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Urgent

The thunderous engine died down, and a hot gust of exhaust billowed into his face.

The driver leaned half his body out of the window, looking at Jiang Chijing, asking, “What is it, Officer?”

“Get down,” Jiang Chijing used the torch to point at the ground then at the driver’s cabin, “Routine check.”

The vehicle exit was a few hundred metres away, where several sentries were stationed there. Under normal circumstances, there wouldn’t be anyone pulling the vehicle midway for a check.

The driver exchanged a look with his colleague, visibly confused at the situation. But he still stopped the engine and both people jumped down from the driver’s cabin.

“Stand to one side.” Jiang Chijing chased them off to the roadside before getting into the cabin to begin his check.

The space inside wasn’t small. Aside from the two seats in front, a mattress was even placed behind. It should be for long journeys, allowing the two drivers to take shifts between driving and resting.

However, despite Jiang Chijing carefully checking every corner of the driver’s cabin, it was unable to hide someone as large as Xu Sheng. He stepped on the side of the driver’s seat and straightened up to check the roof of the truck, but there was naught a suspicious silhouette to be found.

Then, Jiang Chijing carefully checked the bottom of the truck and the cargo bed, even tapping the bottom of each empty storage tank with his baton, but it was to no avail.

The two delivery men were obviously perplexed by this, asking Jiang Chijing, “What are you looking for, Officer? We’re only here to send paint, we’re not up to anything bad.”

Jiang Chijing searched from the top again but still found nothing out of place. He came before the two men and questioned, “Are there no others hidden on the vehicle?”

“How’s that possible? Is there some kind of misunderstanding?”

“We’re just here to deliver goods, we don’t know anything else at all.”

From their expressions, the two of them didn’t look like they were telling lies; they looked like regular delivery men. Jiang Chijing uneasily searched once more, practically turning the truck upside down, but was still unable to ferret out Xu Sheng’s hiding place.

Was it possible that Xu Sheng wasn’t escaping through this method?

But Jiang Chijing was very certain that this was the only vehicle coming into the prison today. If not by this vehicle, then Xu Sheng didn’t have other avenues to escape.

“Officer, are you done inspecting?”

Jiang Chijing waved, motioning that they were allowed to drive off.

The rumbling engine started again and the truck drove unhurriedly towards the exit manned by several sentries.

Jiang Chijing watched the vehicle go through another strict examination, basically affirming to himself that Xu Sheng wasn’t on that truck.

His mind churned tumultuously again. Jiang Chijing forced himself to take a deep breath, trying to organise his thoughts as clearly as Zheng Mingyi did.

First, from a general standpoint, there were only two possibilities laid in front of Jiang Chijing right now.

One, Xu Sheng hadn’t left. There was only this vehicle coming in today and Xu Sheng wasn’t in it.

Two, Xu Sheng had already left. He could have found an ingenious way to hide himself and evade all the checks.

While the probability of the latter was extremely slight, it wasn’t completely improbable. If Xu Sheng had succeeded in escaping, then things had developed to the point of no return.

When Jiang Chijing arrived at this thought, he no longer hesitated. He took the walkie-talkie off his shoulder and was about to ask if anyone knew Xu Sheng’s location, but at this time, a sharp siren suddenly began to shrill in the prison. At the same time, dreadful firelight flared from Block A, a short distance away from him.

“Fire at Block A, hurry up and put it out!”

“Get all inmates back to their cells!”

The internal network crackled with the shouts of other guards, and within a few seconds, the prison descended into chaos.

When Jiang Chijing gazed across, he could tell that the situation was also out of hand at Block B and C. It was supposed to be time for inmates to gather and watch the news now. No one wanted to be locked in their cells when fire alarms were going off in the cell blocks.

If the fire spread from Block A and disrupted the electrical systems, preventing the cell doors from opening, they would just be waiting for their deaths.

Some guards were yelling at inmates, while some guards were rushing through the connecting corridor to help put out the fire in Block A. The cell blocks under the night canopy were shrouded by fire, flashing lights, shouting, and ruckus. Only Jiang Chijing seemed set apart from the scene before him, standing where he was with a grave face as he considered the matter of Xu Sheng’s escape from prison.

Never before had a fire broken out in Southside Prison, and this serious incident just had to occur on the very night that Xu Sheng intended to escape.

In the blink of an eye, Block A was engulfed by imposing flames. The rapid speed with which they seared across the building caused one’s heart to quake in fright.

Jiang Chijing immediately linked this to an integral part of the whole incident—the paint. Paint was flammable, not to mention that a second batch had just been delivered.

Everything seemed to follow a meticulous plan. It all lined up too neatly for it to be coincidence.

Just then, a hurried shout suddenly came from the walkie-talkie. “An inmate has broken out of prison! Quickly stop the truck just now!”

Jiang Chijing’s nerves immediately pulled tight. Another person quickly asked after that, “Who is it?!”

“Xu Sheng!”

“That can’t be, Xu Sheng’s helping to put out the fire at Block A right now.”

“It might be someone else, quickly stop that truck!”

“Who on earth is it? We don’t have any free hands right now!”

“What about the sentries?”

“The sentries can’t leave their posts!”

Amidst the cacophony, Jiang Chijing only focused on one point—Xu Sheng was in Block A.

He was quickly losing track of the development of the situation. Out of time, he didn’t delve further into it, racing towards Block A. Sure enough, he quickly found Xu Sheng’s figure amongst the others fighting the fire.

“Why are you here?” Jiang Chijing suddenly pulled Xu Sheng’s elbow and asked.

“Officer Jiang?” Xu Sheng was still carrying a bucket of water, looking at Jiang Chijing in astonishment. “Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that?”

“Weren’t you going to escape in the delivery truck?”

“The situation changed, so plans have temporarily changed.”

By now, Jiang Chijing was completely lost as to what was happening. His brows furrowed. “Then who broke out of prison just now?”

“Someone broke out?” Xu Sheng said, his tone odd. “I’ve been helping to unload the goods. No one escaped.”

If it wasn’t Xu Sheng, but someone who knew about the escape plan…

A thought abruptly sprung into Jiang Chijing’s mind. It couldn’t be Zheng Mingyi, right?!

Nowaynowaynoway.

Zheng Mingyi was clear-headed and had a firm grasp of right and wrong. He had even helped Jiang Chijing brainstorm for ways to stop Xu Sheng from escaping prison; how could he make a break for it himself, then? Besides, Zheng Mingyi didn’t have a long sentence, there was no motive for him to escape prison.

At this, Jiang Chijing temporarily assuaged his nerves, However, his mind was still a mess of thoughts. He continued to ask Xu Sheng, “Did you start the fire?”

“Are you crazy?” Xu Sheng jiggled the water bucket he held. “Ask Zheng Mingyi if you don’t believe me. He knows that I’m not escaping anymore.”

Jiang Chijing had too many questions on his mind. He unconsciously wanted to head to Block B, but just in case, he checked with Xu Sheng, “Is Zheng Mingyi in Block B now?”

“He should be in the showers at this time,” said Xu Sheng.

The showers were a small separate building unto itself. Every night, inmates would go to the showers in batches to take care of their personal hygiene.

Jiang Chijing ran towards the showers without a turn of his head back. When he neared, he could vaguely see a number of inmates coming out from the building, but they were not accompanied by guards.

This was very weird because even in emergencies, guards shouldn’t be allowing inmates to roam unattended. Unless the situation was desperate, and the guards were unable to spare the hands to mind the inmates.

All of a sudden, a problem suddenly occurred to Jiang Chijing. Now, half of the guards were fighting the fire, while the other half of them were keeping the situation under control. Neither side could spare any manpower. Also considering that sentries couldn’t leave their posts, the only people left who could chase the delivery truck would be the guards who first learned about someone’s escape attempt.

Presently, there was no one watching over the inmates in the showers. This told Jiang Chijing that the guards here had gone to chase after the delivery truck, from which he could deduce that the news of someone escaping prison had spread from here.

It seemed to be that someone had deliberately informed the prison guards of an inmate escaping with the purpose of keeping them away.

If all of this was unrelated to Xu Sheng, then that only left one candidate—Old Nine.

Having analysed the situation to this depth, Jiang Chijing suddenly saw the light, one incident after another linking into a complete chain in his mind.

Xu Sheng changed his mind at the last minute. Old Nine didn’t know that Xu Sheng was no longer making the escape attempt, hence following through with what he had originally planned.

His lackeys first waited for the delivery truck to leave the prison then used the paint to start the fire, bringing the prison into chaos.

Then, Old Nine bided his time. After he was sure that the delivery truck had gone off, he informed the prison guards that someone was escaping, explaining the ins and outs of it to increase the credibility. However, unable to find spare hands, the guards could only chase the truck down themselves.

Those lackeys who started the fire didn’t notice that Xu Sheng hadn’t left, possibly because they were working on different floors, or that Xu Sheng had left for the washroom for a while.

In any case, the whole point of this was to wreak havoc in prison. Even if they didn’t manage to divert all of the guards, if the situation blew up big enough, there wouldn’t be a large patrol team coming to stop them.

It was apparent that Old Nine’s plan was extremely successful. All the guards at the showers had been lured away, and the final highlight of Old Nine’s show was precisely going to take place at the showers.

“He should be in the showers at this time.”

“If not dead, handicapped, at the very least.”

Xu Sheng’s and Old Nine’s words echoed in his mind. Jiang Chijing pressed the walkie-talkie hoping to call someone to the showers, but at this time others were shouting over the walkie-talkie, either reporting inmates acting out of line or asking when the fire brigade would arrive to stop the fire from escalating further.

Jiang Chijing shouted into the walkie-talkie, but the noise drowned his voice out.

He couldn’t help but hasten his pace, making a hundred-metre dash towards the showers. But when he ran up to the door of the building, someone suddenly charged from it, slamming into him.

“Officer Jiang?” Princess looked anxious. “Call for someone, Old Nine is going to settle the score with Zheng Mingyi.”

Jiang Chijing already knew this and was about to dash inside without a second thought when Princess caught hold of his arm, alerting him, “There’s not a single guard inside. They’ve got a knife!”

“You go call for help.”

Jiang Chijing flung Princess’ hand away and rushed into the building. The moment he entered, he saw that four well-built men were restraining Zheng Mingyi against a wall, and Old Nine was holding a penknife, stabbing towards Zheng Mingyi’s naked upper body.

“Old Nine!”

Jiang Chijing almost broke out in cold sweat. He acted on instinct, kicking over and knocking Old Nine in the chest, forcing him to stagger back.

When his lackeys saw a prison guard appear, they stood rooted to the spot, not daring to make a move. Old Nine clutched his chest, yelling, “What are you waiting for? Do him off as well!”

“You’ve got some fucking gall!” Jiang Chijing drew out his baton, swinging it onto the body of one who charged at him and kicking the next one who charged over away.

Zheng Mingyi shouted “Watch out” behind him and Jiang Chijing immediately turned to the side, evading the knife that Old Nine plunged this way.

One of those restraining Zheng Mingyi, who saw that they were having difficulty dealing with Jiang Chijing, released his thigh to lunge towards Jiang Chijing. At the same time, the lackey who got hit by the baton came over again, trapping him in a double envelopment.

Jiang Chijing focused on holding his own in this one against two. Even though he took a few blows, he ultimately gained the upper hand.

However, Old Nine seized this opening to strike. Jiang Chijing managed to evade twice, but on the third attempt, when Old Nine’s knife was right about to slice his waist, Zheng Mingyi finally broke out of the hold on him and knocked Old Nine away, getting a slash on his arm as he did.

Jiang Chijing immediately flew into a rage. For the first time, he felt the urge to beat someone to death. He subconsciously made to charge towards Old Nine, but Zheng Mingyi caught his wrist and told him in a low voice, “Run!”

Sensible men, even if they were world champions in sparring, wouldn’t pick a fight with knife-wielding thugs. There were around eight brutes on the other side and Old Nine was still holding onto a knife. Jiang Chijing knew that it was inadvisable to insist on a fight under these circumstances.

“You’d better explain what the hell is going on here!” Jiang Chijing roared at Zheng Mingyi, then flipped his hand over to hold the other’s wrist as well, running out of the showers.

Old Nine’s men quickly followed them. These men who did daily morning jogs were in good physical shape and chased hot on their heels.

Jiang Chijing initially wanted to run to the nearest Block C, but the whole prison was under lockdown at this time and the doors of the cell block were sealed, disallowing him entry.

He also considered going to Block A, where most guards were right now, but that building was the furthest from the showers and he couldn’t guarantee that they wouldn’t be caught midway.

In the end, Jiang Chijing brought Zheng Mingyi towards the admin block. It was the place that inmates were most apprehensive of due to the surveillance all over the building; Old Nine probably wouldn’t follow them there.

“Brother Nine, they’ve run to the admin block, we should stop the chase, right?”

“What bull are you talking about. Didn’t you fucking hear me say that I’m going to screw Zheng Mingyi over today!”

“The surveillance…”

“Officer Jiang already witnessed everything that he shouldn’t have, what damn difference will the surveillance make?”

He’s lost his mind.

“Don’t be afraid.” Zheng Mingyi flipped his wrist over, holding Jiang Chijing’s hand, saying, “Just run, I’m here with you.”

They exchanged a glance. There wasn’t anything they could do but run.

Due to the hesitance of those lackeys just now, some distance was pulled between them. Jiang Chijing and Zheng Mingyi had reached the second floor of the admin block by the time Old Nine’s men entered the admin block.

Jiang Chijing wanted to continue up to the third floor at first, but Zheng Mingyi stopped him, throwing his walkie-talkie that was crackling with orders non-stop to the third floor, then taking him towards the recreation room.

The noise of the walkie-talkie would lure Old Nine’s men to the third floor, and might even deter them by leading them to think that there were other guards in this block. But Jiang Chijing really couldn’t get why they had to go to the recreation room. He anxiously pulled Zheng Mingyi, saying, “The recreation room can’t be locked.”

“So they won’t guess that we’d hide there,” Zheng Mingyi said.

The admin block had several rooms that could be locked, but once the door was locked, the people outside would know just by turning the handle. The gang of about eight musclemen would be able to quickly slam past the lock. If Zheng Mingyi and Jiang Chijing really wanted to hide, the most dangerous place would conversely be their safest hiding place.

“But there’s nowhere to hide in the recreation room.” Jiang Chijing was still unable to set his mind at ease.

“There is.”

Zheng Mingyi brought Jiang Chijing into the recreation room and flung the items in one of the cabinets into the other. Then, he stuck himself inside and told Jiang Chijing, “Come in.”

“In there??”

“They won’t be able to guess it.”

He had to admit, this move Zheng Mingyi played was so out of the left-field that even Jiang Chijing felt as though his horizons had been broadened.

But it was also because of this that he trusted that Old Nine’s men, all the more, wouldn’t think of it.

He turned his body to the side, squeezing to stand face to face with Zheng Mingyi in the narrow space of the cabinet. When Zheng Mingyi closed the cabinet door, both of them were thoroughly isolated from the world outside, leaving only the echoes of each other’s breathing in their ears and the wailing sirens of the fire alarm.

However, it didn’t take Jiang Chijing long to regret it.

Zheng Mingyi wasn’t wearing a shirt. After intense exercise, his skin was sticky with sweat, exuding dense testosterones in the tight space.

Jiang Chijing abruptly discovered something. He just found out that Zheng Mingyi was the switch for his mind to overload with absolute filth. The moment that he had intimate contact with Zheng Mingyi, filth would gush out in an unrelenting torrent.

But the situation now was worse than it ever was before.

Jiang Chijing wasn’t much shorter than Zheng Mingyi. The two of them were tightly pressed up to each other, and each of their regions naturally stuck together.

Jiang Chijing wanted to die.

His limited brain space was already unable to accommodate the constant outpouring of filth, so his body found another method of releasing it.

Jiang Chijing soon felt a certain part of him start to react, and the intense shame made him want to ram his head into a wall.

No. He should just call Old Nine over to gut him.

Why did he have a brain fart and agree to hide in the cabinet with Zheng Mingyi? Was he dumb or was he dumb? He had completely underestimated the influence Zheng Mingyi exerted on him.

Zheng Mingyi gave an untimely chuckle next to his ear, asking him in a low voice, “Officer Jiang, are you a pervert?”

He knew it. Zheng Mingyi could feel the changes in him, and the shame he felt instantly shot through the roof.

Jiang Chijing really wanted to cave in hopelessness and say: Yeah, I’m a pervert, did you just find out? I’ve been fucking spying on you for the better part of the year; I dream of sleeping with you every day.

However, at this time, an abrupt development arose and Jiang Chijing’s mood at once did a one-eighty.

—Because Zheng Mingyi had reacted in the same area.

Like a queen who had seized back the initiative, he sneered, asking back condescendingly, “Zheng Mingyi, are you a pervert?”

“I’m not,” Zheng Mingyi’s response was swift. “I’m an inmate.”

Once again, Jiang Chijing was unable to keep up with Zheng Mingyi’s logic. Was it possible that inmates were naturally more perverse and without a moral baseline? Was it possible that inmates were allowed to flagrantly press their junk against others?

Zheng Mingyi seemed able to tell Jiang Chijing couldn’t understand him. He pulled close to Jiang Chijing’s ear, and added in a throaty whisper, “Don’t forget. You’re the prison officer that inmates want to fuck the most.”

That was a senseless vote that inmates had cast before; Jiang Chijing hadn’t paid it mind at all. But he didn’t expect that these words would actually come out of Zheng Mingyi’s mouth.

—I’m an inmate.

—You’re the prison officer that inmates want to fuck the most.

Stringing the two sentences together, what Zheng Mingyi was saying was: I want to fuck you.

Jiang Chijing’s mind boomed. He had secretly watched Zheng Mingyi for so long, but never in his wildest dreams did he think that Zheng Mingyi actually wanted to sleep with him too, perhaps even more urgently so than his own want to sleep with Zheng Mingyi.

Their scorching-hot breaths, the sour smell of sweat, the sharp tang of blood, the confined space, the flashing red lights, the blaring sirens…

All of it unendingly stimulated Jiang Chijing’s mind, letting him feel a rush he had never before experienced in this lifetime.

He couldn’t contain it anymore. He abandoned himself, pressed a hand to the back of Zheng Mingyi’s head, and aimed for the lips he dearly craved, kissing him fiercely