Chapter Sixty: The Mysterious Figure

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After spacing out for a while, Qin Anyi still couldn't make sense of the situation before him. This was nothing like the prison cell he had imagined... Though it was his first time in such a place, he was by no means ignorant of the basic concepts. Whether in real life or on television, there was no shortage of descriptions about prisons and detention centers. Yet Qin Anyi could swear that nowhere—not in any source he could recall—had he ever encountered a situation like this.

He turned around and silently glanced at the person lying on the lower bunk. Qin Anyi still couldn’t deduce anything about his background... except for that ageless face. After speaking just one sentence, the man seemed to have drifted back into sleep and was now faintly snoring. The more Qin Anyi observed, the stranger he felt. To have silenced everyone in the cell with a single sentence, making them cower like mice before a cat, this man was definitely not as simple as he appeared.

But earlier, those inmates had been so brazen, even walking right up to threaten him, paying no heed to this person on the lower bunk. The only possible explanation was that, although everyone knew how fearsome this man was and that he was not to be provoked, in reality, he never involved himself in anything... which led to the scene just now. So when the man on the lower bunk suddenly spoke, the tattooed man’s terror and astonishment made sense; he probably never expected this man to intervene.

Based on this, Qin Anyi could almost be certain that the only reason the man had spoken up was because of him.

After sorting out these thoughts, Qin Anyi quietly climbed onto the upper bunk. He was sure this was the first time he had seen the man below; they couldn’t possibly have a past connection. So why had the man stood up for him?

Lost in thought, Qin Anyi’s eyes suddenly widened. He realized that, in recalling the events, he had already forgotten what the man below looked like... He stretched his head down, listening to the steady snoring, but the man’s features—so distinctive a moment ago—had completely slipped from his memory. That was odd; with such a memorable face, it shouldn’t be easy to forget, especially after seeing it even once. Yet as soon as Qin Anyi lay his head back on the pillow, he found he couldn’t recall even the faintest image of the man’s face.

How bizarre! Who would have thought that even in a holding cell, he’d meet such a strange person? Was it mere coincidence, or something deliberately arranged?

As he was pondering this, Da Pang, who had been called out earlier, waddled back into the cell, looking confused by the sudden silence. He walked over to the tattooed man, kicked the bedframe a few times, making a loud racket. “What’s going on? Why is everyone napping in the middle of the day like a bunch of idiots?”

The tattooed man, startled by Da Pang’s kicks, nearly lost his soul, bouncing upright and clamping a hand over Da Pang’s mouth. “Boss, keep it down! The old man just spoke—told us all to let him sleep.”

Da Pang instinctively shoved the tattooed man’s hand away and was about to start cursing, but froze when he heard this. He glanced over at the bunk by the wall, his body unconsciously hunching as he whispered, “The old man spoke? Impossible. He hasn’t said a word in over two years. What happened?”

“It was the new kid. I was going to give him a hard time, but as soon as I got close, the old man told us to be quiet. I think it has something to do with that new guy. Who knows how long he’ll be here? Maybe we’d better stay away from him.”

Da Pang had been so confident on his way back, yet now he’d taken a blow right to his pride. Although the inmates here were serving shorter sentences—no more than a year—there were still plenty of tough cases among them.

“Boss... boss... what should we do?” The tattooed man’s voice was a soft reminder as Da Pang stood there lost in thought.

“We’ll leave him be this afternoon. After dinner, call him over here and see how the old man reacts. If he doesn’t care when the kid’s further away, then we don’t have to worry.” Da Pang hesitated, unwilling to let Qin Anyi off so easily. He couldn’t just drop it without trying something.

“Alright! We’ll do as you say, boss!”