The guard on inspection duty happened to be Number 168 from before, named Zhao Lei.
He hurriedly opened the door and stepped inside to investigate, only to find the woman sprawled across the bed like a dead dog, completely unable to move. Drenched in sweat, with tears and snot streaming down her face, she whimpered incessantly as though she had endured unspeakable torment.
When asked what had happened, she could only blubber, “Switch rooms!” and “She... she, she...!” Her words were slurred and indistinct, and trying to speak more sent drool leaking uncontrollably from her mouth.
Left with no choice, Zhao Lei summoned a female guard to examine the woman, only to find that she had not a single wound on her entire body. Yet her limbs hung completely limp, and she couldn't even stand.
In the end, Zhao Lei had no choice but to wake Ye Li, who was resting on the opposite bed with her eyes closed. “Why is she like this?” he asked. “Did you do something to her?”
Though he doubted she was responsible—after all, she was nursing a serious injury.
What was more, the woman's ability allowed her to petrify her skin to deflect any attack. With defense so formidable that even bullets couldn't pierce it, an ordinary person couldn't hurt her in the slightest.
Yet only the two of them had been inside the cell last night. It wasn't as if the place were haunted!
Ye Li sat up reluctantly, tousling her hair in mild annoyance, and confessed straight away.
“That's right. I did it.”
Zhao Lei was taken aback and pressed further, “What did you do to her?”
“Nothing much. I just helped adjust her bones a bit,” Ye Li answered nonchalantly, casting a lazy glance toward the opposite bed.
Bone adjustment?
Zhao Lei's eyes darkened as he looked at the paralyzed woman across the room.
I doubt any ordinary bone-setting could produce an effect like this!
“Why would you do that?” Zhao Lei asked, bewildered.
Over the past ten or so days of interacting with her, he had always felt she was easy to get along with. She kept quiet in her cell without causing a fuss, and was gentle and polite in her dealings with others. She didn't seem at all like someone who would intentionally harm another person!
“She stole from me,” Ye Li stated flatly.
As it turned out, the moment the woman had entered the cell the night before, she took advantage of her towering build and Ye Li's injury to intimidate and threaten her, trying to put her in her place.
When freshening up, she had even taken Ye Li's soap without asking, brazenly stealing it.
Ye Li hadn't flared up on the spot, but she had certainly logged the grudge.
So once the woman fell fast asleep that night, Ye Li went right over and dislocated all four of her limbs along with her jaw. She left the woman lying on the bed like a dead dog for the better part of the night, only popping the bones back into place after the lights turned on in the morning.
Learning the truth, Zhao Lei didn't know whether to say Ye Li was making a mountain out of a molehill or that the woman had brought it upon herself.
Still, he was even more shocked by how ruthless and vindictive Ye Li was.
Frowning, Zhao Lei could only handle things by the book. “Even if there was a reason, you assaulted someone and caused a disturbance. Regulations dictate you are to be placed in solitary confinement for one day of self-reflection.”
Ye Li was startled, having not anticipated such a rule. “Can it wait until after I finish lunch?” she negotiated.
The meals here were pretty decent. Lunch usually consisted of a bowl of congee and a small piece of sponge cake.
The sponge cake was soft and sweet, and she liked it quite a lot.
“No, you have to go right now.” Zhao Lei shook his head, explaining with a hint of sympathy, “By regulation, you aren't permitted to eat during your day in confinement.”
Upon hearing that, Ye Li's previously indifferent expression instantly darkened!
Yet she didn't throw a fit or protest. She merely cast a cold glance at the woman across the room before getting up cooperatively to follow Zhao Lei out.
That fleeting look radiated chilling malice, like a venomous snake flicking its tongue, instantly sending shivers down the woman's spine and making her hair stand on end.
Solitary confinement, commonly referred to as the “dark room,” was an airtight, pitch-black, and soundproof space.
Once locked inside, one virtually lost all concept of time and space.
As time wore on, a crushing sense of dread and oppression would set in, followed by boundless loneliness and darkness that slowly wore down one's will.
By the time Ye Li was released, it was nearing noon the following day.
Aside from a pale complexion and being somewhat weak from hunger, she appeared no different than usual.
When she returned to her cell, it was just in time for the eleven o'clock meal.
The woman hadn't left; she was still lying on the bed. The moment she saw Ye Li return, she bristled like a spooked cat, completely on guard.
Yet Ye Li didn't even spare her a glance. She quietly finished her lunch, took a quick shower, and fell straight to sleep on her bed.
She slept straight through until dinnertime.
Dinner was a bowl of vegetable congee sprinkled with chopped greens, accompanied by a dry, oil-less multigrain flatbread.
Ye Li got up, washed her face, and sat casually at the room's sole table and chair to eat her dinner.
The woman curled up uncomfortably on her bed as she ate, occasionally looking up at her roommate's back, torn over whether she should initiate a conversation and yield.
But Ye Li gave her no chance. The moment she finished eating, she lay back down to sleep, treating her entirely like thin air.
Before lights-out that evening, Zhao Lei specially dropped by to check in. Seeing both women lying peacefully in their respective beds, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Yet who would have thought that during the next morning's inspection, trouble struck once more.
The injured one was still that woman, still paralyzed on the bed, unable to move.
The only difference was that this time, after dislocating the woman's bones, Ye Li hadn't even bothered to put them back.
“What is it this time?” Zhao Lei asked, utterly baffled.
The woman had clearly been terrified last time; there was no way she would have provoked Ye Li again.
“No reason. I just don't like the sight of her,” Ye Li delivered the arrogant remark in a flat tone. “Every day she stays here, I'll take her apart for the day!”
In the end, Ye Li was awarded another one-day tour of the dark room.
The woman was hurriedly carried out of the cell so a doctor could reset her bones.
Cells were limited, however, so new roommates had to be assigned.
From then on, Ye Li acted like a bristling porcupine, unable to get along with anyone. Within three days at most, she was guaranteed to torment her roommate until they were howling in distress, crying and begging to switch cells.
Her excuses for tormenting them were endless.
Things like the person snoring, grinding their teeth, or talking in their sleep; constantly hogging the bathroom... Even smacking their lips while eating became a reason for abuse.
Eventually, being tossed into the dark room became routine for her.
Because of this, Ye Li's reputation spread far and wide, her notoriety as a “problem child” echoing throughout the entire research institute.
Yet General Huo himself had personally assigned her this cell, so no matter how much trouble she stirred, no one dared move her to a worse one.
Two weeks flew by. Right after Ye Li successfully drove out her sixth roommate, she wasn't thrown into the dark room this time—instead, she was wheeled into the laboratory.
This time, whether out of deliberate spite or not, Ye Li had an entire leg cleanly severed right from the hip.
Perhaps because the injury was too severe, she had yet to fully regain consciousness even after being pushed back into her cell.
Through her hazy consciousness, she suddenly felt a gentle warmth flowing over the wound, slightly alleviating the excruciating, unbearable agony.
Ye Li snapped her eyes open, her crimson pupils immediately reflecting two unfamiliar faces.
One was a young man with a baby face, and the other had a baby face!
No, literally a child's face!
A little girl who looked to be about five or six years old!
Rate on N.U.
