Restricted Area

During the afternoon break, Zheng Mingyi went to the yard again.

As the temperatures gradually cooled, more people started to go to the yard again. However, seating was limited. Except for the basic fitness set-up, there was only a long bench to sit on.

That long bench was monopolised by Xu Sheng’s men throughout the year, but as long as Zheng Mingyi appeared in the yard, half of that long bench would be given to him.

Jiang Chijing looked idly out of the window, his gaze resting on Zheng Mingyi’s side profile. No matter from up close or afar, Jiang Chijing was unable to shift his sight away from Zheng Mingyi’s profile.

Zheng Mingyi’s lips were moving slightly, like he was chatting to Xu Sheng, seated next to him. Due to the far distance between them, Jiang Chijing couldn’t make out what their conversation was about. However, it was as though he was watching a silent film; he was able to better focus on the characters’ expressions and body gestures.

Unlike Xu Sheng, who had his hands on his knees and looked slightly reserved, Zheng Mingyi was leaning back against the bench, his hands casually perched on his thighs. His gaze was cool as he looked levelly at the other, and the movement of his lips didn’t reveal any excessive emotions.

Jiang Chijing guessed that those two should be discussing the reduction in Xu Sheng’s sentence.

Having been left in the dark at first, after finding out about it, Xu Sheng would definitely have gone to Zheng Mingyi to confirm it. His gaze was dropped towards the ground of the yard most of the time; it was highly probable that he was expressing his thanks or heartfelt thoughts to Zheng Mingyi, or he wouldn’t be tersely looking towards the ground like this.

Conversely, Zheng Mingyi didn’t show any undue response. His expressions when speaking carried no fluctuation. Based on Jiang Chijing’s understanding of him, he wouldn’t be having a heart-to-heart with Xu Sheng, but telling him his rationale for doing so.

A while later, Xu Sheng gave a long exhale. He leaned back against the bench like Zheng Mingyi, staring vacantly ahead. Jiang Chijing surmised that they were now discussing future plans, such as the arrangements for the elderly couple, what he intended to do with Princess, etc.

At this time, a new character suddenly appeared in the silent film. Old Nine entered from a corner of the stage, walking towards the long bench. However, he was stopped by one of those guarding the bench.

Pissed, he shoved the lackey in front of him, and the other two of Xu Sheng’s men immediately went over, firmly blocking his way.

He could only incline his head, his line of sight traversed those people to shout something to Xu Sheng on the bench. The first splash of noise emerged in the silent film, but the voice was fuzzy. Jiang Chiijng could only vaguely tell that the person who spoke desired a response.

Xu Sheng indifferently swept a glance over to Old Nine, then turned a deaf ear, continuing to converse to Zheng Mingyi next to him.

Seeing this, even if Jiang Chijing could already tell from way back that Zheng Mingyi’s status in prison wasn’t that of a regular inmate, this thought abruptly seemed more real.

Old Nine was like a discarded ‘Guard’, without any real presence in front of a real ‘General’. And Zheng Mingyi wasn’t a Guard that had taken Old Nine’s place by Xu Sheng’s side, but a Red General standing equally with the Black General on the chessboard.

> Ref to Xiangqi; Chinese/Elephant Chess. Red and black general can be thought of as the white and black kings in western chess. Guard doesn’t really have any equivalent in chess, but its starting position flanks the general.

Chairs shifted and soft chatter buzzed in the library. Jiang Chijing pulled his gaze from outside the window to find that several inmates had come to the window side. Similar to Jiang Chijing, they were also watching the silent film in the yard.

These inmates that came to the library generally didn’t participate in the power struggle in prison. However, the more one stood on the bylines, the more appetising the show was. There were people already chatting about Old Nine’s loss of authority in prison; how several of his lackeys had turned away from him.

Someone was even talking about how Xu Sheng respected Zheng Mingyi, to the extent that he would wait for Zheng Mingyi to start eating first before he did.

Of course, aside from these, there were also many strange rumours. For example, that Zheng Mingyi was Emperor Xu Sheng’s new favoured male pet, whereas Princess had been abandoned to the cold palace, and so on.

Jiang Chijing called for silence, and the inmates deep in discussion finally restrained themselves. However, many of them turned their gossipy gazes to Jiang Chijing, probably hoping to see what reaction Jiang Chijing would have after losing his ‘bitch’.

Jiang Chijing indifferently looked back outside. By this time, Old Nine had moved away from the long bench and went back towards the fitness area.

From Jiang Chijing’s higher vantage, he could see that several people in the yard were laughing as they watched Old Nine, obviously taunting him. Old Nine grasped the dumbbells and did bicep curls, appearing to be uncaring of the surrounding gazes. However, his expression was dark and his eyes were chilly; he likely wasn’t as unaffected inside as he appeared to be on the surface.

Not long later, Zheng Mingyi and Xu Sheng’s conversation ended. They walked over towards the admin block. Old Nine set down the dumbbells, his gaze following behind Zheng Mingyi’s figure, the chill in his eyes turning even frostier.

With Zheng Mingyi’s departure, the silent film lost its male lead, and Jiang Chijing also lost interest.

An inmate that had come to the window side to watch the show sat at the first row nearest the window. When Zheng Mingyi appeared in the library, that person immediately fled with his book back to his original seat.

Zheng Mingyi sat where he always did, mouthing to Jiang Chijing: I’m so hungry.

Jiang Chijing pointed to the tupperwares by his hand with his chin, motioning that the strawberry pie he made was inside.

After the hour hand passed two o’clock, they were finally the only two people left in the library. Zheng Mingyi sat in the work area, opening the tupperwares that Jiang Chijing brought right away.

“It looks so-so,” Zheng Mingyi said, looking at the strawberry pie in his hands.

“Then don’t eat it,” Jiang Chijing made to keep the tupperwares.

“Why won’t I eat it?” Zheng Mingyi picked up a slice of strawberry pie and took a bite, savouring the taste of it without offering any feedback for a long while.

“How is it?” Jiang Chijing couldn’t resist asking.

“It’s good.” Zheng Mingyi nodded. “But you can add more sugar next time.”

“I just followed the recipe.” Then, Jiang Chijing recalled that cloyingly sweet strawberry jam and he frowned, saying, “Why do you like it so sweet?”

“Because I like to eat sweet stuff.” Zheng Mingyi smiled, taking another slice of strawberry pie.

Their tastes could do with some running in. However, Jiang Chijing didn’t dwell on this now, saying seriously, “By the way, you should watch out for Old Nine.”

“Do you think that he’s acting weird?” Zheng Mingyi appeared to be starving, quickly polishing off the second slice.

“Very weird.” Watching how enthusiastically Zheng Mingyi ate, Jiang Chijing also picked up a slice of strawberry pie, taking a bite. “He might be planning his revenge.”

Old Nine was serving life imprisonment. He would be spending much, much longer in prison. It was essentially his entire world; he wouldn’t be able to endure suddenly being flung from the apex of the food chain down to the lowest trench.

“I’ll be on guard against him.” Zheng Mingyi swiftly worked his way through the pie. In the blink of an eye, the tupperwares were emptied, leaving only a small piece in Jiang Chijing’s hand.

“Make sure to be careful,” Jiang Chijing said. “He has nothing to lose. If he is really up to something, I’m afraid that it might spiral out of hand.”

Zheng Mingyi absently hummed in assent, his gaze shooting straight towards the remaining half-slice of strawberry pie Jiang Chijing was holding.

“What are you doing?” Jiang Chijing finally noticed Zheng Mingyi’s line of sight. “This is mine.”

“What’s yours is mine.” Zheng Mingyi unreasonably grasped Jiang Chijing’s wrist and closed in straight away to bite that last portion of strawberry pie.

The small strawberry pie didn’t seem enough to satiate Zheng Mingyi’s appetite. After hooking away the pie with his tongue, he began to lick and suck Jiang Chijing’s fingers, like he was trying to lap away every bit of sugary sweetness.

Fingertips were erogenous zones; Jiang Chijing gave a start, immediately feeling an unnatural heat curl up from his abdomen. He hurriedly pulled his fingers back, glaring at Zheng Mingyi, “How many times do I have to tell you. There’s surveillance here!”

Zheng Mingyi unhurriedly swallowed the strawberry pie in his mouth, earnestly critiquing, “This last bite tasted the best.”

Jiang Chijing fumed. “Are you eating the strawberry pie or eating me?”

Zheng Mingyi pinched Jiang Chijing’s face, smiling, the answer contained within his silence.

Jiang Chijing really shouldn’t have done whatever kind of strawberry pie on a whim. Moving an inch for Zheng Mingyi would cause him to reach for a mile. Luckily, Zheng Mingyi didn’t do anything excessive at this time, only focusing on studying the stock trends, giving Jiang Chijing an analysis of the present situation.

Old Watch’s stock price was still dropping, but the frenzied decline had stopped. It was generally within a normal range and didn’t spark any wide-scale panic.

The companies that Guan Wei was keeping a watch on had their stock prices soar after the government policies came out. But their momentum appeared to be weakening all of a sudden, unable to keep up with the rising prices across the stock market. It was probable that someone had a bleak outlook on them and began dumping stocks on the sly. However, the appearance of this allowed Guan Wei to slowly close in towards victory.

“As long as Guan Wei can get to the bottom of the issues with those companies, my case will definitely have to be retried,” Zheng Mingyi said.

The stocks of those companies were all linked to the case involving Zheng Mingyi. If the upper management of those companies were to be suspected of stock market manipulation from the outset, then the evidence pointing to Zheng Mingyi would also become less credible.

“So an optimistic estimate will probably be in about a month’s time?” Jiang Chijing said.

“Mm,” Zheng Mingyi uttered, drawling the syllable slightly, seemingly certain yet also not completely so.

Jiang Chijing didn’t give it more thought. After all, Zheng Mingyi was unable to confirm when the courthouse would schedule the retrial.

Translated on ninetysevenkoi.wordpress

***

Please do not repost or retranslate.

When it passed three in the afternoon, a satiated Zheng Mingyi left the library. At this time, Jiang Chijing only had two hours left on the clock. Bored, he began to tidy the books on the shelves, but not long later, Luo Hai came to the library.

“My head hurts,” Luo Hai found a chair to sit, collapsing on it, rubbing his temples.

“Because of Yu Guang?” Jiang Chijing came up to Luo Hai, leaning against a table.

“I should have known, youngsters have less sense,” Luo Hai said.

He didn’t give any concrete details, but Jiang Chijing could guess the bulk of it. Yu Guang was single-mindedly ‘fighting for justice’ like a bratty chuunibyou, and would surely have shown some reckless behaviour.

“Don’t you like to take care of the younger brother type?” Jiang Chijing said. “If he’s too obedient, you’ll end up feeling bored anyway.”

Rather, it was being overly independent that bored Luo Hai. Luo Hai liked having his partner rely on him, whereas Jiang Chijing didn’t fit that personality type at all. He liked both parties having their own space, similar to how he knew Zheng Mingyi had many plans in his head, but he wouldn’t persist in asking to the bottom of it. Because when the time came, Zheng Mingyi would tell him.

“True, I admit it,” Luo Hai said helplessly. “I can’t help my tastes.”

“But make sure that you have a bottom line. Don’t overindulge that smelly kid.”

Right after Jiang Chijing spoke, the walkie-talkie clipped to his shoulder abruptly crackled to life. A prison guard’s anxious voice immediately came from it: “Dr. Luo! Dr. Luo, are you there? Old Nine has stabbed someone, please make your way to the factory area!”