novel-bin Chapter 3 Female Prisoner
Chapter 3 Female Prisoner
"Old Man Lawson!"
Upon seeing this, Xisang quickly got up, limped over to the old man's back, and gently patted his back to comfort him.
Ron quickly reassured him, promising that he and his three fellow inmates would do their best to help him—he knew that even if the old man was not in his right mind, he must be hiding crucial clues.
After some comforting, the old man's madness gradually subsided. He lowered his head and sobbed softly, refusing to speak to anyone who asked him.
Xisang chuckled sheepishly, "Sorry, buddy, I didn't tell you, Old Man Lawson isn't in good mental health. He keeps talking nonsense about Aiken and Jenny, which scared you."
He added, "The prison guards will be here to pick him up soon. I'll wait here. By the way, what's your name?"
"Ron," Ron retorted, "are you his son?"
"No, you can just call me Xisang." Xisang waved his hand. "I've never had a father since I was little, so I've treated him like my own father. You go find your friend first, and we'll meet when you're out for some fresh air."
Ron agreed, got up and walked towards the rendezvous point, quickly sorting through the intelligence in his mind.
Old Zeng and Su Zixu were already waiting in the same spot, but Liu Runyu was nowhere to be seen. The three of them found an empty table and immediately began to exchange their findings.
After Ron finished telling the story of Lawson's father, Su Zixu said, "I asked a fellow inmate in gray, and it turns out that Section 3 is indeed the death row section."
He had never been inside, only cleaned the area outside the Third District gate, saying the eeriness there didn't come from death row inmates, but from a kind of inhuman, eerie atmosphere.
Ron and Old Zeng were secretly shocked, never expecting that the aloof Su Zixu could make the prisoners in District Two talk.
Su Zixu, completely unaware, continued:
"The women's section does exist; we need to pay close attention to it during the exercise period later."
Furthermore, the prison only sees sunlight during exercise time; the rest of the time it's completely sealed off. The fellow inmate said the birds you mentioned come every night and have never harmed anyone.
"In that case, the bird most likely only appears in Zone 2. None of the prisoners I asked in Zone 1 have seen it."
Old Zeng chimed in, "Old Man Lawson is definitely the key to breaking the deadlock, but he's not in his right mind, so we have to dig deeper."
By the way, I overheard some men in gray saying that the prison guard who did roll call yesterday was the warden's henchman, who had committed too many evil deeds and had his thumb ripped off and his face scratched by a vengeful ghost.
The three chatted for a while, and Ron glanced at the clock—8:47, nearly twenty minutes past the agreed time, and Liu Runyu was still nowhere to be seen.
"Let's not wait any longer, let's go get some fresh air first. Even if Liu Runyu can't find us, the prison guards will take him there."
The three walked out of the restaurant and had only taken a few steps toward the large iron gate not far away when they were stopped by a guard who shouted sternly, "You've come to the wrong place! This isn't where you're supposed to go!"
Old Zeng immediately adopted a fawning expression: "Officer, we just arrived yesterday and are not familiar with the rules. We'd like to go somewhere to exercise."
The guard's face was ashen, his eyes like a stagnant pool: "Go to the left diagonally ahead, don't ask questions you shouldn't ask, and get over there!"
His face was unusually pale. Old Zeng dared not say anything more and quickly pulled Ron and Su Zixu away.
The sunlight at the end of the passage brought some comfort to the three people who had been confined for so long.
The exercise yard is very large, surrounded by a four-meter-high iron fence, with a fine wire mesh and thorn netting wrapped around the top, making it impossible to climb over.
Outside the stadium was an endless wasteland, deserted and empty.
Behind the iron fence in the distance, a group of people dressed in light pink and dark pink prison uniforms were moving around; they must be the female prisoners.
The three hurried over. Ron was trying to find a way in when his gaze suddenly fixed on a woman leaning against the fence, wearing a dark pink prison uniform. His pupils contracted, and he cried out, "Lizzie!"
The woman suddenly stood up straight and looked around, and the three female prisoners beside her also looked up.
"Here!" Ron waved and ran over, with Lao Zeng and Su Zixu quickly following.
"Teacher! What are you doing here!" Lizzie exclaimed in shock.
"Well... I don't know either, let's talk about it outside." Ron turned around and introduced, "This is my student, Lizzie, we can trust her."
Su Zixu thought to himself: Lizzie seems to know this place better. There are four male and four female prisoners; if they want to leave, they will most likely need cooperation from both sides.
"Where is this place?" Su Zixu asked.
"It can't be explained in a single sentence. Let's go outside and explain. Just the three of you? There are four of us on our side," Lizzie said.
"We haven't found one of our fellow inmates yet, we'll look for him later." Ron nodded. "We've gathered some intelligence, you should have some too, let's exchange it."
Lizzie picked up the conversation:
"The male and female prison blocks are structured the same, and we are also serious offenders in the second block."
I didn't encounter any birds at night, but the warden was a pervert; he had a lewd look in his eyes when he patrolled, and the daily supervisors were female prison guards.
Last night we heard faint writing sounds behind the wall. We live on the first floor, and other female inmates said that the buildings in Zone 3 are right next to Zone 2, so the sound must be coming from Zone 3.
"Do you have any tasks today?" Old Zeng asked.
A short girl spoke up:
"My name is Tiantian, and I'm a gymnast. Our task this week is to clean the bathrooms and organize the library, which is upstairs in the cafeteria and is shared by men and women."
We agreed that we couldn't proceed step by step; we had to find a way to get to Zone 3. We'll go and find out the location when we start working later..."
"Sh-!"
A crisp whistle suddenly rang out, and the gathering of the seven attracted the attention of the female prison guard.
She walked briskly towards them, whistling. The seven people immediately became alert, quickly distanced themselves, and after exchanging glances, they all left the iron fence.
Seeing that everyone had dispersed, the female prison guard did not pursue the matter and turned to leave.