 873: Loss of Emotional Control
"托梦？！" (A dream visitation?!"
An Qingyu heard these two words and froze in place.
"Over these past two days, I've been having a strange dream. In it, the moon in the sky turned red, and the ground was covered in flesh and blood everywhere. My father crawled out from the sea, his two eyes blood-red. He knelt in the pool of blood, mumbling something incoherently while prostrating himself before that red moon."
Chen Gou's brow furrowed tighter and tighter. "At first, the dream would end there. I thought it was just a nightmare caused by my grief, and I quickly forgot about it. But every day after that, I kept repeating this same dream. In the dream, his voice became clearer and clearer, and the distance between us grew closer and closer...
Last night, after he'd been mumbling incoherently for a long time, he suddenly turned to look at me, ordering me to kneel in the pool of blood. He pressed his blood-soaked palm on my head and forced it to the ground, making me prostrate alongside him before that red moon."
After saying all this, Chen Gou took another drag of his cigarette, and a trace of fear flickered in his eyes.
"I don't know why I keep having this dream, but I always feel like... something bad is about to happen."
An Qingyu fell into deep thought.
A dream visitation, the deceased, a pool of blood, a red moon, prostration...
It sounded like nothing more than an ordinary nightmare, but at this critical moment, An Qingyu caught a whiff of something unusual.
Could this really just be a dream?
An Qingyu unconsciously looked up at the azure blue sky. The sun hung high in the clear heavens, radiating brilliant light, while the moon on the other side was half-hidden, showing only a vague outline.
Bright sunshine, gentle breeze, fine weather—as those fishermen had said, today was a good day.
An Qingyu squinted his eyes, gazing at that moon for a long while. His brow unconsciously furrowed...
It might have been his imagination, but...
On the surface of that hazy moon, there seemed to be a hint of red tinge.
...
Meanwhile, on the other side of the coastline.
Lin Qiye walked alone to an empty stretch of beach, staring at the sea before him, lost in thought.
"Seven Nights!" A familiar voice came from behind him.
Jialan, wearing a deep blue Hanfu, trotted over to Lin Qiye's side. Those bright eyes blinked as she looked at him with evident worry.
"Jialan? Why are you here?" Lin Qiye asked in surprise.
"I... I'm a bit worried about you."
"Worried about me?"
"I feel like your emotions just now were a little off." Jialan hesitated for a moment before speaking honestly. "You've never lost your temper like that before. Even if you were just trying to mediate, your words were a bit too aggressive, and your gaze... I've never seen you like that before.
It's not just you—Pangpang and Qingyu too. Their emotions were very off!"
Jialan looked at Lin Qiye earnestly, her worry practically overflowing from her eyes.
Lin Qiye was stunned for a moment. Recalling what An Qingyu had just said to him, his expression grew heavy.
Jialan was right. Just now, his own emotions, along with Baili Pangpang's and An Qingyu's, had indeed been very off.
Baili Pangpang, despite being meticulous and deeply worried about [Mask Squad], shouldn't have gotten into an argument with An Qingyu to the point of being unreasonable. With his emotional intelligence, he never would have done something like that...
As for An Qingyu, with his exceptionally high IQ and EQ, he shouldn't have failed to see that Baili Pangpang was merely seeking psychological comfort, yet he remained aggressive and refused to budge even an inch.
And himself—when he saw the two arguing, the anger in his heart had inexplicably surged.
This wasn't normal behavior for any of them.
At this moment, Lin Qiye thought back to the scattered ant bodies on the ground and the birds that had torn each other apart, as if realizing something. His brow furrowed tightly. "You're right... our emotions have indeed gone awry.
Perhaps this is related to what Qingyu mentioned—the cause of the time loop."
"The cause of the time loop is emotional loss of control?"
"This hasn't been confirmed yet. I can only say the two might be connected." Lin Qiye analyzed calmly. "If there truly is some kind of power in this fishing village capable of affecting emotions, driving people into states of irritability, agitation, and diminished cognition, then as time passes, it must be growing stronger.
Insects, ants, bats, rats, birds... Now, it has even begun to affect our emotions. If this continues, humanity's rationality will sooner or later fall, just like those insects and birds, entering a state of mutual slaughter."
"You mean that in the end, we'll also start killing each other?" Jialan's expression turned grim. "Then what should we do?"
Lin Qiye shook his head. "I don't know. The intelligence we currently have is far too scarce. We don't even know where this emotion-affecting power originates from... let alone how to stop it. The only solution we have now is to find a way to break the time loop and leave this place.
Otherwise, whether it's the temporal erasure that follows the loop's end, or the mutual slaughter from emotional loss of control, both will push us toward an irrecoverable fate."
Now, Lin Qiye suddenly felt that having the team members scatter to search for clues had been a wise decision.
After scattering, even if emotions spiral out of control, as long as there's no one around and no conflicts arise between people, the mutual slaughter won't begin...
Just then, Lin Qiye seemed to think of something. He turned to look at Jialan, his expression unusually serious and earnest.
"Jialan."
"W-What is it?"
"You're an exception." Lin Qiye's eyes brightened slightly. "Your [Immortality] allows you to remain unaffected by any external influences. The power affecting emotions here is ineffective against you. In other words... you're the only one among us capable of maintaining absolute clarity of mind in any situation.
If it comes to the worst, and we all fall into a state of mental derangement, it will all depend on you..."
Jialan was stunned.
Under Lin Qiye's solemn and hopeful gaze, Jialan suddenly felt the weight of pressure increase on her. She took a deep breath:
"Alright, what should I do?"
"Adapt to the circumstances."
"..."
"No one knows what situation we'll be in at that time. You just need to act according to your own will." Lin Qiye patted Jialan's shoulder. "I believe in you."
Jialan: (????)
"I understand." Jialan nodded emphatically.
Lin Qiye turned his head, gazing at the sea before him. After a moment of contemplation, he said, "I want to go down and take a look."
"To the seabed?"
"Mm. I've already searched through the entire fishing village and found nothing. If the thing sustaining the time loop truly exists, it could only be hidden at the bottom of the sea..."
"I'll go with you." Jialan didn't hesitate in the slightest.
Lin Qiye looked at her and smiled faintly. "Alright."