The metal door silently clicked shut behind her.
Click.
Completely sealing off the outside world.
The office’s main lights were off.
Only a single cold-toned desk lamp above the workstation was on, its beam shooting straight down, landing on the dark gray shirt Lu Shiyan was wearing.
The air pressure in the room was terrifyingly low.
Jiang Nuan could hear her own heartbeat.
Thump, thump, thump.
Pounding against her eardrums, annoyingly loud.
Lu Shiyan heard the door but didn’t look up right away.
His gaze lingered on the screen.
One second, two seconds, three seconds.
This silent, deliberate waiting was more torturous than any direct outburst.
Jiang Nuan swallowed, her throat dry as she forced out a word.
“Captain…”
Lu Shiyan finally raised his eyes. Those deep brown irises calmly fixed on her.
Jiang Nuan opened her mouth.
She had rehearsed her excuse a dozen times in her mind on the way over.
Something about “I just wanted to meet a friend,” or “I was tricked and ran into people from the Revelation Society,” or “I planned to return right after the meeting.” A whole set of logical, airtight reasoning—reasonable, flawless, impenetrable.
But standing there in front of Lu Shiyan, meeting those eyes, every carefully crafted line got stuck in her throat.
Could she really fool him?
But she couldn’t say it directly either.
Yes, I wanted to use this chance to escape your control, to leave Zero Squad?
Was she crazy? Suicidal?
Jiang Nuan forced herself to calm down.
“You must know... I lost some memories.”
She slowed her speech, watching Lu Shiyan’s expression as she chose her words.
She even threw in a polite “you.”
“Sister Zhou said there was a friend outside looking for me.”
Her voice carried a hint of theatrical grievance and helplessness.
“I wanted to recover my memories, so I went with her. I thought it would just be a quick meet, ask a few questions, and come back. I didn’t know they were from the Revelation Society.”
Half-truths were the hardest to crack.
She really did want to recover her memories. She knew Sister Zhou was lying before she even followed her.
She just hid the most crucial motive:
Escape.
Lu Shiyan didn’t interrupt her.
He listened quietly, his eyes void of any ripple.
“Anything else to confess?” he asked, his tone flat.
Jiang Nuan’s heart tensed. She shook her head. “No.”
For credibility, she quickly added, “It was so close yesterday. There were so many of them, and they had powers. Thank goodness... thank goodness Ye Que showed up, or I would’ve been caught, and never made it back.”
She lowered her gaze, her shoulders trembling slightly, putting on a flawless performance of a survivor terrified and deeply shaken.
Lu Shiyan just leaned back in his chair, calmly observing her.
After she fell silent, the air went dead again.
Only the faint whisper of the central AC vent.
He suddenly curled the corner of his mouth into a smile that held no warmth.
Picking up the electronic tablet on his desk, he tapped a couple of times on the screen.
“The emergency alley behind the clinic. Tons of branching paths. Once you enter, tracking becomes nearly impossible.”
Lu Shiyan looked up at her.
“An ideal escape route, wouldn’t you agree?”
Jiang Nuan bit the inside of her lip. “I don’t know. I was just following Sister Zhou…”
Lu Shiyan tossed the tablet onto the desk.
Slap.
“Liar.”
Two words, delivered without inflection.
Jiang Nuan’s whole body tightened.
Lu Shiyan planted his hands on the desk and slowly rose.
He was too tall.
The moment he stood upright, his shadow blocked half the light source. His silhouette loomed darkly, pressing down on her.
“That woman told you the alley had many turns, that no matter how skilled the guy at the entrance, he couldn’t keep up inside.”
Lu Shiyan walked around the desk. His leather shoes hit the cold gray tiles with a dull tap, tap, tap.
“Ye Que heard every word clearly from outside the door.”
Jiang Nuan’s brain went buzz.
Ye Que heard that? From that distance, in the rain? How was that possible?
Powers.
She had forgotten. The people of Zero Squad couldn’t be judged by normal standards.
Lu Shiyan stepped toward her, one step at a time.
“You really did want to recover your memories.”
Each step he took, Jiang Nuan instinctively stepped back.
He stopped in front of her, looking down.
“But more than that, you wanted to use this chance to shake off Ye Que and run from Zero Squad.”
“You wanted to escape.”
Jiang Nuan’s face went pale. She instinctively kept backing up.
Her back hit something.
Not a wall.
She glanced sideways.
In midair, an invisible surface had materialized.
Transparent and hard, like an unseen pane of glass.
A spatial barrier.
She was trapped.
Lu Shiyan stood before her.
Too close.
Close enough for Jiang Nuan to catch the familiar, cold scent of soap on him.
He leaned slightly, raising his left hand and “slapping” it against the barrier beside her ear.
A space formed by his arm, his body, and his power—a custom-built cage.
Jiang Nuan’s breath instantly turned ragged with panic.
She didn’t dare look up. Her eyes stayed fixed on the deep gray shirt button at his chest.
“Jiang Nuan, I gave you a chance to tell the truth.”
His voice dropped low, and the temperature in the room seemed to plummet ten degrees.
“You chose to lie.”
“Do you know what the cost of escape is in an investigation squad?”
Her lashes trembled violently.
“Third Squad of Area A, directly under Zero Squad. Last year, they had a defector.”
“A-level ability user. Combat evaluation ranked top three in the squad.”
“After he was caught back, the policy was to inject Neural Deprivation Serum.”
“Neural... Deprivation?” Her voice uncontrollably repeated the words.
She didn’t know exactly what the serum meant, but her body reacted before her mind—a creeping chill climbing up her spine.
“Mm.” Lu Shiyan didn’t look away from her face.
“Deprive sight.”
“Deprive hearing.”
“Deprive smell.”
Between each word, he left a pause.
Enough time for her to process, enough time for her to feel fear.
“Lastly, amplify the sensitivity of pain nerves by ten times.”
His fingertip lifted and gently brushed her ice-cold, pale cheek.
Jiang Nuan flinched back as if electrocuted.
The touch was too light, almost an illusion.
But right now, in her taut state, even that delicate contact was unbearable.
“Meaning—” He withdrew his hand.
“A breeze brushing against his skin feels like a knife slash.”
Jiang Nuan clenched her teeth to keep from making any pathetic sound.
“He’s still locked up in the underground level one of this base.”
“Living off nutrient drips every day.”
“It’s been a year.”
He paused.
“Do you want to go keep him company?”
Jiang Nuan’s legs started trembling uncontrollably.
Not a subtle tremor she could suppress with willpower, but a spasm from deep inside her knee joints.
She had imagined many punishments.
Lockdown, beatings, complete deprivation of freedom, even electric shocks.
But she had never imagined this.
Blindness, deafness, pain amplified tenfold.
Alive, but worse than dead.
Lu Shiyan looked down at her.
The dim light cast his deep brown eyes in an obscure, unreadable shadow.
There was no anger or mockery in those eyes, only a calm that bordered on cruel scrutiny.
He was waiting.
Waiting for her to completely break.
But she clenched her lower lip and held on, stubbornly enduring.
Lu Shiyan didn't get what he wanted.
"Jiang Nuan."
His tone hardened by half a degree.
"Close your eyes now."
Jiang Nuan was startled.
"Close them."
She slowly closed her eyes, her vision plunging into darkness.
"Now, cover your ears."
Her hands trembled, but she obeyed.
Both hands pressed over her ears, the world fell silent, leaving only the sound of her own blood flowing and her racing heartbeat.
Unable to see.
Unable to hear.
Darkness and silence enveloped her at once.
Only a few seconds passed.
Three seconds? Five?
She couldn’t tell.
But the fear was real, her entire body screaming in alarm.
Jiang Nuan's eyes snapped open, her hands dropping from her ears.
Light returned.
Sound returned.
Lu Shiyan stood right in front of her, completely still.
He had done nothing.
He had only made her experience a few seconds.
A few seconds.
The person on the first basement level had already endured a year.
Jiang Nuan's last psychological defense shattered.
Her long lashes shimmered with a thin layer of tears, her voice trembling faintly.
"I was wrong."
It wasn't entirely an act, but it wasn't entirely genuine either.
She was afraid, down to her bones.
But beneath that layer of real fear, a certain thread of rationality remained taut, soberly recording everything.
She admitted fault because the cost of not doing so at that moment was something she couldn't bear.
Lu Shiyan stared into her eyes, as if searching for verification in that watery sheen.
He looked for a long time.
Then—
The blade that had been hanging high, just when she had braced herself for the worst.
Stopped.
Lu Shiyan straightened up, stepping back half a pace.
His gaze lingered on her face for a moment longer, then he turned and walked back behind his desk, sitting down again.
The cold white light once again illuminated his entire face.
Silence stretched for a long time.
Until Jiang Nuan's breathing finally shifted from violent gasps to trembling steadiness.
"Go back to your dorm."
Lu Shiyan spoke.
His voice had returned to a cold, businesslike indifference, as if the oppressive interrogation moments ago had been nothing but a nightmare.
"The collar will reactivate its location tracking. Without my permission, you are not to step out of the room. Three meals a day will be delivered."
Jiang Nuan's mind went blank for a moment.
That's it?
No basement level one?
No neural stripping agent?
The blade raised high... had simply fallen softly?
A flash of relief at surviving the ordeal barely flickered through her heart before being replaced by a rising chill.
This was no forgiveness.
Lu Shiyan had only used the most brutally real example to show her how strict the rules of the investigation team were, and how miserable the price of betrayal could be.
And then, with his own hands, he broke that rule for her.
He was telling her: Here, I am the rule.
I can send you to hell, or I can pull you back from the edge of the cliff.
The condition is, you must belong to me.
But pushing someone to the edge of a cliff before pulling them back—that was more unsettling than direct punishment.
"Still not leaving?" Lu Shiyan's voice came, flat and calm.
"Leaving!"
Jiang Nuan, as if granted amnesty, ignored the throbbing pain in her calf and practically jogged to the door, yanked it open, and fled.
The door clicked shut behind her.
She leaned against the corridor wall, eyes closed, taking deep, greedy gulps of the circulating air.
Her heart was still pounding wildly in her chest, her palms soaked with cold sweat.
"Still alive?"
A lazy voice drifted from around the corridor corner.
Qinian leaned against the wall, his slightly upturned eyes sizing up her disheveled, survivor-like state.
Jiang Nuan had no energy to respond. She just gave a weak eye roll.
"I'll take you back."
Qinian turned sideways and gestured with his chin toward the end of the corridor.
His tone carried no pressure, just a natural sort of arrogance.
Jiang Nuan had already intended to go back.
The two walked one after another down the quiet corridor.
Qinian deliberately slowed his pace to match her limping, uneven steps.
"You really know how to stir things up, don’t you?"
He spoke without turning around, his voice carrying a lazy, teasing edge.
"We all know. The escape, nearly getting kidnapped by Tianshe Society, and then coming back and holding out on the captain."
He glanced back at her, a scorching glint flickering in those beautiful eyes.
"I thought you were supposed to be smart."
Jiang Nuan shot him a weak glance. "I was just scared out of my mind..."
"Scared out of your mind?"
Qinian suddenly stopped and turned to face her.
The distance between them abruptly narrowed.
He bent down slightly to look her in the eye.
That excessively handsome face wore a faint smile.
"Did you run because you were scared out of your mind, or did you get scared only after you ran?"
The question was far too pointed.
Jiang Nuan pursed her lips and didn’t respond.
Qinian straightened up, the corner of his mouth twitching.
"Next time you want to run," he said, turning to continue walking, his voice dragging with a casual dangerous edge,
"First, think about whether you can outrun us."
...
Jiang Nuan had no idea how she made it back to her dorm.
Slamming the door shut, locking Qinian's infuriating grin outside.
She collapsed completely, flopping onto the soft bed.
Curling up into a ball, she yanked the blanket over herself, wrapping it tightly.
Closing her eyes, her mind was filled with nothing but Lu Shiyan's looming, condescending gaze. The words "neural stripping" were etched onto the back of her eyelids like a brand, impossible to shake.
Too terrifying.
Everyone in Zero Squad was insane, and Lu Shiyan was the tyrant among madmen.
She curled up like that, finally drifting into a hazy sleep.
A knock at the door.
Jiang Nuan woke from her light sleep and glanced at the electronic clock on the bedside table.
3:15 PM.
It wasn't mealtime.
She shuffled in her slippers to the door and opened it.
In the cold white light of the corridor stood a tall, straight figure silhouetted against the glow.
An immaculate white coat, gold-rimmed glasses, a silver medical case in his right hand.
Qi Sui.
He tilted his head, a warm, pleasant smile on his face like a breeze in March.
"I heard our little runaway got hurt?"
His voice was gentle, like melting stream water in spring.
But Jiang Nuan looked at the eyes behind those lenses and felt a chill down her spine.
Qi Sui walked in with the medical case, casually closing the door behind him.
The click of the lock echoed sharply in the quiet room.
"Come on, let me see your calf."
He sat down calmly on the edge of the bed, opened the case, and took out antiseptic wipes and gauze with steady, graceful fingers.
Then he patted his own knee.
Jiang Nuan stood there, not moving.
Qi Sui tilted his head, his smile deepening a notch.
"What's wrong?" he asked softly.
"Afraid of me?"
