Chapter 63: Torture
Jiang Yu didn’t know how long he slept. When he woke up again, he was in an unfamiliar room. A simple folding bed—nothing else.
Outside the barred door was the same police station from the day before. Desperately needing to take care of bodily needs, Jiang Yu knocked on the door and called out. A young officer came and took him to the restroom.
“How long do I have to stay here?” After relieving himself, his stomach growled with hunger. Jiang Yu glanced out the window—the sunset was golden yellow. It seemed it had been dusk when he passed out yesterday too. Had he slept for a whole day?
“Selling drugs and you still think you’re getting out? Just wait. Once you’re convicted, you’re off to prison,” the young officer said with righteous indignation, treating Jiang Yu coldly.
He shoved Jiang Yu back into the holding room and was about to leave when Jiang Yu hurriedly called after him, smiling politely. “I’m hungry. Do you provide meals here?”
“Wait.” The young officer rolled his eyes and left.
Jiang Yu rubbed his stomach and waited for half an hour. Just as he was wavering between starving to death and planning a jailbreak, the young officer finally returned with a boxed meal—and even thoughtfully brought a bottle of mineral water.
He tossed it to Jiang Yu without another word. Jiang Yu wanted to ask a few questions, but seeing the officer wasn’t inclined to talk, he didn’t press. He wolfed down the meal and chugged the water, finally feeling alive again.
Just as Jiang Yu lay down contentedly, he saw the senior officer—the one who’d arrested him—standing at the door, looking at him with a malicious grin. Jiang Yu jolted, and at the thought of the twenty-four hours of torment, his scalp went numb.
Unfortunately, with his thin arms and legs, he couldn’t resist these burly men. Another round of relentless interrogation followed.
This time, Jiang Yu was smarter. When he got sleepy, he slept. No matter how they yelled, he didn’t open his eyes—and, remarkably, after fourteen more hours of torment, he actually managed to fall asleep.
When he woke again, the environment had changed. It was no longer that tiny interrogation room. Looking at the three new roommates who had appeared beside him, Jiang Yu forced an awkward smile. “Hello.”
Good grief—had he been taken to prison? Was his sentence already decided?
“Drug dealer? Bah! Making this kind of dirty money and you still have the nerve to smile?
Do you know how I ended up in here? My son was dragged into doing drugs by trash like you. His whole life was ruined. I hacked three drug dealers to death all by myself—so even if I die, I’ve already made it worth it.
I never thought that after coming in here, I’d run into another one. This is heaven delivering you to me so I can punish you. Kid, in your next life, be a decent person—no, at such a young age you’ve already committed such monstrous sins, you probably won’t even get to be human in your next life.”
The big man lunged at him with teeth clenched, kicking Jiang Yu hard in the waist—right at the spot where Jiang Yu’s bone had grown crooked.
Agonizing pain exploded through his body. Even so, Jiang Yu still had the presence of mind to think: That kick was way too precise, like he already knew my waist was injured. Was it deliberate?
Who was trying to kill him—Wang Wan’er, or Ji Xu?
“Help!” Unable to move and knowing he was no match for the big man, Jiang Yu clutched his head and shouted, hoping to attract the guards.
The big man’s fist aimed straight for Jiang Yu’s head, but Jiang Yu blocked it with his arm. The man was incredibly strong; the blow sent searing pain through Jiang Yu’s arm—he felt like it was about to break.
He gritted his teeth, bracing himself for the second punch—but it never came. Suddenly, the weight on him lifted, and there was a clatter not far away.
“Little bastard, are you looking to die?” Jiang Yu raised his head amid the big man’s furious shouting. A thin, small figure stood in front of him, blocking his entire view.
Jiang Yu remembered him—the youngest of the three cellmates, a kid who looked only sixteen or seventeen. Jiang Yu had even wondered what he’d done to end up in here.
“Don’t touch him,” the boy said, his voice unmistakably young.
“And who the hell do you think you are? Get out of the way, or I’ll take you out too,” the big man snarled as he charged again, trying to shove the boy aside.
But the boy grabbed the man’s arm, circled around him like a snake, and in one smooth motion twisted it behind his back at an unnatural angle.
The big man’s scream was far louder than Jiang Yu’s had been. It finally drew the guards, but by the time they arrived, the boy had already let go.
When the guards entered, they only saw the big man lying on the floor wailing, and Jiang Yu lying on the lower bunk clutching his waist in agony.
“What happened? You two fighting?” The big man’s howling was so loud that the guard barked at Jiang Yu.
Still gasping in pain, Jiang Yu shook his head, then nodded, and pointed at the big man. “He tried to kill me. I demand a cell transfer.”
“Kill you?” The guard frowned, unconvinced.
“We can testify,” the boy said, grabbing the other timid cellmate and speaking up for Jiang Yu.
The third cellmate had only been jailed for petty theft—a repeat offender who treated prison like a second home.
This time, he’d only been sentenced to a month. How could he have imagined that his cellmates would turn out to be murderers and drug traffickers? Why had he been assigned to a cell with desperadoes like these—was the prison really that short on space?
The thief was on the verge of tears and didn’t respond to the boy at first. When the boy tightened his grip on his clothes, the thief immediately nodded in terror and pointed at the big man on the floor. “I can testify. He was the one who attacked first and tried to kill him.”
“On death row and still not behaving,” the guard said coldly, glancing at Jiang Yu before dragging the big man away.
Clutching his waist, Jiang Yu shouted, “My waist’s broken from his kick—I need to go to the hospital!”
The guard turned back and glared at him but ignored him, walking away without another word.
Jiang Yu shouted a few more times, but tugging at his injury made the pain spike, and he shut up immediately.
Panic crept in. What was he supposed to do now? That man hadn’t held back at all—his waist might really be broken. The pain was unbearable. And the guards weren’t helping. If he didn’t get to a hospital, would he just die here in prison?
The boy casually let go of the thief and slipped his hand inside Jiang Yu’s clothes, feeling along his waist.
The icy hand made Jiang Yu shiver. His waist was far too sensitive; Jiang Yu tried to swat the hand away, but the boy said coolly, “Your lumbar vertebra isn’t broken. Don’t worry.”
Withdrawing his hand, the boy pressed the emergency button on the wall. Before long, two more guards rushed over. After hearing about Jiang Yu’s condition, they found a stretcher and carried him to the infirmary.
“Thank you,” Jiang Yu said to the boy. The boy remained cold and didn’t respond.
In the infirmary, a burly doctor snapped the big man’s arm back into place—the one the boy had dislocated. With his arm fixed, the big man glared viciously at Jiang Yu before being dragged out by the guards.
Seeing Jiang Yu, the doctor asked casually, “What’s wrong with this one?”
“He got kicked in the waist. Check if it’s broken. If it’s not, he’ll be carried back for interrogation in a bit.”
The guard’s words made Jiang Yu protest miserably, “I’m in this state and you still want to interrogate me?”
“If you don’t want to be interrogated, then confess. Stalling won’t help.”
“I’m not stalling—I really am innocent.” Jiang Yu was so tired of explaining he felt like throwing up.
“Every death-row inmate says they’re innocent at first.”
With a cold face, the doctor sent Jiang Yu for an X-ray. His lumbar vertebra wasn’t broken—but there was another crack from the kick.
Looking at the scan, Jiang Yu saw it was almost the same spot as last time. This vertebra of his had really suffered. He felt that if he got kicked there a few more times, he’d probably be spending his next life in a wheelchair.
After studying it for a while, the doctor finally concluded that the crack didn’t prevent interrogation.
Those words condemned Jiang Yu to misery. Every day he was carried to the interrogation room for twenty straight hours of questioning, then sent back whenever he finally passed out.
His waist was constantly being jostled back and forth and never had a chance to heal. The pain made Jiang Yu want to slam his head into a wall every day. He kept thinking it might’ve been better if it had actually broken—at least then he’d be sent to a hospital instead of being tortured like this.
Thankfully, the big man who’d tried to kill him had been moved to another cell. The new arrival in their room was just a fish thief who’d stolen from someone’s fish pond and would be out in a month.
The four of them spent five nights without incident. Jiang Yu, however, was tormented for five straight days, his biological clock completely wrecked. Sometimes, without the police even forcing him, Jiang Yu could stay awake for twenty-four hours straight, exhausting the interrogating officers until they were the ones nearly falling asleep.
At midnight, Jiang Yu—still wide awake—was sent back. The interrogators truly couldn’t get anything out of him; they were all exhausted, so they had no choice but to return him.
But in the darkness, Jiang Yu noticed that as they passed by his usual cell, the two unfamiliar guards didn’t take him there.
He reminded them, “You’ve passed my cell.”
The two guards stared straight ahead without even glancing at him. One of them said, “Your old cell is full of minor offenders. You’re being moved to a new one tonight.”
Jiang Yu frowned but didn’t say more. It was true—his previous cell was full of petty thieves serving just a few months, none more than a year.
As a so-called “drug dealer,” he did count as a serious offender.
The new cell was quite far away. As Jiang Yu watched the surroundings grow increasingly desolate and quiet, an uneasy feeling rose in his chest.
Just as he was thinking about making a run for it, the two guards finally stopped and carried him into a spacious room.
It was still a four-person cell, but this one had its own bathroom, and the room was much larger than his previous cramped cell.
The guards placed Jiang Yu on the lower bunk and left. There were still three cellmates, but these three clearly didn’t look like good people. The way they stared at Jiang Yu made his skin crawl.
“Hello,” Jiang Yu said, forcing a smile, thinking he should try to get along with his cellmates.
Afraid of being misunderstood, he added, “My waist’s injured—I can’t get up. Please excuse me.”
“Heh heh, so it really is a beauty,” a bald man suddenly grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth. His smile made Jiang Yu’s scalp prickle; the look in his eyes was anything but friendly.
TN:
Sigh. My back hurts after translating this chapter.
Why! Why! The author have some hatred with waist or back, why always his back, let him hurt somewhere please please!
