Restricted Area

Regular inmates would only be handcuffed under special circumstances, whereas Block A inmates would be handcuffed when they stepped out of the cell, only released during the afternoon break or when doing labour.

Jiang Chijing pushed open the door to the small meeting room, telling the guard behind, “Just release his cuffs.”

The guard looked conflicted. “That isn’t too good, no?”

“It’s fine,” said Jiang Chijing. “I’ll take responsibility if anything happens.”

Zheng Mingyi flexed his wrists, following behind Jiang Chijing into the meeting room. This time, he didn’t sit at the very back, but at the first row, saying to Jiang Chijing, “Thanks, Officer Jiang.”

Jiang Chijing didn’t reply, going straight to flip open the prison rulebook and reading it aloud.

Despite being called a reformatory class on paper, it was mayhap better called a conversation. The ultimate purpose wasn’t to cleanse the inmate’s heart, but to see if the attitude had changed.

If he still held a defiant attitude, then he’d be tossed back into the confinement cell.

Following the usual flow of these classes, Jiang Chijing finished reading the content pertaining to fights and scuffles, lifting his eyes, he asked Zheng Mingyi, “Are you clear on all of this?”

Zheng Mingyi appeared a little bored, as though he wasn’t attentively listening to the contents that Jiang Chijing spoke of, but still paid lip service, “Crystal.”

Still, when it came to Zheng Mingyi’s attitude, Jiang Chijing wasn’t worried, or he wouldn’t have gotten the guard to uncuff him.

He closed the book and walked to the front of the desk, leaning his hips against it and folding his arms in front of his chest, then said to Zheng Mingyi, “Your sentence is very short, you’ll be out soon. It’s not worth it to get in trouble in prison.”

“Mm.” Zheng Mingyi acknowledged, his gaze lightly brushing over Jiang Chijing’s legs.

With the way that Jiang Chijing was leaning against the desk, his legs were stretched slightly forward and appeared long beyond measure. His legs had always been very straight; now, wrapped in the uniform pants, it assaulted the visuals with a surge of forbidden desire.

Jiang Chijing noticed Zheng Mingyi’s line of sight. He frowned faintly, asking, “Are you listening to me?”

“I am,” Zheng Mingyi raised his gaze to meet Jiang Chijing’s eyes. “I can multitask.”

In other words, he was admitting that his attention was split.

Veins faintly bulged at Jiang Chijing’s temple. “Did I ask you to multitask?”

Zheng Mingyi raised his right hand, tapping his own brain with his index finger. He said, “I can’t help it.”

At this, the fire that had surged to the roof of Jiang Chijing’s heart putted out.

He knew that feeling. Because he, too, couldn’t control himself from analysing others, nor could he control himself from taking up his monocular to look through the windows of Zheng Mingyi’s house.

Sometimes, human brains were akin to their subconscious selves, just refusing to cooperate with their external selves.

Jiang Chijing didn’t say anything more. He stood back behind the table, changing the subject. “Why did you learn how to fight?”

Actually, what Jiang Chijing wanted to ask was boxing specifically, but that would be too revealing, so he chose a safer way of putting it.

Zheng Mingyi’s punching had technique; he was obviously someone who had been trained. Among the convicted felons that Jiang Chijing had encountered, he’d never come across one like Zheng Mingyi—a guy clearly in for a financial crime, yet not losing out in the slightest to those in for more vicious crimes.

“Do you really want to know?” Zheng Mingyi asked.

“Why, is it some kind of top-secret information?” Jiang Chijing raised his eyebrows.

“Not at all,” Zheng Mingyi smiled. “Because some people were just asking for a beating.”

“Such as?”

Zheng Mingyi didn’t appear to mean to delve into the topic, but seeing that Jiang Chijing was still waiting for his continuation, he quietened for a moment. In the end, he exhaled, compromising, and said, “Such as those who laugh at me and call me illiterate.”

Frankly, this answer did surprise Jiang Chijing somewhat. He asked, “But you can read, right?”

“Yeah, it’s just hard.” Zheng Mingyi said. “The strokes form differently in my eyes than it does for most, but it isn’t that I can’t read at all.”

Dyslexic people had different spatial awareness than regular people did, which also allowed them to think better on their feet. However, it was difficult for thought processes to be judged, whereas being ‘illiterate’ tended to leave a more striking impression.

Per Jiang Chijing’s understanding, normal adults wouldn’t mock others as illiterate to their face. Recalling that Zheng Mingyi was a high school graduate, he guessed, “Did you beat up your classmates?”

“Yeah,” Zheng Mingyi said. “So I frequently transferred schools. I was what the teachers would call a stereotypical ‘academically poor’ student.

Jiang Chijing abruptly thought of a saying—advice magnanimity and the heavens will strike you down. Humans were not interconnected in their joys and sorrows. Without having walked in someone else’s shoes, yet advising them to be tolerant and magnanimous as if it was only natural, was extremely boorish behaviour.

He didn’t have any ground to criticise whether Zheng Mingyi’s method was right or wrong, but under the present circumstances, he still said, “Prison has a rather unique environment, try to refrain yourself if possible.”

Zheng Mingyi chuckled softly, saying, “I’ve said this before, I’ll listen to you, Officer Jiang.”

Compared to Jiang Chijing’s sternness, Zheng Mingyi’s tone was relaxed, making Jiang Chijing feel like he was being too nosy, fretting over something that wasn’t his business. At this moment, Zheng Mingyi spoke again. “Speaking of, Officer Jiang, since I’ve let you listen to my stuff, shouldn’t you let me hear yours too?”

“I have a very normal background,” Jiang Chijing said.

His family was decently well-off, his parents had a good relationship. Though he had a more intense curiosity than average, he was still very clear of where the boundaries lay.

“Don’t you have any special hobbies?” Zheng Mingyi asked.

Jiang Chijing’s guard abruptly rose. He was willing to wager that Zheng Mingyi hadn’t just casually put forth this question.

Flipping from passive to active, he calmly looked at Zheng Mingyi, saying, “Don’t you know?”

Zheng Mingyi gently arched an eyebrow, obviously surprised that Jiang Chijing would respond in this way. Dense interest congealed in his eyes, and the corners of his lips curved up slightly. “I’m not sure.”

From the looks of it, he wasn’t completely exposed yet.

Classic Zheng Mingyi style; Jiang Chijing had learnt it from him. Deliberately showing a little bit of a tail, luring the other onto the hook, then fishing out the information he wanted to know from the other’s mouth.

Huh, he didn’t think that this move would actually work so well.

Jiang Chijing glanced at his watch. “It’s about time. You can go back first.”

Translated on ninetysevenkoi.wordpress

After, Jiang Chijing stamped a ‘PASS’ on Zheng Mingyi’s review form. Right at noon, Zheng Mingyi’s figure reappeared in the library again.

He was still seated in the corner by the windows, only that other inmates deliberately kept a distance from him today.

Jiang Chijing scanned the quiet library. Seeing that everyone was quietly reading and not up to anything funny, he idly went through the folders to open the monitoring software, opening the visual for the neighbouring recreation room.

In actuality, Jiang Chijing didn’t check the situation over there every day. Inmates would need to pass by the front door of the library to go to the recreation room. Sometimes Jiang Chijing could roughly tell what was happening in the recreation room with just a glance at who was involved.

If it was smoking or playing cards, he couldn’t be bothered to open it. But if the people he saw surprised him, then that was a different story.

For example, today. Two people went to the recreation room together, one of whom was the thug that entered the prison at the same time as Zheng Mingyi, also the guy who groped his ass.

Whereas the other was the notorious ‘Princess’ of Southside Prison.

It only went without saying that, for an adult male to have such a nickname, had everything to do with him being a slut. But not many guys in prison dared to mess with him, because he was Xu Sheng’s ‘girl’.

Previously when Zheng Mingyi beat up Old Nine to the point of requiring external medical attention, Xu Sheng paid no heed to it. But if anyone dared to touch a hair on Princess’ head, they would be playing with dragon’s fire.

Anyone who had been in prison for any length of time wouldn’t dare to hit up Princess, only a thug like him who was still a muddleheaded greenhorn wouldn’t know that this big brother’s girl was out of bounds.

The two on the interface quickly got down to doing the deed, and Jiang Chijing gave a moment of silence for this thug before turning off the surveillance interface.

There were only two consequences to those who Princess had his eyes on. First, they slept with Princess, and got wiped by Xu Sheng for sleeping with his girl. Second, they didn’t sleep with Princess, and got wiped by Xu Sheng for disdaining his girl.

In short, no matter what, once Princess had his eyes on them, they would become a thorn in Xu Sheng’s sight. Further, Princess was a restless person who just liked to see Xu Sheng get angry for him and over him.

Jiang Chijing had found it odd, once. It wasn’t as if there weren’t other bottoms in prison who were interested in Xu Sheng, so why was Xu Sheng’s attention solely lavished on Princess?

But he later found out that it was because anyone who dared to make a move on Xu Sheng would meet with an even more tragic end under Princess’ hands.

Before, when Jiang Chijing had just started working at Southside Prison, only because he had spoken a couple of sentences to Xu Sheng, Princess stared at him for a full week. After ascertaining that he wasn’t interested in Xu Sheng, Princess stopped sauntering around the library.

Between the two, if it must be said, Xu Sheng was a bit better—at least, he didn’t actively seek to harm the innocent.

Translated on ninetysevenkoi.wordpress

About ten minutes later, the back door of the library was pushed open. Princess walked in.

Jiang Chijing glanced at the front door and saw that a thug was leaving while hoisting his pants up; the two must have finished their business.

But back to topic, why did Princess come to the library?

The last time that Princess came to the library, it was to stare at Jiang Chijing. And now, in this library…

Jiang Chijing’s nerves pulled taut all of a sudden, for he saw Princess walk straight towards Zheng Mingyi.

The tables in the library were long and there were many seats. People who didn’t know each other wouldn’t normally sit together.

However, after Princess entered the library, he went straight to sit next to Zheng Mingyi, and with his chin propped on a hand, stared unabashedly at Zheng Mingyi just like that.

Zheng Mingyi shifted his body towards the windows, impassively giving Princess a glance askance, then returning his attention to the comic book.

The library was extremely quiet. Jiang Chijing could hear Princess whisper to Zheng Mingyi in a dainty voice, “Hey handsome, you’re so macho.”

When he spoke the word ‘macho’, his lips pressed together and, when he formed the syllables, hot air seemed to blow out.

Zheng Mingyi’s brows knit. He looked at Princess, baffled. “What.”

“Was Chen Er was your doing?” Princess shifted forwards, pressing his elbows lower, angling his chin down to look at Zheng Mingyi.

“If so, so what?” Zheng Mingyi bounced back.

Unconsciously, Jiang Chijing’s eyebrows had furrowed. Zheng Mingyi, this guy, why did he have to answer Princess so honestly?

“You’re amazing.” Princess raised a finger and touched Zheng Mingyi, sliding it down his arm. “Can you teach me?”

Princess was practically stripping Zheng Mingyi with his eyes. Unable to endure it anymore, Jiang Chijing slapped the newspaper on the table, frowning as he spat out a word in their direction, “Quiet.”