My reaction time slowed, and it took me a long time to realize: "They...will be caught?"
"Yeah, he'll be caught. Plus with Ajie's identity, there's been a lot of chaos out there lately."
"But they...will also tell you..."
"No. They don't even know that I was the one who wiped out Class L. From Xu Tuo's perspective, he'll just feel like he suddenly can't contact me. I know him and Xiaojie, they won't tell anyone about me even if they get caught."
"…How strange…"
"What?"
"Strange... Are you... actually afraid of being implicated?" Like a seed finally breaking through the dark soil, my sense of contradictions has returned. "Why are you afraid of being told? You clearly have the protection of Brook..."
These one in ten million people who control the world can do whatever they want anywhere.
So, with such a protector, why would Xia Mo be afraid of being implicated? He should be completely unconcerned and say something like, "It doesn't matter even if Xu Tuo gives it up."
"Xueming, you're too sensitive to people's reactions. But I think I know why Xu Tuo likes you so much... Xu Tuo is actually a very closed-off child, much more so than you. He's very sensible and never tells others what he needs, but he likes others to take the initiative to guess what he's thinking."
I was left here again. Now, two hours and two days made no difference to me. A recording played continuously on the radio, heavily garbled. It was an old man explaining the nature of human behavior in English—the tape Li Fen had left behind, the one Xia Mo had told me about.
A person who is deprived of his senses will absorb any information you give him like a sponge absorbs water.
I warned myself of this, but it didn't stop my rationality from being eroded. What was even more terrifying was that I had thought I had been locked up here for nearly two months, but there were some small signs that I hadn't been here at all. In fact, I had only been here for less than a month.
I wasn't as calm as I thought I was - my sense of time had completely collapsed a few days ago.
And Xia Mo stayed here for two years.
A terrifying suspicion arose spontaneously - could there be the real body of Xia Mo here? Maybe he had gone mad and died a long time ago, and the one outside was just an illusion.
After countless broken dreams, I woke up again. The glaring light made it impossible for my eyes, accustomed to darkness, to open them. The lights were on, dimmed, and there was someone next to me.
——It's Xia Mo.
He was sleeping soundly beside me. I took the opportunity to check the screen on his watch. It was three in the morning.
After a moment of daze, I suddenly realized this was a good opportunity to escape. Xia Mo's phone was in his coat pocket, and there might also be the key to the iron gate in there...
I gently removed the CD player. It was heavy, like a rock. Xia Mo's sleeping face was defenseless. Even if I didn't find the key in his pocket, I could still use him as a hostage and threaten him to open the door through the camera...
I raised the machine high, ready to drop it.
At this moment, he twitched violently. Then, he began to talk incoherently in his sleep: "Don't... don't hit me anymore... I won't leave... save me..."
This scared me so much that I almost dropped the machine in my hand - he was having a nightmare, and his hands were pushing around in the air, touching my body; this woke him up slightly.
——There's nothing I can do!
I smashed the machine down without hesitation. The sharp metal corner hit his ear. Xia Mo woke up in shock and rolled off the iron bed. The blood from the wound immediately stained the sheets and the floor red.
Sitting on the ground, he protected his abdomen and smiled at me.
I didn't understand at the time—or I didn't have time to understand the meaning of that smile. Even though his head was injured, the first thing he protected was his abdomen.
The machine hit him on the head again, and he fell to the ground, but he still hadn't lost consciousness, just looking at me. Before this, the only person I had actually killed was Ji Yuyi, because he wanted to kill me, and I had no choice.
But now, I really couldn't lift the machine anymore. The kind of scenes in TV dramas where one hit of a stick could knock someone unconscious rarely happened in real life. Two or three hits wouldn't work either. Unless the force was incredibly strong, it would take at least a dozen hits for the person to fall unconscious.
"What's wrong..." he asked, "Can't you do it?"
I dropped the machine. Even if Xia Mo was about to attack me with a knife, it would be fine, but he did nothing, just sitting there waiting for me to attack him.
Seeing that I didn't move, he slowly stood up, holding his abdomen. I reached out and pulled him, touching his abdomen.
"You felt it?" Seeing my stunned look, he smiled and grabbed my hand, letting it rest against his abdomen. "I can't hide it any longer... I only see him a few times a year now, and at this age... It's hard to believe. When I discovered this six months ago, I thought I was dreaming."
He went to the sink to rinse the blood off his head, then sat down to rest for a moment. He laughed at my impulsiveness and pulled a miniature pistol from his coat: "Actually, I have this—why would you hit me with a machine?"
"Reloaded?"
"you guess."
"What if I just killed you?"
"There's nothing I can do. No one knows of its existence except you." He lit another cigarette. The cigarette Xia Mo smoked tasted strange, probably a special tobacco.
My chaotic mind was sobered up by the adrenaline rush I had just experienced. I asked, "Is smoking okay?"
"Nicotine-free. You want one?"
I took the cigarette he lit, took a puff, and couldn't stop coughing.
"Actually, if you had killed me just now... maybe he would have immediately made you my replacement. It's a shame you didn't." He took the cigarette from my hand and puffed away again. I can understand his addiction to it. If I'd been locked up for two years after something like this, it would probably be more than just smoking. "But he's interested in you... Hehe, don't worry. It's a relatively safe interest for now."
Brooke will be coming over to check on me in the next few days.
It was hard for me to imagine the relationship between these two people. In a normal situation, Xia Mo should be nothing to him. He was the kind of person who controlled a fraction of the power running the world. As long as he wanted to find someone, there would be people flocking to him, willing to obey his orders.
But he could actually find time to take a flight of more than ten hours to travel between several countries and China - the place where I was imprisoned was definitely not the bustling city center - so he had to take a few more hours' drive to this remote place of imprisonment to see Xia Mo's "educational results" on me.
He probably spent more time with Xia Mo than with anyone else.
A few days later, I heard the sound of the iron door being opened.
"Is it okay not to bring a bodyguard?" Xia Mo asked, "He's not very well behaved yet."
They both walked toward me. I suddenly realized that my way of observing the world was changing—in these two people, I could clearly sense the aggression coming from the old man. My "sense of smell" seemed to have sharpened.
"I can handle him."
"Is it really okay?"
"I don't like other people coming into this room."
Xia Mo said nothing, closing the iron gate behind him. He gave me that smile again. This man has a magical aura. When he smiles at you, even if he's pointing a gun at you, you won't feel he's aggressive.
Being around someone who had no aggressive temperament, Brooke felt dangerous all over.
He stared at me for nearly a minute, observing something that pleased him.
"I like this feeling...it's like seeing you here at that time." He stretched out his hand to me. I wanted to avoid him, and the movement revealed the thing entangled in the blanket - it was Xia Mo's coat, which he didn't take away last time.
Brook was stunned for a moment, then he picked it up: "I remember this is yours-"
He turned around and saw the black muzzle of a gun pointed at him. Xia Mo still had that smile on his face, and at that moment, for the first time, I felt that this smile was beautiful and eerie.
"Pah."
The muzzle moved, and what ejected from it was not a bullet - it was just a toy gun used for pranks, and red glitter and streamers flew in the air.
But I had already taken out the miniature pistol from the pocket of the coat that Brooke was holding, Xia Mo's coat. Without any hesitation, I aimed at the old man and pulled the trigger.
Deafening gunshots.
The recoil of the miniature pistol sent it flying from my hand. A cloud of blood briefly dissipated from Brook's head, falling to the ground along with the red glitter.
Why?
I didn't even realize it myself - but the moment Xia Mo fired the toy gun, a threatening feeling like a huge wave came from Brook's body, madly stimulating my "sense of smell" which was already extremely sensitive.
I held the gun and pointed it at Xia Mo again. But he just squatted there to check on Brooke's condition, humming a song softly, not caring about the gun in my hand at all.
The trigger cannot be pulled.
"You've been trained," he said. "Unless the other party shows enough aggression, you can't attack him."
The people outside heard the gunshots and were trying to open the iron gate. But they didn't have the key. The door was locked from both sides, and two keys were required to enter or exit freely from the inside or outside.
"...Why would you do this? If you wanted to kill him, you would have had plenty of opportunities..."
"Haven't you noticed? People like him always have bodyguards around them. He only separates from those people when he comes in. He doesn't think we here will attack him at all."
"—Then do it yourself! Why are you keeping me locked up here?!"
"Yes, that's what I want!" He stepped over the corpses on the ground and rushed over to hug me. "I have to take you away like this - hahahaha... Xueming, you're amazing now! You have a conditioned reflex to hunt down those who are dangerous. It's amazing... I was right! Your nature is much better than mine. You will attack, and you will fight back no matter how desperate you are. Unlike me... I will just wait there to die..."
His tone was almost frantic, and I couldn't comprehend the complete message from his fragmented speech. The people outside began to bang on the door, but it was useless. This kind of armored door can only be forced open by blasting.
"We have to go. Come with me, Xueming." He looked at me with a look I couldn't refuse. "Let's go together... erase that world."
"'That world'?"
"Well, a world made up of hurt, sharpness, and terror. I want this child to live in a world without danger." He said, "Whether it's Brook or Xu Tuo, they all need to be wiped out! This time I will protect my child well and won't let anyone hurt it!"
"It has nothing to do with me if you kill 100 million people, so why should you include Xu Tuo? He will only protect you at all costs."
"It's not about whether he can protect us, but whether he can hurt others. I've been planning this since I found out I was pregnant six months ago. Xueming, I know you're sad, but behind every right thing comes pain. Together, we can penetrate anywhere. I like that you're in the middle of two worlds, and you can fit into either... Don't you want to go with me? Xueming, can you still leave me?"
My half-collapsed spirit can only be supported by him. Even if he tells me those crazy plans now, I don't want him to leave me.
"I—" I held my head and breathed deeply. He held me, letting me relax. "…But…how are we going to get out?"
"We have our own channel..."
He came to the head of the bed and dragged the body away. I noticed that the blood did not spread in a regular pattern, but seeped down along the concrete floor - there was a gap there, but it was not conspicuous on the floor with countless scratches.
"--It took some time, but I asked someone to dig a tunnel from the side." He dug his fingers into the gap and pried it open, revealing a narrow black entrance. "In a sense, the simplest method is the most unexpected."
However, at this moment, it suddenly became quiet outside.
Usually silence is a precursor to a storm, so I stopped in my tracks – would there really be an explosion next?
Then, without warning, screams came from outside. It was clear that a fight was going on outside, but it was unclear who was fighting whom.
"Xue Ming, that's none of our business," Xia Mo urged me, "We should go."
Suddenly, the screams stopped. It was completely quiet outside.
I took a few steps toward the door in confusion. The delivery window on the door was opened from the outside, and an incredibly familiar voice came in—
"Are you in there, little Xueming?"