Shanghai, Qingfu Prison.
An ordinary office was filled with the pungent smell of tobacco.
A quiet-looking handsome young man wearing an orange prison vest and a round, plump bald head was sitting in a chair with a relaxed posture. His back was lightly pressed against the back of the chair, and his feet were alternately stepping on the ground, causing the chair to rock back and forth, making a creaking sound.
The young man's name is Ren Ye. He is prisoner No. 00848 in this prison and is usually reformed in the ordinary prison area.
Across the neat and tidy long table sat a middle-aged man with an untidy beard. He held a cigarette in his right hand and rubbed his eye boogers with his left hand: "You have been in prison for more than three years?"
"Three years, three months and five days." Ren nodded.
"Oh, by the way, my name is Huang Wei." The unshaven middle-aged man was wearing an old leather jacket, had sleepy eyes, a low voice, and a listless temperament.
"Hmph~~"
"Ahem, tui!"
After saying this, Huang Wei took a deep breath, coughed several times, and finally vomited a mouthful of yellow phlegm. However, he looked around but couldn't find a trash can, so he finally spit into an empty cigarette box, crushed it with his hands, and threw it on the table.
Ren Ye looked at him with his eyes, his face expressionless, but he was wondering in his heart, is this man an inspector? From the psychological correction studio, or a resident inspector?
My personal habits are so crude that it doesn't look like it.
Huang Wei pinched the cigarette between his thumb and index finger, took a deep puff and asked, "How long will it take to get out?"
"Including the commutation, it's two years, eight months and twenty-five days."
"Well, do you regret it?" Huang Wei asked as if he was chatting about family matters.
"Haha." Ren also smiled.
"You are still young and too impulsive." Huang Wei pointed at Ren Ye impolitely and said, "It's a pity after reading your resume."
"You only have the opportunity to make mistakes when you are young. After six years in prison, I am still Ren Ye. Nothing has changed." Ren Ye looked relaxed. "Besides, it's pretty good here. My roommates are all craftsmen who are proficient in playing various instruments and singing. I am very pleased."
"Hehe." A rare smile appeared on Huang Wei's purple-black cheeks.
More than three years ago, Ren Ye, who had just started working in anti-fraud work at the border, was escorting two suspects. Because the two suspects attempted to escape violently, he shot them seven times and they died in the country.
A week before this incident, one of Ren Ye's closest colleagues was dismembered and buried alive abroad by the same group of suspects. Only two arms and a torso have been found from the body so far.
My colleague was the only son in his family. He had just gotten married and his wife was eight months pregnant when he died.
My colleague died abroad, making it difficult to collect evidence. The two main suspects who were shot dead may be charged with fraud and money laundering. If they go to court... there is a high probability that they will not die.
The unit tried their best to protect Ren Ye and thought of many ways, but the difficulty of the case was that he fired seven shots and the heads of the two suspects were smashed.
In the end, Ren was sentenced to six years and ten months in prison.
Do you regret it?
In fact, Ren Ye, who seemed relaxed and even a little cynical on the surface, had asked himself this question many times in his heart. After all, the process of changing from a respected identity to a murderer who was rejected by society was somewhat difficult.
This is not only difficult for others, but also especially for yourself.
Judging from his current situation, he undoubtedly regretted it. But the interesting thing about life is that many things you regret will still happen if you choose again.
This filled Ren Ye's heart with a conflicting feeling that he couldn't tell anyone...
Huang Wei extinguished his cigarette in the ashtray, took out a new pack of cigarettes, and seamlessly took out a cigarette and lit it: "I'm from a special unit."
"I can guess that." Ren nodded.
"Everything I'm going to say to you next may be hard for you to digest and understand, or even too shocking and confusing." Huang Wei held a cigarette between his legs, frowned, and said seriously, "But I believe that with your resume, you won't lose your composure."
Ren was also a little confused: "Shocked, confused? I don't understand."
"Let me tell you two stories first."
"Will it take long? I still have to work on the sewing machine to earn centimeters tomorrow." Ren Ye replied jokingly.
Huang Wei ignored Ren Ye's reaction and just organized his words carefully and said, "In 1973, there was the rebirth incident. There was a family in the south named Jiang. The boy in the family was over three years old and was given the alias Xiao Jiang. One day, the three-year-old child suddenly said to his parents... In fact, I am not your son, but the son of a family in Danzhou. More than ten years ago, I died in a fight, and then I reincarnated into your family. Now, I want to go back to find my former parents and see them. Jiang's parents didn't believe it at first, and mistakenly thought that the child was possessed by evil spirits or something like that, but they couldn't stand the child's soft and hard persuasion, repeating his past life experience every day, so they took him to Danzhou when the child was six years old."
Approaching science?
Folk rumors?
The middle-aged man with a scruffy beard in front of me must be someone who has done too much manual work, or he must be from some metaphysical unit.
What does he want to do? A question rose in Ren's mind.
Huang Wei's eyes looked bloodshot and lifeless, but in fact, when he was telling this story, his pupils were watching Ren Ye's micro-expressions. He also expected the other party to look at him as if he was mentally ill.
"…After arriving in Danzhou, the Jiang couple, under the guidance of their son, found a family that was familiar with the route. The child never made a mistake in leading them. When they arrived at the family, the child recognized his father from his previous life, but the latter thought he was talking nonsense. However… every detail of life that the child described was exactly the same as what the other person knew, without any difference." Huang Wei spoke very seriously, with a serious expression.
Ren also heard this: "Ah, and then."
"Then comes the second story." Huang Wei has a talent for storytelling, and his voice is full of magnetism: "In January 1995, a scientific research station stationed in Antarctica discovered a huge amount of fog clouds in the sky. Strangely, there was a strong wind at the time, but the fog clouds did not move in the sky, with no signs of dispersing, and from the appearance, the fog looked like a round door. For testing, they tied a balloon with precision instruments to a rope and raised it into the "fog door" for testing. After the specified time, they pulled the balloon down again...but found that the time displayed on the instrument had changed to a certain time in 1965. At first, they thought the instrument was malfunctioning, so they replaced many identical devices and did repetitive tests...but the results were the same, the time on all instruments became 1965, and the time was exactly the same."
Ren Ye frowned, thought for a moment and replied: "I think I saw this news...!"
"What the news didn't tell you is that a few years later, the fog reappeared and three people disappeared and have not been found to this day." Huang Wei interrupted with a serious expression.
After being stunned for a long time, Ren couldn't help but ask: "No more?"
"Ah, it's gone." Huang Wei nodded as a matter of course.
"No, I don't understand. What do you mean by telling me these two stories?" Ren was also puzzled.
As soon as he finished speaking, the room became so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.
Huang Wei looked directly at Ren Ye: "I just want to tell you that people know too little about this world, and even the entire universe. Weird things may be happening in this world at any moment."
Ren quickly calmed down and analyzed the situation in his mind.
A person who could meet me at 11 o'clock in the middle of the night, a person who could allow the staff here to not accompany him and give him enough private space for conversation, should not tell two metaphysical stories to fool himself.
"There is a chance that you can leave here." Huang Wei said calmly: "The price is... you may die."
The grinding sound of the chair rubbing against the ground faded away, and Ren Ye sat up straight, raised his eyebrows and asked, "Will he die?"
"To be precise, this is not a request, or an attempt to redeem oneself for a crime, but a plea," Huang Wei explained seriously.
"Haha, who is asking me for help?" Ren Ye asked with a smile.
"Before signing a series of documents, I can't tell you too much." Huang Wei paused and suddenly elevated the conversation: "As for who asked you, it's hard to say. The general public? Leaders? Colleagues? Including me... In short, our nation is going through some difficult things."
At this point, Ren stopped asking questions and Huang Wei concentrated on smoking, giving the other party enough time to think.
I don't know how long it took, but Ren Ye suddenly looked up and said, "Do you remember what I just said to you?"
Huang Wei was slightly stunned, his eyes filled with confusion.
"I still have two years, eight months and twenty-five days before I get out." Ren Ye repeated accurately.
Huang Wei understood what the other party meant in an instant: "I said, this is not a case of redeeming oneself for a crime."
"I know." Ren nodded slowly. "I've been here for more than three years. My sister and dad come to see me once a month. I have family. During this time, they may have suffered more than me. They are also waiting for me to return."
"This opportunity, if successful, will be enough to change your life." Huang Wei raised his head at a 40-degree angle, and seemed to be at a loss for words: "A... a brilliant life that you can never imagine."
"You also said, that's if."
Quiet, silent.
"...Okay, my work is done." After a while, Huang Wei suddenly stood up, put out his cigarette butt in the ashtray, and shouted decisively: "We're done talking, you can take him back."
After a moment, a voice came from the corridor: "00848!"
Ren also stood up almost instinctively, put his hands on his trouser line, stood straight and shouted: "Here!"
"Wait at the exit, prepare to return to prison."
"Yes." Ren Ye shouted.
Huang Wei picked up Ren Ye's file on the table, roughly patted the ashes off his legs, and walked straight to the door.
Ren Ye turned around and swung his arms, walking towards the other exit like a soldier, then hugged his head, bent over, and squatted close to the wall.
He had made countless suspects do this before...
There was the sound of footsteps, and Huang Wei walked to the main entrance of the office. He originally wanted to leave directly, but when he saw Ren Ye squatting quietly in the mirror, he suddenly stopped.
He turned around and suddenly shouted, "Ren Ye!"
"ah?!"
Ren also maintained the posture of squatting with his head in his hands. He did not raise his head, but only looked at the other party with his eyes raised.
Under the light, Huang Wei stood at the door. He suddenly put his legs together, slowly raised his arms, and made a standard salute: "Officer Ren, you did a good job."
Ren was also confused.
"Those two bastards really deserve to die." Huang Wei spoke word by word.
With just one sentence, the squatting man's eyes instantly turned red, and the indestructible defense in his heart gradually collapsed: "You...what did you call me just now?"
"Officer Ren."
"Ah, it's a bit strange." Ren nodded and grinned.
(end of the chapter)