Restricted Area

Scumbag

The tip of his tongue breached Zheng Mingyi’s teeth, wantonly rampaging his oral cavity. The air passing between their lips and teeth gradually heated up, burning so hot that Jiang Chijing could barely keep his eyes open.

He used his strength to hold Zheng Mingyi in place, unrestrainedly delighting in this hidden ecstasy, but in the next moment, his initiative was suddenly stolen.

The battle was waged in Zheng Mingyi’s mouth, yet somehow the back of Jiang Chijing’s head ended up pressing to the cabinet wall, and by the time he recovered, his tongue could no longer ward off Zheng Mingyi’s offensive, the lingering kiss also thereafter turning into an aggressive invasion.

“Zheng… nngh…”

Jiang Chijing couldn’t breathe. At first, he was the one holding the back of Zheng Mingyi’s head, stopping the other from breaking away, but now he couldn’t help but press his hands against Zheng Mingyi’s shoulders, trying to gain leeway to breathe.

Zheng Mingyi didn’t let Jiang Chijing slip, kissing him as though overwhelmed by the sudden eruption of all the emotions he had repressed, not giving him the slightest breathing space.

The hems of the uniform had been torn out by Zheng Mingyi at some point in time, and scorching hands roved unbridled over his waist.

In the beginning, Jiang Chijing had caved to the burning temptation to kiss Zheng Mingyi, but he didn’t expect things to get this out of hand.

No matter how enticing Zheng Mingyi was, he was still an inmate. Jiang Chijing was a prison officer; how could he commit such an act with an inmate in prison?

As if sensing Jiang Chijing’s retreat, Zheng Mingyi lightened his offensive, changing to nibble the petals of Jiang Chijing’s lips without releasing them. Even so, his right hand moved to Jiang Chijing’s collar and boorishly undid the top two buttons of his uniform.

If it weren’t for the narrow space of the cabinet restricting it from developing further, Jiang Chijing believed that Zheng Mingyi would have torn off his uniform by now—just like how he had wanted to before.

“Stop, Zheng Mingyi.”

Jiang Chijing angled his head away, removing his lips from between Zheng Mingyi’s, but when he did so Zheng Mingyi shifted to bite his neck instead.

“You’re the one who came onto me first,” Zheng Mingyi buried his head into Jiang Chijing’s neck, saying hoarsely.

“It was clearly you.” Jiang Chijing didn’t dare to make too large movements, and could only refute back in an angry tone.

Both of them were dangerously high-strung, like a notched arrow ready to be fired at any time—but just then, the high-pitched sirens of the fire truck, as well as the approaching sirens of several police cars, carried over from outside the window.

The police and the fire brigade had come to provide support, which signified the closing of the curtains on this episode.

Jiang Chijing’s tense nerves suddenly relaxed. He shoved open the metal cabinet door with a bang, staggering out from inside.

He checked the state of himself. It was completely unlike a sacred government official.

It was too scandalous.

He hastily neatened his dishevelled uniform and walked to the window to readjust his breathing, finally getting his flustered heart to calm.

Zheng Mingyi came out from the cabinets behind him. At once, like a cat whose tail was trodden on, Jiang Chijing hastily turned his body over to glare at Zheng Mingyi. “Don’t come over!”

It wasn’t easy for him to finally regain his senses. Jiang Chijing refused to let Zheng Mingyi stoke the flames of passion again.

However, these words did seem to wrong Zheng Mingyi, whose only crime was to step out of the cabinet. There was still a good distance between them.

“Officer Jiang, how can you do this?” Zheng Mingyi walked a few steps forward, checking his injured arm. “Dashing after you dine; I’ve never come across a bigger scumbag than you.”

Jiang Chijing, “……”

Fine, he’d admit it. He was the one in the wrong first. He had no one to blame but himself for not being able to resist Zheng Mingyi’s charms.

He gathered himself before walking up to Zheng Mingyi, lifting up his arm and asking, “Is your arm okay?”

“It isn’t.” Zheng Mingyi expressionlessly looked at Jiang Chijing, saying, “Can’t you see that it’s bleeding?”

The words were clearly coloured with emotion. On the surface level, they sounded like they were reproaching Jiang Chijing for being blind; but on closer inspection, they seemed more like they were rebuking Jiang Chijing for his scummy behaviour just now.

Jiang Chijing guiltily said, “I’ll bring you to the infirmary to clean it.”

With that, Jiang Chijing pulled Zheng Mingyi’s wrist, leading him out of the recreation room. Right as they came out, the thudding of many footsteps suddenly travelled from the staircase. Jiang Chijing immediately stilled, subconsciously believing that Old Nine and his men had gone deranged, not ceasing in spite of the situation.

However, to his surprise, the people who appeared at the staircase were Xu Sheng and Princess, along with many guards from the patrol team following behind.

From the looks of it, Princess went to inform Xu Sheng, who then called the patrol team over.

“Officer Jiang?” Xu Sheng was the first to see the two of them. “Are you two all right?”

“Yeah.” Jiang Chijing let go of Zheng Mingyi’s wrist without batting an eyelid. “Where’s Old Nine?”

“Downstairs, we just caught him.” The patrol team captain replied.

“That’s good,” Jiang Chijing loosened a sigh of relief.

The crisis was completely eliminated. In the end, no one made a break for it and Zheng Mingyi only received a minor wound. Block A might need considerable time to be rebuilt, but at least Jiang Chijing’s worst fears didn’t come to be.

“When Old Nine is out of confinement,” Xu Sheng’s face was glacial. “I’ll make sure to sort him out.”

Xu Sheng dared to say this despite the patrol team standing right there because the guards knew that Xu Sheng wouldn’t go too far.

If Jiang Chijing wasn’t mistaken, Princess should have attempted to foil Old Nine to no avail, which was why he had run out of the showers to call for help. It was hard to say whether Old Nine had attacked Princess to get the latter out of his business.

Of course, these were only Jiang Chijing’s guesses. Since Xu Sheng had already taken charge, he didn’t have any scores left with Old Nine.

The guards who had gone to help put out the fire slowly started streaming back to the admin block. Jiang Chijing retrieved the key from the third-floor offices and brought Zheng Mingyi into the infirmary.

Antiseptic solution was unceremoniously splashed over Zheng Mingyi’s arm, causing his brows to wrinkle in pain. He looked at Jiang Chijing and said, “Officer Jiang, can’t you be less rough?”

“You have the audacity to talk about me?” Jiang Chijing wound the bandage around Zheng Mingyi’s arm. “Just now, you…”

Mid-sentence, Jiang Chijing abruptly stopped. He couldn’t step back into that scene, because the moment that he recalled the way that Zheng Mingyi had kissed him, his heart would start to beat restlessly again.

Especially now that Zheng Mingyi still hadn’t put on a shirt. He was already exerting a lot of effort to keep his eyes where they should be.

“What did I do just now?” Zheng Mingyi asked, as if on purpose, leading on, “Don’t you like me giving it my all to kiss you?”

Jiang Chijing’s heart suddenly skipped a beat. Why hadn’t he realised before that Zheng Mingyi had such an aptitude for flirting?

It was just a kiss, did he seriously have to ‘give it his all’?

Jiang Chijing’s heart, which he had laboriously calmed, was stirred again by a ticklish sensation. Jiang Chijing savagely tightened the bandage, glaring at Zheng Mingyi, saying, “Then do you like me giving it my all to bandage you?”

This time, Jiang Chijing really went ham on him, showing his true colours. As expected, Zheng Mingyi frowned in pain, but the pain only flickered past his face for the briefest second before unconcealed amusement spread across his face. “I like it.”

Psycho.

Jiang Chijing inwardly cursed at him and kept the first-aid kit aside. Then, he sat back in front of Zheng Mingyi and said, “Spill, why did Xu Sheng temporarily change his plans?”

Zheng Mingyi raised his arm for a better look. Without answering Jiang Chijing, he said instead, “No improvement whatsoever.”

Jiang Chijing could tell that Zheng Mingyi was referring to his bandaging skills and only just barely managed to keep from getting an aneurysm. Just when he was about to get Zheng Mingyi to stop talking trash, he heard Zheng Mingyi suddenly say, “I worked out a deal with him.”

He started slightly. “A deal?”

“Mm,” Zheng Mingyi hummed in assent but didn’t elaborate.

Jiang Chijing smothered his temper to ask, “What deal?”

“Do you want to rebandage it for me?”

“Zheng Mingyi!”

Zheng Mingyi smiled and stopped poking fun at Jiang Chijing. He said, “I settled the issue involving the old madam, so Xu Sheng gave his word not to escape.”

Jiang Chijing asked, “How did you settle it?”

This issue could only be solved by money, but Zheng Mingyi’s assets had long been liquidated, and even his property had been seized by court. He shouldn’t have any money on him, not to mention that he was still in prison. Jiang Chijing didn’t believe that he had the magic to, even under such circumstances…

“I’ve got money,” Zheng Mingyi uttered breezily, interrupting Jiang Chijing’s thoughts.

Uh-huh.

Sure enough, this guy really kept his cards close. And Jiang Chijing actually wasn’t in the slightest bit surprised at all.

A thought suddenly popped into his mind—the next time he kissed someone, he had to make sure that he had a complete understanding of the other guy. Or else, he’d end up like right now, not only unsurprised but also feeling extremely miffed by this.

“I didn’t deliberately mean to keep it from you.” Zheng Mingyi seemed to be able to read Jiang Chijing’s thoughts. “I wasn’t sure if the money could be safely transferred into Xu Sheng’s account, so I didn’t consider this as the best option.”

“Offshore money?” Jiang Chijing asked with a dark face.

“No. It’s a virtual currency,” Zheng Mingyi said. “Bitcoin. You check its valuation for me every day.”

Jiang Chijing didn’t respond, now feeling even more miffed.

Although logically speaking, it was only normal that Zheng Mingyi, as an inmate without confiscable property, concealed this from a government official, Jiang Chijing still felt upset. He thought that what he and Zheng Mingyi had run deeper than the relationship between a regular prison officer and inmate—at least when it came to stopping Xu Sheng from escaping prison, the two of them should have been allies.

But in actuality, what happened was that he went running to block the delivery truck like a fool, whereas Zheng Mingyi already had things resolved on this side.

“Angry?” Zheng Mingyi looked at Jiang Chijing and asked.

Jiang Chijing disliked it when people could read him, but at this time he openly wore his displeasure on him, writing all over his face: I Am Upset.

“Don’t be angry.” Zheng Mingyi reached out and held Jiang Chijing’s hand. “I’ll give you my account passwords; there are still a few hundred bitcoins on them.”

Jiang Chijing was aware of the market valuation of bitcoin and subconsciously did the mental abacus. Now, not only was he miffed, but he was also beyond jealous.

Zheng Mingyi, this bastard dog, was actually richer than him.

“Who cares.” Jiang Chijing whisked his hand out of Zheng Mingyi’s handhold. “Why didn’t you give me a head’s up that you’ve got things settled with Xu Sheng? You made me pull overtime for nothing.”

“I wasn’t sure of the specifics, either,” Zheng Mingyi said. “My money is fine on the global internet, but once I bring it domestic there’s a high probability that it’ll all get frozen. I told Xu Sheng that if he could fix up the channelling, then I can help him fork out the medical care fees.”

Jiang Chijing abruptly recalled thinking that if he could casually pull out $50 million, helping Xu Sheng would be a piece of cake.

From the looks of it now, Zheng Mingyi was the one who could casually pull out $50 million.

“So he managed to fix it?” Jiang Chijing said.

“I transferred $20 million to the account that he gave me, but we weren’t sure if any problems would crop up,” Zheng Mingyi said. “Since he isn’t on the road now, he has probably safely received the money.”

If that was the case, then it was true that they should still have prepared for both eventualities. Had Xu Sheng not received the money, it would have been up to Jiang Chijing to block his escape route.

“Also, it’s fortunate that you were around,” Zheng Mingyi continued, “Princess did help me try to stop Old Nine, but it wasn’t very effective. If you hadn’t made it over in time…”

Jiang Chijing still felt lingering chills when the memory was brought up again. Thankfully, Zheng Mingyi only suffered a light wound. He wasn’t sure what he would have done to Old Nine, otherwise. After all, his blood had already rushed to his head when he saw Old Nine’s knife slash Zheng Mingyi’s arm, overcome with an urge to beat Old Nine to death.

At this time, Jiang Chijing abruptly remembered Zheng Mingyi had mentioned a deal, and he asked, “You’re not helping Xu Sheng for free, are you?”

“Naturally,” Zheng Mingyi said, “I’m not a philanthropist.”

Being charitable wasn’t a duty. Even if it was well within one’s capabilities, it didn’t mean it should be taken as a matter of course.

“I got him to resolve the issue with channelling to verify something you told me,” Zheng Mingyi said. “You said that Xu Sheng has many contacts outside of prison.”

Previously when the two of them discussed ways for Xu Sheng to escape, Jiang Chijing initially thought that it wasn’t possible because this required the cooperation of the delivery men, but he immediately changed his mind after; it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility considering that Xu Sheng had many contacts outside.

“Xu Sheng has a large following in prison. These people all respect him a lot.” Jiang Chijing said, “Afterwards when they leave prison, they become Xu Sheng’s outside connections, and there are still many who come to see him during the lunar New Year holidays.”

A person’s character determined what heights they could soar to, and Xu Sheng’s ability to accumulate resources was also very much related to the way he treated his own.

“I needed Xu Sheng to prove to me that he was capable before handing my stuff over to him,” Zheng Mingyi went on. “I’ll help him handle the old madam’s hospital bills, and in exchange, he’ll help me keep an eye on my former boss, Wu Peng, out there.”

Zheng Mingyi giving Xu Sheng the money wasn’t the only condition in this deal. Whether Xu Sheng could receive the money was also a prerequisite that formed their deal.

It was the proverbial killing of two birds with one stone.

Jiang Chijing couldn’t help but feel like he was mentally retarded next to Zheng Mingyi. He had simulated the process of stopping Xu Sheng’s escape countless times over in his head, but he completely didn’t expect that what he saw wasn’t the full picture. Zheng Mingyi was still in control of the whole board from an even higher vantage.

The displeasure on his face faintly showed on his face again. Right now, Jiang Chijing very much regretted giving in to the temptation of kissing Zheng Mingyi in the recreation room just now. Why should Zheng Mingyi always be the strategist in the command tower?

“Don’t be upset.” Zheng Mingyi reached out to pinch Jiang Chijing’s face. “I’ll take you to play a game.”

“What game?” Jiang Chijing frowned, slapping Zheng Mingyi’s hand away.

He could be considered learned now. Ever since he kissed Zheng Mingyi, this guy started to unscrupulously get handsy with him.

“I once mentioned that I was playing weiqi with my boss and I lost the first game,” Zheng Mingyi said. “It’s time for the opening of the next game. Do you want to play with me?”