As expected, Aspen had a lot of free time. In addition, he rarely talked to people, so he ended up constantly writing messages to Tian Zhu about the most obscure topics. Tian Zhu followed the topics wryly.
Not that Aspen’s points of view weren’t interesting – they were highly objective, as if from a bystander, and mostly based on logic. He made for an interesting discussion partner.
Contrary to the other, Tian Zhu still had to show himself downstairs at least for a bit. He couldn’t continue chatting like that, and since the phone was highly suspicious, he did not want to take it downstairs either.
He stood up after notifying Aspen and turning ShuShu off. Both cellphones vanished in the drawer, with ShuShu’s being plugged into a loading station since the AI drained a lot of power. He hated waking up only to notice that the phone didn’t have battery and he couldn’t talk to her. With one leg on the floor, he intended to walk forward – when suddenly, his leg gave in.
Tian Zhu slumped down to the floor, half dragging the blanket along and looking at his own leg with confusion. It felt a bit numb, though the feeling in it returned after a couple of seconds.
“Did I sleep in a weird position?”, he mumbled but instantly rejected the thought. He had been awake for too long and already moved around, this wasn’t a case of obstructing the blood flow in his leg for too long.
He massaged his calf for a few seconds before experimentally trying to stand up again. This time it worked.
After a long shower, Tian Zhu dragged himself downstairs. No one was around today, so he merely snatched some breakfast before retreating to his room again.
He relaxed by playing games – although they hardly needed his brain, it wasn’t bad to monotonously concentrate on levelling up a character.
At lunchtime, a maid knocked on the door.
“Yes?”
“Second young master”, the maid softly whispered, not looking at him. She stepped over with a lowered head and placed something on the table, right next to him. “I have brought you lunch.”
Tian Zhu’s lips curled at the oily meat on the plate. “Leave it there.”
The maid’s face creased unhappily at his rudeness, but she did not comment on it and vanished as quietly as she had come.
Tian Zhu sighed. He wasn’t that hungry anyway after having woken up so late, and the meat would be heavy in his stomach. He could go down and get something lighter, but that wasn’t worth the trouble.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
He ate the same as the rest of his family, so the steak was of high quality, as were the vegetables around it. The sauce generally smelled good, but he felt bloated just looking at the huge plate. Not to mention the dessert placed in a separate, small bowl at the side.
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***
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First, he had believed the youth’s good mood to be because of that, but Jing Ci was positioning himself a bit unusually. After watching him for so long, he felt something was a bit off – as if he was hiding something.
But what would he need to hide? There couldn’t be anything inside his cell.
“I’ll go down. Accompany me”, Ming Liang ordered one of the guards standing at his side. The man saluted wordlessly and followed.
Jing Ci hardly reacted to the opening of the door, only turning from his stomach to his back.
“Good morning. Slept well?” Ming Liang walked inside, habitually checking the chain. It looked as sturdy as ever.
The few people he knew who had gone through the surgery were all more than uncomfortable with it, always keeping their hands still, but Jing Ci looked genuinely unconcerned and even waved at him.
“Very.”
“How’s your friend?”
Jing Ci laughed lightly. That he did not reject the word came as a surprise to the professor.
“Tell me a bit about them? You don’t need to give me any hints that would let me find them, but what are they like?” Ming Liang sat down on the foot-end of the bed. He was relaxed, not worried to be so close to Jing Ci.
Jing Ci tolerated him. He knew that. They wouldn’t ever be friends, but they had a relationship of mutual benefit – information for material goods.
“A genius”, Jing Ci said, lowering his tablet to peer at Ming Liang over its edge. “And a very, very tired and exhausted person. Someone who doesn’t quite belong here, either. Maybe if their life had been different… It’s too bad.”
Ming Liang’s eye twitched at Jing Ci’s deliberate avoidal of any word that could indicate gender. He really did not want to give out any information, not even the smallest bit!
…Unless that person did use those pronouns. Hmmm, but would Jing Ci truly give him that hint? He doubted it.
“So it’s someone similar to you?” Although he might not find the mystery-person’s identity, he still was interested in them.
“Similar, but also the opposite”, Jing Ci said and returned his attention to his tablet. “Just as different from everyone else, but rather than destroying what’s annoying them, they’d rather watch themselves get destroyed.”
He paused as if remembering something, then broke out into laughter.
“But I might be colouring off? What a nice thought. Maybe we will become even more similar.”
The older man calmly rubbed the goosebumps on his arm away through the fabric of his sleeve and thoughtfully tilted his head.
Jing Ci did not know what went on outside of his cell, of course. He did not know the scary amount of connections Ming Liang had – all kinds of people in all kinds of positions, some of them responsible for others landing in this prison. If people were supposed to be on death row but landed here, they were sometimes kept alive for twisted purposes. Because someone still wanted to torture them, for example.
A couple of people had seen Jing Ci in passing while visiting for those kinds of reasons.
The price was high.
Jing Ci had a pretty face and lithe body. His laughter and smile were adorable. His skin looked soft and supple, his eyes were bright. Based on appearance, Jing Ci was both harmless and charming.
He himself did not have those hobbies, but he certainly understood why they thought Jing Ci was his toy and tried to buy him. Admittedly, the price was sometimes tempting.
There was no honourable explanation why he did refuse them. Selling Jing Ci would be useful, although he’d have to drug the youth to keep him obedient.
The sole, egotistical reason was that he was fascinated by the young man in front of him. A purely platonic interest for this twisted, doll-like person who lived like an alien on earth. If he sold him, what if he broke? That would be a shame. He still intended to watch him, this pretty little pet.
Now someone had appeared who Jing Ci considered to be similar to himself…
He truly wanted to collect that one as well.
Jing Ci bared his teeth at the expression in Ming Liang’s eyes. He was aware that he was kept here as something like an odd rarity and the moment River would fall into Ming Liang’s eyes, he probably would end in the cell right next to this one.
Laws? What are laws in the face of the rich and powerful? The person who had gotten him here would not hesitate to get a second person. He did not know how Ming Liang and that unknown person were connected, but he was sure there was a connection in some way.
There was no advantage to selling River out to the man in front of him. Especially not since he was certain he would see the other in the dreams again, on the wish of those beings.
He wasn’t planning on letting River join him in this prison. The chance that River would not be able to handle it was too high.
“Anything you want to tell me about the dreams?”, Ming Liang prodded at a different place, giving in.
“Nope.” Jing Ci’s rejection was clear. The dreams were his space, he didn’t want the professor mingling with anything concerning them.
“Anything else you want to say?”
“Can’t we get a tattoo artist to come here?”
“No.”
“Tch.” Jing Ci pulled a face.
“Aren’t you already… embroidering your leg?” The sentence was unnatural on the older man’s tongue, but that was what it was. He was actually embroidering his body.
Jing Ci nodded and pulled up the leg of his pants to show his current progress.
The lower area was beginning to scar a bit, the thin lines visible under the red thread. It wasn’t finished yet.
I wonder how is this going to escalate…
Thank you for the chapter!! ❤️❤️
I just had the thought that River’s family might sell him to the prison— unlikely but still
I’ll be honest
They would, if they knew it existed and they could.