Episode 2 — The Cage That Breathes
The Northern Barracks did not sleep.
It breathed.
Stone walls soaked in old screams, iron doors scarred by blades and fists, corridors lit by lanterns so dim they seemed ashamed of their own light. The air was thick with cold and something metallic—blood that had dried too many times to be washed away.
Li Wei felt it the moment he was thrown inside.
The doors slammed shut behind him with a sound final enough to echo in his bones.
No chains.
Just stone.
Just silence.
He staggered but did not fall. The floor was freezing beneath his palms as he steadied himself, breath shallow, heart loud in his ears. The cell was larger than expected—wide enough for pacing, empty except for a low wooden platform meant to serve as a bed.
A cage, designed not to restrain the body.
But the mind.
Li Wei exhaled slowly and stood upright. Panic was useless. Panic had never saved anyone. He smoothed his robes, despite the dirt, as if the act itself could restore a shred of dignity.
Minutes passed.
Or hours.
Time lost meaning in the barracks.
Then—footsteps.
Not hurried. Not cautious.
Confident.
Li Wei stiffened.
The door opened without ceremony.
General Shen Zhiyuan stepped inside.
He was no longer in armor.
The sight unsettled Li Wei more than steel ever could.
Shen Zhiyuan wore a dark robe, simple, unadorned, tied loosely at the waist. Without armor, he looked younger—still imposing, still dangerous, but more… human. That, Li Wei realized, was the most terrifying part.
The general dismissed the guards with a single glance. The door closed again.
Locked.
Alone.
Shen Zhiyuan studied him in silence, eyes slow, deliberate, as though Li Wei were a puzzle he intended to dismantle piece by piece.
"You're calmer than most," Shen said at last.
"I was raised to be," Li Wei replied.
"By whom?"
"Men who believed fear was a weakness."
Shen Zhiyuan hummed softly. "They lied to you."
He moved closer.
Li Wei did not retreat. He refused to give him that satisfaction.
"I've read your records," the general said. "Top of your class. Fluent in military codes, border dialects, poison theory, and court law. A scholar who chose knowledge sharp enough to kill."
Li Wei's jaw tightened. "Knowledge itself does not kill."
"No," Shen agreed. "But it chooses who survives."
He stopped an arm's length away.
"So tell me," Shen Zhiyuan continued, "who gains from the emperor's illness?"
Li Wei hesitated.
Shen noticed.
"That pause," the general said quietly, "will get you executed."
Li Wei lifted his gaze. "The Crown Prince."
Silence snapped tight.
"Continue," Shen ordered.
"The emperor has been weak for months. Medicines changed. Physicians replaced. Those loyal to the Empress Dowager were quietly dismissed." Li Wei's voice was steady, but his pulse quickened. "I uncovered records showing northern troop movements ordered without your seal."
Shen Zhiyuan's eyes darkened.
"You're accusing someone powerful."
"I am accusing someone careless."
The general reached out suddenly, gripping Li Wei's wrist.
Not painfully.
Precisely.
Two fingers pressed against his pulse.
"You're telling the truth," Shen murmured, more to himself than to Li Wei.
Li Wei tried not to react to the closeness, the warmth of his hand, the way his thumb brushed skin it had no right to touch.
"You should have brought this to me," Shen said.
"I tried," Li Wei replied. "Your enemies intercepted the message. That is why I was framed."
Shen Zhiyuan released him slowly.
"You realize," he said, "that knowing this makes you more dangerous alive than dead."
Li Wei met his gaze. "That is why you spared me."
A sharp smile.
"Smart," Shen said. "Dangerous."
He turned away, pacing the cell like a predator considering its options.
"You are not a prisoner," Shen Zhiyuan said finally. "You are leverage. Bait. And possibly… a blade."
Li Wei frowned. "And if I refuse?"
Shen stopped.
Looked back.
"You won't," he said calmly. "Because if you fall, so do the people you tried to protect."
Li Wei's blood went cold.
"You investigated this conspiracy alone," Shen continued. "Which means you suspected your colleagues. Your teachers. Your friends."
Li Wei said nothing.
Shen Zhiyuan stepped close again, invading his space, voice dropping.
"You have no allies left."
His hand rose—slow, deliberate—and brushed a loose strand of Li Wei's hair back behind his ear.
The touch was wrong.
Too gentle.
Too controlled.
Li Wei flinched despite himself.
Shen's eyes sharpened.
"Ah," he murmured. "There it is."
Li Wei clenched his fists. "Do not touch me again."
The general smiled.
"I will touch you as often as I wish," he said softly. "Because from this moment on—your life is under my protection."
Li Wei laughed bitterly. "That is not protection. That is ownership."
Shen Zhiyuan leaned in, lips near his ear.
"In this empire," he whispered, "they are the same."
A sudden scream echoed down the corridor.
Raw. Agonized.
Li Wei stiffened.
Shen Zhiyuan did not react.
"That," the general said calmly, "is what happens to men without my protection."
He pulled back, studying Li Wei's face closely.
"You will stay here," Shen said. "You will advise me. You will uncover every traitor hiding behind silk and smiles."
"And when I am no longer useful?" Li Wei asked.
Shen Zhiyuan's gaze lingered.
"Then I will decide whether to kill you," he said honestly.
Their eyes locked.
Something dangerous passed between them—not trust, not hatred, but recognition.
Two men who understood power.
Two men standing too close to the edge.
Shen turned toward the door.
"Food will be brought," he said. "Books. Writing tools."
He paused.
"Do not attempt escape."
Li Wei smirked faintly. "You'd enjoy hunting me."
A dark chuckle. "Yes," Shen Zhiyuan admitted. "Far too much."
The door closed.
Li Wei was alone again.
But the cell no longer felt empty.
It felt watched.
Claimed.
And somewhere deep in his chest, beneath fear and fury, something stirred that terrified him more than execution ever had—
Because General Shen Zhiyuan was not just his captor.
He was becoming his most dangerous weakness.