Chapter Thirteen: Jiangnan Beyond the Great Wall, Endless Charm in the Desert

  Gao Wei reacted quickly, grabbing the electric baton and striking Hu Guangli's buttocks as he was climbing out the window. Hu Guangli was shocked and lost his strength, allowing Ye Haodong to pull him back in. Gao Wei furiously pounced on him with the electric baton, but Hu Guangli simply raised his hands in surrender without resisting, a smile-like expression on his face as he stared intently at Ye Haodong. The torture device had been smashed earlier and couldn't be reattached, so Gao Wei was forced to use handcuffs to restrain Hu Guangli, using the "Su Qin back sword" method to cuff him securely.

  Back in the carriage, it was time for dinner. Gao Wei walked over to Ye Haodong and handed him a large red sausage emitting a strong garlic aroma. Ye Haodong generously divided the luxury item into four portions and shared them with the other three people.

  Gong Mao Xiang gave a thumbs up: "Alright! Younger brother, you really have some connections, even the person in charge of escorting prisoners is giving you face."

  Ye Haodong smiled and said nothing.

  The farther west they went, the more desolate the scenery outside became. At some point, Hu Guangli suddenly appeared in front of Ye Haodong and his group. His arms were tied behind his back, with one arm above the other, while his legs were locked together by three pairs of handcuffs. The handcuffs were almost embedded in his flesh, but his expression was very relaxed.

  "Kid, your gaze is quite sharp, staring at me for a while, it seemed like you were about to fly away, but you ruined the mood. Let's start over."

  The train was swaying as it sped along. Ye Haodong unconsciously nodded his head with the movement of the train, blinked once, looked at Hu Guangli, and yawned: "What's there to discuss? If you run away, many people will be implicated. A man does things on his own and takes responsibility for them. If you want to run, it's best to change your location."

  "Hu Guangli muttered to himself: 'Hu Guangli, a man from Ji Province, the case on his back is too big, so let's not say more. Little kid, remember this, we're not done yet!'"

  Ye Haodong finally opened his eyes and looked at him for a moment, nodded slightly, then fell asleep again.

  After five days and nights of long-distance trekking, the train finally arrived at the urban area of Shigouzi. As the train entered the station, Ye Haodong followed the crowd to curiously scan this city. The beautiful scenery of Shigouzi Street, with people coming and going, was far cleaner than Gangcheng. The white poplar trees towered into the clouds, with a lush green canopy, not showing any desolation or sadness at all.

  The person in charge on the bus introduced: "This is known as the small Jiangnan of the Great Northwest, a national sanitary city, and the location of the Eighth Agricultural Division of the Corps." The clean street scene gave the prisoners a good mood. The handover ceremony began, files and archives were checked, both parties signed each other, and the escort personnel got off the bus. Ye Haodong shook hands with Gao Wei to bid farewell, and followed by everyone strictly following the requirements to line up and get off the bus.

  Everyone gathered under the car, counted and reported after roll call, and walked up in an orderly manner to receive their large passenger bus. It was still that kind of iron railing sealed window large passenger bus, only the sign changed to "Siping Large Passenger". Ye Haodong calculated the time silently all the way, and it took six hours to reach the destination. At a speed of 50 kilometers per hour, this road is at least 300 kilometers long. The scenery on both sides of the road was monotonous and dull, with low hills and shrubs, wasteland and desert.

  As we turned off the desert highway, a field of wheat stretched out before us, with waves of grain rolling in and a gentle breeze blowing towards us, giving us a refreshing feeling. The green belt was lined with rows of tall white poplar trees standing proudly. We had only been driving for forty minutes when we arrived at the new prison, which still looked like the previous one, so it didn't seem to be a barren land. The armed police who were escorting us spread out and formed a cordon, and the prisoners began to get off the bus. A prisoner from Hebei province shook his head: "Damn, is this really a prison? Why isn't there a wall around it?" There were only three rows of houses, with iron bars on every window. As we entered the row house, a passageway no more than two meters wide stretched out before us, with twenty people to a cell. The iron door was inserted into an iron slot and locked with an iron lock. The upper and lower bunks were made of metal, with bamboo boards on top. Everything looked simple and clean, without any ceiling, just a paper roof made of crisscrossed paper strips that shone like gold. The passageway divided the house in two, with eighteen cells in total. Looking out the window, we saw a vast expanse of wheat behind us, with several rows of poplar trees. Outside the window, there were only two armed police officers patrolling with guns, and the simple security measures seemed puzzling.

  Ye Haodong numbly followed the flow and was arranged by others in a prison cell.

  The duty officer, wearing a red armband, opened the door: "You guys choose a temporary class leader, lay out the bedding, take a bath first, prepare dinner, and get a good night's sleep. You've been busy for several days and are all tired, so hurry up!"

  Ye Haodong and Ji Chenggang were assigned to the same cell, along with Jin Rongzhe and that little Sichuan kid he had met before. The others were from different cars and would have to be slowly gotten to know. Now everyone was new, and they wanted to figure out who was who, so they would have to observe each other for a few days. Before long, the big shot who ran the numbers came back: "You guys hurry up and go take a bath." After saying that, he turned his head and left first, apparently leading the way.

  The bathroom facilities were surprisingly advanced, with a rare large solar water heater. In this season and place, it was absolutely useful. The water was hot, and everyone showered comfortably. Ye Haodong stood under the hot water, scrubbing his body, and his thoughts flew back to when he first entered society. At that time, he was just a bathhouse worker, but now he was the boss of Xingye Group, a rising star in Steel City. However, he could only wish for an early release from prison. Thinking of this, he felt a surge of resentment and excitement, throwing his head back and shouting: "Wait, let's start again! Clean up the old mountains and rivers, and face the sky!" The words were from Yue Fei, but the tune was one he had composed himself. His loud voice echoed in the enclosed space, attracting the attention of the other prisoners showering with him. Ye Haodong laughed loudly as he rinsed off the soap suds, then turned around at the door and looked back at the people inside, shouting wildly: "Great Western Wilderness, I, Ye Haodong, have arrived! Nine and a half years' imprisonment? I'll finish it in three years at most! Laughing loudly, I'll walk out of here. We are not ordinary people!" The prisoners felt strange and uncomfortable, not expecting this guy to be so repressed lately, but now his true nature was revealed, and he couldn't stop showing off. As Ye Haodong walked out, a prisoner cursed: "Damn it, psycho!"

  More than an hour later, the scene that made all the prisoners' adrenaline surge appeared. A delicate-looking Uyghur girl and a short-haired Han girl with two small tiger teeth, followed by several management personnel without *, carried in large baskets and a large flat box. The basket contained mantou, which is called bing in this place, Ye Haodong thought it was more suitable to call it mantou ancestor. In the bamboo flat box were four large dishes: potato shreds, pickled radish, meat diced eggplant, and snowflake tofu stew.

  Twenty men's fiery eyes didn't make the two girls feel any discomfort, and the Han girl was straightforward to the point of being saucy, laughing and saying: "What are you looking at? A group of newbies, hurry up and eat while it's hot! It's a tradition here for new prisoners to enjoy this meal on their first day. Once you leave this village, there won't be a restaurant like this anymore."

  Ye Haodong noticed her two tiger teeth when she was smiling, the girl noticed Ye Haodong's undisguised gaze, looked around at the young offender in the crowd, and deliberately said fiercely: "Hey, I'm talking to you, where are you looking? Let me tell you, once you're here, you have to follow the rules here, no random talk, movement or gaze, otherwise you'll be punished."

  Ye Haodong smiled, his eyes pure and clear, saying casually: "I'm looking at you two because you're beautiful."

  The Uyghur girl also understood Chinese, and gave Ye Haodong a compliment, her face suddenly turned red. The Han girl was somewhat annoyed: "You dare to flirt with the management staff on the first day of arrival, if you have time, you won't be able to get away with it, don't look at him or talk nonsense, otherwise, you'll be in trouble."

  Yeh Hao-dong: "To tell the truth, that's what our ancestors taught us, to be honest and do honest things. Does it mean you're right if you say ugly things?"

  The two girls didn't pay attention to him anymore, left their food behind and followed others away.

  During the meal, everyone had a heated discussion about this. Originally thought that in this vast desert outside the Great Wall, it would be a rare and exciting thing to see a female animal, but unexpectedly, there were even female management cadres here, and they were of such high quality. At the first meal, everyone was shocked by Ye Haodong's appetite. A big bun is usually enough for one or two people to eat their fill, but Ye Haodong ate six in one breath, stopping only when the basket was empty, seemingly still able to eat more if there were any left.

  After resting for two days, every day was spent reciting prison rules and studying politics, eating and sleeping. Ye Haodong had also become acquainted with his roommates. Here, the quality of prisoners had clearly improved, the crimes they committed were varied and correspondingly serious, in a house of twenty people, Ye Haodong surprisingly had the shortest sentence.

  Ji Chenggang and Jin Rongzhe are both serving life sentences, and if we categorize them by their sentence length, they would undoubtedly be in the first tier. Another person who falls into this category is Liu Kui from Shandong Province, a big man with no prior convictions. He committed an earth-shattering crime on his first offense - he set fire to a military arsenal, causing a massive explosion that could have deafened people nearby. Although he did not have any subjective intent or desire to commit a crime, the objective consequences of his actions were severe and irreparable. As a result, the court took the military's opinion into consideration and handed down a heavy sentence - life imprisonment.

  The most notable person among the remaining people is Wang Yijun from Liaocheng, Liaoning Province. This is a three-time offender, and it's his second time in Xinjiang, although last time he was sentenced to prison in northern Xinjiang, where conditions were much harsher. His tattoos and scars symbolize his past glorious achievements, and when he first arrived, he wore 48 kilograms of heavy shackles that showed off his uniqueness. Before coming here, he had already served three years in Niuchishan Prison, where he was sentenced to 20 years for intentional injury. According to him, it was because he crippled another offender who opposed him. From the first day he entered this cell, he acted as if he were the leader, bossing others around, but he didn't dare underestimate Ye Haodong and the other two. The reputation of Gangcheng people being fiercely competitive and ruthless was well-known, and the two death row inmates, Ji Chenggang and Jin Rongzhe, made him even more cautious.

  Compared to the previous ones, others' crimes are relatively ordinary, mostly robbery, assault and theft, nothing special to mention. There is one more counter-revolutionary rumormonger Lin Xudong who slandered state leaders, this guy deserves a few words.