His body felt like a puff of smoke, intangible and without substance.
He slowly sat up in bed, looked at the cage on the bed, reached out to touch it, and the cold touch stung his palm.
It was as if he had forgotten something.
His hands struggled to get free uncontrollably, but he could not break free from the cage.
The bed sheets and pillows were tattered by his struggle.
Drops of sweat fell.
He looked back and saw a scribbled word on the bedside table.
What was it?
He looked at it for a long time before remembering that it was pronounced “Paige”.
It was as if he remembered something, as if he couldn’t remember anything.
He hugged his head, and faintly heard voices outside. He heard Jaden’s voice.
“Since the young lady has settled down at the border, there is no need to pass on news from there in the future.”
“But… I heard that the Lautners’ family all think of her as Kevin’s woman. Jaden, my assistant, I feel sorry for Mr. Gustin. Mr. Gustin fell ill over her, and she’s messing around with another man…”
“Okay, shut up. Don’t talk nonsense about things you haven’t seen with your own eyes.”
“Yes.”
The voices gradually died down.
He sat on the bed, staring blankly at the small cage in front of him.
Suddenly, he remembered everything.
He had a fit, and he became a lunatic.
The times he was conscious were rare and brief.
Often, he couldn’t remember, couldn’t remember that he had given his woman to another man with his own hands.
A sharp, heart-rending pain spread through his body without warning.
In the damp, smoky stone room, Paige held the man in her arms, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead. Suddenly, Enrico began to shiver.
Why was this happening?
Paige looked at him in disbelief. Why was he already in such a state when she hadn’t even felt a thing yet?
“Enrico, Enrico, can you hear me?”
She patted his face gently. Enrico’s eyes were closed, his eyelids twitching, and his heartbeat was getting faster and faster.
This can’t go on.
Paige looked up. Why was it taking so long to break through the stone slab?
“Ugh…”
Enrico suddenly groaned in pain, rolled over and fell out of her arms, and collapsed in a cloud of white smoke. His fingers were clutching the ground in pain, with the knuckles protruding.
“Enrico…”
Paige threw herself at him, but Enrico curled up again, his face was unnaturally white, and he began to babble nonsense, ‘I’m not crazy, I’m not crazy…’
“Enrico!”
She shouted at him, but it was already too late to wake him up.
She stood up, rushed to the stone door, and pushed with all her strength, but she couldn’t budge it at all.
How could this be.
Paige was very anxious. The stone slab above her head showed no signs of being smashed open, and she couldn’t push the stone door. If Enrico stayed in this illusion for a whole day…
She didn’t even dare to think about it. As she turned around, she saw Enrico curled up on the ground in the hazy smoke, his fingers once again clawing at the stone floor.
His fingernails dug deep into the rough stone slab, gradually separating from the flesh, and blood oozed out.
But he seemed oblivious, still clawing desperately.
“Paige, Paige…” he called out to her, breathing heavily.
Paige ran back and forcefully pulled Enrico’s hand away.
The next second, Enrico grabbed her tightly, his fingertips sinking into her pale arms.
Paige endured the pain and let Enrico hold onto her, continuing to call out to him, “Enrico, can you hear me? I’m here with you, I’m right here with you, don’t let yourself get trapped in a fantasy, snap out of it…”
Enrico couldn’t hear her, and he scratched her arm, leaving bloody streaks.
The skin and flesh separated.
Paige’s eyes went dark with pain, and she wanted to continue talking to him, but Enrico’s eyebrows were full of pain, and his movements suddenly stopped, and a mouthful of blood spurted out of his mouth.
The blood splattered on her clothes and arms.
Paige looked at it blankly, and her eyes suddenly reddened. What kind of illusion had he created?
“Don’t go…”
“Paige, don’t go…”
He muttered, begging desperately.
Suddenly there was a noise in the smoke, and Paige turned sharply around to see that the stone door was slowly opening in the smoke, and a vague figure stumbled in.
The door slowly closed again.
The door can be opened from the outside!
Realizing this, Paige directly removed Enrico’s hand and, regardless of the consequences, rushed over and tried to jam the stone door.
She would go out no matter what, and then open the door from the outside.
However, the figure at the door seemed to have reacted as well, covering his chest and blocking her way. Paige pushed him away, but the man refused to budge, and was pushed against the stone door.
Paige reached out to pull him away, but the stone door had already closed behind him.
Paige’s heart sank.
She stared at the man in front of her, dressed in a black cloak, the standard attire of a JT member. He had a square face, except for the broken left eyebrow, and blood dripped from the corner of his mouth. He kept covering his chest with one hand, as if he was injured.
“Jared.” She finally saw him.
“Young master…” Jared also recognized her, his voice tinged with pain, “You actually broke into my secret passage. Are you and your father attacking from both sides?”
There were two entrances to the secret passage: the one he usually used and the one he had found by exploring the central river.
It was not difficult to enter through the mouth of the central river, so he had designed many traps inside to deal with intruders. He never expected Alonso to use these traps against him and injure him, and to take Blanca and hide everywhere.
He searched all the way, but instead of finding Alonso, he found Paige.
She was still in his usual training room, which was a kind of unexpected gain.
“Let us out,” Paige looked at him coldly.
“You can’t get out of this stone room,”
Jared said, his gaze falling on Enrico. Seeing his pale, pained face and the bloodstains on the ground, he couldn’t help but say, ‘This is the first time I’ve seen someone vomit blood after being affected by the Fright Bone Fragrance.’
As he spoke, he looked at Paige again, ‘You, sir, have a much deeper obsession than the average person.’
The deeper the obsession, the more likely it is to be affected.
“Stop releasing smoke,”
Paige stood there, her steps faltering slightly and her mind drifting.
She knew that the fear incense was beginning to take effect on her as well.
“No.”
Jared shook his head.
He had studied hypnosis for many years and was not as smooth as Justin, but he was a man who stuck to his guns and he always remembered his plan with Justin.
Especially now that Alonso had rescued Blanca, Paige was too important to JT.
So he looked at Paige and said, “You have to let me hypnotize you.”
“I can’t open the stone chamber, but I have a way to ease his pain. If you don’t want to, you’ll have to stay here for the whole day.”
Jared finished, and then heard the banging and smashing coming from above. He said, ‘Oh, it’s not going to be easy to break open the stone slab in three to five hours without the right tools. And explosives are hard to come by in this city…’
“Okay.” Paige agreed without waiting for him to finish.