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The one they were calling for was Luo Hai, but the first one to rush out of the library was Jiang Chijing. When he recalled the dark look that Old Nine had directed at Zheng Mingyi, his heart immediately leapt to his throat.

This time, Old Nine’s attitude was discernibly different from before. He had lost his position in prison, was treated like a puff of air by Xu Sheng, and was openly laughed at by other inmates. The huge psychological drop would definitely have aggravated him, causing him to brew thoughts of revenge.

But he wouldn’t employ the same tactics he used to taunt Jiang Chijing for his revenge this time. His grudge against Xu Sheng was because Xu Sheng was the chief instigator that reduced him to his present state.

But coming back to the topic, Zheng Mingyi was the one who had stopped Xu Sheng’s prison escape. If it must be said, Zheng Mingyi was the person pulling strings from behind the scenes. Even if Jiang Chijing had already predicted that Old Nine was out for blood, he couldn’t be sure who Old Nine would go for.

As he ran out of the library, he plucked the walkie-talkie from his shoulder, asking apprehensively, “Who did Old Nine stab?”

The other party quickly gave a response—Xu Sheng.

That was still somewhat within expectations. Jiang Chijing exhaled, slowing his pace to wait for Luo Hai even as he remained anxious for Xu Sheng’s safety.

While Old Nine did abhor Zheng Mingyi and might also be out to get him, comparatively, the person Old Nine most desired revenge against was Xu Sheng.

If it weren’t for Xu Sheng’s plan to escape prison, Old Nine wouldn’t have arranged for the whole arson fiasco. He ended up getting time in confinement, even with Xu Sheng extending the duration of it, forcing him to write that reflection letter, humiliating him to the bone.

It was clearly Xu Sheng who wanted to leave, yet ultimately didn’t. In Old Nine’s eyes, he must have felt that Xu Sheng was making a monkey out of him.

He could, of course, get even with Zheng Mingyi—or even Princess, who Xu Sheng cared about the most. However, no matter who he targeted, Xu Sheng would still retaliate back severalfold. Hence, the simplest solution was to gun straight for Xu Sheng.

Furthermore, among them, only Xu Sheng was working in the paint factory with Old Nine. He was the easiest target to set his hand down on.

Luo Hai went to the infirmary to contact an ambulance and fetch his first-aid kit. Matching Jiang Chijing’s pace, the two of them ran down to the ground floor, coincidentally bumping into Yu Guang who was sweeping the corridors. Once Yu Guang saw them, he immediately followed behind, asking, “What happened?”

Luo Hai frowned, glancing at him. “Go back to your cleaning duty.”

“Dr. Luo, are you still upset?” Yu Guang followed them to the main entrance of the admin block. “When I said that I like Idol I’m not talking about that kind of like!”

You even dare to like Idol?

Jiang Chijing whipped his head over to look at Yu Guang, thinking to himself: Stinky brat, you deserve to be taught a lesson by your Dr. Luo.

The paint factory wasn’t too far from the admin block. It only took Jiang Chijing and Luo Hai about three minutes to run over. By the time they arrived, the patrol team had just gotten the commotion under control. Old Nine’s face and body were injured, and several of Xu Sheng’s underlings were standing opposite him, distressed. Both sides were being restrained by the patrol team; they should have just been separated from a fight.

Xu Sheng was lying on the ground. His lips were turning blue and his forehead was covered in sweat. A wooden pole was stabbed into the side of his abdomen.

The wooden pole was likely the handle of a mop, snapped in half by stomping down on it to form irregular, sharp spikes. It wasn’t possible to tell with the naked eye exactly how deeply embedded the wooden pole was, but at least they could be certain that it didn’t pass all the way through.

“Xu Sheng, can you hear me?”

Luo Hai immediately went up to check Xu Sheng’s response. Xu Sheng nodded very gently, showing that he was still conscious of his surroundings.

Jiang Chijing sighed in relief at this, but Old Nine didn’t seem satisfied that Xu Sheng was still responsive, yelling at him, “Who are you to get me to mop the floor? Go to hell! You were the one who wanted to escape prison; why aren’t you fucking off yet?”

“Quiet!” The guards flanking Old Nine pressed him down, but he continued to curse and shout at Xu Sheng.

Xu Sheng’s men, unwilling to be outdone, cursed back at him, and the scene turned rowdy again.

Thoroughly annoyed by the ruckus, Jiang Chijing took off his baton and walked up to Old Nine, swinging it to his face. He rebuked, “Be quiet!”

The noise immediately fell silent; even Xu Sheng’s men exchanged a glance at each other. Normally, prison guards wouldn’t beat up inmates unless they were being threatened, let alone that Old Nine was being subdued at the moment.

Old Nine turned his face over. He glared sinisterly at Jiang Chijing and said, “Motherfucking trash surnamed Jiang…”

“Do you not understand human speech?” Jiang Chijing pointed his baton at Old Nine’s nose. “Do you want me to slam this baton into your mouth?”

This wasn’t any kind of hint. If he really was hit, it would be even more disgraceful than writing the reflection essay. Though Old Nine’s expression was extremely grudging, at least he finally shut up.

“He isn’t in good condition.” Luo Hai stood up, saying, “He needs to be sent to the hospital immediately.”

The hospital that Southside Prison worked with was located in the city outskirts. It only took ten minutes for an ambulance to drive over.

The patrol team escorted Old Nine and Xu Sheng’s underlings out of the paint factory. Not long later, paramedics finally arrived carrying a stretcher, moving Xu Sheng to the ambulance.

Luo Hai needed to follow the ambulance to the hospital. Jiang Chijing didn’t have to be here in the first place, so he followed the patrol team outside, intending to route back to the admin block. But at this time, an orange blur rushed over all of a sudden. Jiang Chijing agilely blocked the man, quickly saying, “It’s all right. Xu Sheng will be okay, he’s under the care of the paramedics now.”

It was Princess who rushed over.

Jiang Chijing wasn’t familiar with the layout of the factory area, but he knew that the sewing factory where Princess worked was far from the paint factory. Initially, Princess was assigned to work at the paint factory as well, but the prison was unwilling to let him and Xu Sheng be distracted dating while working, so they transferred him to the sewing factory.

“Is that a wooden pole?” Princess was panting, his eyes fixed straight ahead, his voice trembling as he spoke to Jiang Chijing.

Jiang Chijing glanced behind. Princess had really come at a bad timing; he just happened to see Xu Sheng bring carried into the ambulance, and the pole stuck into his side was especially attention-grabbing.

“Don’t worry, he’s still conscious,” Jiang Chijing reassured. “He’s on the ambulance now, he’ll be okay.”

Honestly speaking, even Jiang Chijing wasn’t too sure himself, because Luo Hai had just said earlier that Xu Sheng wasn’t in good shape. However, he certainly couldn’t let Princess know this. Princess was a lunatic. If anything touched Xu Sheng, he’d go out of his mind.

“It was Old Nine, right?” After the ambulance left, Princess averted his gaze, turning to look unwaveringly at Jiang Chijing, asking. There wasn’t any rage or madness in his eyes, only an eerie calm and focus. Jiang Chijing inexplicably felt chills and subconsciously swallowed his saliva.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Jiang Chijing said. “Xu Sheng will be out of prison soon. You don’t have much time left on your sentence either. The world outside is waiting for you both.”

“He’ll be out of prison soon?” Princess asked.

It appeared that Xu Sheng was waiting for the result to come out to give Princess a surprise. But Jiang Chijing couldn’t care less about this now, continuing, “The victim’s family wrote a pardon letter. There’s a good chance that his sentence will be reduced.”

“Really?” Princess abruptly sneered. “Old Nine couldn’t even wait for this?”

When a normal person heard Jiang Chijing, their first reaction would be hope, focusing on the future. But Princess was different. His first thought was that Xu Sheng would soon be out of prison, and after that Old Nine could become as diabolical as he wanted. But Old Nine was purely out for revenge, wishing to see Xu Sheng miserable.

“Old Nine might not have known yet,” Jiang Chijing said. “In any case, don’t get any wild ideas. Just wait for more news on Xu Sheng.”

Princess didn’t respond to him, and his expression was inscrutable to Jiang Chijing.

Jiang Chijing said austerely, “Don’t—just don’t—do anything stupid.”

“As you command, Officer Jiang.” Princess said in a tone neither barbed nor light. He turned to leave the paint factory. However, his words kept giving Jiang Chijing a sense of foreboding. It was as though it was dripping with ridicule and sarcasm, its subtext reading: You can’t stop me.

Jiang Chijing had already said his piece and didn’t know how to dissuade him otherwise. He took off his walkie-talkie and warned the Block B Supervisor to pay more attention to Princess for the next period of time.

After that, Jiang Chijing turned back towards the admin block. But he caught sight of someone standing at the strawberry shed just then, and he changed directions, walking up to the other person. He said, “My head hurts.”

“Is Xu Sheng okay?” Zheng Mingyi asked.

“I don’t know,” Jiang Chijing shook his head. “I hope that it’ll turn out okay.”

“How did he get stabbed by Old Nine?” Zheng Mingyi asked. “Where did Old Nine get a knife?”

The strawberry shed was a distance away from the paint factory. Zheng Mingyi should only have heard the gist and didn’t know the specifics of what happened. Since the previous arson incident, the prison had clamped down on contraband. It was no longer possible to obtain a penknife or whatnot.

“Xu Sheng arranged for Old Nine to mop the floor. Old Nine discreetly snapped the handle and then took while Xu Sheng’s attention was on working to stab him with it.” Jiang Chijing breathed in before continuing, “Xu Sheng shouldn’t have been expecting that Old Nine would actually dare to act out against him.”

“Indeed,” Zheng Mingyi said, “or he might have considered it but never took it to heart.”

Jiang Chijing nodded, saying, “I’m not clear on the situation with Xu Sheng yet, but my biggest headache now is Princess. I’m scared that he’ll do something irrational.”

Zheng Mingyi didn’t speak. Jiang Chijing unconsciously looked at him, his meaning in his eyes evident: Don’t you have any ideas?

“There’s no point in worrying,” Zheng Mingyi said. “Xu Sheng’s prison break had a plan, so we were able to preemptively deduce what it was and stop him. But Princess…”

Zheng Mingyi stopped here. Jiang Chijing finished the sentence himself, “We can’t even tell what he’s thinking.”

“Yeah,” Zheng Mingyi said. “I’ll find a chance to talk him around. Don’t worry too much.”

“You’re going to talk him around?” Jiang Chijing suspiciously looked towards Zheng Mingyi. “Don’t give him any bad ideas.”

Zheng Mingyi’s gaze shifted away for a split second, and Jiang Chijing astutely caught it. He frowned, saying, “Zheng Mingyi, don’t mess around.”

“Have I ever messed around?” Zheng Mingyi smiled. “Relax, Officer Jiang.”

But for some reason, now, Jiang Chijing was even more unable to relax.