The blue haired young man said, “You really have a way with words.”
Lu Pei thought miserably to himself that he hadn’t actually been joking. He had merely been stating a fact: he was about to die.
Approximately two years ago, on a certain day, Lu Pei had received a spoiler in advance. It informed him that he would go out on September 10 and injure his ankle.
To avoid injuring his ankle, Lu Pei had spent the entire day lying motionless in bed. He didn’t eat or drink anything, just to avoid having to go to the bathroom.
At half past eleven that night, Lu Xun returned home. Lu Pei had specifically instructed the servants not to tell his older brother that he hadn’t eaten but Lu Xun still managed to piece together the clues scattered throughout the living room and discovered that Lu Pei hadn’t left his bedroom all day. He insisted that Lu Pei have a meal but Lu Pei stubbornly refused to budge. In the end, Lu Xun simply grabbed him, hoisted him over his shoulder and carried him straight to the dining room.
Naturally, Lu Pei had been on his guard and fought back with all his might. He kicked and thrashed about and one of his feet struck the doorframe with a sharp crack.
His ankle was injured anyway.
Similar incidents had occurred several times, allowing Lu Pei to gradually figure out a pattern.
He really could change certain events by acting on the information provided by his spoilers but this book contained fixed plot points that could not be completely avoided, no matter how hard he tried.
He had already fled from the surface to the underground yet he was still going to die. There was a good chance that Lu Pei’s death was one of those fixed plot points, just like Lu Xun’s imprisonment.
A so called plot induced death meant that if the author decided a character had to die that night, even the smartest and most powerful character would suddenly become as stupid as a colorful baby dragon and rush headlong into death in the middle of the night.
How could something like that even exist in this world?
And yet, it really did.
Lu Pei was still standing by the doorway but his soul had already left his body for quite some time.
“Ruby, do you play cards?” the blue haired young man asked.
Lu Pei replied, “I don’t know how.”
“Then how about a cigarette?” His roommate offered him half a pack.
Lu Pei didn’t smoke but considering that he was practically a dead man already, he took the pack, tapped out a cigarette and asked, “Are we allowed to smoke here?”
“Technically, no.” The blue haired young man smiled with unruffled composure. “There are all sorts of rules in this facility but I’ve got plenty of ways to get around them. If you ever need anything, just come and ask me.”
“Yu Rulan, play your card!” urged another roommate, Old Wu.
“Can’t beat it. I’m passing.”
Yu Rulan gathered his cards in one hand while slipping the cigarette pack Lu Pei hadn’t accepted back into his pocket. His movements were as smooth and effortless as someone folding away a hand fan. The numerous metal and gemstone rings on his fingers flashed repeatedly as he moved.
“This guy’s a crooked merchant,” another roommate, Anthony, told Lu Pei. “If you don’t lack money but need something, go to him. He’ll find a way to fleece you out of some cash.”
Yu Rulan clicked his tongue and immediately defended himself with righteous indignation.
“I’m a professional dealer. I treat everyone fairly, young and old alike.”
Having noticed the way he had concealed a card up his sleeve, Lu Pei remarked with feeling, “So you’re the kind who cheats everyone, regardless of age.”
Yu Rulan wasn’t actually Lu Pei’s roommate. He lived in the dormitory next door and had merely come over to play cards. He wasn’t greedy when it came to cheating. He would win a few big hands, lose a few small ones, then lose another round. Finally, he grinned and announced, “I’m done playing. I’m going to take a shower.”
Lu Pei asked, “Where do we shower?”
Yu Rulan replied, “Are you going to wash up now? Come along with me.”
Prison, an all male population and a communal bathhouse. No matter how one combined those three things, they sounded like the ingredients for a sleazy little movie about sexual indiscretions. Lu Pei wasn’t particularly eager to go alone, so he figured he might as well bring a companion.
On the way to the bathhouse, Yu Rulan gave him a rundown of the facility’s situation.
“Mammoth is the only boss around here. Be careful not to offend him or any of his people.”
“Is Brother Mammoth the warden?” Lu Pei asked curiously.
“The warden?” Yu Rulan shook his head and smiled. “Whoever Brother Mammoth says is the warden becomes the warden.”
Before long, they arrived at the communal bathhouse. The conditions were considerably better than Lu Pei had expected. It wasn’t one enormous communal bathing area where everyone washed together. Instead, it had been divided into numerous individual cubicles.
Lu Pei was quite satisfied with this arrangement and entered an empty shower cubicle.
He hadn’t even finished taking off his clothes when suspicious noises immediately began coming from the cubicle next door, echoing throughout the entire bathhouse.
“Ahhh~~~ Oh my God~~~ Ahhhhhh~~~”
“Harder~~ Hubby~~~ Oh, you’re so good at this~~”
Lu Pei: “…”
“Ohhh~~ Hubby~~ You’re amazing~~”
After approximately six or seven minutes, the spine chillingly ecstatic cries finally came to an end.
Lu Pei pinched his nose and called out in an exaggerated, bizarre voice, “Does your husband suffer from premature ejaculation? Why was it over so quickly?”
The cubicle next door fell silent.
“………………”
A burst of muffled laughter erupted from the other cubicles but the occupants soon stopped, displaying a remarkable degree of restraint.
,
After returning to the dormitory, Lu Pei organized his thoughts while chatting with his roommates.
Their accounts indirectly confirmed that Yu Rulan had been telling the truth. The labor reformation facility’s administrative supervision was practically nonexistent and the only local tyrant who truly held power here was a man known as Brother Mammoth.
Yuan Que was most likely one of this man’s subordinates. For some reason, he had offended Brother Mammoth, who had consequently ordered one of his men to kill him.
Lu Pei looked at his own slender arms, then recalled Yuan Que’s sturdy forearms, which had bulging veins standing out prominently beneath the skin.
Step one: Avoid a direct confrontation.
Plan one: Run away.
He had already fled from the surface to the underground and still hadn’t escaped the plot induced death, so that option was a definite no go.
Plan two: According to the narration, Yuan Que disliked his superior and was careless about his work, showing no desire to improve. Was there a chance Lu Pei could turn him against his employer?
As a future victim, he ought to learn something about his killer, at the very least.
Lu Pei prepared several different conversation starters in advance and waited until the lights out bell rang but none of them proved useful. Yuan Que had disappeared after leaving the dormitory and hadn’t returned, leaving only the other three occupants behind.
Once the lights were turned off, all Lu Pei had to do was lie down on a bamboo mat spread across the floor and go to sleep.
He had never slept on such a hard surface in his entire life. At first, he tried to stay awake because he wanted to have a chat with Yuan Que and fish for some information when the man returned. However, given the sleeping conditions, getting a decent night’s rest was difficult enough.
He endured several miserable hours, tossing and turning restlessly. By the time his mental endurance finally reached its limit, he had only just begun to drift into a hazy, exhausted sleep when the wake up bell rang.
Lu Pei opened his eyes and discovered that someone was lying on the previously empty mat beside him. The person had his broad back turned toward Lu Pei, his black hair hanging in a disheveled mess down the back of his head.
Lu Pei was startled.
When did he come back?
Yuan Que sat up, his face shrouded in gloom.
“Didn’t sleep well?” Lu Pei asked with concern.
Yuan Que seemed to have only two colors in his entire appearance: black and white. His jet black pupils were the most striking feature of all, providing the darkest and richest contrast. When he turned his eyes toward Lu Pei, he regarded him with a completely emotionless gaze.
His facial structure was strongly defined by bone, with heavy brows that seemed to press down over his eyes and very little body fat. His features gave him a mature appearance yet his body retained the lean, wiry build characteristic of a teenage boy.
To be fair, he had a face that perfectly matched Lu Pei’s aesthetic preferences. Even though the guy was utterly lacking in manners, Lu Pei found it difficult to stay annoyed with him after looking at him for a little while.
Lu Pei asked, “Are you twenty yet?”
Yuan Que replied, “What’s it to you?”
“I’m just concerned about you.”
The retort came so smoothly that Yuan Que was actually taken aback for a moment.
“So, are you?” Lu Pei asked again.
Yuan Que answered irritably, “No.”
Yuan Que had already decided that Lu Pei was an extremely talkative person. Whatever the other man said, he had no intention of responding again. However, Lu Pei merely nodded.
The wake up bell rang a second time and Lu Pei got up to change his clothes.
He was somewhat of a neat freak. He absolutely refused to put his jacket on the bed, even though his current bed was nothing more than a bamboo mat on the floor. Naturally, he also refused to change his outer clothes while standing on the bed, so he had to do it on the floor beside it.
The labor reformation facility certainly had no obligation to provide its inmates with pajamas. Lu Pei’s sleeping attire consisted of a short sleeved shirt that was much too long for him.
With his back turned toward Yuan Que, Lu Pei stepped into his trousers and bent over to pull them up.
The short hem of his shirt slid upward, suddenly exposing the upper part of his thighs, which had previously been concealed beneath the fabric. His skin was dazzlingly white, like freshly pressed tofu.
As he gripped the waistband of his trousers and pulled them upward, his foot slipped slightly. He swayed from side to side before finally regaining his balance.
From Yuan Que’s perspective, it almost looked as though Lu Pei were deliberately shaking his butt in his direction.
Yuan Que frowned slightly and shifted his gaze toward the other side of the room.
The other two roommates slept wearing nothing but their underwear, leaving them practically naked. Somehow, that sight was much easier to accept than what was happening on the other side of the room.
After finishing changing, Lu Pei asked, “Are we supposed to assemble now? Where are we going?”
This time, Yuan Que didn’t even glance at him. He put on his jacket and silently walked toward the doorway.
Lu Pei was quite accustomed to this level of cold treatment, so he felt no discomfort whatsoever at being deliberately ignored.
He was talkative, while Lu Xun was a man of few words. Ever since childhood, whenever Lu Xun grew too annoyed by his younger brother’s incessant chatter, he would simply pretend to be mute. However, Lu Pei knew that his older brother listened to every single word of his, no matter how pointless or nonsensical his rambling might be.
He followed Yuan Que out and the two of them were assigned to Mining Zone C. Small mountains of minerals were piled everywhere, stretching across the area as far as the eye could see. The prisoners’ job was to shovel these mounds flat, locate the minerals hidden inside and collect them.
Lu Pei tried to strike up a conversation while they were working but Yuan Que was simply too efficient with his hands and feet. He moved so quickly that Lu Pei had to make a considerable effort just to keep up with his pace. In the end, Lu Pei decisively chose to slack off, slowly feeling his way through the work while doing as little as possible.
He didn’t chat with anyone but his unusually light colored hair, pale skin and slender build made him stand out like a blinding ray of sunlight among a crowd of robust laborers with dark hair and darker complexions.
Quite a few people began whispering about him behind his back, with their discussions naturally centering on his appearance.
“Who’s that? A newcomer, right? I’ve never seen him before.”
“When did he get here?”
“He came from the surface, didn’t he?”
“Definitely.”
“Pretty good looking. He looks like a woman.”
“Just another pretty faced pretty boy.”
“Brother Yao, look at him. Do you think he might…”
“I see him.” Brother Yao’s expression was foul and he bit down hard on his lower lip. “Just wait until I go over and deal with him.”
,
As soon as the lunch break bell rang, Lu Pei rushed toward the cafeteria to get in line.
The old hands had finished work early and the cafeteria was already crowded with people. Nearly every seat was occupied, with only a few tables in the center remaining conspicuously deserted, forming a vacuum in the middle of the bustling room.
Those tables were covered with plates of food, each dish concealed beneath a silver serving dome. Wine glasses and bottles of red wine had been arranged neatly to one side, waiting to be served.
“Brother Mammoth is here!” someone shouted from the back of the queue.
The cafeteria immediately erupted with greetings.
“Brother Mammoth!”
“Greetings, Brother Mammoth!”
“Good afternoon, Brother Mammoth!”
One greeting followed another as a burly man strode into the cafeteria with an air of unhurried authority. He calmly nodded in acknowledgment of the enthusiastic welcomes surrounding him.
“Is he some kind of underground emperor?” Lu Pei exclaimed in shock.
Brother Mammoth’s appearance perfectly matched Lu Pei’s stereotypical image of a member of the underworld. He had a thick beard covering his cheeks and chin, dark skin and tattoos covering both arms.
The moment he sat down, several of his underlings immediately lifted the silver serving domes. Roasted leg of lamb, salt baked shrimp, curried beef soup…
Lu Pei stared at the food with wide eyes, so transfixed that he seemed to have forgotten how to blink.
Ever since entering the labor reform center, he hadn’t had a single proper meal. Every day, he was stuck eating bland food with barely any seasoning, the kind of tasteless fare that consisted of little more than clear broth and boiled vegetables.
The moment the lid was lifted, a tantalizing aroma wafted through the air, stirring up all of Lu Pei’s deepest cravings.
It smells so good… I’m so hungry…
“Little brother, stop daydreaming.” The man serving food urged him. “Take your food.”
It was finally his turn. A metal tray was pushed across the counter and placed in front of him.
Lu Pei lowered his head and examined his meal. Two enormous portions of vegetarian dishes, a mysterious stew whose ingredients he couldn’t identify and a huge mound of rice.
Holding his tray, Lu Pei felt a deep sense of sorrow as he searched the dining hall for Yuan Que’s figure.
The other man was exceptionally tall, making him easy to spot even in a crowd.
Lu Pei followed him all the way across the hall. However, just as he placed his tray on the table, Yuan Que spoke up.
“You shouldn’t sit here.”
Lu Pei looked at him. “Then should I sit on your lap?”
Yuan Que: “…”
After instinctively shooting off that cheeky remark, Lu Pei glanced around. Every burly man sitting nearby had tattoos covering his body. This appeared to be the designated area for Brother Mammoth’s underlings. He really had chosen the wrong place.
He was just about to pull his legs back from beneath the table and leave when someone pressed a hand against his shoulder, forcing him straight down into his seat.
“Since you like it here so much, why not just stay?” a hoarse male voice said, deliberately softening its tone. “What’s wrong with that?”
Lu Pei turned his head and immediately found himself staring at a pair of bright red lips. Above them was an exaggerated smoky eye makeup look that would have put even the most dramatic stage performer to shame.
But there was no doubt about it. This person was a man and quite possibly gay.
The man sitting across from him asked, “What’s your name?”
Lu Pei: “…”
Is he hitting on me?
Lu Pei had no intention of giving a gay man any reason to entertain fantasies about him. He remained silent for several seconds, prompting one of the man’s underlings to snap impatiently, “Our Brother Yao is asking you a question! Are you deaf or something?!”
Apparently, this was another person with considerable standing.
Lu Pei immediately felt his heart sink. He had a vague idea of how he might end up dying and getting involved with this person would probably be worse than dying outright.
“I’m Ruby Francis,” Lu Pei replied. “And you?”
Brother Yao looked at him as though he were some ignorant country bumpkin who had never seen the world before. He stared at Lu Pei in disbelief.
“You don’t know who I am?”
“I only got here yesterday.”
Brother Yao regarded him with utter disdain, looking him up and down before finally introducing himself in an unhurried voice.
“Ren Yao.”
Lu Pei: “…”
Pfft.
Ren Yao.
Brother Mammoth’s lover.
Yuan Que lowered his eyelids and continued putting food into his mouth. The white rice on his plate was piled up into a mountain.
The underlings surrounding them all knew what was coming next. Whenever a handsome, delicate looking man arrived at the mine, Ren Yao would invariably put on the airs of a legitimate wife, making things difficult for the newcomer and establishing his authority. It was his way of warning them not to try seducing Brother Mammoth.
Sure enough, Ren Yao opened his mouth and declared, “I’ve been with Brother Mammoth for seven years.”
“Men like him enjoy playing around. They’re all just passing through but I’m the one he comes home to.”
“I’m not particularly bad tempered. I’ve always been willing to turn a blind eye to certain things but some people just take it too far. When they start provoking me right under my nose, I have no choice but to deal with them.”
Lu Pei’s voice sounded inexplicably relieved and he even seemed happy as he exclaimed, “Really? You and Brother Mammoth must have such a wonderful relationship!”
“Heh.” Ren Yao let out a scoff. “There’s no room for anyone else to interfere in our relationship.”
Apparently, Lu Pei hadn’t noticed the warning hidden in Ren Yao’s words at all. Instead, he enthusiastically offered one congratulatory remark after another.
He kept talking, showering Ren Yao with praise until the latter was practically floating on air.
In this place, as well as in other parts of the underground district, Yuan Que had seen far too many people like Lu Pei. They were like swarms of flies circling those who held power, spouting endless flattery and shameless lies as they desperately tried to secure themselves an extra spoonful of soup.
Lu Pei was merely more deceptive in appearance than most.
The underlying behavior was just as tedious and just as easy to see through at a glance.
“Brother Yao, you and Brother Mammoth have such an unbreakable bond. You must be the person he loves most in the world, right?”
“Of course.”
“He must grant any reasonable request you make, right?”
“That’s only natural.”
“And if he gets upset, he would never hit you or curse at you, would he?”
“Obviously!”
Yuan Que finished his meal, put down his chopsticks and wiped his mouth.
He happened to notice Lu Pei gazing intently at Ren Yao, his eyes filled with something resembling admiration, as though he genuinely looked up to the man despite this being their very first meeting.
Watching someone with Lu Pei’s face engage in such shameless flattery made Yuan Que feel physically uncomfortable.
The scene he had witnessed earlier that day surfaced in his mind for no apparent reason. With a certain degree of malice, he thought that instead of wasting so much effort trying to please Ren Yao here, Lu Pei might as well go directly to Brother Mammoth and wiggle his ass in front of him.
“That’s wonderful!” Lu Pei suddenly sprang to his feet.
Under the watchful eyes of Ren Yao, Ren Yao’s underlings and Yuan Que, he strode boldly toward the long table in the center of the dining hall.
More specifically, he headed straight for the seat in the middle, right beside Brother Mammoth himself.
“Sorry to disturb you, Brother Mammoth,” Lu Pei said. “Brother Yao asked me to get him a few dishes. He’s particularly craving roasted leg of lamb.”
Every pair of eyes in the dining hall turned toward him in unison.
Brother Mammoth had been in the middle of an animated conversation when Lu Pei interrupted him. Looking displeased, he listened to the explanation before nodding.
“Take them.”
Ren Yao: “???”
Lu Pei promptly carried away four meat dishes he had been eyeing, looking positively delighted.
Ren Yao: “?????”
The other underlings were dumbfounded. They stared blankly at Lu Pei as he returned to their table, completely unable to understand what had just happened.
Before Ren Yao could lose his temper, Lu Pei placed the first roasted leg of lamb on his plate.
“Brother Yao, this is all Brother Mammoth’s love for you! He even remembered to save you some food. His devotion to you is truly profound.”
He then placed the second leg of lamb on Yuan Que’s plate.
“Yuan Que, you’re touched too, aren’t you? Come on, let’s share in the good fortune!”
Ren Yao: “…”
Yuan Que: “…”