Lin Xiaoxiao was a clever, quick-witted person, but he was not particularly deep or calculating.
When he returned to the dining hall yet kept silent about the interrogation results, Qing Chen already had his answer.
There was nothing particularly secret about that information. Sooner or later, the Inner World would learn everything about the transmigrators.
Unless... the interrogation results contained a secret involving someone present.
Qing Chen wondered how the people of the Inner World viewed the Outer World.
Putting everyone else aside, Li Shutong was a powerful man with an extremely strong need for control. How could someone like him allow things to spiral out of control?
No matter how much goodwill had been built up before, it was worth nothing before someone in power.
Qing Chen was not certain that Li Shutong would kill him. He had merely prepared for the worst.
But Li Shutong was also an extremely intelligent man. Lin Xiaoxiao did not need to say anything for him to understand.
"Xiaoxiao, take our friends from Spades somewhere else," Li Shutong ordered.
"I'm not going anywhere." Guo Huzhan suddenly realized there might be a huge secret here.
But Ye Wan abruptly spread a transparent force field, enveloping Li Shutong and Qing Chen within it.
Caught off guard, Guo Huzhan, who had been trying to eavesdrop, was flung stumbling backward by the force field.
When the bald man tried to rush back, he found Ye Wan and Lin Xiaoxiao already blocking his way.
Lin Xiaoxiao said with a smile, "If you still want to stay here and search for Forbidden Item ACE-005, don't take another step forward."
"Fine, I won't listen!" Guo Huzhan snapped angrily.
Li Shutong looked calmly at Qing Chen. "So, having Lu Guangyi interrogate the new prisoners these past few days was your way of looking for them?"
Qing Chen considered it. "That's right."
"You're calmer than I expected," Li Shutong said with emotion. "When I was your age, I was not as good as you."
"It's not calmness. Panic is simply useless," Qing Chen said.
"Although Xiaoxiao has not told me the interrogation results, I know they must involve a great secret," Li Shutong said. "I have always been merciless when faced with uncontrollable matters. Have you considered that you may not live past tomorrow?"
"I have." Qing Chen raised his head and looked around at everything.
The novel steel dome, the black metal storm reflecting the light, the mechanical prison guards standing blankly throughout the prison with guns in hand.
And the grinning prisoners, the limping newcomers baring their teeth in pain.
Qing Chen was not sure whether he would see any of it again, so he wanted to look a little longer.
He suddenly lowered his head and smiled at Li Shutong. "These past few days have actually been quite pleasant. If possible, I hope we can get to know each other again."
"You beat me at chess on the first day, so I still owe you a request. If there's something you want, you can ask for it now," Li Shutong said.
Qing Chen thought for a moment. "Could you play 'Farewell' one more time?"
"You won't trade it for your life?" Li Shutong smiled.
"My life doesn't need to be traded for, and it can't be traded for," Qing Chen said.
"Good. I have always liked your courage. Consider this song a gift from me. You may make that request anytime." Li Shutong had Ye Wan bring over a harmonica.
The tune of "Farewell" seemed as though Qing Chen had requested it for himself. Its melodious notes made the prison feel a little more tranquil.
"Thank you," Qing Chen said.
Then he returned to his cell alone, lay on the cold bedboard, and waited quietly.
Time passed bit by bit.
From day to night.
Qing Chen heard the prison broadcast instruct all prisoners to line up and return to their cells. Then, one alloy gate after another closed, and the sound of hydraulic mechanisms brought an end to another noisy day in Prison No. 18.
It shut everything away.
The next moment, the entire prison abruptly fell into complete darkness.
Then the alloy gate to Qing Chen's cell opened again.
In the darkness, someone placed a black hood over his head and carried him somewhere unknown.
Several minutes later, the two people carrying him set him down somewhere before leaving one after the other.
The hydraulics sounded again, as if something had been sealed shut, cutting him off from something once more.
Qing Chen lay silently in the darkness. He did not even get up to see where he was.
There was only the sound of his breathing. The only thing lit up was the countdown visible to him alone, unable to illuminate anything.
Time crawled by, slow and heavy.
Qing Chen knew what happened to a person trapped in an enclosed, dark environment.
You did not know where you were, and you could not speak with anyone. Loneliness and fear would completely consume you.
And you would lose all sense of time.
The absence of time was the most terrifying thing of all.
Many people could not even endure twenty-four hours. There had once been an experiment offering one million for someone to remain inside for five days, yet no one had managed to claim the money.
Money was indeed tempting, but ninety-nine percent of people collapsed before seventy-two hours had passed.
However.
Li Shutong and the others probably did not know that Qing Chen had never feared loneliness.
Ever since his parents divorced, he had lived alongside it.
Qing Chen clearly understood that dehydration would be his greatest enemy.
Return countdown: 146:09:02.
The countdown on his arm could help him keep track of time.
The first day.
Qing Chen slowed his breathing. He began replaying movies in his mind. First, he watched The Shawshank Redemption, then Papillon, both stories about prison breaks and faith.
Those films had long been stored in his mind, and he did not need any equipment to replay them.
Because he had no water to drink, his neurons confused the need for food with the need for water, and he began to feel exhausted.
Return countdown: 122:09:02.
The second day.
Qing Chen slept once and rewatched eight movies in his mind.
He lay silently on the floor with his eyes closed, enjoying the darkness.
Hunger and thirst began to assail him, but it was as though he had discarded his external senses. He remained unmoved.
Return countdown: 98:09:02.
The third day.
Hunger began to burn at his will and erode his mind.
This time, Qing Chen watched twelve movies and did not sleep for even a minute.
The loss of water in his body tormented him. Due to dehydration, his body began alternating between sudden chills and sudden heat, while his skin started to dry out.
His memory began to decline, and the movies in his mind turned into fragmented slideshows.
Memories from old times began reflecting and overlapping with one another.
Qing Chen could no longer sleep.
Return countdown: 74:09:02.
The fourth day.
Qing Chen's hunger began to fade. He opened his eyes and stared into the endless void and darkness, though no one knew what he was thinking.
He had not checked the time in a long while. Even watching the time seemed to have become meaningless.
Yet from beginning to end, Qing Chen never uttered a single word or let out a single cry.
In the darkness, the world remained silent.
He had not calculated how long it had been since he slept, but that did not seem very important either.
With his silence, Qing Chen fought against the world's silence and darkness.
Night had already fallen over Prison No. 18, and the lights inside the fortress had dimmed into a faint glow.
Even the drones on the hive seemed to have fallen asleep.
Li Shutong sat at the end of the long table in the dim reading area with his eyes closed, resting. Lin Xiaoxiao glanced at the time beside him. "Boss, it's been four days."
"Mm." Li Shutong nodded.
At that moment, weak pounding came from somewhere in the distance. From behind one of the doors, Lu Guangyi cursed intermittently, "Li Shutong, where did you lock up my boss? I, Lu Guangyi, won't let you get away with this. Neither will the Qing family."
On the first day Qing Chen disappeared, Lu Guangyi had realized something was wrong. He caused a huge scene in Prison No. 18 and nearly triggered a second metal storm.
So while Qing Chen had been missing for four days, Lu Guangyi had also been locked in his cell for four days.
Only on the fourth day did Lu Guangyi finally quiet down somewhat.
Lin Xiaoxiao ignored Lu Guangyi's cursing and continued, "Boss, Qing Chen has been in there for four days. He hasn't said a single word, and there are no signs that he's breaking down."
"He is an exceptionally intelligent person. From the first day, he slowed his breathing to prevent water from draining out too quickly. It is not strange that he has endured until the fourth day," Li Shutong said.
"Even so, those who can endure four days without making a sound are exceedingly rare. He doesn't seem to be suffering punishment. He seems more like he's waiting. But he hasn't had water for four days. If he doesn't drink soon, he'll die," Lin Xiaoxiao said anxiously. "Boss, you value talent. Let him go."
Lin Xiaoxiao, who had originally disliked Qing Chen's proud bones, was now pleading on the young man's behalf.
Because he also knew what Qing Chen was going through.
Ye Wan suddenly said, "Boss, the black room may not be able to do anything to him. Let him out."
Yet after thinking for a moment, Li Shutong said, "Change it to waterboarding."
"Boss, he is severely dehydrated. The moment he sees water, he'll instinctively try to drink it. That will kill him," Lin Xiaoxiao said urgently.
Waterboarding involved covering the tortured person's face with a towel, then pouring water over it.
Waterboarding was like a one-way valve. Water kept rushing in, while the towel prevented you from spitting it out, so you could only take a single breath. Even if you held your breath, it still felt as if the air were being sucked away, like by a vacuum cleaner.
Lin Xiaoxiao knew very well that normal people could not endure waterboarding, much less someone like Qing Chen, who had been thirsty for four days.
The moment the waterboarding began, someone severely deprived of water would desperately try to drink.
But the water passing through the towel would not only flow into Qing Chen's stomach to quench his thirst. It would also pour into his lungs, destroying his last chance at life.
However, Li Shutong seemed to have already hardened his heart.
"Life and death both depend on his own choice. If he has never seen true death, how can he walk my path?" Li Shutong asked calmly.
Countdown: 50:09:02.
The fifth day.
Someone opened the black room, and Qing Chen was carried out without the slightest reaction.
Someone placed him in a chair, then covered his face with a thick towel.
Icy water poured over the towel, blocking all oxygen and life.
Qing Chen sat quietly in the chair without moving, his lips pressed tightly together.
He fought hard against the urge to drink, refusing to let the temptation before him destroy him.
Beside him, Lin Xiaoxiao and Ye Wan exchanged a look. They had not expected that even at such a moment, Qing Chen could maintain a clear will, knowing what he faced and using his final strength of will to fight for a chance to live.
Qing Chen felt water flowing in through his nostrils, filling his body.
He felt as though he had fallen into a dream.
In the dream, his younger self had once been led by the hand, that palm warm and soft.
In a park.
It was as if warm seawater under sunlight had wrapped around his body, while golden sunlight slowly surged and rolled.
The woman holding his hand suddenly asked without looking back, "Little Chen, your father has someone else outside. He doesn't want us anymore."
"Mom, I want candied hawthorn," his younger self whispered to the woman ahead of him.
The woman turned around and stared at him blankly for a long time. "All right. Mommy will buy you candied hawthorn."
Her eyes were red as she bought him the candied hawthorn. "Little Chen, eat your candied hawthorn here. Mommy is going to the restroom."
But once the woman left, she never returned.
Qing Chen waited from noon until dusk.
He began to cry, but crying did nothing.
Someone helped him find the police, but Qing Chen refused to leave with them. He believed his mother would come back.
Only after night fell did the woman return and hold him as she burst into tears.
Young Qing Chen only thought she had gotten lost and had finally found him again.
Under the waterboarding, Qing Chen's mind gradually became clear. So this was not the first time he had been abandoned.
It seemed his strange memory had also awakened from that time onward.
But having too good a memory was not a good thing. He remembered every kind of pain.
With perfect clarity.
Qing Chen felt his oxygen-starved mind and convulsing limbs. Water began flooding backward into his lungs, yet he still sat there like a statue.
There was no struggle and no begging.
A voice in the darkness said, "Come with Mommy."
Qing Chen responded softly, "No, Mom."
The voice in the darkness said again, "Come with Mommy."
Qing Chen's voice grew resolute. "No. I said no, Mom."
In an instant, someone tore the soaked towel from his face.
The dim light was painfully dazzling now. Blurrily, he saw Lin Xiaoxiao anxiously patting his back.
Li Shutong stood silently before him and asked, "Why did you never beg? I still owe you one request."
Facing the blinding light, Qing Chen looked stubbornly at him. He coughed all the water from his windpipe, then said firmly, "Because you don't need someone weak."
At that moment, Li Shutong suddenly remembered how Qing Chen had looked during their first game of chess. He had possessed the same reckless courage and stubbornness, like a lone wolf traveling the wilderness.
He knew it now. This was the person he had been looking for.
Li Shutong asked again, "Can you forget everything I did to you today?"
"I can't," Qing Chen said. "But I don't mind."
"Very honest. Very good." Li Shutong turned and walked out of the interrogation room. "Starting tomorrow, I will teach you personally. I will lead you down the longest road among all the shortcuts in this world."
Sixth update! Please vote with your monthly tickets!
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