In the women’s restroom, Xia You splashed water on her face.
An entire morning had passed, the Hypnotist had exhausted all methods, but the information Li Zhen provided was completely useless.
She repeatedly described the process of the arms robbery, and the only outsider she mentioned were Li Hui and his subordinate.
Li Hui was already dead, and his subordinate had disappeared on the day of Li Hui’s death, now it was unknown whether he was alive or dead.
By noon, the Hypnotist was also tired and could only request to continue the interrogation in the afternoon.
Xia You did not leave with the Lieutenant; she specifically stayed behind, wanting to find an opportunity to talk to Li Zhen alone.
Li Zhen’s mental state was very abnormal, Xia You could only be sure of this point; during the interrogation process, Li Zhen’s speech pattern and the way she looked at people were completely different from the normal her.
"It’s like... like when she’s attending worship," after splashing herself with a few handfuls of cold water, Xia You remembered something. That day, during worship, while chanting the Holy Poem, she had observed Li Zhen, who was in such a state; unresponsive to hunger and external disturbances.
The connection between Li Hui and Li Zhen was the David Holy Sect. After Xia You thought of this layer, the disconnected lines in her mind suddenly all connected.
The reason why the hypnotist’s hypnotism didn’t work was probably that she was under a more powerful hypnotism, say, from someone from David Sect. Then, by checking the call records of Li Zhen in the days following Li Hui’s death... No, her call records must have already been checked.
Xixi had said that on the night Xia You pretended to be sick, Li Zhen also said she would come to visit her, which meant that before that day, Li Zhen was still lucid, at least she thought of visiting the "sick" Xia You.
That night, the person who took Li Zhen away became the key point.
Xia You walked out of the restroom; by this time, Li Zhen should have already been sent back to the prison. She didn’t have the authority to participate in the interrogation alone, so she should contact the Lieutenant who brought her, or she should notify Lin Yi of her new findings.
Xia You anxiously walked through the corridor; the door of the passenger elevator had just closed. After looking around, she walked over to the freight elevator, pressed the button several times, and found that the freight elevator was also stuck at the floor level of the Administrative Center. It was now the peak time for lunch breaks.
She checked her phone, the signal was at zero, in the Administrative Center, it probably wasn’t possible to make a normal call.
"Forget it, I’ll take the emergency exit," Xia You thought for a moment and walked toward the right side of the corridor. According to the layout of the prison, there were three interrogation rooms on the first floor, the rest were cell rooms, and she was previously in the first interrogation room, next to the third interrogation room, there should be an emergency exit.
Xia You quickly found that emergency exit, as she pushed open the door, a chill accompanied by a musty odor blew past her.
In the year 2064, technology was highly advanced, the failure rate of elevators had also been reduced to one in ten thousand, and the emergency exit, set up to prevent accidents, was almost never used. Even the janitors of the Administrative Center were too lazy to clean the area.
Inside the corridor, there were several motion-sensor lights; as Xia You walked past, the lights in front of her lit up immediately, and the lights behind her dimmed right away.
Even though the Underground Prison had only three floors, due to the high ceilings, more than ten meters high, there were also a lot of steps.
Xia You had only walked a few steps, not even past the first bend, when she heard a series of extremely miserable screams.
Her climbing feet paused.
As the screams passed, Xia You felt a tightness in her chest.
The scene where she was interrogated by Cai Yang at Bazhou Police Station that day resurfaced. Could it be that in Rand Military District, interrogating prisoners also involved forced confessions? Xia You felt uncomfortable inside.
She still had to climb upward, then another series of screams occurred; this time, the screams made all the lights on the staircase light up. Xia You couldn’t help but look toward the source of the noise.
The spiral staircase stretched downwards, numerous steps, extending continuously down to the lowest level of the Underground Prison.
Xia You regretted it; she should have waited for the elevator, like most people, rather than taking this emergency exit, which had not been walked for who knows how long.
The motion-sensor lights stubbornly remained on; Xia You tentatively walked a few steps down, then a few more. Her feet seemed to be pulled by an invisible force, mechanically walking down. After several hundred steps, the slope of the staircase suddenly increased, and her steps became as dense as rope jumping. To secure her footing, Xia You had to hold onto the handrail of the staircase. The handrail was ice-cold, completely metallic, and under the dim light, it glimmered with a dull luster.