In the short span of a month and a half, Pei Yan, who gained new abilities, had fantasized countless times about appearing before the public like a hero. Never did he expect to end up like this.
Looking around at the special prison cell made entirely of tempered glass, even the floor, and then at the thick wooden chair beneath him, with his hands and feet bound by leather and plastic straps containing no metal.
Realizing that he couldn't use his abilities from the very start, it seemed the other side had come prepared.
As Pei Yan was filled with anxiety, the glare from a strengthened light abruptly pierced his eyes, interrupting his thoughts, and the grating sound of a chair dragging against the glass floor drifted over.
Squinting, he saw two young officers in police uniforms carrying a wooden table from outside the glass room and placing it in front of him.
Behind the two, a tall middle-aged man in plain clothes dragged two wooden chairs to the table, placing them down while slamming a folder on the table, and plopped into a seat. He then took out a bag of shelled peanuts from his pocket and casually began to shell and eat them.
The female officer among the two took her seat beside the tall middle-aged man, pulled out a stack of papers from a drawer on the table, and held a pen ready in her hand without further movement, while the remaining officer stood at attention with hands behind his back.
Silence, long silence filled the room, broken only by the breathing of the four and the constant sound of the man shelling and eating peanuts.
No one knew how long passed. Just as Pei Yan, weighed by guilty thoughts, was about to crack under the oppressive atmosphere and speak, the middle-aged man pushed aside the peanut shells, picked up the folder, looked up at Pei Yan, and barked coldly, "Speak up, what brings you here?"
"Um, could you lower the brightness of the lights?" Pei Yan, blinded by the intense light, begged.
The middle-aged man said nothing, just waved his hand, and the harsh light from outside the room gradually softened. "Now speak!"
"I don't know what to say, and who exactly are you people? On what grounds did you arrest me? Do you have a warrant? I didn't see anything before you blacked me out and brought me here. This is illegal detention! I want a lawyer! I want to see my parents!" Pei Yan boldly probed, still hoping for a chance.
Listening to him, the middle-aged man tugged at the uniform of the recording female officer beside him, glaring at Pei Yan reproachfully, "Have you seen this police uniform and still don't understand who we are? Would we arrest you for nothing? Do I have to spell it out for you?"
"How would I know if you're impersonating police? There are lots of fake cops around nowadays, and I've never seen a cop eating peanuts while interrogating." Pei Yan muttered under his breath.
The middle-aged man, amused by Pei Yan's remark, laughed and said, "There are many things you haven't seen. Even if I showed you my badge, you'd claim you can't tell the authenticity. Fine, let me convince you thoroughly once and for all." Saying this, he clapped his hands.
Suddenly, blinding lights illuminated the entire glass room. As Pei Yan's eyes adjusted to the lights, he was shocked by the scene and finally saw clearly where he was.
Inside a huge dome warehouse, all the glass windows on the walls were draped with black cloth. Surrounding the central glass room where Pei Yan was held were rows of police armored vehicles. In front of these vehicles stood lines of fully armed SWAT officers.
It's over, it's over, it's over! Things have escalated! I didn't even do anything, how did it become such a big deal!
Sweat streamed down Pei Yan's forehead seeing this scene, his mind already panicked and unable to stop overthinking.
Outside the glass room, in a room at the corner of the warehouse, three men and two women gazed at the monitor showing Pei Yan's changing expressions, and one woman chuckled, "Oh my, Old Hu, was all this necessary? Borrowing equipment and uniforms from the police force for our people, creating such a big show, he's just a kid and now look, he's terrified."
"Xiaogao, this is the higher-ups' directive. The bureau takes his abilities very seriously, and given his rebellious age, if we can intimidate him at once, all the better. He's committed minor infractions now, so it's crucial he understands the importance of law and rules so he can pull back from the brink. Understanding that having abilities doesn't mean he can do as he pleases, makes him much easier to manage once we recruit him." An elder next to the woman said languidly, blowing over a cup of tea.
The woman, addressed as Xiaogao, nodded thoughtfully and continued watching the screen.
Inside the glass room, Old Hu saw Pei Yan sitting in the chair, sweating profusely and keeping silent, knowing the initial intimidation had taken effect. He waved his hand again, signaling to turn off all lights except those needed for visibility, gently flipping through the folder. He said in a deep voice, "Pei Yan, 18 years old, Han nationality, from Harbin, parents are independent restaurateurs, has an elder sister Pei Jin currently working in Shanghai, just admitted to Jilin Animation Institute, starting her first year after the vacation. Apart from being reprimanded for a fight in high school, no other bad conduct. This is of course regarding your life before the college entrance exams. As for the events in the past one and a half months, do I need to elaborate?"
Pei Yan raised his head, bewildered, asking, "How do you know all this about me?"
"Never mind how we know; stop beating around the bush. Just tell us what you've done with your new ability during this period and when you discovered you had it!" Old Hu cut straight to the chase.
"From the beginning?" Seeing that they already had the details, Pei Yan licked his dry lips and asked miserably.
"From the beginning!"
Pei Yan shook his head dejectedly, exhaling deeply, "About two months ago, I don't know how I got this ability. Officer, do you think this could be some sort of Spiritual Qi revival?"
The female officer beside the middle-aged man rolled her eyes, paused her note-taking, and scolded in a slightly husky, magnetic voice, "Don't digress, confess honestly! Why are you so talkative?!"
"Oh, I was woken up by my alarm clock that day, instinctively reached to turn it off, and then, you know what? The clock got absorbed into my body, scared the hell out of me! I thought it was a dream, so I ran to the bathroom to wash my face and clear my head, and then the bathroom faucet got absorbed too, water gushing everywhere! My mom spent half the day cleaning that up."
Seeing Pei Yan shaking his head while narrating, Old Hu exasperatedly put a hand on his forehead, reaching out to interrupt, "Skip the useless adjectives, just state what happened. Didn't your family notice your abilities with all these incidents?"
Pei Yan shrugged and shook his head, "No, I lied and said the faucet suddenly burst, and my dad couldn't find any remains in the bathroom. He argued with the contractor over it for half a day, and thinking back now, I feel guilty about it."
Seeing Old Hu's imminent angry countenance, Pei Yan hurriedly continued, "Then, I wanted to check the internet to see what was happening to me. But as soon as I picked up the tablet, it got absorbed into my body too. I tried to pull it out but couldn't, instead it was rapidly assimilated! Officer, I'm terrified too! All I worry about is getting metal poisoning and dying!"
Meanwhile, in the monitoring room, Xiaogao leaned against a chair and turned to ask, "Wenlin, do we have anyone quite like this kid?"
Wenlin, sitting on the window sill of the monitoring room and smoking, exhaled a ring of smoke, pondered for a while, then shook his head, "No, ever since we first detected his energy release, the organization noticed that his source is fundamentally different from all of ours, maybe he is indeed the truest meaning of superhuman ability."