Countdown 47:59:59.
Two days.
Still in the familiar Prison 18.
But something seemed to be different this time.
Instead of the cold prison cell and solitude, there were people waiting for him to come back.
Mom Ye was carrying a thermal lunch box containing the beef he personally cooked.
The three people were staring at him, as if waiting for him to come back home.
This home was a bit dim and empty, but it was enough.
“Teacher, this is the chess endgames I brought for you,” Qing Chen spread out his palm and handed a flash drive to Li Shutong.
Li Shutong glanced at it curiously, “I’ve never seen this device before, Xiaoxiao, can you process it?”
Lin Xiaoxiao answered, “No problem, the crux of the storage device is in the microchip.”
“Teacher, can you see any change when I transmigrated?” asked Qing Chen. He could only rely on himself to figure out the rules before, now that there were other people observing, perhaps he might discover other details.
“Previously you said it took a second to transmigrate to the other world, but that was wrong,” Li Shutong said. “In my perception, there was a change in the force field the moment you transmigrated, but this change was only for an instant, maybe only 0.1 second or even shorter. You only disappeared for that instant, and when you reappeared, the gold in your hand was already gone.”
“So that’s how it is,” Qing Chen was thinking. So it turned out his body really traversed.
The problem is, where did the original Qing Chen of the Inner World go? Did he get obliviated?
Qing Chen asked, “Teacher, the ball of fire inside my body…”
“Now is not yet the time to explain that,” Li Shutong shook his head. “It’s just that it appeared earlier than I predicted.”
While they were talking, Ye Wan walked to Qing Chen’s side and lifted the hem of his clothes. He smiled upon seeing the outline of Qing Chen’s abs, “Xiaoxiao, I won again.”
“What kind of bet did you guys make about me again,” Qing Chen said curiously.
“I bet against him that even without anyone supervising, you would still increase the intensity of your training,” said Ye Wan. “We’re all people who have trained before. The outline of your abs that you have right now, it won’t appear if you stopped for a day.”
“Let’s start weight training tomorrow,” Li Shutong said. “Ye Wan, take good care of him, I haven’t come across such a self-disciplined kid in so many years.”
“Okay teacher,” Ye Wan nodded.
Qing Chen looked at Li Shutong. “Sir, won’t you check out the chess endgames?”
“I’m not in a hurry to do that, you come with me first,” Li Shutong told Qing Chen.
Qing Chen looked at him rather confusedly. “Where to?”
Li Shutong turned towards the exit and walked out. “I’ll take you to see the outside world.”
“Why are you taking me to see the outside world?” Qing Chen didn't understand.
Li Shutong turned around and asked, “Aren’t you curious about it?”
Qing Chen was stunned for a moment.
Of course he was curious.
From the first day of his return, he had seen others on the internet talking about what a vast and magnificent world it was.
Some talked about the city in the clouds.
Some talked about the city resembling a steel forest.
Some talked about the fascinating gigantic holographic projection in the sky.
Even others talked about how their virtual life experience completely surpassed all movies from the Outer World; it was as if one was truly inside a movie, going through another story-like life.
Those people transmigrated into gorgeous and colorful cities.
And yet he transmigrated into a metal, box-shaped prison.
Qing Chen was only a 17 year-old teenager; it was only natural that he would feel curious, and envious as well.
But he looked at Li Shutong and replied, “Although I am curious, I also know that now isn’t the time to enjoy the scenery.”
Li Shutong laughed, “Teenagers should have the mentality of a teenager. Before you embark on your lonesome journey, as a teacher I certainly can’t let you be that much worse off than others.”
Qing Chen was puzzled. “What do you mean?”
“The scenery other time travelers saw, my – Li Shutong’s – student must also get to see them. Tonight, I’ll take you to see the best scenery in City 18,” the tone with which Li Shutong spoke was confident and willful.
A sliver of human warmth permeated the cold prison.
In the prison square, the thick and heavy alloy gate gradually rose up for them; the metal storm above their heads did not move, the unmanned drone inside the honeycomb remained sound asleep.
Ye Wan gave to him the cat face mask that had been long prepared before, “The boss told me to prepare this. You can’t reveal your identity right now.”
The cat face on that mask seemed as though it was laughing, the interspersing red and white lines strange and mysterious.
Qing Chen gazed at Li Shutong’s back with a flash of understanding.
As it turned out to be, the freedom he yearned for was close at hand.
…..
Midnight.
City 18, District 1.
Above the clouds, in the revolving restaurant on the 88th floor of Eternal Tower.
Inside the magnificent restaurant, the melodious sound of cello was graciously flowing, but the seats were empty as can be.
At the entrance of the restaurant were a few people disputing with the waiter.
The young waiter politely explained to the customer, “Good evening, starting from this midnight onwards, the whole Sunlight Pavilion Restaurant has been fully reserved. Due to our failure to provide you with quality service, Sunlight Pavilion Restaurant shall present two vouchers applicable for use during lunch and dinner on weekdays.”
Of the couple arguing with the waiter, the man was quite up there in age, while the woman was still in her youth.
The man pulled a long face and said, “I’ve never heard of Sunlight Pavilion accepting reservations, are you fooling with me?”
The waiter politely smiled, “We're very sorry sir Sir, we really have not done it before. I was also very surprised when I received the notice today.”
At that moment, they looked into the Sunlight Pavilion Restaurant through the glass wall – there was astonishingly not a single customer present.
Sunlight Pavilion was the restaurant with the highest location in City 18. You can practically overlook the whole city, so it was also the most expensive spot, flocked by the bigwigs of the city.
The middle-aged man pondered, “Was the one who made the reservation from the Li family or Qing family?”
“They’re not, Sir,” answered the waiter truthfully.
The young woman was unhappy, and when she started acting spoiled, her garish earrings shined and dazzled the man.
The man thought and said, “So, may I know who made the reservation? I know whoever’s able to book this whole place must be an absolute VIP, but if I know him, perhaps I can ask for a favor.”
The man was very sensible; he wasn’t a fool.
When he encountered a troublesome person, he would first ask himself, could he do the thing done by the other person? If he couldn’t, then he shouldn’t seek embarrassment when it was clear that the other was not on the same level as oneself.
But he also had a standing in this city. In the end, he still wanted to make use of the tolerance between acquaintances to gain back some face.
The waiter discussed it with the manager and came back bringing a black name card.
There was no contact information on the name card, only four words: Heng Group, Li Dongze.
After seeing this name card, the man ushered the woman to take the elevator downstairs without another word. Inside the elevator, the woman complained in a low voice, “Didn’t you say you wanted to greet that person? Why go without even making a sound.”
The man heaved a sigh, “I’ll find another place for you and make up for the meal in Sunlight Pavilion later.”
“Didn’t you also say that you knew Li Dongze last month?” grumbled the woman.
“These are two different things.” The man was starting to get impatient, “He’s not in City 18 today, he reserved the whole place for somebody else.”
In this moment, the man had truly caught on to the most important thing.
But he still couldn’t figure out who was able to make Li Dongze do such a big move.
He had always been a low-key person, very seldom would he do such a high-profile thing like reserving a whole restaurant.
Just as they took the elevator down, a black floating car was slowly docking on the rooftop of Sunlight Pavilion Restaurant.
Li Shutong brought Qing Chen down from the floating car, and the waiter who had been waiting handed a hot towel for Li Shutong to wipe his face.
Qing Chen, who was wearing a mask, waved his hand to signal that he didn’t need it.
“Mister Li, we have prepared the location for you, the surveillance cameras in the entire building have just been turned off. Mister Li Dongze expressed that your favorite braised pork belly has also just been done,” the waiter spoke in a light voice.
Li Shutong said to Qing Chen, “Maybe one day you’ll get used to this, in this world, as long as you have money and power, everything can be ‘just’ done.”
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