Chapter 11: Interrogation

Crack!

 In a small, dimly lit room, a strong beam of light flashed across Lu Yibei’s face. He drooped his head lifelessly, and his hands were handcuffed to a chair. He may look calm, but he was panicking inside.

A windowless room with metal tables and chairs was there, and the walls were lined with a large, one-way mirror.

The room smelled musty, and dust floated gently under the light rays. A young girl stood behind the light, but only a dark outline of her was visible.

This reminded Yibei of the interrogation room scenes he would see on TV. He thought of the characters who were trying to evade capture by lying their way out of the room before hearing the girl speaking in an indifferent tone.

“Name?”

It was the girl who was stepping on him!

“Hello? I asked you a question.”

“L-Lu Yibei.”

“Age?”

“Eighteen. One month away from nineteen.”

“Tell me about yourself.”

“Huh?”

Lu Yibei was visibly confused. “Wait, I’m not in a psych ward, am I?”

“What are you talking about? This isn’t some stupid game! Do you know what situation you’re in right now? If you don’t cooperate with us, the consequences will be unimaginable!” The girl shouted, taking out her pistol and slamming it on the table.

“Okay! Okay! Jesus…” he panted. “I’m Lu Yibei, a student of the Chinese Language Department at the Faculty of Liberal Arts… at the University of Science and Technology. I know how to cook, and I love cooking Sichuan food… Oh! And I live at No. 162 Mudan Street, but I recently moved to the Jingyi Apartment Complex at Building 3 down Xuefu Road. I had a corneal transplant following a car accident, but I’m mentally sane. My favourite 2D character is Bao Xiaohua. I hate eating.”

“That’s enough; I didn’t ask all that. Do you want me to resort to torture?”

“You asked me to talk about myself!”

He guesses that he was part of a conspiracy; he rejected that senior during the day, and now he was being held hostage. This means he was kidnapped against his will.

That probably means they were after his money.

“O-okay, my account number is 180xxxx5591, and the password is…”

“What are you talking about? I’ll kill you, I swear!” The girl interrupted and shouted.

Not only was he incredibly annoying, but she also found that she would rather deal with urban legends than deal with this person.

“Then, what exactly do you want?” Lu Yibei said weakly. “At least tell me what I should be telling you!”

Lu Yibei had no idea what they were after. Were they after his looks? He thought he was handsome, but certainly not handsome enough to sell his body.

“Tell me,” the girl glanced at the one-way mirror. “Have you encountered anything… strange lately?”

“N,,,” Yibei was about to say no, but the thought of his strangely real dream just now.

The girl stared at him and coaxed him to continue.

“Many. I bought a Bai Xiaohua figurine last month, and they sent me two! Also, I came across this strange rabbit, and he gave me a leaflet and…”

“Stop!” the girl interrupted. “Did this figure hand you the leaflet?”

A slightly stained photo was handed over to him with blotches of dried blood on it. The image on the photo was a side view of a figure wearing a black cloak and a giant rabbit head. Its eyes were like red glass beads that stared straight into your soul.

Lu Yibei felt cold—the person in the photo wasn’t the mascot that handed him the flyers, but the Mr Rabbit that he saw in his dreams!

‘W-what the hell?’

“N-no, listen to me; the killings had nothing to do with me, I swear! He gave me a leaflet, but I didn’t open it! I thought he was weird, so when I got home, I burnt the leaflet to a crisp, and…”

Boom!

The girl slammed the table violently and pointed at him accusingly, “You lied! Never did I say that he killed anyone! You knew he committed murder, but you didn’t bother to call the police.”

“No! I… I-” Lu Yibei felt that he was about to faint.

“What is it? Cat got your tongue?” The girl sneered, picking the gun up from the table. She twirled the gun in her finger, giving Lu Yibei a torturing technique that wasn’t visible to the naked eye.

Lu Yibei had a calm face, however, and she couldn’t help but be confused.

‘He’s… psychologically strong. Whatever it is, I guess I have to pull out the big guns.’

She described torture methods in excruciating detail, and Lu Yibei felt that he was the one being tortured. With every word she uttered, he squirmed in his chair uncomfortably. His heart felt that it was about to stop, and a permanent petrified expression was plastered on his face.

A few minutes passed, and Yibei slumped on the chair, “I-I’m sorry! It’s just that… it was in a dream. I didn’t know that my dreams would be real.”

“Let me… clarify something,” Yibei panted, catching his breath. “If I told the police something bad happened in my dream, wouldn’t they laugh at me?”

“You…” the girl sneered but found that he was right. However, her ego was severely hurt, and she thought she was being too gentle with him.

“Hua, come out for a moment,” a voice could be heard outside.

“Yes, miss,” the girl responded before giving Yibei a nasty look.

Jiangli watched the entire interrogation process behind the mirror before summoning her maid.

“Miss, why did you call me out? Just give me a little more time, and I’ll break him enough so that he can give us more information!” The maid complained.

Jiangli was brushing through a pile of papers in her hand, and she coughed slightly.

“Hua.”

“Yes, mistress?” She tilted her head obediently.

“Are you crazy? Let him go!” Jiangli yelled, glancing at his medical history. “He’s not making any facial expressions, not because he’s hiding something; he literally cannot make a facial expression! If this continues, he might die of shock!”

“So, we’re just… letting him go? “But…” the girl pursed her lips. “He hadn’t explained how he knew Mr Rabbit killed someone!”

Jiangli folded her arms and looked at Yibei behind the mirror.

It seems that he has recovered from his fear. He stretched his neck and faced the mirror.

“Helloooo? Anybody there?”

“Come on, I’m getting bored in here.”

Jiangli frowned. He was petrified just minutes ago, but a false sense of bravery seemed to have possessed him again.

“Mistress?”

“Yes,” Jiangli nodded. “He did see it in a dream. Some people who have the potential to become psychic users travel through dreams that grant them visions. We call them prophets.”

“Then, we should recruit him into the Night Division!” the maid said. “If he joins us, you’ll be able to slack off a bit, right?”

Jiangli glared at the maid, and the maid thought about how painful it was to become a psychic user as she witnessed her mistress going through unbearable pain. “Apologies.”

The process of becoming a psychic user was dangerous.

If you want to become powerful, you must pay the price.

The worst part is that it might not even be fruitful. More than half of potential psychic users die before they can become psychic users.

“Isn’t he being targeted by Mr Rabbit in that case? If we let him go, he’ll be in danger,” the maid interjected.

Jiangli glanced at her knowingly and smirked, “Why do you think I’m letting him go in the first place?”