CH 176 Prison Conflict
Translated by The BL Muse (ko-fi)
Although he had promised old Mr. Miao, Jiang Chen had some difficulties.
The He family and the Yang family belong to different fields, and there was not much overlap between the two families. He Yanfeng's Tunan Group had no business dealings with Yanghui International. In addition, although Yang Hui was still the chairman of Yanghui International, he hadn't been to the company for a long time, and it was not easy to see him.
While Jiang Chen was thinking about how to contact Mr. Yang Hui, He Qianjian was not idle in prison.
[Are you sure you sent the data from Jiang Chen’s system to the boss of Yanghui Technology?]
Sticking close to the head of the bed, He Qianjian huddled up, avoiding the sight of others and talking to the System in his head.
[Not only that, Yang Hui’s general manager has now formed a project team to crack the program of Changjiang. Although it is impossible for them to crack Changjiang with their ability, it is exactly because of this that they will never allow Changjiang to be successfully listed.]
"Ha."
He Qianjian couldn't help but laugh. There was a sudden sound in the cell. He froze when he realized. The others also looked over quietly.
The same numb and haggard faces all looked at the same place. As the one who was focused on, He Qianjian's back was covered with goosebumps, and cold sweat gradually covered his forehead.
He turned his head back stiffly, as if it could make a clicking sound. In this absolutely silent cell, even the subtle sound of hair and pillow rubbing was extremely loud. When he met the eyes of the man in the bed next to him, He Qianjian's scalp became even more numb.
The others also saw the man sitting up, and their eyes that were looking this way quickly flitted away, as if they had seen something terrifying, the speed and order of their movements making the situation even more weird.
He Qianjian's already huddled body tightened even more.
He had always wanted to change his cell before, and he was a little happy after changing it. Who knew that it had barely even been two days of moving here when he realized something was deeply wrong here? However, no matter how much he asked, no one told him about the man at the end of the cell, including fellow inmates in the same cell. Staying in this weird atmosphere, huge uneasiness surrounded him, making him always cautious, imitating what others were doing, and not daring to close his eyes to sleep in the middle of the night. Within a week, he became haggard and weak.
Finally, when he was out for a walk, he met Zhou Yang, who had been transferred to another post, and he got some news from him.
Hearing the information he wanted, He Qianjian not only did not feel relieved, but became even more frightened. There was a madman sleeping in the bed next to him who could break out and attack others at any time. Moreover, it was currently the most dangerous period, and he slept just one meter away from him. How could He Qianjian be able to sleep, how could he live here with peace of mind?
Although he knew that he only had about a week to stay here, just thinking how he was in danger at all times, He Qianjian still begged Zhou Yang to help him move to another cell.
However, it was not easy to change cells. Zhou Yang was just a young prison guard who had just worked for a short time, so there was no way he could help him.
In this way, He Qianjian could only continue to stay here in fear.
Fortunately, although the time was difficult to endure, it passed little by little. In two days, there would be a reading club event, and then he could take advantage of the chaos to escape from prison.
The closer it was to the time when he could be free and get out of the current situation, the more cautious He Qianjian became, fearing that some accident would disrupt his escape plan, so he and the abnormal-looking man in the bed next to him remained at peace. Who would have thought, this complacency caused him to accidentally violate the rules of this cell.
It was eerily quiet in the cell.
As the man in the bed next to him slowly sat up, He Qianjian's horrified expression could hardly be concealed.
The man was probably in his thirties, as thin as a bag of bones, with sunken eye sockets and sickly pale skin. At this time, he was looking at He Qianjian intently, his eyes falling on his trembling mouth. His voice was hoarse and rough: "What were you laughing at just now?"
He Qianjian's teeth chattered and he could not control his trembling. Thinking of the news he heard from Zhou Yang, he shrank back.
But he didn't dare not answer: "Just something funny."
"What was it?"
Could he say that the person who sent him to prison was going to be unlucky? He Qianjian didn't dare to say that. He gritted his teeth and showed a trace of sadness on his face, "I couldn't help but laugh when I thought of the time I spent with my family."
The man seemed to have heard something funny. His rough voice was rusty when he laughed, but he stopped laughing and stared at him with a pair of deep-set eyes for a few seconds. When he spoke again, his tone was gloomy: “Do you know where the last person who lied to me is now?”
He Qianjian trembled and almost jumped in shock, but he did not dare to move. He could only stare stiffly at the man, using his acting skills to convince the man that he was not lying.
"I, I, I really thought of my family..."
He Qianjian's teeth chattered. Even when facing the boss of cell 16 who beat him and Brother Hei, who was in the same cell before, he was not so scared. After all, no matter how much normal people go to extremes, he knew the maximum they could do, but if you wanted to guess what a madman would do, you might have to be crazy yourself.
The man asked again: "Which family member?"
"My parents."
The muscles on the man's face twitched, and his hand on the quilt moved as if he wanted to do something. He Qianjian said immediately: "My adoptive parents were very good to me before they found their biological son. Today is my adoptive mother’s birthday, I couldn’t help but laugh when I thought about the time I spent my birthday with them before!”
"Adoptive parents?" The man's sparse eyebrows furrowed, seeming to be interested, "Tell me about it."
This was the first time He Qianjian had spoken to this man since he arrived in this cell. He had always been good at reading people's hearts and faces, but today this skill was not very effective. He could only repeat the version of the story that he told to Zhou Yang before with a trembling voice.
But before he finished speaking, the man suddenly jumped up violently and punched him in the stomach. Before he could even begin retching, he kicked him off the iron frame bed and stepped on his face. Looking at him condescendingly, the hoarse and unpleasant voice seemed to come from hell: "Didn't I just tell you what happened to the last person who lied to me?"
He Qianjian curled up in a ball. The man stepping on him was as thin as a bag of bones. He looked like a skeleton, but his strength was astonishing. The punch just hit him in the stomach, but it felt like his internal organs were all moved out of place, and the pain was so great that he couldn't even make a sound other than gasping for air and breaking into a cold sweat.
The people on the other beds seemed to have anticipated the situation before them. Everyone covered their heads with their quilts, as if they didn't hear any movement at all. They were all extremely quiet.
He Qianjian's cheek was stepped on so hard that he had to open his mouth to breathe out. His words were slurred, but he didn't dare to lie to him anymore: "I'm sorry...please, please..."
The man moved his foot, stepped on his chest, squatted down and said, "I want to hear the true story."
He Qianjian’ legs trembled, not daring to ask the man to move his foot. He recounted what had happened between him and Jiang Chen intermittently. He only dared to omit the System, and did not dare to falsify a word of the rest.
No one else in the cell was asleep. After listening to what He Qianjian said, they didn't feel much at all. The people who could be locked up here were not people with normal views. At most, they could only sigh at how unlucky the one named Jiang Chen from the He family, the real eldest young master was.
After hearing what He Qianjian said, it was as if the man had indeed just heard a bedtime story. He let go of him and went back to his iron frame bed to sleep.
He Qianjian lay on the ground and didn't dare to move. It wasn't until he heard a slight snoring next to him that he got up on shaking legs, not daring to make a single sound, and slowly returned to his bed.
At noon the next day, in the prison cafeteria.
Under everyone's gaze, the skinny man walked over and sat down next to He Qianjian.
He Qianjian was holding a bowl of soup cautiously, his hands couldn't help trembling. He could ignore the eyes from all directions, but the gloomy and terrifying face of the man next to him, and the deeply sunken eyes made his hair stand on end.
Some people were talking in low voices, and some newcomers were confused as to why the cafeteria was suddenly quiet. The prisoners next to them would say a thing or two if they were in the mood. In the midst of the whispers, there was a sudden bang. Those originally quietly looking over noticed the situation there immediately.
They saw that the young man who had just been holding a bowl of soup had fallen to the ground. The sound just now was the sound of him hitting the ground with the bowl and chopsticks. Those who didn't see it were confused as to why he suddenly fell. Those who saw it leaned over and spoke in low voices:
"Don't know what they were saying just now, but the lunatic in cell 15 suddenly grabbed chopsticks and stabbed him in the face. That guy was so frightened that he fell to the ground."
The person who asked the question was a newcomer and asked in confusion: "Didn't he miss? And you can just dodge to the side. Why lay down on the ground?"
The senior prisoner looked at the newcomer's ignorant and fearless speech, shook his head, and had no more kindness to explain to him.
The newcomer wanted to ask again, but suddenly he heard a mocking and gloating voice coming from the side: "What's that puddle under his pants? Don't tell me he peed his pants."
Some people had the courage to crane their necks to take a look, but then looked away in disgust.
"It seems like he really did pee his pants."
The bowl of soup just poured was farther away, with a piece of dry ground between it and He Qianjian's pants. If it was really spilled, it shouldn't be like this.
He Qianjian didn't care whether he looked pathetic or not. When the pair of chopsticks were thrust at him, his mind instantly recalled what Zhou Yang told him about the man next to him——that he had poked out the eyes of another prisoner. Almost instantly, he was so frightened that his mind went blank. He was so scared that he wanted to run away, and he didn't care if he tripped over a stool.
The man who was as thin as a bamboo pole seemed to find his reaction interesting, and even flashed a slightly rusty and twisted smile: "I just want to have a taste of the food in your bowl."
He Qianjian no longer dared to remain here, and ran away on stumbling and shaking legs.