Torment, Xie Yi's Methods

When I had been downstairs talking with Old Shu and Xu Qiuyan, I hadn't felt much. But as I climbed the stairs, an inexplicable nervousness rose in my heart.

Xie Yi and the others were upstairs, along with Uncle Long, Aunt Qin, and my parents.

I had never imagined that I would meet my parents in a place like this.

I had nearly forgotten when I had last seen them.

It was only natural for me to feel so disoriented, because some of my meetings with them had been real, while others had not. Reality and illusion had become hopelessly tangled.

And Uncle Long and Aunt Qin—I couldn't remember the last time I had seen them either.

But none of that mattered. I couldn't even tell whether this meeting was real or an illusion.

"Jiang Xiaobai!" I heard Xie Yi's voice.

He was smiling at me.

I walked up to his cell. "You should be able to get out by yourself, right?"

He pursed his lips, then casually undid the cell lock and walked out.

Honestly, even I could have opened that lock with ease.

So I believed the cell itself couldn't hold anyone. The reason these people did not dare leave was probably because this prison block had other methods that terrified its inmates.

"How did it feel being a prisoner?" I asked him.

Xie Yi shrugged. "So-so. But this place really isn't fit for humans."

"But if you wanted to leave, this place couldn't hold you at all," I said.

Xie Yi turned to glance at the lock. "That's right. This lock can keep out gentlemen, but not scoundrels. But you're wrong about one thing. If you hadn't broken into this prison block, I really wouldn't have been able to open it. You lifted the restriction on Block