Threat

In truth, this was the first time Zhou Ze had actually seen the sun since coming to this world.

When he pushed open the door and stepped out of the interrogation room, sunlight poured through the floor-to-ceiling windows nearby, spreading a golden carpet across the polished floor. The warm light seemed alive as it slowly crept toward Zhou Ze's feet, as though inviting him to step into its radiance.

Zhou Ze instinctively reached out to touch the sunlight he had missed for so long, but the clanking shackles on his wrists restricted his movement.

That brief delay cost him his initial enthusiasm.

The young guard and Old Yang stood on either side of the door. As Zhou Ze left the interrogation room, both turned their eyes toward him.

It was hard to imagine the two of them coexisting peacefully at such close quarters.

Clearly, the young guard had no idea Old Yang was even there.

Zhou Ze had wondered about Old Yang's identity before, but he instinctively resisted looking too deeply into the question.

Over time, he had stopped caring.

I don't even know where the universe ends. How would I know something like that...

Meeting Zhou Ze's gaze, the young guard lifted his chin, signaling for him to move.

As Zhou Ze started walking, he heard Old Yang speak hoarsely from behind him, where he lounged against the wall.

"You actually enjoy it, don't you... You probably have no idea what your face looks like. Tsk, tsk..."

Dirty old bastard...

Lunatic...

Naturally, Zhou Ze ignored him.

But at the next corner, Old Yang was leaning against the wall again, his arms folded.

"That's not what I meant, of course..." He paused, then added, "Zhou Ze, have you ever wondered what really makes your heart beat?"

Zhou Ze quickened his pace and hurried past the junction.

Only to find Old Yang waiting beside the elevator doors ahead, watching him with bloodshot eyes and an ambiguous smile. "Is it fear? Or is it... excitement?"

Zhou Ze faltered for a moment, but still stepped into the elevator as though nothing had happened.

Then Old Yang's grating voice came from behind him:

"Admit it. You enjoy the thrill. Wagering your life and letting fate turn over your cards. Adrenaline surging through your veins, filling you with a frenzy and vitality you've never felt before. That's what it really means to be alive, isn't it?"

Unable to stand it any longer, Zhou Ze whipped his head around.

Only to find himself staring into the dark muzzle of a gun.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" The young guard gave him a strange look.

Zhou Ze chuckled sheepishly.

"My stomach hurts. I need the bathroom."

With a thermos in one hand and a kraft-paper document envelope tucked under his other arm, Dai Yong'an gently closed the interrogation room door.

A burly man sat upright on the other side of the glass, his straight back and square shoulders conveying the distinctive bearing of a soldier. He seemed to have been waiting for quite some time, but showed no trace of displeasure.

Only when he recognized Dai Yong'an's face did his brow furrow slightly.

"Dr. Dai?"

"Good afternoon, Major Lu Fei." Dai Yong'an pulled out a chair and set down the document envelope and thermos, smiling at the man behind the tempered glass. "Surprised to see me?"

When Lu Fei remained silent, Dai Yong'an continued, "The person chiefly responsible for this incident suddenly becoming its investigator afterward..."

After sitting down, he lifted his thermos and took a small sip of the slightly scalding coffee, savoring its faint bitterness on his tongue. "Honestly, I'm surprised too."

"That's against regulations." Lu Fei fixed an intense gaze on the researcher who had recently made a name for himself within the site.

"Of course it's against regulations." Dai Yong'an's expression remained unchanged as he added pointedly, "But I imagine you're not exactly a stickler for regulations yourself, Major Lu Fei. Otherwise, you wouldn't be sitting here."

Before Lu Fei could reply, Dai Yong'an spoke again. "A month ago, while leading the City Hunter Mobile Task Force on a dangerous mission, you were... injured? Hmm, that's what the records say. You then requested a transfer to Site-17 as a security training instructor on the grounds that you needed to recuperate... Is that correct?"

"Yes." Lu Fei looked entirely untroubled.

"Why Site-17?"

"Because I worked at Site-17 for a time. Is there a problem, Doctor?"

"Of course not." Dai Yong'an raised his eyebrows. "But before the incident, you showed a certain Class-D Personnel... hmm, some unnecessary sympathy. You know who I mean."

"I did not disclose any information about the experiment to D-87465. That was not a violation." Lu Fei answered expressionlessly.

"But it could very well have affected the results. Of course, that's merely my opinion as the project lead, and it isn't important..."

Dai Yong'an tapped the table lightly and continued, "What matters is that, through a series of coincidences, D-87465 became the sole survivor of that incident. Rather too coincidental, wouldn't you say?"

"You suspect me?" Lu Fei stared at the scholarly-looking man behind the glass and said coldly, "Under these circumstances, you should have tried to uncover the truth through that Class-D Personnel, rather than wiping his memory at the first opportunity."

"That certainly wasn't my order..." Dai Yong'an calmly adjusted his glasses. "Honestly, having someone interfere with my project twice in a row is rather irritating. But you're wrong... I've never suspected that this incident was deliberately engineered... especially not by you, Major Lu Fei."

Meeting Lu Fei's sharp gaze, Dai Yong'an shook his head with a smile. "I've read your personnel file. Your individual abilities are unquestionably outstanding, but you're far too... hmm, idealistic?

"Forgive my bluntness, but you owe your position as task force leader primarily to your extraordinary intuition and your ability to make decisive, accurate judgments in a crisis.

"Your actions have always followed your own moral code... There's nothing wrong with that, of course. But as the central figure in a mission, you become overly indecisive when faced with situations where casualties are inevitable..."

Dai Yong'an paused, then said evenly, "Someone like you could never devise a dangerous scheme so clearly bound to result in mass casualties..."

"So this isn't an interrogation, Doctor?" Lu Fei stared into Dai Yong'an's eyes, as though trying to see through to his true purpose.

"The interrogation was over before it even began, Major." Dai Yong'an rose with a smile. "We simply have to go through the motions, as usual."

He took out a keycard as he walked to the other side of the room. With a light swipe across the reader, the automatic door in the tempered-glass partition slowly opened.

"Honestly, there are aspects of your recent behavior worth looking into. After all, no matter how you look at it, taking such an interest in a Class-D Personnel you'd never met can't be explained by a simple excess of sympathy..."

Dai Yong'an passed through the automatic door and stopped beside Lu Fei.

The burly former task force leader stood up and narrowed his eyes, looking down at the middle-aged man before him, who resembled a wily old fox.

"Should I take that as a threat, Doctor?"