Seeing Lin Yue's flushed cheeks and listening to her trembling words, Hermione had nothing left to misunderstand. This guy might not have realized it yet, but deep down, he must have already felt the same way as her; they must both like each other. With a pleased squint, Hermione slowly distanced herself from Lin Yue.
Lin Yue still hasn't completely figured things out; if she goes too far with the teasing, it won't be good.
Feeling Hermione's departure, Lin Yue let out a deep breath, and the heat on her face seemed to gradually fade. However, correspondingly, a tingling feeling began to grow in her heart.
It seemed... as if she didn't want Hermione to drift away like that.
But if she didn't want Hermione to drift away, what did she want Hermione to do?
Did she want her to lean in close again and whisper in her ear like before? Or perhaps to gently kiss her cheek again, just like earlier?
Lin Yue's mind was in chaos; she had never thought about such things before, and at this moment, she felt utterly at a loss.
What had once become instinctive thinking now left her unable to comprehend this particular question.
Fortunately, Hermione didn't do anything else that left Lin Yue confused for the rest of the day. They wandered around Hogsmeade together again and returned to Hogwarts before dark.
Tomorrow was Christmas, and the Great Hall had already been sparsely decorated with some items; everything would be fully set up during the day tomorrow.
Looking at the huge Christmas tree in the corner of the hall and the small gifts hanging from its branches, Lin Yue calmly shifted her gaze away.
This was already the third year she had seen a Christmas tree, and the third year she had truly celebrated a holiday.
In her original world, although she knew about holidays, it was limited to what she learned from textbooks.
When the corresponding holidays came, she had never actually participated, although there would still be a symbolic day off.
However, similarly, the school would prepare "thoughtful" supervision services for parents on those days.
As long as they signed a consent form, children could stay at school to study on the "holiday."
She remembered seeing a news report on television before, stating that children and parents around the world had chosen supervision services for the holidays for fifteen consecutive years.
The news praised everyone, saying they were making a great contribution to humanity's journey toward a better future and solving the dilemmas faced by humanity.
But... was that really the case?
Three years after leaving her original world, influenced by Hermione and a group of friends and professors, Lin Yue had begun to doubt the situation in her original world more than once.
The last time was outside the Louvre, where she explained her speculations about her original world to Hermione.
Now, upon further reflection, her speculations indeed seemed to align most closely with reality; the probability of her speculation being the truth was as high as 98.6%.
One could only say that in her original world, everyone had been deceived.
And they had been deceived for a long time; the lie in her original world was essentially a deception that had lasted for decades.
"What are you thinking about? You're so serious that the sausage on your fork is about to fall off."
Cho Chang, sitting next to Lin Yue, noticed her dazed expression as she stared ahead, and with a hint of amusement, she patted Lin Yue's shoulder.
"Um, I'm thinking about a lie."
Lin Yue came back to her senses, and after responding with a sound, she expressionlessly ate the sausage on her fork. It was as if that lie had never happened to her, as if it had never taken her life.
"What lie?" Cho Chang put down the knife and fork in her hand, looking at Lin Yue with confusion.
Who deceived Lin Yue? At Hogwarts? That shouldn't be the case; after everything that had happened before, no one should dare to do that.
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"A lie that has lasted for decades, deceiving everyone."
"How is that possible?!"
Cho Chang's eyes widened in surprise, her brows furrowed in disbelief.
"It’s impossible for anyone to deceive everyone, especially for such a long time."
"If this is a lie woven together by the entire world, it would have enough power to deceive all ordinary people in the world."
Lin Yue took a sip of pumpkin juice, her voice flat as she stated the facts.
"Then... why would they do this?"
Cho Chang frowned, not understanding what could lead the entire world to conspire to deceive their own people.
"I don't know."
Lin Yue shook her head with a blank expression, which was something she just couldn't understand no matter what.
This was fundamentally an unnecessary deception.
Based on the technological development and talent cultivation speed of the original world, limitless energy should have already been developed. She had mentioned this to Hermione before.
If it had already been developed, then why deceive everyone? Why still talk about energy shortages and implement a system of exam destruction?
Isn't limitless energy sufficient for everyone in the world? It can meet everyone's needs.
This lie shouldn't exist, and there was no need for it to exist.
"Because that's human nature."
Hermione's gentle voice came over as she placed a small bowl of fish soup in front of Lin Yue. They had spent the whole day in Hogsmeade, and it was so cold outside. She had specifically gone to the end of the Ravenclaw table to get fish soup for Lin Yue to warm her up.
After returning, when she heard Lin Yue and Cho Chang's conversation, Hermione realized what they were talking about.
They were discussing the truth of Lin Yue's original world that she had previously shared with Hermione.
At that time, Hermione had told Lin Yue that it was because of human nature, but she just couldn't understand it.
She never expected that Lin Yue would remember this for so long, that she had been thinking about it even now.
Her obsession with this deception was very deep, extremely deep.
But thinking about it, this deception had cost so many students their lives; many students were dragged away and destroyed right in front of Lin Yue, and in the end, she herself became one of them.
Lin Yue is still able to maintain this state; it's quite impressive that she hasn't had a mental breakdown because of this scam. By the time she fully recovers, her reaction will probably be even stronger.
"Because of human nature..." Cho Chang murmured softly. She had a premonition that the truth behind this would definitely not be what she wanted to hear. However, since it concerns her junior Lin Yue, as a senior, she felt she had to understand a bit more.
Looking at Lin Yue, who was bowing her head to drink fish soup, Cho Chang wisely swallowed her words and decided to wait until Lin Yue was not around to ask Hermione about this matter in detail.
Sitting beside them, Penelope and Marietta exchanged a knowing glance, both unsure of what to say. Clearly, the three of them shared the same thought at that moment.
After dinner, Lin Yue, Hermione, Cho Chang, and Marietta returned to the dormitory together, with Penelope undoubtedly following them inside.
As soon as they entered the dormitory, Lin Yue went to the desk to "review" the content for the next class, while the other three seniors surrounded Hermione with serious expressions.
"Hermione, what was that lie Lin Yue mentioned earlier?" Marietta was the first to speak, pulling Hermione to sit on her bed.
Cho Chang and Penelope sat on either side of them.
Cautiously glancing at Lin Yue, Hermione bit her lip and quietly explained. She really didn't want to bring up the matter of the lie in front of Lin Yue, in any form. It would only deepen the vague discomfort and pain she felt inside.
So, she made an exception this time and explained the situation to the three seniors without asking Lin Yue's opinion. She hoped Merlin would forgive her rudeness, considering it was a special circumstance.
"This matter, to put it simply... isn't too complicated."
Hermione sighed, her voice becoming low and heavy.
"Lin Yue's original world situation, you seniors all know about it."
"Yeah." The three seniors nodded in unison.
"In her initial explanation, her world implemented such measures due to a lack of resources."
Hermione clasped her hands together and slowly twisted them. Even while speaking that lie, she felt a deep sense of unease, a strong suffocating feeling. Yet Lin Yue had lived in that lie for over a decade.
"But after Lin Yue left that world and came into contact with us, gradually returning to normal, she quickly discovered discrepancies based on her own calculations."
"Discrepancies?" Penelope's eyebrows twitched sharply, and she felt an ominous premonition for some reason.
"Yes," Hermione nodded sadly. "According to her original world's technological progress and talent cultivation speed, the energy and resource issues should have been resolved long ago, so the shortage problem shouldn't exist at all."
"But... until she came here, I mean to our world, wasn't her original world still like that?" Cho Chang said in confusion. Lin Yue was brought here because her parents drugged her and she didn't perform well on her exams, after all.
If, as Hermione said, the resource issues in her original world were resolved, then why hadn't that practice been abolished? That practice was wrong even under the absolute pressure of resource issues, let alone when there were no life-and-death problems related to resource shortages. That would be utterly ridiculous!
"Exactly," Hermione said with a bitter smile. "So this is where Lin Yue couldn't figure out the contradiction: why, despite the resource issues being resolved, does everyone in the world still believe they haven't been? Why, even though the resource issues have been resolved, do they still maintain such practices?"
At this point, the expressions of the three seniors had completely darkened. They were all top students from various grades, among the best, and none of them were foolish. They each had their own understanding of human nature and human sentiment.
"Heh..." Penelope sneered coldly. "I’m afraid someone has benefited from this and has developed a taste for it."
"Greed is like a snake swallowing an elephant," Cho Chang said angrily, using a saying from her hometown.
"I think those who conceal and deceive everyone are the ones who should be destroyed."
Marietta crossed her arms and closed her eyes, her usually gentle voice now chillingly sharp.
"There’s nothing we can do... After all, this is ultimately a matter of another world, and we have no way to intervene."
Hermione shook her head helplessly. If she could, she would certainly want to lend a hand to that world, especially since there were likely many people there who resembled Lin Yue.
"Yeah," Marietta sighed, "they're far away in another world, and no matter what, it’s not our place to interfere."
Despite saying that, the eyes of the four girls sparkled with an unquenchable flame.
Not long after, Penelope returned to her dormitory; today was the day before Christmas, and everyone needed to get to bed early.
After all, the Christmas feast the next day would surely last a long time, and there would be plenty to stay up for.
At midnight, Lin Yue finished her shower and went to bed on time, waking up promptly at six the next morning.
Sitting up in bed, she opened her eyes to see a small pile of gifts on the floor, each with various kinds of wrapping. One blue gift box, tied with a bow that looked familiar to Lin Yue, caught her attention.
There was no doubt it was tied by Hermione herself. Leaning over from the edge of the bed, Lin Yue carefully took Hermione's gift in her hands, gently untied the bow, and even more cautiously opened the box.
Although she didn’t quite understand why, she instinctively didn’t want to damage the gift, including the ribbon and the box itself.
Inside the gift box lay a cute, chubby blue cup, resting securely.
On top of the cup was a letter. Lin Yue took out the letter, opened it, and read it carefully. It was filled with Hermione's blessings for her, thanking her for the companionship over the past year and looking forward to her company in the new year.
A smile crept onto Lin Yue's lips as she gently placed the letter on the bed beside her.
Then she slowly took out the little cup from the box. Not only that, but there was also a small note quietly lying inside the cup.
Lin Yue reached into the cup, took out a note, and unfolded it. It had a few words written on it: "Get hot water."
She carefully placed the note and the letter together, a smile on her lips as she walked to the desk and gently set down the small cup in her hand.
Then, she took out her wand, pointed it at the small cup, and recited a spell. Warm water began to flow from the tip of her wand, rushing into the small cup.
As the warm water filled the cup, Lin Yue could visibly see the blue walls of the cup slowly changing, as if some images were gradually appearing on its surface.
She continued to pour warm water into the small cup until it was nearly full, and only then did the blue on this side of the cup completely transform.
It turned into an image, an image that made Lin Yue's heart leap with joy, an image that made her smile with delight.