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Jiang Chijing gave a start when he heard this. His first reaction was disbelief.

He said confidently, “Impossible. Xu Sheng has been in prison for over a decade, why would he break out?”

At this point, he suddenly thought of something else and swiftly followed up with another question. “That’s not right, you’re not close to him. How do you know that he’s going to break out?”

“It’s true that I’m not familiar with him.” Unlike the sharp acceleration of Jiang Chijing’s talking speed, Zheng Mingyi’s was still unhurried. “But those under him have been acting off recently.”

“How so?” Jiang Chijing asked.

“Have you heard that the inmates in Block A have been transferred to Block B due to ongoing renovations?” Zheng Mingyi asked.

Jiang Chijing had heard about the plans the prison had to renovate the cells, but he didn’t pay attention to the specifics of it.

“Many areas will be repainted during the renovations,” Zheng Mingyi said. “Those in the painting division are responsible for this.”

Speaking of painting, many of the people in Xu Sheng’s faction were allocated to do labour in the paint factory, including Old Nine.

“What does painting have to do with breaking out?” Jiang Chijing couldn’t help but ask.

“It’s a bit complicated to explain,” said Zheng Mingyi. “The guys in painting were divided into two teams and they take turns to work overtime at Block A. Even though there is overtime pay, most of them were very reluctant to continue work at night.”

“Those who don’t work overtime will join the others to take care of their personal hygiene before eight in the evening. But I suddenly noticed that Xu Sheng hasn’t come to the showers for many days in a row. When I observed, I discovered that he was actually pulling overtime at Block A every night, only returning to Block B after nine.”

“What if he’s trying to earn more money?” Jiang Chijing asked.

“That is possible, so I didn’t pay much attention to it either,” Zheng Mingyi said. “But two days ago when I went to the washroom by the strawberry shed, I happened to bump into a few people who had come from the paint factory, and indistinctly heard something about ‘making sure that boss is in Block A on that day.'”

The paint factory and the greenhouses shared a washroom. This was also something that Jiang Chijing had only found out when people came to visit last week. He asked, “Which day?”

“I can’t think of any day that would stand out in a renovating block as well. I considered that it was the completion date at first,” Zheng Mingyi said, “but if that’s the case, he wouldn’t have to be there every day. Also, it wasn’t that important to finish renovations.”

Jiang Chijing gave it a thought. “Then that means that ‘that day’ is a chance event. Xu Sheng needs to be there every day to be sure.”

“Right.” Zheng Mingyi gave a faint smile, as if not expecting that Jiang Chijing would be analysing while listening to him. “I later considered what conditions there could be, but just the general gist of it, I didn’t take it too seriously. It wasn’t until I noticed Old Nine acting weird in the past two days that I began thinking in the direction of prison break.”

“Old Nine?” Even if Jiang Chijing was following him in his mind, he didn’t spend as much of his time in contact with inmates as Zheng Mingyi, so he wasn’t able to tell how Old Nine was acting weird.

“He’s been a little trigger-happy recently,” Zheng Mingyi said. “You might not be aware but he had kept in line for a while after coming back from the hospital and didn’t dare to take things up with me. But recently, the feeling he gives me is as though…”

Pausing, Zheng Mingyi seemed unable to find a good comparison, and said, “As though there’s a throne for him to inherit.”

“You mean, he’s solidifying his position in prison?” Jiang Chijing said. “But we can deduce from this that Xu Sheng might be leaving.”

“Yeah. Don’t you get that feeling?” Zheng Mingyi said.

“A bit.” Jiang Chijing said, “All I did was cuff him but he was so insistent on trying to get back at me to reclaim his reputation.”

“So if you continue down this tangent, you can narrow the scope of the chance event; it must be connected to outside.” Zheng Mingyi said, “I happened to have lunch near a few people from the painting division who don’t have any ties to Xu Sheng yesterday, and I checked under what circumstances would people come in from outside.”

At this point, Zheng Mingyi abruptly stopped, like keeping him in suspense to whet his appetite. Jiang Chijing had to wheedle, “What circumstances?”

“It turns out that the paint used for renovations is different from the paint mixed in the prison factory. The supplier will be sending another batch of paint soon.”

“Does Xu Sheng intend to blend in as they leave? But that can’t be, unless the people sending the paint…” Pausing, Jiang Chijing’s words took a turn. “No, it’s possible. Xu Sheng has many contacts outside.”

“Furthermore, the recent watch on Block A is very lax. The guards have been focusing their attention on Block B since the inmates have been moved there.”

“But there will be stringent checks on the vehicles coming in and out, as well as guard dogs…” Jiang Chijing said, then paused again.

“The strong smell of paint will interfere with the guard dogs’ sense of smell,” Zheng Mingyi said.

With everything lining up, even Jiang Chijing felt that it was a perfect opportunity.

But this deduction was limited by the available information they had. If there existed other circumstances beyond what was known to them, the result might not be the same. Also, the most important point…

“What’s Xu Sheng’s motive?” Jiang Chijing still couldn’t figure it out. “I don’t think that he’d want to break out of prison.”

“You can just ask him directly,” Zheng Mingyi leisurely said.

Here, Jiang Chijing suddenly found something amiss. Why was Zheng Mingyi telling him this?

Based on Zheng Mingyi’s personality, that he couldn’t even be bothered to deal with the community staff showed that he wouldn’t normally poke his nose into other people’s business. Regardless of whether Xu Sheng broke out, he shouldn’t have given it much thought.

However, by telling Jiang Chijing about this at this time, he had obviously changed his mind. After understanding Xu Sheng better, he was now willing to give Jiang Chijing an opportunity to stop him.

Escaping from prison wasn’t an insignificant infraction. Even if the opportunity was ripe and Xu Sheng managed to successfully break out, he would likely be recaptured in the future. Based on his present performance, it was possible that his life sentence could be reduced to a fixed term. But if he was caught in an escape attempt, he could only dream of getting out in this lifetime.

Translated on ninetysevenkoi.wordpress

***

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When Zheng Mingyi left for his afternoon labour, Jiang Chijing continued sitting in the library for a while.

He had never liked to butt into inmates’ business, but this was a special situation. As a prison officer, he couldn’t turn a blind eye to an inmate making plans to break out. However, he also couldn’t rashly report it above when there was still so much uncertainty.

Jiang Chijing didn’t spend too long wavering. He bore the heat of the sun to find Xu Sheng in the paint factory.

“Officer Jiang?”

At the door of the paint factory, Xu Sheng paused, surprise written all over his face when he saw Jiang Chijing.

The two of them weren’t familiar with each other. It was one thing to meet when delivering mail in the morning, but it was unprecedented for Jiang Chijing to come to the factory to look for Xu Sheng.

“What is it? Is Old Nine still making trouble for you?” Xu Sheng took off his linen gloves.

Jiang Chijing glanced at the people in the industrial shed and told Xu Sheng, “Follow me.”

Xu Sheng didn’t ask more, going with Jiang Chijing to a shady area next to the shed.

Jiang Chijing initially thought of going about it discreetly, but on second thought, they weren’t close to begin with, so he wouldn’t be able to find a breakthrough point at all. Thus, he directly asked out of the blue, “Why do you want to break out of prison?”

Xu Sheng’s gaze sharpened, and a ruthless look at once flitted across his face. But it swiftly smoothed out, and he said expressionlessly, “Officer Jiang, I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

Although Xu Sheng didn’t affirm it, his expression had already betrayed him. Jiang Chijing’s move had succeeded in catching Xu Sheng off-guard.

“It’s no use faking it anymore, Xu Sheng.” Jiang Chijing crossed his arms in front of his chest and said calmly, “I have my sources. I know that you’re planning to break out.”

Xu Sheng didn’t respond and the two of them stood at a stalemate for a while. Eventually, Xu Sheng was still the first to cave, exhaling. “Are you going to report me then, Officer Jiang?”

“Why?” Jiang Chijing didn’t give an answer, asking a question in response instead. “Is it because of Princess? But he still has a few years before his release.”

Xu Sheng smiled, as if this reason amused him. He inhaled and exhaled heavily, and he said, “It has nothing to do with him. The old ma’am is going to die.”

Jiang Chijing’s eyebrows smoothed. He immediately caught on that Xu Sheng was talking about Ah Wei’s mother, the one to whom he was always writing.

“She has a weak heart and now it’s barely holding up.” Xu Sheng said, “The doctor said that if she goes under the knife, she should be able to live for a few more years.”

Jiang Chijing unconsciously parted his mouth, wanting to ask why that elderly woman was going to die, but he stopped his tongue in time, shoving the words back down his throat.

Because he knew that this elderly couple was poor.

“Officer Jiang, did you think that threatening me with the mail would really work?” Xu Sheng suddenly changed the subject to bring up what happened this morning.

Jiang Chijing could tell that Xu Sheng was leading somewhere, so he quietly waited for him to continue.

“I said that you’re a good man because I know that you are one,” Xu Sheng said. “About half a year ago, the old ma’am came to look for me once, and this was also the only time she had in the many years. At that time, the old pops was involved in a hit-and-run car accident and bound to a wheelchair for the rest of his life, but the perpetrator was never found.”

Hearing this, Jiang Chijing’s brows subtly creased, vaguely guessing why Xu Sheng would mention this.

“The old ma’am said that she didn’t want the living expenses I sent her. But it was true that money was tight then, so she would return it to me at a later date.” Xu Sheng looked at Jiang Chijing, his voice calm as he spoke. “I got my brothers outside to look into it, Officer Jiang. You were the one who sent them the money.”

Jiang Chijing shifted his gaze away, tacitly admitting to Xu Sheng’s words.

Though he wasn’t fond of butting into inmates’ business, to recompense for his sin of voyeurism, he was used to having an openness for helping others—bad people aside.

At that time, he coincidentally came across Xu Sheng’s story and found out that the elderly couple was having a rough time. Pulling a few strings, he sent them two thousand dollars.

Two thousand dollars wasn’t noteworthy to Jiang Chijing. But it was an entire year’s living expenses for the elderly couple.

“I don’t have the money to return you, so I’ve always pretended not to know this,” Xu Sheng said. “When you looked for me in the morning, you actually didn’t need to threaten me. I would have helped you take care of Old Nine, regardless.”

All right. It appeared that there was some discrepancy between Jiang Chijing’s previous analysis and reality. However, a thought suddenly occurred to him, and he asked, “So did you hide your motive for murder back then because of the old madam?”

This was because Xu Sheng had just said that the elderly woman had a weak heart.

“You know about that?” Xu Sheng’s brows furrowed in surprise. But perhaps considering that Jiang Chijing even knew that he wanted to break out, he quickly recovered and said, “As well as the old pops. He is prideful, the type who would refuse to borrow even a single grain of rice from his neighbours.”

Jiang Chijing said, puzzled, “Why do you care about them this much?”

Xu Sheng quietened. His gaze turned vacant, like he was immersed in the memories of his past. A while later, he slowly moved his mouth to speak. “My parents passed on when I was young and I entered society in my teens. That’s how I met Ah Wei. His parents treated me like their own son. No one ever treated me so well before.”

“So Ah Wei did turn out to be the culprit behind the serial torture-murder case,” Jiang Chijing said. “But that elderly couple had already lost their son; you didn’t want them to receive a double blow.”

“It’s not just a double blow.” Xu Sheng didn’t deny it. “Back then, because I killed Ah Wei, the old ma’am almost went under. If they knew that their own son had done all that, the old ma’am’s heart would most probably give way and the old pops probably wouldn’t have any pride left to keep living on. They’d probably be six feet under by now.”

If the case was investigated in full, it was impossible for the verdict to be kept from the public. Xu Sheng had to take it all on himself in order to protect this elderly couple, otherwise, considering the circumstances, he would possibly only be given a sentence of three to five years.

It was unnecessary for Jiang Chijing to ask about how the confrontation between Xu Sheng and Ah Wei went down. Perhaps Xu Sheng had accidentally discovered that Ah Wei was the murderer and tried to persuade him out of it to no avail, and Xu Sheng, losing control, had killed him.

Jiang Chijing fell silent for a while, unsure what he could say. His heart was complicated as he said, “Then have you considered the families of his victims? They might still be waiting for an answer.”

“Officer Jiang. I’m not a saint, I don’t care about all that.” Xu Sheng said, “I have my own justice, and my justice is to repay the kindness that the elderly couple showed me.”

The moral standards in Jiang Chijing’s mind had always been clear-cut, but what happened to Xu Sheng made him wonder for the first time how to judge what was right and wrong. He prompted, “Don’t you care about Princess anymore? What should he do if you run away?”

“I don’t have a choice, Officer Jiang.” Xu Sheng gave a bitter laugh. “Actually, he seldom hooks up with others in the recent, but knowing that I want to break out, he started to manically sleep around again to vent his upset.”

It suddenly dawned on Jiang Chijing. No wonder Princess went gunning for Zheng Mingyi right after finding the thug; it turned out that there was such a complicated reason behind it.

However, this also spoke lengths about something. Princess had accepted by default that Xu Sheng wouldn’t return. So using Princess to compel him against escape wouldn’t hold any weight.

“Then what exactly are you going to do after you get out?” Jiang Chijing didn’t give up, going on to ask, “Raise money for the old madam’s operation?”

“I have a few contacts working in a jewellery store.” Xu Sheng said indifferently, “I’ll just do this one gig and stop after.”

“Xu Sheng!” Jiang Chijing’s voice raised in astonishment, but he checked the surroundings before making sure to keep his voice down as he rebuked, “Are you insane? Are you actually going to commit robbery?”

“I’ve said this already, Officer Jiang. I don’t have any choice,” Xu Sheng said.

Jiang Chijing took a deep breath. He asked, “How much is the surgery?”

Xu Sheng reported a number that was astronomical for an ordinary household. He went on. “Old pops is bound to a wheelchair; he can’t take care of the old ma’am, and even has to worry about the post-surgical care. I only have this one chance. I have to get it in one shot.”

Even if Jiang Chijing was open to helping others, his kindness didn’t extend to willingly shouldering the financial burdens of two strangers for the rest of their lives.

Xu Sheng seemed to be able to read Jiang Chijing’s thoughts. He said, “Officer Jiang, just don’t do anything.”

There was a deeper layer to these words. Jiang Chijing’s expression turned steely, but he then heard Xu Sheng say, “Officer Jiang, I’ve only begged once in my life, and that was to beg Ah Wei to stop. Now, I’m begging you. Don’t do anything.”

If Jiang Chijing wasn’t a prison officer, after hearing these words, he might really stay out of it.

But the problem was he had a professional obligation. He couldn’t simply feign ignorance.

Now it appeared that Jiang Chijing couldn’t dissuade Xu Sheng. If he continued trying, perhaps even his own bottom line would be shaken.

He must think it through properly, and also get Zheng Mingyi to think it through with him. There must surely be another way to handle this.