Lin Xiaoxiao was a smart person, but he couldn’t make decisions for his boss.
Just then, when he silently appeared in the cafeteria after his interrogations, Qing Chen could guess what must have happened.
There was nothing wrong with some of the information because the Inner World would learn about the transmigrations eventually.
Unless… In the interrogation room, there was a secret that would impact a certain someone present at the table.
Qing Chen thought, how would the people of the Inner World think about the Outer World?
Not to mention, Li Shutong was a man of extreme power. How could a person like that think about things going out of his control?
No matter how much good impression he had gained, nothing would be useful in this case.
Qing Chen wasn’t sure if Li Shutong would kill him, but still, he prepared for the worst.
Li Shutong was also a smart person. Without saying a word, he already knew what Lin Xiaoxiao wanted to say.
"Xiaoxiao, please escort our friend from the Black Spades to somewhere else," Li Shutong ordered.
"I'm not going anywhere," Guo Huchan also realized that something might happen soon.
Ye Wan already extended his invisible field force to enclose Li Shutong and Qing Chen.
Guo Huchan, who wanted to eavesdrop, got unexpectedly knocked back by the powerful force.
When the bald head wanted to rush back in, he found Lin Xiaoxiao and Ye Wan blocking his way.
Lin Xiaoxiao said while smiling, "If you still want to live to find the forbidden idem ACE-005, then I recommend you to stay where you are.”
"Whatever, nothing important anyway." Guo Huchan said angrily.
Li Shutong turned calmly to look at Qing Chen and said, "So, that's why you want Lu Guangyi to question the new prisoners.”
Qing Chen said, "That's right."
"You are much more well-rounded than I thought," exclaimed Li Shutong, "I was not as good as you when I'm your age.”
"It’s not because I’m steady but because I know it's useless to worry," said Qing Chen.
"Although Xiaoxiao didn't tell me what is with these people yet, I'm sure it has to do with your secrets," said Li Shutong, "I'll never show any mercy to things that will cause me to lose control. Have you ever thought that you might not live to see tomorrow?”
"Yeah," Qing Chen looked around.
The high-tech ceiling, the shiny Metal Storm, and the robot guards standing around the prison…
And the prisoners chatting, the limping newcomers…
Qing Chen wasn't sure if he would see these again, so he wanted to take another look.
He suddenly smiled at Li Shutong and said, "It has been fun for the past few days, so if possible, I would rather get to know you again.”
"You beat me in chess on the first day, so I still owe you a favor. What do you want?" said Li Shutong.
Qing Chen thought about it and said, "Can you play ‘Farewell' again?”
"You don't want to exchange it for your life?" Li Shutong smiled.
"I don't need to, and I can't," said Qing Chen.
"Very well. I like your courage. Then this song is my gift to you, and I still owe you a favor." Li Shutong then let Ye Wan get his harmonica.
This was a song that Qing Chen picked for himself. The calm flowing music eased the tension in the prison a bit.
"Thank you," said Qing Chen.
Then, he went into the cell and waited quietly on the cold bed.
The time trickled past.
It turned from daytime to nighttime.
Qing Chen heard that all the prisoners returned to their cells under the instructions from the broadcast, and soon, the metal cell doors closed. The day ended for most people in Prison 18.
Everything settled down.
The next moment, all the lights in the prison went out, covering the prison in darkness.
Then, Qing Chen's cell door reopened.
In the darkness, someone covered his head in a sack and brought him to an unknown place.
A few minutes later, the two people that were guiding him placed him down and went away.
He heard a door close, and… silence.
Qing Chen lay down in the darkness. He still couldn't tell where he was.
There was only the sound of his breathing and the light of the countdown on his arm, unable to illuminate anything.
The time was slow and heavy.
Qing Chen knew what a normal reaction of a person would be in a sealed dark space.
You don't know where you are and can't talk to anyone. You are only being swallowed by loneliness.
The fear of losing time.
Because losing the sense of time would be the most terrifying thing to a human.
Many people couldn't even stay for 24 hours. There was once an experiment, rewarding 1 million dollars to anyone that could stay in such an environment for five straight days, but no one got the money.
Even with the prize, 99% of the people failed before 72 hours.
But…
Li Shutong would have never thought that Qing Chen never feared loneliness.
After his parents left him, loneliness was all he had left.
Qing Chen soon realized that dehydration was his largest enemy.
Return Countdown: 146:09:02.
The countdown on his arm could help him keep track of the time.
The first day.
Qing Chen slowed his breathing and started watching movies that he had seen before. He first watched "The Shawshank Redemption" and then "Papillon," both classics about faith in desperate situations
These were all movies that he watched and stored in his mind, so there was no need for him to have anything else.
Because of dehydration, he started to become dizzy.
Return Countdown: 122:09:02.
The second day.
Qing Chen took a nap and watched eight more movies.
He lay on the floor with his eyes closed, enjoying the darkness.
His hunger and thirst started attacking his body, but he still didn't react as if he lost all sense.
Return Countdown: 98:09:02.
The third day.
Hunger started burning his consciousness, eroding his spirit.
That day, he watched 12 movies from memory and didn't sleep for a minute.
The lack of water was torturing him the most. His body started healing, and his skin started drying.
The scenes from the movies started glitching as his memory weakened.
His memories started becoming twisted.
Qing Chen couldn't sleep anymore.
Return Countdown: 74:09:02.
The fourth day.
By this day, Qing Chen's gnawing hunger had faded. He just stared at the endless darkness; his mind blank.
It had been a long time since he looked at the time as if it had become meaningless.
However, since the beginning, Qing Chen didn't speak a single word, didn't make a single yell.
He just sat there silently in the darkness.
He didn't calculate how long he slept, but that didn't seem to be important.
Qing Chen used silence to counter the darkness.
……
Prison 18 entered its nighttime. The lights in the fortress dimmed down to a minimum.
Even the drones on the ceiling seemed to have fallen asleep.
Li Shutong sat in the dark reading area with his eyes closed. Lin Xiaoxiao looked at the time, "Boss, it has been four days.”
"Uh-huh," Li Shutong nodded.
In the distance, there was a faint metal sound. Lu Guangyi was cursing while slamming the door, "Li Shutong, where did you bring my boss? I, Lu Guangyi will not forget about this, and nor will the Qing Family!”
After Qing Chen disappeared for the first day, Lu Guangyi already felt that something was wrong. He caused huge chaos in the prison, almost activating another round of Metal Storm.
So, the next four days that Qing Chen was absent, Lu Guangyi was also locked inside a separate room.
This was the first time since the four days that Lu Guangyi calmed down a bit.
Lin Xiaoxiao didn't care about the extra noise and said, "Boss, Qing Chen didn't say a word during the four days and had no sign of breaking down.”
"He's a smart kid. Since the first day, he slowed his breathing to avoid further dehydration, so it's not a surprise that he could last four days," said Li Shutong.
"Even so, it's still rare to see someone lasting four days without making a sound. He seemed not to be tortured but waiting for something to happen. It has been four days since he last had water. If you don't get water soon, he might die," Lin Xiaoxiao said worriedly, "Boss, you like him a lot, so should you just let him off the hook this time?”
Lin Xiaoxiao at first disliked how weak Qing Chen was, but now he was begging his boss on behalf of Qing Chen.
Because he knew exactly how Qing Chen felt right now.
Ye Wan suddenly said, "Boss, you can tell that the darkroom has no effect on the kid.”
Yet, Li Shutong thought about it and said, "Use waterboarding. ”
"Boss, he is extremely dehydrated right now. He would die if you do that," Lin Xiaoxiao was very worried.
Waterboarding entails placing a towel on a persons’ head and repeatedly pouring water on the towel.
It was like a single-way hose. The water would go in and the towel prevents water from coming out. So, one breath would be all you have. Even when holding your breath, you would feel the water being sucked away like a vacuum.
Lin Xiaoxiao knew that even normal people couldn't stand waterboarding, not to mention that Qing Chen hadn't had water for four days.
The moment that waterboarding started, a dehydrated person would want to suck in as much water as possible.
But, because of the towel, the water would not only go into Qing Chen's stomach but also his lungs.
Li Shutong made up his mind.
"He would decide whether or not he wanted to live. He wouldn't be able to walk my path if he didn't see death in front of him," Li Shutong replied quietly.
……
Countdown: 50:09:02.
The fifth day.
The dark room's door was opened, and Qing Chen was carried out by someone.
The person placed him on a chair and covered his face with a towel.
The cold water landed on the towel, blocking away all the oxygen and life.
Qing Chen rested motionlessly on the chair with his mouth tightly closed.
He forced himself to maintain self-control, remaining undestroyed by the temptation to drink.
Next to him, Lin Xiaoxiao and Ye Wan looked at each other. They never thought that even now Qing Chen would maintain consciousness and survive.
Qing Chen could feel that the water was entering through his nose, filling up his entire body.
It was as if he was in a dream.
If he was being held by his hand, and his palms warming.
In the park…
As if the warm ocean water was wrapping his body…
The woman holding his hand said to him, "Xiao Chen, your dad doesn’t want us anymore. He has another woman there.”
"Mom, I want Tanghulu.1aka. sugar Calabash, a popular snack of hawthorn coated in sugar" He, who was still a boy, said to the woman in a small voice.
The woman looked at him for a while and finally said, "Fine, mom will buy you some.”
With her eyes red, the woman bought a stick of Tanghulu for him and said, "Xiao Chen, stay here while I got to the bathroom.”
But she never came back.
Qing Chen waited from noon to dusk.
He cried, but that was useless.
Someone called the park police, but Qing Chen didn't want to leave, because he thought mom would still come back for him.
The sky turned dark, and the woman returned. She hugged him while crying.
Back then, Qing Chen thought that she must have lost her way.
While being waterboarded, Qing Chen's brain suddenly remembered that it wasn't the first time he was left behind, alone.
It seemed that his weird permanent memory ability also started from that day.
But… remembering everything was painful. He could remember every pain that he experienced.
All in full clarity.
Qing Chen could feel that oxygen was leaving his brain. His limbs were twitching, and water was entering his lungs. However, he still didn't move.
He didn't struggle nor beg for forgiveness.
In the dark, someone said, "Come with mom.”
Qing Chen said quietly, "No, mom.”
The voice said again, "Come home with mom.”
Qing Chen became more stubborn, "No, I said no, mom.”
Suddenly, the towel on his face was taken away.
The dimly lit room seemed so bright. He could see that Lin Xiaoxiao was patting his back.
Li Shutong stood there close to him and asked, "Why don't you ask me to stop? I still owe you a favor.”
Qing Chen looked toward the bright light. He coughed out all the water in his throat and said, "Because you don't need a weak person.”
For a second, Li Shutong remembered the first time he played chess with Qing Chen. The teenager was stubborn and brave, like a lone wolf in the wilderness.
He suddenly understood that his person was the person he had been seeking.
Li Shutong asked, "Will you forget everything I've done to you today?”
"No, I can't," said Qing Chen, "But I also don't mind.”
"Very well, I like your honesty," Li Shutong turned toward the door, "Starting tomorrow, I will personally teach you the longest of all shortcuts.”
……
Translator's Notes: The next part/chapter is a somewhat longer author's note. It's entirely unrelated to the plot, but it does reveal a little bit about the author himself and his connections with the story. Read it if you are interested, if not, have a great rest of your day!
1aka. sugar Calabash, a popular snack of hawthorn coated in sugar
