WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS DEPICTIONS OF VIOLENCE AND DEROGATORY THAT MAY BE UPSETTING FOR SOME READERS.
There is no lack of ugliness in life, only a lack of evil hands to spoil beauty.
The hall of the main building of the Texas Prison resembles a church with a towering dome, gothic glass windows, and the stench of crime.
The newly-arrived inmates stood in a row in the hall with handcuffs. There were suddenly more prison guards guarding the area with batons in their hands. For such security precautions, there should be a big shot to appear.
Sure enough, a few moments later, with a crisp sound of leather shoes, the warden of the Texas Prison appeared in front of everyone in a suit, with a smile on his fat face that could barely be described as kind.
“My speech will be short,” the warden said, his fat white hand stroking his bulging stomach. His suit jacket was ridiculously propped up with a small gap. “I have only two things to say, and I hope you will remember them, because one day you will discover that they are true.”
Li Xiaobai closed his eyes; the light in the hall was turbid, and his symptoms of motion sickness came up as sleepiness.
“The first sentence I want all of you to remember is that you are all tr*sh.” The warden’s voice rose and fell, evoking the holiness that pervades all lives.
“The second sentence, remember, God will bless you, and those who believe in me will have eternal life.”
God can’t even handle Judas, Li Xiaobai thought unkindly. He shakes his body slightly, shifting his center of gravity from left to right foot.
Some people’s opinions coincided with Li Xiaobai. A loud snort came from the group, and the entire hall fell silent.
The warden didn’t react. He glanced at everyone with a smile and said obliquely to a prison guard with a very low brim, “Gabriel, inform the kitchen that the newcomer’s diet will be canceled today and tomorrow,” before looking down at the group of prisoners, who were quivering slightly from fury or terror. He softly said, “Fasting is good for purifying the body and mind. May God be with you, my children…”
The prison guard named after the archangel abruptly pulled out an electric baton and stabbed a tall black man in the lower abdomen! The black man twitched and collapsed to the ground. The prison guard stood in place, slowly drew out his truncheon, weighed it in his hand, and then continued to beat him on the head…
The black man’s choking moans and gasps rang through the frigid air of the hall.… The warden’s footsteps as he turned to leave were serene and beautiful, mixed with the inmate’s screaming and the dull thump of truncheon against flesh rising to the gothic spire’s dome…
No one snickers or utters a word…
When the black man’s voice gradually lowered until it disappeared, Gabriel straightened up, put the truncheon back into his waist as if satisfied, pulled the neckline, and straightened his police cap… He turned his expressionless face to a row of inmates and stood at attention in a standard posture! Step by step! The sound of hard leather heels clashing together caused every inmate he was staring at to involuntarily straighten their bodies!
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Glancing at the line coldly, Gabriel spoke slowly. The man’s voice sounded like some kind of oiled-up robot with a metallic sense of immutability.
“Mlgra bo jii, atf ijk tfgf lr jyrbieaf, jcv jcs ijk atja mbcagjvlmar ws geifr lr lcnjilv.”
“P tjnf bcis bcf geif: yf delfa. Rb wjaafg ktja tjqqfcr, jikjsr, jikjsr, ulnf wf o*mxlcu rlifcmf!”
“Yxjs, ag*rt, sbe tjnf j mtblmf: byfs wf bg vfos wf, jcv atbrf ktb mtbbrf atf ijaafg, qifjrf ajxf j rafq obgkjgv.”
“…No one, very well, remember your choice today and my name.”
“My name is Gabriel, and you will only see me twice in this prison; the first time is now, and the second time… You will know if one day you violate the choice you made today.”
The “Archangel” finally smiled, and the sharp corners of his mouth under the brim of his hat drew a cold, hard line.
“By the way,” Gabriel began to slowly pace in front of a group of inmates, with his hands behind his back and his head tilted slightly. “I am personally a obstinate purist, so you guys… black devil!” The truncheon unexpectedly turned to the face of a black man in a hat! The teeth were violently spit out with turbid blood and saliva… Gabriel swung his truncheon as if nothing had happened and continued to walk forward, stopped in front of a small man, and slammed his foot on his lower abdomen, “…Indian wild dog!” …Moving his ankles, the “Archangel” paced in the direction of Li Xiaobai…
Li Xiaobai opened his eyes helplessly and stared motionless at the approaching prison guards, debating whether to hide from this beating or not…
Gabriel gave him little time to contemplate. The law enforcement officer drew his weapon toward the unarmed man and exclaimed, “As well as… yellow pig!!”
The unexpected onslaught targeted his left rib cartilage! He instantly determined that if he did not dodge it, it would certainly fracture his ribs. Li Xiaobai instinctively raised his hand… Pretending to dodge in fear, avoiding the greater loss of the end, he let that truncheon hit the wound on the left arm firmly!
Not only was the blood soaked in gauze, but some of it even flew out, and the bones also made a terrible cracking sound…
The man wielding the truncheon frowned, likely dissatisfied with the unexpected outcome. However, fortunately, the visual effect was quite satisfactory, so he finally retracted his gaze and ended the bloody sentence…
“…You filthy-c*lored people better watch your f*cking back!”
Gabriel stood back in his standard military posture, lowered the brim of his hat, and concluded coldly, “Because God will not look upon you either.”
Li Xiaobai stood up straight with his bloody arms covered and said to himself, God, he doesn’t look at anyone.
The next procedure naturally also adheres to the consistent darkness and lack of human rights in the corner where God turned his back.
The inmates stripped n*ked and entered one by one to receive their baptism with a high-pressure water gun.
When Li Xiaobai, who was n*ked, passed by the clothing basket, he threw the garments in his arms and then paused, carefully removing the bandage on his hand while swiftly inspecting the contents of the basket.
Not only clothing but also any jewelry, hats, glasses, and even dental braces must be removed. Even highly myopic people must fill out an application form before receiving special glasses from the prison. That useless blonde kid with all that stuff hanging around his neck was understandably removed and dumped here. The vivid metallic color gleamed beneath the basket. Li Xiaobai dropped his hand stealthily and carefully clasped the cross necklace in the palm of his hand before throwing the bandage into the basket. Then he took a step forward amidst the shouts of the prison guards… rubbing his fingers to determine the size of the newly obtained weapon—one and a half inches—yes, this length is already a weapon in Li Xiaobai’s hands.
“Hold on to the railing with both hands!”
Li Xiaobai stretched out his body in front of a row of prison guards without shyness, waiting for the ice-cold stream of water to come.
The water gun proved to be more powerful than he had anticipated, especially under the malicious aim of the prison guards. The wounds all over Li Xiaobai’s body and the most vulnerable *rgans between his legs were all flushed with burning pain… The head and face were also washed for a long time, choking several mouthfuls of water. He didn’t know whether the bridge of his nose was crooked… Li Xiaobai tightly closed his eyes, wrinkled his face, and coughed out the water…
“Turn around! You son of a b*tch!”
He turned around obediently, tightening his muscles and waiting for the impact on his back.
There was a moment of silence behind him, and the stream of water also delayed the rush up.
As soon as Li Xiaobai wanted to turn around for unknown reasons, the cold liquid sprayed up with white foam… The huge sound of flushing obscured the whispered discussion of the prison guards.
Perhaps the law enforcers were tired, but Li Xiaobai’s back did not suffer much before the torture ended.
Leaving while shaking his wet hair, disinfectant powder suddenly sprayed out from both sides of the corridor! Li Xiaobai was busy vomiting water and was caught off guard. He was sprayed in the mouth… The pungent bitterness immediately made him queasy with motion sickness…
After receiving their uniforms, towels, and blankets, the convicts crouched in a line with their clothing in their arms, like suckling pigs sprinkled with white powder, waiting for the later inmate to come out.
Li Xiaobai painstakingly uses the uninjured hand to grab the towel to wipe his face and hair, and then carefully rakes his hair down to cover his eyes…
“Are you from the East?”
A faint voice of inquiry suddenly appeared from the side.
Li Xiaobai turned his head and found that it was the useless blond youth squatting next to him like a scrawny chicken, gripping his legs, and quietly watching his every move with an excited expression in the corners of his eyes.
Li Xiaobai glanced at him for a moment before nodding.
“I… I have a younger sister who is also from the east, and she is Japanese. She is well-behaved and adores me very much… Although she was brought by my stepmother and is not related by blood, she is very clingy to me…” The blond boy muttered in a rambling manner, his eyes blank, and he seemed to wander in nostalgia…
“I’m Chinese.” Li Xiaobai cut him off abruptly to avoid attracting prison guards’ attention.
The blond youth felt a little aggrieved and shut his mouth. He turned his head sideways and muffled his voice for a moment before suddenly stretching out his hand and caressing Li Xiaobai’s forehead!
Li Xiaobai was stunned and did not react for a while. But the guy who ruffled his hair was stunned and dumbfounded in place!
“You, you, you…”
Li Xiaobai’s appearances are extremely beautiful and very eastern.
The renowned slanting high into the temples of the brows and the eyes is as impressive as ink painting.
The lines from the canthus to the tail of the eye are exceedingly clear and smooth, similar to the ink lines of a white sketch, flexible and delicate.
The black and white kernels of the eyes are clear without any motley color.
Although the eyes are big, they don’t have the feeling of glimmering water at all. Instead, they are unusually jet black, almost sucking people in.
The eyelashes are incredibly long, yet they are neither curly or straight, and when they hung down over the eyes, they looked like beautiful black phoenix plumes that had fallen.
Li Xiaobai turned his head, brushed off the blond youth’s hand, and put his hair back in its original state.
“You… are… so… beautiful…” The blond youth said intermittently while still maintaining that stunned posture.
Li Xiaobai was a little depressed and felt that he was too careless. Then he thought he’d merely send a chill to silence the other person, but after a few attempts, the other party did not respond.
That person can always exude a temperament for people to not be close. As expected, I have few qualifications, and it is difficult to learn even a little bit from him… Li Xiaobai is a little distracted…
“I… My name is Benjamin, but you can call me ‘Ben’.” The blond moistened his lips and extended a hand. “What’s your name?”
“Li Xiaobai.”
After some hesitation, Li Xiaobai extended his hand to hold Ben’s chicken claw.
“Li… What? Hehe…” Ben struggled to distinguish, scratching his head embarrassedly. “I was asking… Your English name.”
“My name is Li Xiaobai.” Li Xiaobai replied in a deep voice with an expressionless face.
