《Genius Major General? Military Prisoner! Alliance Supreme Court Delivers Final Verdict on Lu Xun》
《A Fallen Military Star! Lu Xun Sentenced to Life Imprisonment for Endangering National Security》
On November 7, 911 of the Kindling Era, the front pages and headlines of every major newspaper across the Alliance were dominated by the same piece of breaking news.
Even the White Egret District Correctional Facility had received the news, which was printed in the free newspapers distributed at the entrance to the cafeteria.
As the servicemen passing by picked up the papers, they began discussing the sensational headlines in hushed, rustling voices.
“Lu Xun? The youngest major general in the Alliance?”
“He’s in prison?”
“What did he do?”
“Is this for real?!”
As they walked through the cafeteria entrance, they were immediately greeted by a clear, perfectly articulated voice.
“That’s right. The news is real.”
In the center of a table near the entrance, someone had propped up a chair. A white haired young man dressed in a gray detention uniform sat on it with his legs crossed, looking down haughtily at the crowd gathered around the table.
“Because I am Lu Xun.”
“Tomorrow, I’ll be transferred to Shen’gang Prison on the base level.”
“How could Lu Xun possibly be imprisoned in our correctional facility?!” Outraged, Bystander A slammed his hand against the table and pointed accusingly at the ‘Lu Xun’ sitting on top of it. “Lu Xun is my idol! Don’t you dare insult him!”
‘Lu Xun’ spoke calmly. “The news should already be in the papers, shouldn’t it?”
At those words, some people unfolded the newspapers they were holding, while those without one craned their necks to sneak a look at their neighbors’ copies.
On the front page was a photograph of Lu Xun taken from the front. His signature, strikingly white hair and highly distinctive amber green eyes made him instantly recognizable. His gaze was as cold and brilliant as a star in winter and the imposing look in his eyes seemed almost capable of piercing straight through the newspaper.
Then they looked at the young man sitting on the table and compared the two.
White hair. Green eyes. Similar facial proportions, especially around the eyes and brows.
However, the young man in front of them seemed a little more youthful than the person in the photograph, with a softer, rounder jawline.
“Could he be wearing makeup or something?” someone muttered.
“Where would anyone find the conditions to put on makeup in this place?” another person replied. “Besides, white hair and light green eyes are both artificial genetic sequences that have to be cultivated outside the body before being specially implanted into an embryo. They cost a fortune! Just one color changing genetic sequence is worth as much as an entire house in the main city of Warm Sun!”
“This… you…”
Staring at the ‘Lu Xun’ sitting on the table, even Bystander A could no longer deny the resemblance between the young man and the major general in the photograph. He froze, then murmured in disbelief, “You… are you really Lu Xun?”
‘Lu Xun’ offered him a reserved smile.
More and more people began gathering around them.
Bystander A was the first to lose his composure. “My idol!! Idol, please give me your autograph!!”
“Lu Xun! Give me an autograph, not him!” Bystander B shouted. “I’ll pay 100 coins!”
“What? What? Lu Xun’s autograph? I want one too!”
“Is that really the Lu Xun? The God of War?! Holy shit!! Then I’ll pay 200 coins!”
The number of people crowding around to watch the spectacle and ask for autographs continued to grow. Before long, the area around the northern entrance of the cafeteria was so packed that it was almost impossible to squeeze through. Every time someone new arrived, they would hear the explosive news about the Alliance’s most legendary major general and immediately join the crowd to find out what was happening.
A sea of people clamored for autographs, each person shouting out a higher price than the last. The highest bid eventually reached an astonishing 8,000 coins.
After all, ‘Lu Xun’ would be transferred to another prison tomorrow. This might very well be the last opportunity anyone would ever have to obtain his autograph in their lifetime, making it an exceptionally valuable keepsake.
However, the major general, who supposedly cared nothing for money, responded to his beloved supporters by voluntarily lowering the price. A regular autograph cost only 100 coins, while a personalized autograph with a dedication cost 500. He wasn’t accepting payment, of course. He was simply accepting the heartfelt affection of the people of the Alliance.
The young white haired man impersonating Major General Lu Xun, whose real name was Lu Pei, held a signing pen in his hand and wielded it with impressive speed and flourish. On the newspapers and arms thrust toward him, he wrote his elder brother’s name again and again.
He even imitated his brother’s mannerisms, calmly directing the crowd and keeping the increasingly heated situation under control.
“Line up properly. Don’t block the entrance or interfere with anyone else.”
“I’ll sign yours first, then yours, then yours and then yours. Don’t worry, I know exactly what I’m doing…”
…
The first autograph session of the day ended successfully and Lu Pei walked away with his pockets practically overflowing.
Together with Bystander A and Bystander B, his two roommates, who also happened to be his accomplices and hired plants, the three of them counted the money several times before dividing up their spoils.
“Thanks, guys,” Lu Pei said with a grin. “We’ll do it again tonight.”
Whenever he smiled, he had a mischievous, strangely endearing quality about him, the sort that made people instinctively like him. It was a far cry from the cold, stern image associated with the major general.
Lu Pei and his biological elder brother, Lu Xun, had completely different temperaments. Their facial features were also only about thirty percent similar. Under ordinary circumstances, it would have been difficult to mistake one for the other. Only under the right conditions could Lu Pei use their rare combination of hair and eye colors to fool unsuspecting bystanders.
The Lu family had once been an illustrious name, enjoying unparalleled prestige and influence. Now, Lu Pei had fallen so far that he was reduced to cosplaying as his elder brother and selling personalized autographs to make money.
The staggering reversal of fortune had taken only three months.
Three months ago, Lu Xun had committed a grave crime. His family and political allies were subsequently subjected to a sweeping purge and everyone with even the slightest connection to their interests was dragged down one after another. They had all ended up behind bars, holding hands and standing shoulder to shoulder in a touching display of solidarity.
As for Lu Pei, his elder brother’s political enemies had fabricated a reason to have him locked up in the White Egret District Correctional Facility. With all his relatives and friends in prison, there was no one to send him money and no one to visit him yet he still had expenses to cover, so he had no choice but to find a way to support himself.
And so, he had taken matters into his own hands and started generating his own income.
When dinner time arrived, Lu Pei and his two accomplices repeated their earlier performance, organizing another Meet and Greet with Lu Xun in the cafeteria.
This time, however, Lu Pei had not even begun signing autographs when the facility staff caught him red handed. He was immediately escorted to the director’s office.
“Number 642, Lu Pei!” The deputy director pointed a finger at him and reprimanded him in a voice as forceful as a ringing bell. “You have absolutely no regard for discipline!”
Lu Pei felt melancholy.
With his hands cuffed behind his back, he stared at the plaque hanging behind the bald deputy director. The words inscribed on it read, Uphold the Law, Reform Deviant Conduct.
As he gazed at those lofty words, his thoughts gradually wandered elsewhere, his soul seemingly drifting away from his body.
The deputy director, meanwhile, continued his tirade.
“Organizing an unauthorized gathering and making a public disturbance! This is already your third disciplinary violation since you entered this facility!”
“Last Monday, you picked the lock on the control room door. At three in the morning, you used the facility’s broadcasting system to order every male serviceman to circle the dormitory three times while barking like dogs and doing frog jumps. You even ordered the women in the neighboring dormitory to get out of bed immediately and gather at the windows to watch the spectacle! Last Saturday, you tied up the professor conducting the ideological education lecture and locked him in the restroom. Then you impersonated the professor and spent the entire afternoon teaching everyone how to repair motorcycles! For neither of these incidents have you provided a reasonable explanation for your actions!”
Lu Pei replied, “I did. I hate men.”
“You’re beyond saving.” The deputy director looked at him with profound disappointment. “As an adult, you must take responsibility for your own actions.”
“During the process of educational reform, you have repeatedly violated disciplinary regulations. In accordance with this facility’s rules and regulations, inmate No. 642, Lu Pei, is hereby transferred to the intermediate zone, effective immediately, to undergo labor reform and re education until the completion of his sentence, ”
“How could this happen…” Lu Pei stared in disbelief.
He almost burst out laughing on the spot.
…….
As Lu Pei was escorted through the recreational area, numerous people watched him from behind the wire fences, some eager to see him make a fool of himself, while others chased after him, shouting, “General Lu Xun! General Lu Xun!”
They pursued him all the way down the street, sending off General Lu with the kind of enthusiasm usually reserved for a grand farewell procession.
The male protagonist really does have an aura of his own, Lu Pei thought.
It was a secret that only he knew.
This world was actually a book, an action packed, revenge driven story about his biological older brother, Lu Xun, rising through the ranks, defeating his enemies and getting his revenge.
And as the protagonist’s younger brother, Lu Pei had unexpectedly acquired the ability to receive spoilers.
Several years ago, he had begun experiencing strange phenomena. Sometimes, words would suddenly appear before his eyes, while at other times, he would hear an off screen narration. Most of the information he received this way would eventually come true.
For example, Lu Xun’s imprisonment this year and his release several years later, when rampant contamination plunged the world into chaos and he would step forward to take charge of the situation.
As for Lu Pei’s own story, his entire existence had been reduced to a single line: “On November 17, Lu Pei encountered an accident at the Bailu District Reformation Facility. His whereabouts subsequently became unknown and he was presumed dead.”
There wasn’t even a detailed explanation of what had happened to him. He was nothing more than a nameless background character.
If he wanted to survive, he had to get out of the reformation facility. There were only two ways to accomplish that: escape from prison or cause enough trouble to get transferred elsewhere.
Clearly, the latter was far more suited to his particular skill set.
When the transport vehicle stopped, the white identification plate bearing the name of the reformation facility was torn off. Lu Pei immediately felt as though a tremendous weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
Wonderful! I’ve managed to avoid that disaster.
The subterranean elevator took him to the administrative center, where the prisoners were sorted for a second time.
One group was assigned to the intermediate zone, while another was sent to the underground zone. Lu Pei was about to be assigned to the former.
“Number?”
“84.”
“Name?”
“Donald Lee.”
The staff member handed him a yellow identification plate, stamped the back of his hand and said, “Your new number is 111. Intermediate Zone, Western District Two. Line up on the left.”
There was no facial recognition system. Everything had to be done manually with a stamp. They had descended only a little over a hundred meters in elevation yet the standard of administration seemed to have regressed by twenty years overnight.
What was even stranger was that the woman standing ahead of him, dressed in a prisoner’s uniform, was holding a child’s hand.
The little girl looked no older than four or five. Completely oblivious to their circumstances, she kept tugging at her mother’s attention with one question after another.
“Mommy, have we arrived?”
“Not yet. We’re going to the labor reformation facility in the underground zone.”
“Is the underground zone fun?”
“Fun?”
The mother forced a faint, bitter smile onto her face and gently stroked her daughter’s hair.
Lu Pei raised an eyebrow.
According to their elevation, the Alliance was divided into the Sunlight Layer and the Bedrock Layer, commonly known as the aboveground and underground zones.
The aboveground zone was home to a small number of wealthy people, while the underground zone housed the vast majority of the poor. If one judged the two areas according to conventional stereotypes, that description would not be far off the mark.
The aboveground and underground zones were separated by an almost insurmountable divide, to the point that they seemed to have developed a kind of reproductive isolation.
Consequently, even though Lu Pei had been stripped of his family assets, imprisoned and gone out of his way to cause trouble, his next destination was still a labor reformation facility in the intermediate zone. Administratively speaking, he would remain part of the aboveground region.
He hadn’t even been sentenced to exile in the underground zone. So how had this mother and daughter ended up in such a predicament? What on earth had they done? Committed some unforgivable crime?
Lu Pei had a vague suspicion, so he continued listening.
“Will Daddy come and find us, too?”
“Maybe someday.”
“After Daddy’s maintenance leave next month…”
The moment the woman mentioned maintenance leave, her expression grew even more miserable.
Lu Pei’s suspicion was immediately confirmed.
They were the wife and daughter of a soldier.
Given the circumstances, it wasn’t difficult to imagine what was happening. The wives and children of military personnel were being sent down to the Bedrock Layer, a place notorious for housing violent criminals.
You absolute idiot of a male protagonist! Just look at what you’ve done!
Can’t you even spare a thought for the families of your own subordinates?
Lu Pei was speechless.
A second later, he sighed and patted the woman on the shoulder.
“Your name, number and remaining sentence?”
The woman turned around in surprise and instinctively answered, “Number 109, Ruby Francis…”
Lu Pei pulled the transfer tag from her upper arm and exchanged their names, thereby exchanging their respective futures as well.
“From now on, your name is Lu Pei. You’ll be going to the intermediate zone,” he said. “I’m Ruby Francis.”
The woman jolted as though struck by lightning. Her eyes widened in shock.
“Ah! Y.. You’re Lu- ”
“Shh,” Lu Pei interrupted.
Before she could finish speaking, he slipped something into the palm of her right hand. It felt somewhat stiff and when the woman lowered her head to look, she discovered, to her astonishment, that it was a roll of banknotes.
Judging by its thickness, there had to be at least five thousand coins inside.
She was stunned.
“Remember,” he emphasized. “You are inmate No. 642, Lu Pei. You’ll serve fifteen days in the intermediate zone.”
The woman stared at him blankly before nodding. Tears glistened in her eyes and her gaze was filled with gratitude.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
……
Ten minutes later, Lu Pei, now going by the name Ruby, was about to enter the underground zone.
He rode the subterranean elevator all the way down before boarding another transport vehicle. When its doors opened again, he had officially arrived at the labor reformation facility in the Bedrock Layer.
The sign above the iron gate read Yingshan Mine.
Hanging to the left of the entrance was a vertical sign with black characters against a white background: Bedrock Layer Labor Reformation Center.
Lu Pei: “?”
Well, what could he say? It really was the underground zone.
Had their funding become so tight that even the labor reformation facilities had to operate under a public private partnership?
The security office near the entrance was quite large and also served administrative purposes. The outer section was a monitoring room, while the second room inside was where prisoners were registered. The walls had been stained a dark yellow by years of accumulated grime.
“Ruby Francis.”
The guide checked the register before examining Lu Pei’s face.
“You’re a man, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“According to your records, your sex is listed as female.”
Lu Pei shrugged. “The information was probably entered incorrectly. My name does sound quite feminine.”
The guide accepted his explanation without the slightest difficulty. He didn’t ask a single follow up question. Instead, he fitted Lu Pei with a custom made metal wristband and led him toward the dormitories.
Dust hung thickly in the air along the way. Although it was daytime, everything seemed to be shrouded in a perpetual gray haze.
The concrete ground was uneven and riddled with potholes, making every step a gamble. One moment his foot sank into a depression; the next, he was stepping onto a raised patch of ground. The flower beds had clearly been neglected for a long time and a thick layer of dust coated every blade of grass.
Hang in there. I just need to survive thirty days.
Lu Pei encouraged himself silently.
As they entered the dormitory area, he noticed that every door stood wide open.
409, 408, 407…
“This is your room. Go on in,” the guide said.
Lu Pei’s gaze moved from the number 404 on the door to the room beyond it. The appalling accommodation conditions were immediately apparent.
The room was only a few square meters in size. There was no fan, no air conditioner and not even a bed. He would have to sleep on someone’s pectoral muscles,
No, wait.
He would have to sleep on a bamboo sleeping mat, with his pectoral muscles serving as the mattress.
No, that wasn’t right either.
A black haired youth was using the doorframe to do pull ups. The proportions between his shoulders and waist were exceptional and Lu Pei’s attention was immediately drawn to him.
His broad frame already had the proportions of an adult’s yet he still looked remarkably slender, with the lean build characteristic of someone who hadn’t quite finished growing.
Whenever he exerted himself and lifted his body, the contraction and expansion of his muscles translated into subtle shifts in the fabric stretched across them. His long black hair was tied up behind his head, casting an additional layer of shadow over his silhouette. He resembled a continuous range of mountains beneath the night sky, possessing a strength and composure that seemed far beyond what his youthful appearance would suggest.
Then the young man looked over.
His facial features were sharply defined and his expressionless face appeared strangely gloomy beneath a pair of jet black eyes.
“Hello. I’m your new roommate, Ruby Francis,” Lu Pei introduced himself.
The youth glanced at him sidelong, released his grip and dropped lightly to the ground. The soles of his shoes made not the slightest sound.
Then he brushed past Lu Pei and walked straight out of the room.
Lu Pei: “?”
He was being ignored?
“Hey, new roommate,” someone inside the room called out. “Yuan Que isn’t much of a talker. You’ll get used to it. Come on in.”
Yuan Que. That should be the name of the young man who had just left.
Three people were sitting inside, playing cards. They gave Lu Pei brief introductions and he noticed a bamboo sleeping mat spread across the floor. One mat was unoccupied, though its edges had curled up slightly. That was presumably where he would be sleeping.
A bamboo mat for a bed. Sleeping directly on the floor.
The accommodation was certainly something…
Think positive thoughts.
The farther he got from the Bailu District Reformation Facility, the safer he would be. At the very least, he wouldn’t be arbitrarily reduced to a single line of background narration about someone whose whereabouts had become unknown and who was presumed dead.
Lu Pei took a deep breath.
This was where he would begin his wonderful new life.
“Hey,” he greeted the three people playing cards.
He stepped forward with his left leg, crossing the threshold into the room. The instant the sole of his shoe touched the floor, it felt as though an electric current had shot through him.
Bzzz!!
An image flashed through his mind.
It was a spoiler.
His spoiler ability usually manifested as brief scenes that flashed before his eyes. The information was limited and accompanied by an off screen voice that sounded like a narrator explaining the situation. Most importantly, the information was generally crucial to what would happen next.
【Having come to the underground labor reformation facility to escape the risk of death, Lu Pei now faces…】
【“Yuan Que, kill him,” someone ordered coldly.】
【The black haired youth, slender yet powerful, held a dagger in his hand and advanced toward him one step at a time.】
【What awaited him was certain Die.】
Lu Pei froze.
What?
He withdrew his left foot and tried entering with his right instead.
Surely the problem was the way he had stepped through the doorway…
【“Kill him.”
The black haired youth advanced with a knife in hand.】
“…”
Lu Pei repeatedly switched the foot he used to enter the room.
The scene flashed before him over and over again. Each time, the black haired youth relentlessly sharpened his murderous intentions and advanced toward Lu Pei’s head with his knife ready to strike.
This was the future that was about to unfold.
Even his spoiler ability seemed to be getting annoyed by his antics, because a new line of narration appeared.
【Yuan Que dislikes his superior, who is careless in his work and has no ambition to improve.
However, whenever a direct order is given to Yuan Que himself, he executes it flawlessly, especially when it comes to killing people.】
Lu Pei: “…”
He continued hopping back and forth beside the doorway.
A blue haired young man wearing an assortment of flashy rings was dealing the cards. He had been sneaking occasional glances at Lu Pei for a while and he finally broke into a grin.
“Bro, are you a dancer?”
Lu Pei let out an awkward laugh.
“Ha ha. I’m a dead man.”