He stood up, allowing them to handcuff him without resistance, only turning back to look for her. She was standing in a corner of the living room, talking to a police officer, her gaze fixed on the wall, avoiding his eyes.
At the police station, Meng Qing only repeated that he was forced and that he was still a minor. The police asked him to confess all the details about his accomplices, offering a chance to make amends. Meng Qing said he needed to think about it. The interrogating officer scoffed, asking if he was still talking about loyalty at this point. He remained silent.
He wasn’t loyal; he knew that as soon as he was arrested, the Spider would quickly find out where he was, and this small-town detention center probably couldn’t stop them.
As they were transferring him to the provincial headquarters, the police car was hijacked. He was taken to a small room where a man in black was waiting for him.
He remained silent. The man in black asked, “Did you talk?”
Meng Qing shook his head.
The man in black smiled, “Good.” He stood up and said casually, “This is just a punishment for your escape.”
It was still hunger, but this time not to coerce him, but purely as punishment. Only water was provided each day.
From the second day, he no longer felt hunger, only stomach pain, probably because there was nothing left to digest.
Someone would come to beat him every day. The man in black deliberately found the fat guy who had the worst relationship with him. That guy was simple-minded and ruthless, delivering a full hundred lashes without mercy.
He didn’t have the strength to avoid the blows, just closing his eyes. His indifferent attitude only made the fat guy more furious, striking the most painful spots. Only because the man in black had strictly warned the fat guy not to completely disable him did he avoid targeting his vital areas.
Maybe death would be better, he suddenly thought while being whipped.
There was no bed in the room; he sat on the cold floor, back against the wall corner. He had carefully examined the room on the first day of his confinement.
Wanting to die wasn’t actually that easy. He wanted to laugh, but his face was injured, and laughing would hurt more.
The fat guy came in as usual with his whip. Meng Qing asked, “Fat guy, do you know why that girl suddenly stopped talking to you?”
The fat guy looked at him suspiciously, “Why?”
Meng Qing laughed, which pulled at his facial wounds, making him hiss.
The fat guy approached, “Did you do something?”
Meng Qing kept laughing.
The fat guy grabbed his neck, squeezing tightly, “Are you going to talk?!”
Meng Qing’s face turned purple, but he continued laughing as if remembering something funny. Suffocation gradually blurred his vision.
But the fat guy suddenly released his neck, “Hmph,” and roughly pushed him to the ground: “You want to die? The boss won’t let me kill you, or I’d strangle you!”
Meng Qing hunched on the ground, gasping. Then the whip fell again.
He endured until the fat guy, breathing heavily, stopped and gruffly said, “Want to die?
Just wait to be beaten every day!” He put down the whip and left a water bottle beside him – a plastic bottle that couldn’t be broken for suicide. The door closed. Meng Qing lay on the ground for a while to recover. Then he slowly turned over, lying on his back and raising the hand he’d been lying on, revealing a trembling folding knife in his palm.
The fat guy indeed still liked to keep a knife in his left jacket pocket.
He bit the knife handle, pulling out the blade. Just this action made his arm weak, so he rested again before raising the knife to cut his left wrist.
After three days of starvation, his hand was weak, unable to cut deeply. He made several uneven cuts at the wrist before his exhausted hand trembled and could no longer hold the knife, so he set it on his leg to rest.
When he felt he had some strength, he picked up the knife to cut his wrist again.
When you’re completely focused on doing something, like wholeheartedly trying to die, you become entirely self-absorbed. So Meng Qing didn’t notice the environment had changed.
“Holy shit, so much blood! My first time…”
When Meng Qing heard the voice, more precisely a curse, he noticed the ground was no longer a gray cement floor but a snow-white surface. Slowly raising his head, he found himself in a pure white room.
Though there were no lamps or windows, the room was very bright, with light seemingly emanating from the walls, floor, and ceiling.
Meng Qing lay in the corner, able to see the entire room. The room was completely enclosed, and besides him, there was no one else. So, it was still a cage, just more aesthetically pleasing.
He lowered his head and continued cutting his wrist.
The voice outside the white room spoke again: “I say, can’t you stop for a moment and ask who I am?”
Meng Qing does not care about him; he completely does not care who is speaking to him. Whether he was transferred from his foster parents to the black-clothed man or to this white room, it makes no difference. Those who want to keep him only think he can be used. In a world where even your biological mother would sell you out, what is there left to cherish?
He no longer wants to be used.
The knife in his hand disappeared, and a young man appeared before him, slightly older… perhaps. Blood loss has blurred his vision.
Meng Qing thinks he is probably hallucinating because he is about to die.
The young man crouches in front of him, examining his wounds, then applies something like a bandage and takes out a bean-sized object, pressing it firmly on his arm.
Meng Qing has no strength to struggle, can only let him treat his wounds, and listen to his lecture: “It’s very impolite not to respond when someone speaks to you.”
Meng Qing weakly says: “No matter what you want me to do, I won’t help you.”
The young man looks at him, “First, heal your wounds.” As he stands up, he mutters under his breath: “After the internship, I’ll change departments… submit the application tomorrow…”
Later, when Meng Qing talks to Lin Bai about this first meeting, Lin Bai sighs: “On my first day of internship, you were the first person I encountered. If I hadn’t taken care of this stubborn guy, I would have changed departments after my internship was over, and wouldn’t have ended up working 24/7 every week! You were the first executor I found, and we’ve been working together ever since… It’s strange how fate works.”
Meng Qing scoffs: “This is pure misfortune.”
Lin Bai says: “I think so too!”
Meng Qing: “Can’t you have an opinion?”
Lin Bai: “Isn’t being easygoing my greatest strength?”
Chapter 149: Lin Bai’s Disappearance (1)
After completing the imperial throne task, Yu Yi and Meng Qing return to the white room where she once lived. Although she has settled in her own world, executors sometimes need to use the white room to store items, so the room is still reserved for her as long as she remains an executor.
The Operations Department has many action groups, and Lin Bai is one of the group leaders. The group leader temporarily taking over Lin Bai’s subordinate executors is called Gao Jian Yuan. Meng Qing calls Gao Jian Yuan and quickly receives a response.
Gao Jian Yuan says: “You’re Meng Qing, right?
The task reward has been transferred to you and your partner’s account. Is there a problem?”
Meng Qing asks: “It’s not about the task. Lin Bai and I are good friends. I want to know the specific details of his disappearance.”
Gao Jian Yuan thinks and slowly says: “Specific details… The bureau has dedicated investigators. I’m not very clear. I don’t know the exact time of Lin Bai’s disappearance, but it won’t be longer than five days.”
The case of Lin Bai’s disappearance is under investigation.
