The Prisoner Was Wrong - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

After that, we seemed to reach a delicate sort of balance.

I satisfied a few of Pei Yu’s little requests, and he did my homework for me.

The mattress was too hard. One high school English essay could be exchanged for a softer one.

The body wash smelled bad. One college paper could be exchanged for a different brand.

Pei Yu asked in confusion, “What grade are you even in?”

I typed out a caption: “I take homework commissions online. I’m earning money to support you.”

“Oh, right. You know how to make corporate PowerPoints, don’t you?”

After all, Pei Yu was technically a CEO. Taking a few orders from overworked office employees should be fine.

Pei Yu’s face went stiff, but he nodded.

So I traded a week’s worth of coffee for him to make several PowerPoints for me.

Life went on like that, plain and uneventful. After that first time, Pei Yu only asked me once why I had imprisoned him.

After thinking it over, I came up with a reason.

I typed: “Because I have to save someone.”

That person was my sister. Though she wasn’t my biological sister, we had grown up depending on each other in the orphanage.

Ever since I transmigrated into this novel, she had treated me like her own little brother.

Don’t ask why a grown man like me would read a melodramatic romance novel like this. The answer is simple: back in high school, as long as it wasn’t a textbook, I could read anything.

Unfortunately, after reading so many power fantasy novels, I didn’t transmigrate into a single one of them. Instead, I ended up inside a melodramatic romance novel my deskmate had shown me.

And I was an utterly expendable cannon fodder character at the start. My greatest role was that, later on, Pei Yu would use me to threaten my sister into being with him.

After my sister came of age and started working, she finally met the male lead, a fool with more money than sense who also treated her sincerely.

I absolutely could not let the plot of the story happen to my sister in real life.

Because in the story’s later developments…

My sister developed depression after being imprisoned by Pei Yu.

As for Pei Yu, because he couldn’t have the love he wanted, he ultimately took his own life.

My sister could have lived happily ever after with my brother-in-law.

But Pei Yu just had to appear halfway through.

Because of him, my sister was left with a deep psychological knot. She spent years in despair before the male lead finally helped her heal and untie it.

In the novel, throughout that entire year of captivity, Pei Yu never once forced himself on my sister, but the psychological torment was severe.

In the end, my sister was left mentally dazed and would often wake up in terror in the middle of the night.

And the culprit was the man in front of me, who looked so innocent on the surface.

His eyelids were thin, without the slightest bit of excess skin. His eyes were narrow and slightly elongated. One look was enough to tell he was not someone easy to deal with.

So he often deliberately opened his eyes a little wider, making himself look somewhat innocent.

Just like now. His eyes widened slightly, and his face filled with disbelief.

He stared at my mask for a long time.

So long that even I started to feel awkward. What the hell was this guy doing?

No, wait.

That phrasing sounded a little ambiguous.

Pei Yu couldn’t possibly think the person I wanted to save was him, could he?

I typed out another line: “Don’t misunderstand. The person I want to save isn’t you. You’re a key figure in a story, commonly known as the culprit. I trapped you here to save someone else.”

Pei Yu’s gaze darkened. Once the muscles around his eyes relaxed, that cold, ruthless expression was laid bare.

But very quickly, he put on that pitiful look again.

He lowered his head and said softly, “I understand.”

I got up to leave, but he suddenly called me to a stop.

“In your story, what did I do?”

I turned back and typed another line for him to see: “The story is fake. I imprisoned you just because it was fun.”

Pei Yu chuckled softly and watched me close the door and walk away.

After that, Pei Yu made more and more requests.

The food didn’t taste good. The chains dug into him. The sheets were uncomfortable too.

I tried my best to satisfy every request.

There was only one thing. He said he wanted me to spend more time with him.

I was shocked, and typed to ask him, “Why?”

Pei Yu smiled. “Because it’s boring being alone.”

His smile was open and candid, so I didn’t think too much of it.

When I had free time, I would also stay in that cramped little room.

Pei Yu would focus on doing my homework for me, while I sat off to the side reading novels.

The books Pei Yu liked to read were all very boring. My power fantasy novels were much more interesting.

Pei Yu was still very quiet, though that might also have been because whenever he tried to start a conversation with me, I usually ignored him.

I did, however, often give him ideological and political education lessons.

For example, don’t covet things that don’t belong to you, and don’t do anything that violates morality or the law.

Even more importantly, you can’t force someone who doesn’t love you.

After listening quietly, Pei Yu raised an eyebrow and asked me in return, “What about you? Have you managed to do all that?”

As a law-abiding young man across both my lifetimes, I immediately typed out a line: “Of course I have.”

But Pei Yu looked at me, narrowed his eyes, and after a long moment, gave a soft laugh.

There was a faint, almost imperceptible mockery in that laugh.

Only then did I realize that imprisoning him was already illegal to begin with.

I coughed lightly, then continued typing: “Don’t learn from me. I’m not a good person.”

Pei Yu said quietly, “Mm. I’m not a good person either.”