Chapter 7: The Most Awesome Adaptation to Local Conditions in History

  The horse-faced man's face sank like water, he let out a breath and finally spoke: "What brings you in? Have you been here before?"

  Ye Haodong remained silent, and Huang Mao'er hastily replied: "I've been to the juvenile detention center once before, this is my second time here. Last time was for theft, this time it's for fighting." The atmosphere in the room was no longer as oppressive as before, and Huang Mao'er's speech became more fluent.

  The horse-faced man nodded: "Uh-huh, know the rules."

  "Got it."

  The horse-faced man turned his head to Ye Haodong and asked: "What about you?"

  Yeh Hao-dong replied: "The first time, I killed someone, didn't know the rules."

  Everyone was shocked.

  The horse-faced man was indeed a leader, seeing and knowing much, quickly calming down. He said: "Give... Ye Haodong is it? From now on, I'll call you Little Ye, Huang Mao'er has come in before, let's show Little Ye the rules."

  Huang Mao'er was very proactive: "Good, please big brother take a step."

  The horse-faced man didn't say a word, glanced at the middle-aged man sitting next to him, and the middle-aged man understood: "Newcomers are guests, so please sit on the sofa first."

  Huang Mao'er heard the two words and didn't say anything, immediately came to the wall side, his feet were more than 50 centimeters away from the wall surface, stood still, his body leaned back, his back stuck to the wall, his hands stretched out as if they were on the armrest of a sofa, steady and stable, just like he was really sitting on a sofa. The whole series of movements came down without any hesitation, obviously it's a familiar road.

  The middle-aged man obviously didn't intend to let him off so easily: "Since you're a guest, of course we'll treat you with good tobacco and tea. Please have a cup of tea and smoke a cigarette."

  Huang Mao'er immediately stretched out his right hand, making a fist as if holding an invisible cup of tea, while his left hand was pinched like holding a cigarette, and his face showed a very intoxicated expression.

  The middle-aged man said: "Look at you sitting there so tensely, why don't you put your leg up?"

  The yellow-haired boy obeyed orders and lifted his right leg, naturally placing it on top of his left leg.

  The middle-aged man was about to say something else, but the horse-faced man said: "Let's just put it this way for now, pay attention to maintaining a relaxed and enjoyable attitude."

  The scene in front of him made Ye Haodong feel novelty, watching Huang Maoer's out-of-thin-air appearance, indulging in the 'cigarette', 'tea water' and 'sofa'. Ye Haodong felt more like he was watching something strange and fun, without any schadenfreude or feelings of sorrow. The detention center really is a place that broadens one's horizons.

  The horse-faced man glanced at the other five "natives" and noticed that due to Huang Mao's decent behavior, those people had shifted more attention to the newcomer Ye Haodong. Several of them were casting sidelong glances at him. The horse-faced man thought with some concern: If he couldn't intimidate Ye Haodong, his prestige in cell 6 would inevitably be shaken.

  There are many ways to "adapt to the local environment" in prison, and those who have been trapped in solitary confinement for years often suffer from double pressure on their thoughts and actions. The spiritual needs of prisoners cannot be met anywhere, so torturing newcomers has become the most entertaining activity in prison. Every day, prisoners with a lot of free time devote a large number of brain cells to this form of entertainment, which is almost as strong as the Spring Festival Gala. The horse-faced man wanted to think of a not-too-difficult rule for Ye Haodong to follow, so that he could maintain his own prestige without offending Ye Haodong too much. He was struggling to come up with a gentle way to deal with Ye Haodong, but Ye Haodong had already taken the initiative to solve the problem for him.

  Unable to resist the temptation of curiosity, Ye Haodong, full of evil humor, stood beside Huang Ma'er, striking a pose identical to hers. His posture was standard, and his expression was perfectly in sync.

  Ye Haodong was so on the right track, greatly exceeding the expectations of Ma Liang's son.

  Years of experience made him feel that the young man in front of him, who was completely carefree, was absolutely a formidable character. The mentality and spiritual quality of intentional murderers and accidental murderers were completely different. People like this often possess a cold-blooded disregard for life and a desperate determination to die together with others. The young man in front of him, Ye Haodong, reminded the horse-faced man of those lawless characters he had met before who broke all the rules. The horse-faced man was extremely surprised that Ye Haodong, whom he thought would never follow the rules or "obey the local customs", actually took the initiative to accept this "local custom".

  Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, two or three minutes have passed. Huang Mao's legs have already started to tremble, and his arms are shaking up and down, clearly at their limit. The "sofa sitting" posture that ordinary people can hold for tens of seconds is considered good physical strength, but Huang Mao has sat for so long that he has exhausted his physical strength, and suddenly let out a loud "ah", falling to the cement floor.

  The man with a horse face shouted as soon as he saw him: "What are you doing? Get up quickly, is the sofa uncomfortable?"

  Xiao Huang said with a grin: "Big brother, can I swap legs?"

  The horse-faced man nodded.

  The yellow-haired boy changed his legs and continued sitting on the sofa.

  After a while, he couldn't hold on again and fell to the ground once more.

  As the horse-faced man glared at him, he hastily scrambled to his feet and switched to supporting himself with his left leg, sitting back down on the 'sofa' to 'smoke' and 'drink tea', but there was no longer a hint of the intoxication that had previously shown on his face, and beads of sweat as big as beans streamed down his face.

  When Huang Maoer fell to the ground for the fourth time, he was surprised to find that Ma Lianzi and others were no longer paying attention to him.

  Ye Haodong, who sat on the "sofa" just a little later than him, was still sitting on the "sofa" with a relaxed face, smoking and drinking tea with an intoxicated expression. The people in the house had already been stunned by his amazing waist and leg strength, and they directly ignored Huang Mao's lazy behavior.

  Time slipped away bit by bit, and half an hour later, Ye Haodong seemed to have had enough fun. He stood up straight, very unceremoniously, without saying a word. The "original residents" finally came back to their senses, looking at each other in dismay, but still didn't ask any questions about the uncomfortable sofa. Apparently, they were intimidated by Ye Haodong's robust physique.

  Ye Haodong has finished his water and soil, although because he took the initiative to take it, the few "indigenous people" in the cell had less pleasure in tormenting him, but the horse-faced man managed to save face. After secretly rejoicing, I thought of another newcomer Huang Maoer's performance, which was not very good.

  The horse-faced man with bulging eyes pretended to be surprised, but was actually lazy, and coldly smiled: "Feeling uncomfortable from sitting for a long time?"

  The little yellow hair hurried back into the "sofa" and made a very comfortable and intoxicated expression: "Comfortable, comfortable."

  Guy with horse face: "Want to take a stroll?"

  "Think, think."

  "Alright, let's take a stroll then, go inside, shout your own slogans, if no one tells you to stop, don't stop, and if someone gives you attitude, we'll switch to a program that everyone participates in." The horse-faced man stretched out his hands, rubbed them against each other several times, and the sound of bone friction from his fists made Huang Mao's hair stand on end.

  Huang Mao'er shouted in a low voice: "One two one, one two one." He moved towards the west wall.

  Ye Haodong watched from the side, but this time he didn't find it funny at all.

  The number is only seven or eight steps long, and Huang Maoer has already reached the base of the wall in just a few steps. Ye Haodong secretly pondered what to do next, but before he knew it, he had rushed straight into the west wall, without any intention of stopping, still shouting orders as he crashed his body into the wall.

  "Damn you, haven't even eaten a solid meal yet and you're acting like you've been weaned off milk? Use some strength to crash!" The horse-faced man was suppressed by Ye Haodong's aura, his emotions somewhat irritated, he took out the yellow-haired child to vent.

  Huang Mao, who had been intimidated by his past prison experiences, did not dare to disobey and could only use all his might, using different parts of his body to crash against the wall one after another, producing a series of dull thuds.

  Ye Haodong's mind flashed with three words 'conform to local customs', it turned out that this was conforming to local customs. It seems that it wasn't necessary to fight after all.

  Actually, Ye Haodong misunderstood. He didn't know that the "water and soil" in the detention center were different from those in a real prison. Since most people were temporarily detained on "short-term contracts", the water and soil in the detention center were more entertaining. The main purpose of the new inmates' water and soil was to establish rules. This mistaken understanding wasn't changed until he went to jail again a year later for excessive self-defense, and then experienced the real "water and soil" at Niujiayu Prison.

  Huang Mao's face and body were now completely covered in white dust from the peeling walls, his nose was even bleeding, looking utterly miserable, yet he didn't dare stop for a moment, still stubbornly crashing into the wall.

  Suddenly, a surge of anger rose in Ye Haodong's heart. This kind of 'conformity' made Ye Haodong feel very uncomfortable. He wasn't overflowing with a sense of justice, but simply couldn't bear it anymore, a feeling of indignation and frustration filling his chest.

  "Alright, stop it! If this is what you call adapting to local customs, then I think we're done for today."

  Huang Mao'er remained unmoved, still crashing into the wall without stopping. His past experiences had taught him that if he stopped now, he would soon be subjected to even more severe punishment by Ye Haodong and his gang of horse-faced men.

  Ye Haodong took a few steps forward and slapped him: "That's enough, even if you're shameless, there's no one as shameless as you."

  Watching the yellow-haired boy get up again, still shouting orders and rushing to the wall to kill, Ye Haodong had a kind of crying and laughing absurdity. His gaze finally stayed on the crux of the problem, the face of the horse-faced man.

  Ye Haodong: "Is it over just like this?"

  The man with a horse face showed no expression: "There's no such rule in our gang, I respect you as a good fellow, and the water and soil also obey your strong air. I advise you not to interfere too much, just watch from the side."

  Ye Haodong's eyes narrowed slightly, and a hint of a smile played on his lips: "Big brother, what's your honorable surname and given name?"

  A man with a horse face puffed out his chest: "Zhu Mingfu, mixed in Ba Xian Bridge, Ba Xian Bridge's Zhu Saner is my third brother."

  Ye Haodong: "My name is Ye Haodong, I was caught because I accidentally killed a thug named Shan Longjun. I'd like to ask Big Brother for this favor."

  Zhu Mingfu heard this and couldn't help but take a deep breath. He had been here for not long, and the great name of Shan Longjun was something he had heard before, but he didn't expect that he would actually die at the hands of this kid who was less than eighteen years old.

  It came to this, either Zhu Mingfu would give in and give Ye Haodong face, or Zhu Mingfu would resolutely enforce the rules to the end, unite with the old men in the cell and beat up Ye Haodong, suppressing his arrogant momentum. After weighing the pros and cons, Zhu Mingfu chose the latter.

  Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. As Zhu Mingfu jumped down from the kang and walked towards Ye Haodong, several others sitting on the kang also jumped down. Obviously, Ye Haodong's behavior of challenging the rules had already infuriated everyone.

  Zhu Mingfu said with great momentum: "You dare to scold me? You think you're something just because you have a few tricks up your sleeve? Let me tell you, we brothers didn't get here by eating plain rice. In a bit, when the fists can't beat the four hands, don't come crying to the officials to settle the score."

  Ye Haodong: "Good!"

  Three minutes later, Zhu Mingfu's pig-killing howl echoed in the courtyard, and the sound lingered in the empty corridor. Guan Maolin was chatting with Guo Baokun about Ye Haodong's case in the duty room when they heard the sound and immediately rushed to the scene quickly.

  The iron gate was opened from outside with a loud creak. Guan Maolin, with a face as calm as water, and Guo Baokun, who was furious beyond control, walked in.