White Li was about to pull the iron ring down when the door opened first.
‘Strange. Aren’t solitary confinement cell doors not supposed to be opened before the time is up?’
She hurriedly stood up, leaned against the wall, rubbed her fingers behind her back, trying to scrape off the rust.
‘Could the Starfall Society have already broken in? Am I free?’
‘No.’
‘If someone really came to rescue her, they wouldn’t be so slow and hesitant.’
As the iron door creaked open, the harsh white light from outside shone on White Li’s face, dazzling her so much she couldn’t open her eyes.
White Li instinctively raised her arm to shield her face, squinting through her fingers to look outside.
A figure appeared at the door.
The silver-gray armor reflected a cold light under the lamp, casting the entire solitary confinement cell in a mix of light and shadow.
She knew this person all too well.
It was the Blazing Knight.
“How is it you?”
White Li asked through gritted teeth.
“Just came to chat.”
The Knight stepped inside, the iron door slowly closing behind him with a click as the lock re-engaged.
The cell dimmed again, leaving only the faint moonlight from the drain hole and the red glow from his visor.
White Li shrank into the corner, hugging her tail in front of her, wishing she could melt into the wall.
She watched him walk to the center of the room, looking around the cell.
“W-What are you doing here? It’s cramped in here,” her voice trembled. “I’ve already been caught. What more do you want? Torture me?”
“I saw the surveillance footage from the recreation ground not long ago…”
Lin Du stood there, quietly watching White Li.
“Oh—”
White Li’s voice rose a little, the tip of her tail flicking in her arms.
“So you came to laugh at me. Well, you got your wish. This is the person who showed off in the recreation ground and then got shocked like an idiot. Good look? Want me to recount the whole process for you?”
“I didn’t come to laugh at you,” the Knight’s voice was calm. “I want to talk to you.”
“Talk about what? What’s there to talk about?”
White Li rolled her eyes.
“Behave well here. Don’t cause any more trouble,” his voice came from behind the mask, processed with an electronic tone. “Strive for lenient treatment so you can be freed sooner.”
White Li was stunned for a moment, then let out a cold laugh.
“Lenient treatment?”
She repeated the phrase as if savoring a joke.
“I summoned an ice giant to smash half a street, stole a staff from the museum, and injured a security guard. After being ‘leniently treated’ for those things, how many years do you think I’d have left? Ten? Twenty?”
She paused, lifted her head, and stared at the pair of red visors.
“Or do you have ‘special treatment’ for anomaly directors? Lock me up for three to five years and then let me out? Then put a collar around my neck, like Xiao Yu, become a human’s pet, stared at wherever I go?”
“Xiao Yu has already been released,” Lin Du said. “After examination, she’s no longer a problem.”
“Oh.”
White Li responded, then closed her mouth again.
She lowered her head and began picking at loose fur on her tail.
“Her situation is different from yours,” the Knight continued. “She was a victim controlled by injected drugs, without malicious intent. And her grandmother…”
“I know, I know,” White Li interrupted him, her voice dropping. “Someone vouched for her. I don’t.”
The room was silent for a few seconds.
Moonlight leaked in from the drain hole, falling between the two like a silver-white river.
Narrow, yet impossible to cross.
From afar, the footsteps of the containment team’s patrol could be faintly heard, rhythmic, passing by the end of the corridor, then gradually fading.
“Actually, I came to tell you something else,” Lin Du changed the subject.
“Spit it out,”
White Li lifted her head, her ears twitching slightly.
“That yellow-haired monster might not be the ‘reinforcement’ you imagined, or rather, he wasn’t here to rescue you.”
White Li frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“The claws on his right hand are equipped with poisoned blades,”
Lin Du raised his own right hand, spreading his fingers to mimic a claw shape, shaking it in front of White Li.
“That poison isn’t meant for ordinary people—it’s meant for… your kind.”
White Li’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“In simple terms, he wasn’t here to save you,”
Lin Du lowered his hand.
“He came to kill you.”
White Li leaned against the wall, her fingers unconsciously clenching the hem of her clothes.
Scenes from before flashed rapidly through her mind.
The yellow-haired man’s movements had indeed been off, making several attempts to attack both herself and the Knight.
At the time, she thought it was friendly fire, thought the yellow-haired man had lost his reason and couldn’t tell friend from foe.
But now that she thought about it, it was indeed wrong.
If they wanted to rescue her, wouldn’t it be more efficient to have Martha approach unnoticed and pull her into the shadows?
Why send a monster that only knows how to fight and kill to cause a huge commotion?
The bigger the fuss, the more dangerous for her.
Unless… they didn’t care whether she lived or died.
Or even, they wanted her dead from the start.
‘But was this Madam’s intention?’
‘If so, why come to the rooftop to rescue her tomorrow night?’
‘Or perhaps… the “rescue” on the rooftop was just another trap?’
White Li rubbed her temples, feeling like her mind was a tangled mess.
“So what?”
Her voice was dry.
“Are you saying the organization behind me wants to silence me? Do you have evidence?”
“You know it in your heart.”
“Tch— you think I’d believe your bullshit?”
White Li sneered, turning her face away.
“That’s a pretty crude divide-and-conquer tactic, Lord Blazing Knight. Do you think I’m stupid?”
“Stop contacting those monster organizations,”
Lin Du’s voice softened a little.
“This is your only chance.”
White Li lowered her head, staring at her own toes.
Her tail hung on the ground, motionless.
“If I don’t contact monster organizations… who should I contact and trust?”
She lifted her head, looking at the Knight standing opposite.
“Trust you?”
White Li’s voice echoed in the empty room.
“The person who locks up so many monsters here… trust you?”
“…”
Lin Du had nothing to say.
White Li looked at that cold mask, at those visors that showed no emotion, and suddenly felt ridiculous.
‘What was she expecting?’
‘Expecting him to take off the mask and show a sympathetic expression?’
‘Expecting him to say “I’ll protect you”?’
He was the Blazing Knight, the ace of the Anomaly Bureau, the one who sent monsters that harm humans into the containment facility one by one.
And she was a monster, an enemy of humanity.
White Li looked away, staring at her own toes again.
“You can go.”
Her patience was gone.
“I need to sleep.”
Lin Du stood still for a few seconds before turning around, walking to the door, raising his hand, and knocking three times—neither too hard nor too soft.
Click.
The iron door opened a crack from the outside, and the harsh white light from the corridor squeezed in through the gap.
“Think it over carefully.”
Lin Du didn’t look back.
“You don’t have much time.”
He walked out, the iron door closing behind him, and the cell plunged back into darkness.
“Nyah nyah nyah—”
White Li stuck out her tongue, lowering her voice to imitate the Knight’s deep tone.
“You don’t have much time~”
She sat alone in the dark, hugging her knees, her chin resting on her arms, replaying the Knight’s words.
‘Even if what you said is true, so what? I’m not going to stay locked up here waiting to die.’
White Li supported herself against the wall and walked back to the drain opening.
“Alright, time to get back to work!”