Restricted Area

“That’s none of your business.”

Before Luo Hai could answer, Jiang Chijing pulled Zheng Mingyi’s arm, bringing him to the library door.

It wasn’t yet two o’clock, so the inmates in the library hadn’t left. Jiang Chijing notified the prison guard who helped him keep a lookout and stood at the door. While watching the inmates inside, he asked Zheng Mingyi what he hadn’t managed to just now. “How do you know that Xu Sheng wasn’t putting force into it?”

The corners of Zheng Mingyi’s lips had split; it seriously didn’t look like he was holding back.

“I can feel it.” After answering this, Zheng Mingyi swiftly followed up to ask, “Did you and Dr. Luo date before?”

Zheng Mingyi had already asked this question thrice. Jiang Chijing knew that there wasn’t any way for him to get around it, so he rapidly replied “yes” and asked again, “Is it that obvious when he’s letting up?”

“Very,” said Zheng Mingyi, expressionless. “How long ago was that?”

“A few years ago,” said Jiang Chijing. “Why would Xu Sheng go easy on you?”

“I don’t know,” said Zheng Mingyi. “How long did you date?”

Jiang Chijing unconsciously readied to give an answer, then abruptly found that there was something weird about the tempo of this conversation. It wasn’t as if the two of them were playing some kind of spy game, exchanging an answer for an answer, so why was it that as their chat progressed, one thing became a chat about two separate things?

“Zheng Mingyi,” Jiang Chijing deliberately slowed the pace. “Are you very concerned about my love life?”

“Have you forgotten what you said before?”

In the past, when speaking to Jiang Chijing, Zheng Mingyi would always have the words ‘Officer Jiang’ hanging off the tip of his tongue, affecting a serious-but-not-quite show of respect.

Now, let alone respect, his voice conversely carried a palpable oppressive pressure, making it seem as though Jiang Chijing had done something to wrong him.

“What did I say?” Jiang Chijing returned.

“You told me that you didn’t like men,” Zheng Mingyi said.

Huh. That was what Jiang Chijing had casually fibbed when Zheng Mingyi had seen through the gender of his blind date. Who would have known that he would be hung up over it to this day?

From this perspective, Jiang Chijing did seem a little insincere, even being this slipshod when pulling a bluff. But the problem was, he didn’t believe that Zheng Mingyi had been fooled in the first place.

“I’m bent, isn’t it obvious?” Jiang Chijing said, cool and blunt.

“Then what’s so good about Dr. Luo?” Zheng Mingyi asked.

To Jiang Chijing, his dating history with Luo Hai was a thing of the far past. He didn’t have the faintest memory of how their love felt back then anymore.

Besides, what did this have to do with Zheng Mingyi?

“Ex-boyfriend, i.e. past tense.” Jiang Chijing didn’t get why he had to explain, either. “Do you understand what past tense means?”

Zheng Mingyi pursed his lips without answering, but some of the unhappiness clouding his eyes finally dispelled.

Jiang Chijing grasped the chance to continue the previous topic. “You said that Xu Sheng wasn’t putting force into it, but what if that’s the limit of his strength?”

“Not even close,” Zheng Mingyi pointed to the wound on the corner of his lips. “If I used my full strength, I can knock out a tooth.”

They were clearly discussing Xu Sheng, yet Zheng Mingyi talked about his own strength.

Jiang Chijing inexplicably sensed a vicious undertone in Zheng Mingyi’s voice, as though he did, in fact, want to knock off someone’s teeth. Fearing that Zheng Mingyi was developing a thirst for revenge against Xu Sheng, he hurriedly said, “Then Xu Sheng should have known when to stop and was only faking it.”

“Mm,” Zheng Mingyi absently responded in assent.

Since he was only faking it, even voluntarily letting Zheng Mingyi go after, it stated that this matter ended here. In the future, Xu Sheng and Princess wouldn’t be knocking on Zheng Mingyi’s door anymore.

From Old Nine to Chen Er, and now to Xu Sheng, Zheng Mingyi managed to extricate himself safely each time.

While his image in those rumours wasn’t anything grand, several longer-standing inmates now kept a deliberate distance when they saw him. Likely, other inmates would take care not to mess with him in the future.

Jiang Chijing and Zheng Mingyi walked into the library. Those who had their faces pressed up to the windows watching the excitement were now with their heads buried in books, trying to diminish their sense of existence.

There were several small cliques formed within the inmates at Southside Prison, for example, those sharing a cell or with the same labour assignments, and so on. But no matter the conflict between these cliques, there would always be a common consensus, and that was not to cross Xu Sheng and those under him.

Now, these people seemed to have newly formed a new common consensus—don’t cross Zheng Mingyi.

The inmate seated at the first row nearest the windows automatically gave up his seat to Zheng Mingyi. Zheng Mingyi, as usual, took the comic book he always read, as though others giving way to him was only natural.

He really had the makings of a kingpin in prison.

Jiang Chijing held up the newspaper, sighing softly.

When others were unjustly incarcerated, they would spend the whole day thinking up ways on how to clear their name. When Zheng Mingyi was unjustly incarcerated, he was more than fine, not even doing things the proper way but making sure to first establish his position in prison.

If Jiang Chijing didn’t know that Zheng Mingyi was innocent, he would probably feel that this guy was quite suited for prison life.

But this works fine, too. In the rumours, Jiang Chijing was someone who had topped Zheng Mingyi. If these people didn’t even dare to cross Zheng Mingyi, then they surely wouldn’t come looking for trouble with him.

Just as he thought of this, an inmate suddenly walked through the front door of the library, saying, “Officer Jiang, I want to report someone smoking in the recreation room.”

Jiang Chijing glanced at the person who came in. This person was a ‘regular’ in the recreation room who often went in there to smoke himself. Once hearing that this guy wanted to raise a report, he immediately felt that something was afoot.

“Who?” Jiang Chijing asked.

“You’ll know when you check it out.”

Jiang Chijing was in the infirmary the whole time just now and wasn’t clear of who had entered the recreation room. From the looks of it, he guessed that it could be a little skirmish between inmates contesting for the right to use the recreation room.

Jiang Chijing couldn’t be bothered to step in. But since an inmate had come up to him, as a prison officer, he couldn’t shake his hands off of it.

He followed behind this guy out through the front door of the library. However, before heading towards the recreation room, he unconsciously glanced towards the staircase and saw that the prison guard that was usually stationed there on the second floor had disappeared.

“That guard has gone to the washroom.”

Hearing this, Jiang Chijing suddenly got a strange premonition.

It wasn’t anything odd for a prison guard to go to the washroom. But the washroom was situated in a corner leading to the connecting corridor. Unless this inmate just happened to see the guard turn into the corridor when leaving the recreation room, it was impossible for him to know that the guard had gone to the washroom.

But therein lay a problem too.

If the guard turned into the corridor, he could also be heading towards Block C. Jiang Chijing could only think of one possibility as to how this inmate from the recreation room knew so clearly that the guard went to the washroom—another inmate had lured the guard in there.

Interesting.

Jiang Chijing sneered in his head, treading on his Dr. Martens boots towards the recreation room.

He didn’t like inmates stirring trouble, but it didn’t mean that he was afraid of those who came looking for trouble with him. It was might as well; he hadn’t had worked out in a long while, those people came by at just the right time.

When Jiang Chijing pushed open the door to the recreation room, there was indeed a man smoking inside.

This was an inmate from Block A, nicknamed Ma Liu, convicted for the rape and murder of a young man.

Back when Jiang Chijing first started working at Southside Prison, this was the guy who kept coming on to him the most. But ever since Jiang Chijing beat up a prisoner who tried to sexually harass him, he, like others, gave up on the idea of laying hands on Jiang Chijing.

“Put the joint out.” Jiang Chijing coldly said.

“Yes, sir~” As though having long expected Jiang Chijing, Ma Liu extinguished the cigarette on the windowsill and walked directly towards Jiang Chijing. “I heard that Officer Jiang has recently found a new sweetheart.”

A rumour could contain many pieces of information. But there would always be some who chose only to focus on what matched their conjectures or what they wanted to hear.

For example, those rumours of Jiang Chijing and Zheng Mingyi. No matter whether Jiang Chijing was a top or bottom in them, this rapist Ma Liu would only focus on one thing—Jiang Chijing, as expected, turned out to be a prison officer who would have sexual relations with inmates.

This meant that he could have a go at it, too.

“What, do you feel it’s any of your business?” Jiang Chijing impatiently moved his lips, his contempt evident on his face. “Take a piss and check out your reflection.”

“That’s not the way things go, Officer Jiang.” A sickening smile spread across Ma Liu’s face. “Let’s be reasonable men, shall we? How would you know what works if you don’t give it a try?”

“No need for that.” Jiang Chijing turned his head and eyed who he brought over. As expected, someone was firmly guarding the recreation room door. “I’m counting to three. Both of you’d better get the fuck out of here.”

“C’mon, isn’t that Zheng dude impotent? Why, it’s probably only this big, no?” Ma Liu said, holding out his pinkie. “If you can feel good playing with something like that, why don’t you have some fun with a real man?”

“Yeahyeah, how much fun can you get with an impotent—”

Jiang Chijing unhooked the baton by his waist, in the blink of an eye, whirling over to swing it into the head of the one behind him.

That man slammed heavily against the cabinets by the side, and the two tin cabinets grated against each other with loud clanging noises.

“Who’s fucking impotent?” Jiang Chijing spun over, pointing at Ma Liu’s nose with the baton. “I dare you to say that again?”

Actually, Jiang Chijing could already notify the patrol team and call them over with the walkie-talkie at this point. But he didn’t, because, by his estimate, these two hadn’t been taught their place yet.

“Why do I need to repeat something that everyone knows?”

Here, Ma Liu shot a look behind Jiang Chijing. On his toes, Jiang Chijing checked behind him and kicked the man who was pouncing over. But this gave Ma Liu an opening; he seized the opportunity to restrain Jiang Chijing’s upper body from behind.

“Quickly come over and gag him!”

The man, who had been kicked flying, clutched his stomach as he staggered over. Jiang Chijing gauged the timing and, using the hold on his upper body, jumped up to kick that man in the jaw, knocking him unconscious with his eyes rolled back this time.

When his feet landed back down, Jiang Chijing elbowed Ma Liu behind him, and with the leeway he gained, twisted over, flinging his baton down.

But right as the baton was inches away from Ma Liu’s face, someone suddenly appeared and caught Jiang Chijing’s wrist, stopping his attack. Before Jiang Chijing could react, Zheng Mingyi appeared beside him and punched Ma Liu in the face.

A tooth with blood streaking in its wake ricocheted to the wall, rebounding to land next to Jiang Chijing’s foot.

Stunned, he watched Zheng Mingyi let go of his wrist, then make to grab Ma Liu’s collar instead, sending fist after fist over.

This time, what flew from Ma Liu’s mouth wasn’t teeth but fresh blood.

And the first thought that flashed through Jiang Chijing’s mind was—well, it appeared that Zheng Mingyi wasn’t lying. He really could knock out someone’s tooth with one punch.

But now wasn’t the time for him to get distracted. Zheng Mingyi threw out fist after fist, and not long later, Ma Liu’s face was beaten bloody.

“Zheng Mingyi!” Jiang Chijing hurriedly held him back. “You’re going too far, stop it!”

Zheng Mingyi finally released Ma Liu’s collar. Ma Liu had long lost consciousness, and his whole body slumped to the ground.

Jiang Chijing used his walkie-talkie to notify the patrol team and Luo Hai to come over, then told Zheng Mingyi, “I know you mean well, but I could have settled it myself.”

“I wasn’t doing it out of kindness, Officer Jiang,” Zheng Mingyi flicked the blood covering his hands, leisurely saying, “I was just in a bad mood today and wanted to vent.”

Jiang Chijing, “……”

Fine, he’d probably read too much into it.

“Don’t say that when they investigate later,” Jiang Chijing reminded. “Just say you were helping me out, they’ll add to your performance points.”

“All right,” Zheng Mingyi said. “Speaking of, why did you start fighting with them?”

“Nothing much.”

It really was nothing much, no more than those two saying that Zheng Mingyi was small and impotent, and that was all.

With the subject brought up, Jiang Chijing’s thoughts once again deviated out of control; he recalled how, just now, in the infirmary, he had accidentally sat in Zheng Mingyi’s embrace. All else aside, as far as he was concerned, Zheng Mingyi really, wasn’t, small, by, any, measure.

“Officer Jiang.”

Zheng Mingyi’s voice cut into Jiang Chijing’s thoughts. He raised his lowered gaze and looked at Zheng Mingyi, asking, “What is it?”

“You remind me of my childhood,” said Zheng Mingyi.

“Childhood?” Jiang Chijing was baffled. It was yet another day of being unable to keep up with Zheng Mingyi’s leaping logic.

“When I was young, I really liked to watch an animation—” here, Zheng Mingyi paused slightly. “—called Pokonyan (pun, staring-at-crotch cat).”

Jiang Chijing, “……”

Ugh. Yet another day of getting caught in the act.