Chapter 864: Visitation

Inmate 13! A visitor!

Looking somewhat haggard, Li Huowang was led by a corrections officer to the visiting room, where he pulled out a chair and sat down. With a cold expression, he looked up at the officer who was unlocking his restraints beside him and said, "I'm not a prisoner; this isn't a prison visit, it's a family visit. I'm in the psychiatric ward. I'm a patient."

"Yeah, yeah, everyone in White Pagoda knows you, Li Huowang," the officer retorted. "You're much harder to deal with than a regular inmate. If you mess up, we can't deduct points or extend your sentence; we even have to treat you well. You're not a patient; you're an emperor!" He gave a heavy tug downwards, then turned and walked out. "Stay honest. There are cameras. We only removed them so your family would feel more comfortable."

Although his handcuffs and leg irons had been removed, the device on his head to prevent self-harm remained.

Li Huowang stretched vigorously and rubbed his wrists; being handcuffed daily was indeed uncomfortable.

"So... who's visiting today?" Li Huowang wondered to himself. It couldn't be Yang Na. The most likely visitors were his mother, Sun Xiaoqin, or his father, Li Jiancheng.

"Is my mom here?" Li Huowang looked towards the door with three parts fear and seven parts anticipation. But just as his eyes brightened, an arm covered in thorn tattoos shattered his hopes.

"What? Are you disappointed to see me?" Ba Nanxu, chewing on something, picked up the phone and asked Li Huowang, who was on the other side of the glass. She was still dressed in her usual Gothic attire, looking no different from when he had seen her at the tattoo parlor, though the tattoos on her body seemed to have changed.

"Not at all. I'm just happy someone came to see me. Thanks, Bahui."

"What happened to your eyes?"

"I gouged them out."

"You gouged them out yourself?"

"Yes."

"Heh, good for you. You're a tough one. I'll buy you a drink when you get out."

Just as Li Huowang was talking to her, he paused, slightly stunned. He looked at the woman in front of him with a shocked expression. Then he abruptly looked up at the camera with the blinking red light. "Get my attending doctor, Yi Donglai, over here! Hurry!" Li Huowang pointed at Ba Nanxu and shouted excitedly, "Yi Donglai! Look! Don't you see?! She's real! She even came to visit me! How could this still be fake?! None of this is a hallucination at all!!"

"What's wrong with you? Sit down!"

Li Huowang sat back down, looking at the woman in front of him with intense excitement. "I ask you, when I dealt with those people, and when Qian Fu died, you were there, right? All of that was real, right?" He added, "Don't leave today. I need you to help me explain clearly to my attending doctor, to tell him all of this is real!"

Ba Nanxu glanced at the camera, then slipped her hand into her pocket and lightly pressed a button. "They can't hear us now. I don't have time to indulge your madness here. I'll just ask you one question: Do you want to get out?"

Li Huowang understood her meaning, but he declined. "I want to get out, but not by your methods. I want to walk out through the front door honorably. Since you're real, then I'm not actually sick in that regard. My illness is only the hallucinations. If I cure the hallucinations, I'll be discharged very soon."

Ba Nanxu looked at Li Huowang as if he were insane. "Huazi, do you really think so? Do you really believe that after everything you've done, you'll still be able to get out?" She continued, "To be honest with you, there's no chance. Even if you're not afraid of troubling others, they're afraid of being troubled. Even if you're cured, they'll keep you here for lifelong observation, even if you don't pay. Compared to the mess you caused before, a little food expense is nothing. They'd rather spend some money than have more trouble, or else their performance records will be wiped out from top to bottom."

"No! I don't believe it! You're lying! If my illness is cured, why would they keep me locked up?!"

Ba Nanxu leaned back slightly, then immediately leaned forward again. "Me, lying? Boy, have I ever lied to you before? I told you to be wary of Qing Wanglai back then, and now you're locked up. Where is he? You don't say he lied to you, but now you're saying I lied to you?"

After calming down slightly, Li Huowang seriously began to ask Ba Nanxu about the source of this information.

"Don't ask where this information came from; you can figure it out yourself. This isn't the first time, and as the saying goes, events often come in threes. Think about it: do they have a reason to do this? It's only human nature. We can help you; we can help you get out. But the price is that you completely sever ties with Qing Wanglai and join us."

Hearing this, Li Huowang finally understood what she really wanted from him this time. She was here to recruit him. Although he was tempted, Li Huowang decided to probe further. "You always say Qing Wanglai can't be trusted, but can Zhao Shuangdian's side be trusted? Where were you all during the last White Jade Capital crisis? Qing Wanglai wasn't there, and neither were you. You're no better than Qing Wanglai."

"I don't understand what nonsense you're talking about," she retorted. "I just want to tell you, you weren't with us, so how do you know we did nothing? Is it only what you see with your own eyes that exists? Are events happening elsewhere on Earth non-existent?"

"No, I don't accept." Li Huowang, half-believing and half-doubting her information, rejected her invitation. "I'm sick, I have a mental illness, and I need treatment. Since everything is over, why would I leave? I won't go out before I'm cured."

Ba Nanxu rested her hand on her tattooed jaw, her forked tongue darting out of her mouth, twitching rapidly a few times before retracting. "Isn't your girlfriend worth it? I heard she's already been discharged and is recuperating at home, her condition improving."

Li Huowang slowly shook his head, clenching his hands, and blinked. "Not worth it."

"Damn it, you really are a scum." Ba Nanxu stood up as she spoke. "Alright then, if you don't agree, so be it." She then added, "Since nothing is worth it anymore, then it probably doesn't matter to you that your Yang Na is now in Qing Wanglai's hands, right?"

Li Huowang's pupils instantly constricted to tiny pinpoints. Veins on the back of his hands bulged. "What exactly do you want?! Do you really think I can't get out? I saved White Jade Capital, and I can destroy it too!!"

"Don't vent your madness on me; I didn't do it. Keep that anger inside until you get out and confront Qing Wanglai."

Ba Nanxu finished speaking and left. She didn't say when they would act, nor how Li Huowang should cooperate. But both Li Huowang and Ba Nanxu understood that they had reached an understanding.