CH 171 Weird
Translated by The BL Muse (ko-fi)
He Qianjian waited and waited until finally he was asked by the warden. He had long forgotten Zhou Yang's reminder, admitted the fact immediately, and expressed his hope to change cells. When he learned that he could only choose between cell 15 and cell 16, he chose cell 15 without hesitation.
Before, he planned to do some small business in the prison and offended the boss of cell 16. The other had already taught him a lesson many times overtly and covertly. Wang Hei also became more and more bold because he no longer had any scruples after he had offended the boss. So changing to cell 16 was practically seeking death.
When the warden heard He Qianjian's choice, he opened his mouth and hesitated for a moment. However, he thought that this was a prison, not a student dormitory, and he was not the dormitory aunt. He had nothing to persuade, so he remained silent.
He Qianjian was immersed in the delight of being able to change cells. When he took his belongings and left, he ignored the horrified and shocked expressions of his cellmates in the same cell.
The lights were about to be turned off, there was a clang, and then there was the sound of the door being locked. He Qianjian stood at the door of the old cell with his bedding, facing the silent gazes of the room.
Neither party spoke, but both sides had something to say in their hearts.
He Qianjian was very vigilant. Bullying was very common in prison. When he first came in, he still pretended to be the eldest young master of the He family and the prison guards would look after him somewhat. Those prisoners who couldn't stand it would still restrain themselves a bit, but later when no one ever came to visit him, the people here understood his situation. Although they were still a little concerned about his identity, they still made him suffer a lot.
Since he was planning to change cells, he was prepared to be bullied again. However, he had already asked the short man, who had a good relationship with him in the prison in advance. He said that cell 15 was the quietest in the whole prison, which meant there wasn’t much fighting in this cell, making it a good choice.
Despite this, he still imagined many scenes when he first moved in and also thought of ways to deal with it. However, the long silence made him a little unsure.
While He Qianjian's heart was beating a drum in his chest, the other people in cell 15 were thinking: here comes an unlucky guy.
When the prison guard just sent He Qianjian in, he said: this is your new cellmate, and then locked the door. All the prisoners here were thinking about how to get out of here. It was the first time they saw someone rush in here so eagerly. When they saw the bruises on his face that had not yet receded and his thin appearance, they couldn't help but wonder who this kid had offended that they would be so cruel as to send him here.
The two sides were still facing each other in silence, but the lights in the room went out with a "pop", as it was time to turn off the lights.
He Qianjian did not dare to go inside. He knew that in this situation, he had to speak.
"Big brothers, I..."
"Shh!"
As soon as He Qianjian opened his mouth, the person closest to him jumped up and covered his mouth. After that person covered him, he immediately looked towards the innermost bed. The others also turned their heads in unison, and in the darkness there was something strange about this silent space.
He Qianjian didn't know why but the unknown always brought fear. Just as he was about to speak, he caught a glimpse of that strong arm around him—the tattoos covering that arm were very hideous under the moonlight—he was originally quite confident, but now in this situation he had become a little uneasy. When the man let go of him, he lowered his voice and asked, "Why did you cover my mouth?"
The tattooed man saw that he kept his voice low, and thought to himself that he was not as dumb as he looked. But if the person inside was unhappy, who knows if it would implicate others. For his own sake, he had to warn He Qianjian: "Shut up, don’t make any sound, go sleep on that empty bed.”
Speaking the last bit, the tattooed man already felt some sympathy.
The only empty bed here was the bed next to the man who was the least approachable here. No one wanted to sleep on that bed because the last person sleeping on that bed had gone crazy. However, even across that bed closest to the bed inside, the person sleeping there was still trembling with fear every day, for fear that his sounds would be too loud, or his eyes would not be able to control where they look, or the other person would be offended if something else set him off.
——There was a person who had his eyeball poked before. Apparently, the reason was that he always glanced over at him, but no one believed it. Who in this cell dared to glance over? He didn’t even dare to get out of bed from that side, and always turned his head sideways when got back in!
In short, not only the man with the tattooed arm, but also everyone in cell 15—except for the one who slept on the innermost bed and said nothing the whole time—couldn't help but sympathize with He Qianjian.
In this weird atmosphere, He Qianjian walked in with his bedding and saw that there was no one sleeping on the bottom bunk of the bed, and the bed closest to the wall only had one person sleeping on the bottom bunk. He was a little confused. There were quite a lot of people in Zhangshan Prison and most of the cells were full. It was rare to see three empty beds in a room.
However, he still listened to the person's warning just now. He Qianjian moved as gently as possible and lay on the bed. After lying down, he discussed with the System in his head.
He Qianjian: [The people in this cell are weird, have you noticed?]
System: [You won’t be here for more than two weeks. Don’t do anything. Just wait and escape. Don’t think too much.]
He Qianjian knew this, and he had the same idea when he changed cells, but he didn't know if these people today were too weird or something, but he kept getting a bad feeling in his heart.
However, he also knew that no matter how much he talked to the System, it would not comfort him or anything else. He could only suppress this uneasiness, close his eyes and wait to fall asleep.
But the atmosphere just now was really hard not to think too much. He Qianjian couldn't help but think about it. The more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong, and he became more and more awake. When he finally felt a little sleepy, the sky outside had already become all black.
Naturally, there were no entertainment activities in the prison. After dinner, they just watch the news. After that, they could go back to their cell and move around freely for a while. The lights would then be turned off at 8:30.
The time should be past twelve o'clock at the earliest.
He Qianjian squinted at the bed above and was about to fall asleep. However, before he could fall asleep, he suddenly woke up with a jolt. He finally knew why he had been feeling strange since he laid down on the bed.
——There was no sound from the entire cell.
Back in cell 14, at night, the sound of people snoring, talking in their sleep, and even making the bed shake when doing certain things was endless. Some of the sounds would quiet down in the early morning, but the sound of snoring definitely continued throughout the night.
With so many grown men sleeping in a small cell, and the beds close to each other, these sounds were unavoidable. He Qianjian was not used to it when he first came in. He couldn't fall asleep for several days, but he did eventually get used to these sounds.
But... after all, there were eleven grown men living in this room. Did not even a single man here grind his teeth or talk in his sleep?
He Qianjian didn't believe it, because not only were there no sounds in this room, but even the sound of breathing was weak and almost nonexistent. It was as if no one here had fallen asleep, but was holding their breath waiting for dawn to arrive.
Thinking of this, He Qianjian felt goosebumps on his arms, it was so weird.
[System!]
[What?]
[Please check for me to see if anyone here is asleep.]
The System didn't understand what He Qianjian was on about, but at such a close distance and in the same room, it could indeed analyze the person's respiratory rate and heartbeat data to get the results He Qianjian wanted. It quickly gave the answer: [One person is asleep, and the other nine people are not.]
[Who is sleeping?] He Qianjian suddenly remembered that since he came in, the person in the bed next to him had not shown his face at all, and asked: [Is it the person next to me?]
[Yes.]
Suddenly, the sound of turning over came from the next bed. He Qianjian, along with all the prisoners in the cell, tensed up for no reason.
However, it seemed that the man really just turned over, just for a moment, and soon there was no movement.
He Qianjian breathed a sigh of relief, but couldn't help but think more. The people here were obviously worried about the person in the bed next to him, but he had been here for half a year, and he hadn't heard of anyone in cell 15 that couldn't be messed with. Even Wang Hei was somewhat famous. So he concluded that this person was probably just a bit of a deal in this cell, but not a big deal within the whole prison.
After figuring this out, He Qianjian couldn't resist the sleepiness any longer and fell into a deep sleep.
He didn't notice that when he fell asleep, the person in the bed next to him sat up and stared at him for a while before lying down again.