Chapter 53 – The Isolation Treatment
[08:03 AM – Room 417, Central Shanghai Mental Wellness Center]
The room was too clean.
Madam Wei sat at the edge of the hospital bed, her manicured fingers twitching against the sterile sheet. The walls were a flat institutional gray, the windows reinforced with mesh wiring beneath the glass. No mirrors. No phones. No visitors.
Only whispers—real or imagined.
A nurse passed by her door, but didn't look in. That was the worst part. No one looked anymore. Not at her hair, her clothes, her reputation.
Because none of that mattered here.
She glanced at the one item allowed to her—a small, palm-sized mirror, made of polished plastic. It had no edges sharp enough to cut with. But the reflection was still clear enough to remind her of everything she'd lost in just twenty-four hours.
Her lips trembled.
"Li Xian. No, no… no, something's not right. This isn't the same boy I remember."
[08:22 AM – Wei Family Estate, Garden Wing]
Meiying stood on the balcony outside her mother's now-empty bedroom. The koi fish swam below, unaware that the queen of the household had fallen. Her fingers clenched the railing, nails biting into the wrought iron.
She wore a fitted white blouse, black pencil skirt, and cold calculation on her face. But beneath it, confusion gnawed.
"I don't get it," she muttered. "Mother's breakdown wasn't normal. And Li Xian—he was weak. Obedient. He barely looked people in the eye after Father went to prison."
She turned to her assistant, a young woman holding a thin tablet.
"Have you learned anything new?"
The assistant hesitated, then shook her head. "None of his friends seem to know much. Some even said they hadn't spoken to him in months. One said he changed—got cold."
Meiying's eyes narrowed.
"Who are you really, Li Xian?"
[10:10 AM – Hideout]
Gerard tapped the system panel, eyes scanning the results of the latest sweep through Horizon's hidden social listening feeds. Public reactions to Madam Wei's hospitalization were spreading like wildfire.
"The old vulture's finally cracked, huh?"
"Karma's real. Look what she did to her stepson!"
"Guess money can't buy sanity."
He leaned back and exhaled slowly, savoring the moment. But it wasn't enough.
[System Alert: A Hidden Variable has been Detected.]
"Warning: Jian's mental fluctuations have reached an unstable threshold. Observation advised."
Gerard raised an eyebrow. "Jian, huh? Let's see what secrets you're hiding."
He tapped into the encrypted backdoor Horizon had placed in Jian's devices—one that let him access cam feeds, movement history, and system fragments. The data came in slow, fragmented at first… but then one file lit up.
[File Name: "Pressure Game"]
He clicked.
The footage was blurred, but the voice was unmistakable. Jian was talking to someone. Or something.
"He's resisting. His mind's too strong. Too trained." "Apply pressure," said the voice. "He can't be allowed to form independent thought."
Gerard's fingers stilled over the interface.
So Jian really does have a system. One trying to break mine down.
A wild card—no. A snake in the garden.
[12:45 PM – Rooftop Café, Old French Concession]
Meiying sat across from a former classmate of Li Xian's, sipping from an espresso she hadn't touched. She listened carefully as the girl explained her confusion.
"He was always quiet, sure," the girl said, "but after his father's arrest, he went numb. Barely showed up to events. One time, he tried to talk to me about his father… but I didn't really listen. No one did."
Meiying nodded absently. "What about lately? Any unusual behavior?"
The girl thought, then said, "He changed. Recently. I saw him at a party. He didn't look weak anymore. He looked… like someone who'd been through something."
Meiying's nails tapped her cup.
So you did change, Li Xian. But who changed you?
[03:07 PM – Hideout]
Gerard ran a background trace on the name "Zhu Liang", one of Jian's business proxies.
The file revealed something odd—Jian was making silent investments into psychiatric care companies.
[System Message: Mission Opportunity Detected]
Mission: "Break the Game."
Objective: Expose Jian's financial ties and destabilize his mental feedback loop.
Reward: Mind Fortress Lv1 – +10% resistance to mental manipulation.
Gerard chuckled. "So Jian's betting on people going insane… including me."
He accepted the mission. War wasn't coming—it was already here. And it wasn't just guns and knives. It was perception. Influence. Madness.
[04:44 PM – Unknown Location, Jian's Apartment]
Jian stood shirtless in front of a mirror, breathing heavily. Lines of code danced across his pupils like ghost fire.
"He's countering us." "Then push harder," came the voice.
He slammed a fist into the mirror, cracking it in two. Blood welled at his knuckles, but he didn't flinch.
"If Gerard wants a war... I'll give him a reckoning."