"Prove it to me."

These three words, like three invisible shackles, were heavily fastened to Su Nian's wrists and ankles. She gained limited freedom within this "ultimate birdcage," free from physical chains, but at the cost of every breath she took and every glance she gave being subjected to the most rigorous scrutiny.

The corrupted Xie Chen didn't restrict her movements within the master bedroom; he even restored her access to the ensuite bathroom—of course, every inch of it remained under his surveillance. He was like a beast that had lowered its guard, allowing its pet birds to flutter in their cages, but his cold, predatory eyes never truly left her, ready to deliver a fatal blow the moment she tried to touch the cage door.

Su Nian forced herself to adapt to this suffocating life. She no longer showed obvious fear and resistance, and even tried to smile at him gently, just like she did ten years ago, and say some harmless things in a light tone.

"Xie Chen, the sunshine seems a little warmer today."

"This book... I remember you used to have a similar one, on the top shelf of that black walnut bookshelf in your study, right?"

She was gambling, gambling that those fragmented shared memories from the “earliest” times could, like water dripping on stone, pry open his frozen heart.

However, the results were minimal.

Most of the time, the corrupted Xie Chen simply watched her silently, his eyes as deep and still as an ancient well, utterly undisturbed. He sat in that obviously custom-made, throne-like, wide-backed chair, behind him an entire wall covered with photographs of her from different worlds. He was like a tyrant sitting in the center of a kingdom he had built with ten years of pain and obsession, calmly assessing every detail of her performance, weighing the amount of "sincerity" within it.

[Host, your smile is so stiff you could scrape off two ounces of flour! And that tone of voice, so affected it's making this system's database crash!] 088 was furiously ranting in her mind, [This guy is now a sophisticated emotion analyzer and a late-stage paranoiac; you can't fool him with this for long!]

"Shut up... If you're so capable, then come and try..." Su Nian retorted weakly in her heart, but on her face she still had to maintain that just right gentleness, tinged with a hint of nostalgia and timidity.

She knew 088 was right. The Xie Chen before her was no longer the man who would be easily swayed by her little tricks ten years ago. Ten years of searching and despair had forged him into a piece of extremely dense, cold iron, which ordinary temperatures simply could not melt.

The test quietly arrived less than 24 hours after she had been "well-behaved".

That afternoon, Xie Chen left the bedroom for a moment. When he returned, he was holding a familiar, slightly worn rabbit doll—it was one that Su Nian had bought by chance at a small shop on the street ten years ago when she was in this world, and she didn't know where it had been since.

The plush of the doll was a bit matted and the color had faded a little, but it was surprisingly well preserved.

Xie Chen casually placed the rabbit doll on the sofa not far from Su Nian, then returned to his "throne," picked up a document again, and treated it as if it were just an insignificant item.

But Su Nian's heart suddenly clenched.

She remembered the doll. She also remembered that when she left, she must have left it in the guest room of Xie Chen's villa. Now it was here, and it looked like it had been carefully preserved for ten years… The meaning it represented sent chills down her spine.

He was testing her. Testing whether she still remembered these insignificant details, testing how she would react when she saw this "evidence" representing his ten-year obsession.

Su Nian stood there, her fingertips slightly curled. She couldn't appear too agitated, or it would seem fake; nor could she appear too indifferent, or it would confirm the accusation of "not caring."

She took a deep breath, a perfectly measured look of surprise and reminiscence on her face, and slowly walked to the sofa. She carefully picked up the rabbit doll, her fingertips gently brushing against its slightly worn ears.

“It…is still here.” She said softly, her voice trembling slightly, a tremor that was half real and half feigned—real because of fear, and feigned because of feigned emotion. “I thought…it was lost a long time ago.”

She looked up at Xie Chen, trying to make her eyes appear sincere yet complex: "Thank you... for keeping it."

Xie Chen looked up from the document, his gaze sweeping calmly over her and the doll.

"Hmm," he replied only once, then lowered his head again.

There was no expected strong reaction, no further questioning. But this silence felt more like a silent judgment. Su Nian didn't know if her performance was up to par; her heart was hanging in suspense, unable to find peace.

In the following days, similar tests continued to occur.

Sometimes, he would suddenly ask her a very subtle question about the "past".

"On the morning before you left, did you drink milk or juice?"

"Which book in my study has the leather smell you like the most?"

Sometimes, he would play music they had listened to together ten years ago, some intense, some soothing, and observe her expression.

Sometimes, he would even bring some snacks that she had shown a preference for in other worlds and silently push them in front of her.

Su Nian was struggling to cope. She had to use all her memory and acting talent to carefully walk a tightrope between reality and fiction. She couldn't tell the whole truth, as that would expose her initial pure motivation for the mission; nor could she lie completely, as that would be instantly exposed by Xie Chen's terrifying insight.

She was waging a psychological war without gunfire against a madman who knew her inside and out (at least he thought so) and had no moral bottom line.

[Host! Hang in there! The points shop has a new 'Acting Explosion Potion (10-minute pack)' on sale! Want to try it?] 088 attempted to offer support.

“No need… using it would be even more suspicious…” Su Nian was utterly exhausted. Leaning against the cold glass wall, she gazed at the distorted cityscape outside the window, feeling a deep-seated weariness. This kind of life, where every second required calculation and pretense, was more mentally taxing than any world where one had to face swords and spears directly.

She began to doubt whether her decision to "buy a breather with lies" was the right one. Was she dragging herself into an even deeper abyss of despair?

On one of the nights when she was at her lowest point, half-asleep, she seemed to hear a very faint, painful groan.

She woke up with a start and looked in the direction of the sound.

Xie Chen remained seated on his "throne," one hand supporting his forehead, his knuckles white from the force. His aura was extremely unstable, sometimes as cold as ever, sometimes subtly revealing chaotic fluctuations belonging to other worlds—the aloofness of a Celestial Lord, the world-weariness of a Vampire Prince, even the slightly aggrieved stubbornness of an e-sports legend…

Although it was only a fleeting moment and was quickly suppressed by the more powerful dark source, Su Nian managed to catch it!

The initial fusion... was not completely digested and absorbed! The influence of those fragments, like a virus that could not be completely eliminated, still lurked within him, quietly surfacing at certain moments (such as when he was mentally relaxed)!

This discovery, like a glimmer of light, pierced through the deep despair in Su Nian's heart.

All her previous performances were based on the premise that Xie Chen was a "complete and stable" madman. But now it seems he is not invincible. The power boost from devouring is enormous, but it also introduces new and unstable variables.

Those "sides" she had treated with genuine affection and emotion, perhaps... haven't completely disappeared. They've become cracks buried deep within this cold iron.

A bold, almost insane plan gradually took shape in her mind.

The next day, when Xie Chen once again pushed a cup of flower tea with a refreshing bamboo fragrance—the kind she had expressed her liking for in the fantasy world—in front of her, Su Nian did not thank him politely or sip it as she had before.

She raised her head, not pretending to be gentle or nostalgic, but looking directly into his deep eyes with a clear gaze that held a hint of inquiry and understanding.

She spoke softly, her voice not loud, yet it echoed clearly in the quiet room:

“Xie Chen,” she said, “is this cup of tea you’re giving me now because ‘you’ want to give it to me, or because ‘all of you’ want to give it to me?”

In an instant, the air in the room froze.

Xie Chen's fingers, gripping the document, tightened almost imperceptibly. He looked up at Su Nian, his gaze no longer the calm scrutiny of before, but a sudden, chilling storm raging, carrying an extreme danger of having one's core secret exposed.

The pale blue energy patterns on the wall emitted an uneasy hum.

Su Nian's heart pounded wildly in her chest, almost shattering her ribs. She was playing with fire, betting her last chip at the gambling table.

Looking into the darkness churning in his eyes and the fleeting, chaotic light and shadow belonging to other fragments, she knew she had gambled on the right direction, but she had also... completely enraged this ferocious beast.

"Are you testing me?" He slowly stood up, his tall figure casting a suffocating shadow, and the oppressive aura emanating from him surged towards Su Nian like tangible seawater.

The tamer's gamble has entered its most dangerous phase.

(End of Chapter 154)