Author: 长洱 / Chang’er
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 287
The usual breakfast time in prison was generally between 7:00 and 7:30, but today was an exception. This was, of course, due to the special circumstances of the four individuals in “solitary confinement”. Therefore, breakfast time was specifically set at 8.
Throughout the night, Huang Ze didn’t experience the same confusion as others. He was very clear, of course, that some wavering emotions were spreading within the prison law enforcers, but fortunately, they had strict rules in the team, so he was still able to control the situation.
Huang Ze took the extra meal brought by the chef and walked to the iron gate carrying the meal box.
Although the surveillance could clearly show what the four people were doing, he still pulled down the small window on the prison door to look inside.
The four people were all sleeping.
The first half of the night was far from peaceful. Yan Guiqiu cried for a long time, Sun Zhen lost his temper and wanted to strangle him, then Qian Bao incited discord, and Zhao Yi kicked the upper bunk bed hard. The four people made a fuss for a long time, with a kind of hysterical madness. But in the second half of the night, probably feeling that the chances of survival were slim, all four quieted down.
The cell finally regained its usual atmosphere.
Huang Ze closed the small window, pushed the door open, and entered. No one opened their eyes to look at him, not even the thief, who used to cry and cling to his legs whenever he saw him.
“Breakfast. Anyone want to eat?” Huang Ze asked.
He said this, but there was no response.
Qian Bao and Zhao Yi slept in the upper and lower bunks, respectively, while Sun Zhen and Yan Guiqiu each occupied a corner. Huang Ze said to the two people on the bed, “This might be your last breakfast of your life; don’t you even want to eat it?” He paused. “If I were you, I wouldn’t protest too much about things that are out of my control…”
As he said this, Yan Guiqiu finally turned over. “Aren’t you annoying, officer!” The prisoner, who always seemed like a rat, rolled over and responded irritably.
Huang Ze felt something different about Yan Guiqiu at this moment. Perhaps a night’s thinking could make people sober, and those who realized the coming of death would always be different. He looked at the other party with pity.
“I deserve to be in prison. You can do whatever you want, just don’t show me your pity,” Yan Guiqiu said to himself, seemingly angry. He suddenly stood up and pointed at the four walls. “This is such a shitty place—I at least made a sacrifice for the people; shouldn’t you arrange some hot girls to see me off? There’s not even a toilet, and you want to dismiss me with a crappy meal. I’m not happy!”
As he said this, Yan Guiqiu got carried away. He abruptly dropped his prison pants, and before Huang Ze could react, he whipped out his dick and aimed it at the camera.
A stream of yellow urine sprayed out.
The prison guards rushed over to knock Yan Guiqiu to the ground. But the urine was flowing everywhere, creating an appalling smell and turning the scene into a chaotic mess.
‘Very well,’ Huang Ze thought. ‘So be it.’
He took a deep breath, feeling that he probably didn’t handle the task entrusted to him by Lin Chen well.
However, at this moment, the prison guard who rushed in violated the rules and began to whisper to Yan Guiqiu. “Guiqiu, don’t be like this. Who knows what the result will be.”
“Lao Zhang, Lao Zhang, don’t lie to me. If you really care about me, promise me—just give me a quick death. Don’t shoot me, I’m afraid of pain!” Yan Guiqiu rolled around on the ground and yelled.
“What are you talking about, Yan Guiqiu? It’s not time yet. Act like a man!”
The prison guard stood in Yan Guiqiu’s urine and talked all the while the live broadcast was still ongoing. Huang Ze turned his head and said coldly, “Officer Zhang, please watch your words.”
Officer Zhang immediately stood up and walked out of the cell, but after a while, he came back in with a mop in his hand, cleaning up the urine on the floor little by little.
Yan Guiqiu crouched down and watched the police mop the floor.
He clutched his hair, his eyes growing redder and redder. In the end, the thief suddenly yelled out, “Lao Zhang, would it be easier if we just killed ourselves?”
At that moment, Huang Ze noticed the gazes of Sun Zhen, Zhao Yi, and Qian Bao all directed at him.
‘How absurd,’ Huang Ze thought.
He didn’t answer. He knew Lao Zhang wouldn’t answer this question either. Lao Zhang walked out the door, and he followed out. The iron door closed heavily.
In a place where the camera couldn’t capture, he unusually patted the shoulder of the prison guard.
“There is no correct answer,” he said to Officer Zhang.
……
The first person to notice that something was amiss was a reporter.
Of course, what he called an issue was based on the expected phenomenon according to theory. After all, theoretically, it was already past eight in the morning, during rush hour, and there should have been many people beginning to vote again.
But what was happening in reality didn’t match theory. The dawn didn’t have much of an impact on voting; the data on the government’s voting website was still slowly climbing, but not fast—at least much slower than expected.
On the dark web, there was overwhelming opposition, as those who wanted to see bloody drama would not be satisfied with this. But nobody cared about the opinions of those dark creatures now.
Shen Ping opened his office computer and began to check the data recorded by the government voting website while munching on a sandwich. He was a very sharp person and noticed an issue with the numbers at a glance—
The total number of voters was 5,561,120.
Yes: 3,559,117
No: 2,002,003
64% of the public still chose to exchange the lives of the four criminals for a treatment plan and a chance for survival.
Although 5.55 million was a very large number, it was far from the total population of the three provinces, 77.2 million, meaning that the actual number of voters only accounted for 7% of the total population, with only a small part of the people making a choice within 12 hours.
Perhaps the middle-aged and elderly people were more willing to go to the polling stations, and many people might not know about this news. Shen Ping thought so, but even considering these factors, with just a little more than 5.5 million votes, it was still too few.
He even suspected that the votes were being manipulated by the government, although this seemed unlikely.
Shen Ping put down his sandwich and thought about the problems. It seemed that many people had changed their choice after sleeping?
He then quickly noted down several key numbers and rushed to the editor-in-chief’s office. He forgot to knock, and when he pushed the door open, he saw the editor-in-chief clearly closing a web page with a click of the mouse, although he couldn’t confirm it as the screen was facing away from him.
“Twelve hours, editor-in-chief!” He stepped back half a step, bowed apologetically, but couldn’t help but say, “The number of voters is far lower than the actual number of the total population of the three provinces. Considering the residents who do not have a household registration in the three provinces but have a residence permit, the ratio is even lower.”
“What are you trying to say?” The editor-in-chief knocked on the table. “Get to the point.”
“A lot of people didn’t vote—um, what are they planning to do?”
“Did you vote?” The editor-in-chief asked him.
Shen Ping was immediately stumped. “I-I’ll go vote right away!”
“What are you planning to choose?”
“That’s personal privacy. Editor-in-chief, will you tell me your answer?” Shen Ping countered.
Of course, the leader had his own art of speaking. He immediately changed the subject and said to him, “Xiao Shen, it’s good that you have doubts. Since you have doubts, as a reporter, you should go and interview ordinary people to find out what their answers are.”
Shen Ping was suddenly enlightened.
But stating positions on the internet with screenshots didn’t count, as one image could be copied and pasted many times.
So Shen Ping immediately rushed downstairs. There was a voting point in the commercial area near the newspaper office.
He didn’t call the cameraman but instead took his phone and went down. When he got there, sure enough, quite a few people were queuing up.
What surprised Shen Ping was that it wasn’t middle-aged and elderly people queuing, but quite a few young white-collar workers.
Although the staff at the polling station were also advising those in line that they could choose to vote online, some were silent and refused to leave.
Shen Ping took out his ID, got a voting slip, and then stood at the end of the line.
He nudged a young man in front of him, who had a bank badge pinned on his chest, and asked, “Can I ask what you plan to vote for?”
The young man glanced back at him, a bit guarded and puzzled. Shen Ping showed his press card and said earnestly, “I’m a reporter. As you can see, I don’t have a camera or recorder. I just genuinely want to interview you. If it’s convenient, can you share your thoughts with me?”
Surprisingly, the young man asked him back, “How about you first? What do you plan to vote for?”
Such a simple question suddenly made Shen Ping feel a lot of pressure. His usually eloquent tongue seemed to have failed him. He could only take out a cigarette from his pocket, intending to give one to the other person, but the young man gestured that he didn’t smoke.
Shen Ping put a cigarette in his mouth and was about to light it when the young man started to respond. “The way you are now is probably how I feel. I thought about it half of last night, and it seemed simple to choose to save more people by sacrificing four. But no matter what, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. That’s when I knew there was a problem.”
The young man calmly explained, “I had to ask myself why. Why, even though it should be a simple choice, did it become so difficult when it came to actually clicking the mouse to vote? Am I being too sympathetic to the criminals? I don’t think so, even accounting for the thief. Honestly, my father’s a police officer. I grew up seeing a lot of these things. I think these people are just wasting social resources, but when it comes to trading their lives, I can’t bring myself to do it… Isn’t that strange?”
“Not strange at all.” Shen Ping shook his head. “I’m a reporter, and even I can’t do it.”
They looked at each other, and the young office worker gave a bitter smile, telling him, “I broke up with my girlfriend over this last night. Of course, she proposed the breakup. I didn’t have the guts.”
Shen Ping’s head shot up. “Damn, man, that’s a big loss!”
“My ex was one of the first to make a choice. As soon as that letter came out, she called me and told me to act like a man. I told her I needed to think, and she said she didn’t expect me to be the kind of person who would sympathize with four criminals.” The young man swallowed, awkwardly.
“But you came here,” Shen Ping said, “Trying to win back your girlfriend?”
“No, I’m here to vote ‘No’,” the young man said solemnly.
“Why?” Shen Ping was surprised.
“I can’t bring myself to do it.”
“But if you can’t bring yourself to do it, why not abstain?”
“Because I suddenly realized last night that if the result comes out and we have to sacrifice four criminals to appease the terrorists, I would regret not having made a choice.”
“But aren’t you afraid of what the terrorists might do? This is much worse than a bomb.”
“Then let it continue. I can only represent myself.” He sighed. “At least, I’m not afraid.”
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