Chapter 40: 40. Decrypt

Uncle Li Dong left with the big cat, only mentioning that he wanted to personally teach Qing Chen, but not what he intended to teach.

However, Lin Xiaoxiao, who knew the boss well, understood that the boss was in a very good mood at the moment.

Very, very good.

The knight’s legacy had almost ended with Uncle Li Dong’s generation. Although he never mentioned it, Lin Xiaoxiao had witnessed him selecting one successor after another, only to see each attempt fail.

Lin Xiaoxiao knew the boss was anxious.

The path was too difficult to walk, so much so that he and Ye Wan couldn’t even begin to tread it.

At this moment, Qing Chen’s prison garb was completely soaked, his hair dripping with water, gasping nonstop.

The agony of water torture can leave psychological scars.

“I really admire you,” Lin Xiaoxiao said. “I don’t know how you managed to endure four days in the tiny dark room. I couldn’t handle it beyond 36 hours, Mother Ye did a bit better, 47 hours.”

“A bit better?” Ye Wan glanced at him.

“A lot better, all right?” Lin Xiaoxiao said impatiently.

Qing Chen gradually caught his breath. “You were also locked up in the tiny dark room?”

“Yeah,” Lin Xiaoxiao nodded. “For ordinary people, it is a form of cruel punishment; for us, it’s just a test, a necessary one. When the boss had us lock you up in the tiny dark room, I knew he had chosen you, but he wouldn’t mind seeing you die if you couldn’t make it. The boss has seen too much life and death; his heart has hardened.”

Lin Xiaoxiao continued smilingly, “But having a hard heart is essential in this era. Don’t blame him for it.”

Ye Wan handed Qing Chen a soft, thick, dark blue towel. “Wipe yourself off. There aren’t many people who can remain as tough as you during water torture. It’s perfectly normal for people to lose control of their bladder and bowels.”

Apparently, this wasn’t the first time Ye Wan had subjected someone to water torture.

And now, he had truly come to accept Qing Chen.

At this time, Lin Xiaoxiao brought in a tray from outside the interrogation room, which contained a bowl of rice, a serving of sweet and sour pork ribs that smelled as good as it looked, and a bowl of white rice porridge.

After some thought, Qing Chen picked up the bowl of porridge. Ye Wan said to Lin Xiaoxiao, “I win, you owe me a thousand bucks.”

Qing Chen was stunned, “You were betting?”

“Yes,” Lin Xiaoxiao said helplessly. “Your blood sugar is extremely low right now, seeing food in front of you, you should really want to take a bite of something sweet. That’s what your body is telling your brain, so I bet you’d first take a bite of the sweet and sour pork ribs.”

Ye Wan said, “But you haven’t eaten for four days. A smart person would choose to drink the porridge first, resisting his body’s instincts, and informing himself what the best choice is. I bet that someone who could endure the tiny dark room and the water torture wouldn’t be foolish enough to eat the ribs first.”

Qing Chen slowly drank the white porridge, feeling his chilling body gradually warming up.

In the past, in the Outer World, even the most painful experiences paled in comparison to what he had been through these past few days.

His peers were still in class, dating, playing games, while he had already embarked on a journey into the unknown.

Even he didn’t know where he would end up.

Suddenly, Lin Xiaoxiao said, “So, you actually didn’t know you were from Qing’s Family when you entered here, and that’s why you tried to play chess with the boss to extricate yourself?”

“Yeah,” Qing Chen nodded, there was no point in hiding it now.

Lin Xiaoxiao asked again, “So essentially, you have no connection to Qing’s Family right now, having never lived with them and feeling no sense of belonging?”

“Yeah,” Qing Chen nodded again.

Lin Xiaoxiao’s eyes lit up. “That’s actually good. I guess the boss thought about this too, which is why he decided to accept you.”

Ye Wan said to Qing Chen, “You can rest assured that only I, Lin Xiaoxiao, and the boss know about your identity from the Outer World. Even Li Dongze won’t be told. We will keep your secret.”

Qing Chen sighed in relief, “Thank you… Who is Li Dongze?”

“Heng Society’s Li Dongze,” Lin Xiaoxiao laughed. “The Heng Society is an organization under our Knight, and the Knight’s power is probably greater than you can imagine. It seems you know nothing about the outside, we need to educate you in the next few days.”

Ye Wan said, “By the way, Lu Guangyi is quite loyal to you. He has been through a lot for you these past few days, nearly coming to blows with the boss.”

“Hmm, thanks for the reminder,” Qing Chen nodded.

“Do you know Liu Dezhu and Huang Jixian, and that guy who likes to curse, Jian Sheng?” Lin Xiaoxiao asked.

“I know Liu Dezhu and Huang Jixian, well, not exactly know them, they were my high school classmates,” Qing Chen explained.

“Wait, were you just an ordinary high school student in the Outer World?” Lin Xiaoxiao was shocked, even though he knew some things about the Outer World, he thought Qing Chen would be quite impressive in that world too.

Given the abilities and willpower that Qing Chen had shown, he shouldn’t have been just an ordinary student.

Qing Chen said, “The Outer World is a relatively peaceful world with no Transcendents, no mechanical limbs, no gang organizations, stable and peaceful. Even being an ordinary person isn’t bad there; there aren’t any life-threatening dangers.”

“I’m really envious,” Lin Xiaoxiao remarked.

Qing Chen asked, “Where is the person who spoke in dialect being held?”

“Just a few rooms away from this interrogation room, why?” Lin Xiaoxiao asked.

“Can I go ask him a few questions?” Qing Chen asked.

“Of course you can,” Lin Xiaoxiao said, smiling cheerfully, “We’re all in this together now, there’s nothing you can’t do. From now on, you can wander around Cell Block 18 as you please.”

After thinking it over, Qing Chen tied the towel he had used during the water torture over his face and asked Lin Xiaoxiao to bring him a reader before heading to the cell where Jian Sheng was held.

The alloy gate opened, and Ye Wan went in first to subdue Jian Sheng.

This fellow Earth townsman was roughly in his thirties,

Jian Sheng began to curse, “I’ll give your child…”

Before he could finish, Qing Chen, silent, wrote three words on the reader, which made the other stop cursing: “Kuan Zhai Alley.”

Jian Sheng paused for a second, “You’re from Earth?”

“I need to ask you a few things,” Qing Chen continued to write, “Aren’t you from Sichuan Province? How did you end up here, and are you in Los Angeles City?”

“I was doing some business in Los Angeles City, and somehow I just ended up here,” seeing that he was talking to a fellow Earthman, Jian Sheng answered more cooperatively.

“What’s your profession?” Qing Chen wrote again on the reader.

“Scalper,” Jian Sheng replied. “Are you also from Los Angeles City?”

However, Qing Chen had no intention of answering his question but turned and walked away.

Only then did Ye Wan let go of Jian Sheng.

Jian Sheng, watching the alloy gate slowly close, suddenly realized that his fellow townsman had no intention of saving him, and he started cursing again.

But Jian Sheng paused to think that something was amiss. Considering that this young man was from Earth, why did he seem to hold such a high position in this world?

The Lin Xiaoxiao who had interrogated him before, and that burly strong man, were both cooperating with him.

Were there already such powerful individuals in the Time Traveler?

Meanwhile, outside the door, Lin Xiaoxiao looked at Qing Chen, first at the towel on his face and then at the reader in his hand.

This young man had just undergone solitary confinement and water torture, yet he still maintained such a cautious demeanor?!