A blazing red bracelet glowed around the child's ankle.
"Sorry, Brother Siān—this—" the boy, Xiǎo Zǔ, remembered how those people had fastened the bracelet to his ankle and warned him not to try to pass through the door, that an alarm would sound when he left.
But he had been so overjoyed to see Siān that what happened afterward surprised him so completely he had forgotten about it. Xiǎo Zǔ felt guilty, so he did not dare raise his head to meet Siān's eyes; he explained what had happened in a voice smaller than a mosquito's whisper.
Siān and Lan Qíshēng both listened to the boy with dark expressions.
It was a device used on those detained under the law—meant to prevent them from escaping their homes or prison rooms.
"So they treated Xiǎo Zǔ like a high-risk prisoner, huh?" Siān scoffed loudly, his lips twisting into a manic laugh.
