The armored vehicle came to a stop.
Jiang Nuan stepped out and looked up.
A towering black building stood before her.
The glass curtain wall swallowed the reflections of every streetlamp, while the top of the building vanished into the clouds, its end nowhere in sight.
Jiang Nuan was led into the lobby and taken down in an elevator.
When the number on the elevator panel changed to B2, the doors opened.
The corridor stretched a long way ahead. Fluorescent tubes were embedded in the ceiling, and every door was marked with a number.
The layout was similar to that of the base.
As they passed the first room, Jiang Nuan caught sight of the observation window out of the corner of her eye.
There was someone inside.
A man was strapped to a metal chair, his head hanging forward, his chin resting against his chest as if he had lost consciousness. His exposed arms were covered in a dense pattern of needle marks, and his skin had taken on an unnatural grayish-white hue.
The second room was even worse.
The person in the interrogation chair no longer had anything resembling a human posture. His entire body sagged limply against the metal chair, as if his bones had been removed, while a half-dried streak of blood tugged at the corner of his mouth.
The third door stood wide open.
Two uniformed personnel were dragging a barely breathing man outside.
His feet scraped uselessly against the polished floor, leaving two drag marks behind him. His messy hair veiled his face.
“You monsters from the Restricted Zone… Don’t even think about—”
Before he could finish, one of the uniformed men raised an electric baton and drove it hard into the back of his neck.
Electricity crackled. The man’s entire body convulsed violently a few times before going completely limp. He was then dragged toward the darkness at the far end of the corridor.
Jiang Nuan’s hands and feet went cold, and the edge of the handcuffs dug painfully into her wrist bones.
That desperate roar reverberated in her mind.
A sudden possibility flashed through her thoughts.
The Restricted Zone. Monsters…
Could these people, tortured until they no longer resembled human beings, be the people from E District who had been swallowed by the Restricted Zone?
“Feel sorry for them?” Commander Gao stopped and followed Jiang Nuan’s gaze.
His tone was filled with disgust. “These people are all heretics contaminated by abnormal energy over the years. Their brains have already been damaged. They spout nonsense all day, imagining that they come from another world. They’re no longer people of our world. Keeping them alive would only create a liability.”
Jiang Nuan’s heart lurched.
Contamination by abnormal energy? Heretics?
Her mind raced. The world formed by this Restricted Zone was slowly unfolding before her eyes.
To the people of Whale Harbor City who had been pulled into the Restricted Zone, this place was a forbidden area inhabited entirely by monsters.
But to the “natives” of the Restricted Zone, they were the normal ones. The people from E District who had been drawn inside, on the other hand, had become “monsters” and “heretics” contaminated by abnormal energy.
A reversal of perception.
This was a world with a complete logical loop—one that could even rationalize its own existence.
Commander Gao turned his head and looked Jiang Nuan up and down. “There’s no record of your identity in the terminal, so you’ve automatically been classified as a highly suspicious individual. You’re wanted at Level C.”
There was a trace of genuine puzzlement in his eyes.
“However… Governor Lu intends to interrogate you personally.”
He gave a cold snort and said no more. “It’s Governor Lu’s order. Who knows what he’s thinking?”
Governor Lu.
She had heard that title in the alley earlier.
A bastard son who had only been acknowledged a year ago. In the short span of one year, he had repeatedly distinguished himself and been exceptionally promoted to governor, taking control of all matters in Whale Harbor City.
Who was he, exactly…? Could it be him?
As her thoughts churned, they reached the very end of the corridor.
There was only one door here, with no observation window whatsoever. An oppressive silence hung in the air.
Two fully armed personnel stood outside. When they saw Commander Gao, they immediately saluted. They then turned around, entered a password, and pulled open the heavy door.
“Go in.” Commander Gao lifted his chin slightly.
Jiang Nuan stepped inside.
The interrogation room was several degrees colder than outside. In the center of the room stood a cold metal interrogation chair, radiating a suffocating sense of oppression.
In the shadows directly in front of the chair stood a man.
His back was to the door as he looked through a paper file spread across the table.
He wore a black formal uniform. The broad line of his shoulders and tightly cinched waist outlined a powerful silhouette that exuded an overwhelming sense of pressure.
One hand hung casually at his side. The fingers of that hand, enclosed in a black leather glove, were idly toying with a black interrogation whip.
Jiang Nuan’s breathing stopped for half a beat.
That back.
A certain name nearly surged to her lips, but she bit down hard and swallowed it back.
At that moment, the man stopped playing with the whip and slowly turned around.
It was a face Jiang Nuan knew better than any other. Deep-set brows, a straight, prominent nose.
But the look he gave Jiang Nuan was utterly unfamiliar. There was only the cold indifference one reserved for a criminal.
Jiang Nuan’s heart sank.
“Governor.” Commander Gao stepped forward and bowed respectfully. “The prisoner has been brought in.”
Governor Lu nodded. His voice was low and steady, the same tone he had used when issuing orders in her memories.
“Leave her to me.”
“Yes.”
Commander Gao did not hesitate. He withdrew with the two female guards.
The door closed behind them.
Only the two of them remained in the interrogation room.
Lu Shiyan said nothing. He simply stared at Jiang Nuan with a dark, unreadable gaze.
Jiang Nuan’s thoughts raced.
The man standing before her had Lu Shiyan’s face, Lu Shiyan’s voice, and Lu Shiyan’s presence.
But this was the Restricted Zone—the bizarre Restricted Zone where people could spend an entire lifetime.
At present, there were only two possibilities.
Either he was an illusion created by the Restricted Zone, a monster wearing Lu Shiyan’s skin.
Or… this was the real Lu Shiyan. He had spent even longer inside this place, where time flowed differently, and had used his abilities to understand the situation. He might even have climbed all the way to the position of governor.
But he was pretending not to know her.
Perhaps he was being controlled. Perhaps he had some other plan.
Either way, making small talk or probing him now would be the stupidest thing she could do.
If the enemy did not move, neither would she.
Jiang Nuan lowered her eyes, concealing her emotions, and obediently played the part of a wanted criminal who had been captured and was on guard.
After a brief silence, the sound of boots striking the floor rang out.
He was approaching.
The interrogation whip was casually placed on the table beside them with a soft click.
Then his hand reached toward her.
Jiang Nuan’s body tensed instinctively, and she took half a step back.
The man’s movement did not pause. His large hand reached directly toward her lower back.
Their bodies inevitably drew close. His warmth seeped through the fabric, and the fingers encased in a black leather glove touched her wrist.
A soft click followed.
The pressure around her wrists disappeared.
The handcuffs were tossed onto the nearby table, where they struck the surface with a sharp clatter.
Jiang Nuan rubbed the red marks around her wrists and had just begun to breathe more easily when—
“Sit down.”
The man’s voice sounded above her head, carrying a commanding tone.
Jiang Nuan raised her head and met his emotionless eyes.
The only place to sit in the room was the cold metal chair in the center, complete with locking restraints.
Was she about to be strapped into it and interrogated like the people in the corridor?
Before she could finish the thought, a hand pressed down on her shoulder.
The force was not particularly rough, but she could not break free.
She was forced down into the interrogation chair.
The metal seat was so cold that she couldn’t help flinching, even through her clothes.
The man leaned in, his tall frame nearly engulfing her in shadow. Without a flicker of emotion, he fastened the restraint across the arm of the chair.
Jiang Nuan stared fixedly at the face so close to hers, trying to find a crack in his expression.
When he secured the restraint around her right wrist, his fingers seemed to brush casually over the skin on the inside of her wrist.
That was where the tracking chip he had personally injected into her was embedded.
His rough fingertips were warm as they pressed lightly over the chip.
Jiang Nuan’s heartbeat skipped for a moment.
It was him.
Her mind reached the conclusion almost instantly, then issued a command: Jiang Nuan, stay calm. Don’t move. Keep your expression steady.
But the spot beneath her skin where the chip was implanted seemed to throb violently.
Lu Shiyan showed no sign of pausing. He fastened both her feet as well, locking them tightly to the legs of the chair.
When he was finished, he straightened and adjusted the edge of his gloves.
Looking down at Jiang Nuan, who was now completely restrained in the interrogation chair, he said, “You’d better behave. There’s more than one pair of eyes watching you here.”
Jiang Nuan glanced toward the corner of his eye. There, a red dot nearly indistinguishable from the darkness blinked at regular intervals.
She understood his meaning at once.
This interrogation room was under surveillance by an even higher authority. Even he, the governor, was not free to do as he pleased.
She met Lu Shiyan’s gaze without speaking, then gave an almost imperceptible blink.
I understand.
Lu Shiyan straightened and stepped back, his face once again settling into icy indifference.
Only when he turned did the black leather-gloved hand at his side curl ever so slightly.
As if he were restraining something.
“Now,” his voice came from the shadows, “let’s talk about where you came from.”
