"Count Anyuan, Li Dao, you have committed the unforgivable crime of defying your superiors."
"If not for the Princess's intervention, you would have faced execution today."
"Li Dao, don't blame me. The Princess has spared your life, but the Emperor insists otherwise. Let the Death Row Camp be your final resting place."
"From now on, your number is 9527. You have no identity in this world, only a man awaiting death."
......
In a daze, fragments of memories flooded Li Dao's mind.
"Ah."
After a sharp intake of breath, Li Dao sat up abruptly from the ground, his forehead covered in cold sweat.
He scanned his surroundings: a dim space, a damp environment, a wooden cage, and the nauseating stench in the air.
Looking down at himself, his hair was disheveled, his body in a sorry state, with several abrasions on his skin, and he wore only a tattered white cloth garment.
On the front of the garment was the word 'prisoner,' and if one could see his back, there was another word 'death,' marking his current identity.
Death Row Prisoner!
And the place he was in was the legendary Death Row Camp, where human life was as cheap as grass.
Through the dim light, he glanced at the dark corners of the cell and vaguely saw the silhouettes of others, dressed like him, all death row prisoners in this camp.
Seeing this, Li Dao couldn't help but murmur to himself, "A month has passed, it seems I have truly been reborn."
He was reluctant to accept this reality, but facts were facts, regardless of what he thought now.
The reason he ended up in this situation could be summed up in one sentence: drinking led to trouble, and lust caused harm.
A month ago, the Great Qian Imperial Family hosted a palace banquet.
In this life, as a 3rd-Class Count, Li Dao was naturally among the invitees.
During the banquet, he suddenly had a headache, but with the Emperor speaking, he dared not leave without permission, so he thought of using alcohol to numb the pain.
However, as the banquet progressed, his headache didn't subside; instead, he became intoxicated. He got up to leave, hoping to sober up.
By chance, he stumbled into a palace chamber.
Once inside, he was stunned.
Before him was a vision of pure white, a stunningly beautiful young woman with an incredibly graceful figure.
At that moment, his headache vanished, but memories from his past life surged forth.
In his drunken and confused state, he lost control.
In a moment of impulse, he violated the young woman's purity.
When he regained his senses, he was already being escorted by palace guards before the Great Qian Emperor.
He then learned the identity of the young woman he had defiled.
Princess Mingyue.
The most esteemed woman in the Great Qian Dynasty after the Empress, and the Emperor's most beloved eldest daughter.
He vaguely remembered the Great Qian Emperor's fury upon discovering that his cherished daughter had been defiled by a fallen 3rd-Class Count like him, threatening to execute his entire family and have him executed by dismemberment.
But to his surprise, it was Princess Mingyue, the one whose purity he had destroyed, who pleaded for his life.
However, the Great Qian Emperor, still enraged, wanted him dead.
Thus, without violating his imperial decree, Li Dao, who should have been imprisoned for life, was sent to the Death Row Camp to await death.
To ensure his swift demise, he was specially transported from the Imperial Capital to the Death Row Camp at the northern border of the Great Qian Dynasty.
This place bordered the Northern Barbarian territory, where conflicts frequently occurred, and recently, medium-scale skirmishes had broken out, indicating the potential for war at any moment.
In such circumstances, even ordinary soldiers lived in constant danger, let alone a prisoner in the Death Row Camp.
Being imprisoned here was almost synonymous with death for him.
Waiting to die?
But what if he didn't want to die?
Was it easy for him to be reborn once?
"Dinner is served, dinner is served."
As Li Dao was lost in thought, a shout came from outside the cell door.
After a moment of silence, the previously quiet cell erupted into chaos.
"Give me food, I'm starving, let me have a bite."
"Move aside, don't block the way."
"Get lost, or I'll kill you, believe it or not."
"Kill me? We're all death row prisoners, who's afraid of whom!"
"......"
Soon, amidst the sound of footsteps, several guards in military attire entered, carrying wooden buckets.
"Quiet down and line up, one by one. Anyone who moves or makes noise won't eat."
Seeing the blackened hands reaching through the cell bars, the guard holding the bucket impatiently banged on the cell door with a ladle.
Instantly, the death row prisoners inside the cell fell silent.
They understood the threat was real.
In ancient times, death row prisoners were akin to those deprived of political rights for life in Li Dao's previous world, with no human rights to speak of.
Going hungry for a few meals was nothing; even being beaten to death would result in no one collecting the body, and the soldier responsible might only face a day's confinement.
Such punishment was akin to the crime of public urination, illustrating the worthlessness of life in the Death Row Camp.
Seeing the food being distributed, Li Dao picked up the small bowl in front of him and joined the line.
If he didn't want to die, he had to eat; only by eating could he have a chance to survive.
As for how long he could live, for now, he could only take it one step at a time. After all, a bad life was better than a good death.
The line moved slowly, and soon it was Li Dao's turn.
A ladle of clear water and a palm-sized piece of gray-yellow bread constituted the daily meal for prisoners in the Death Row Camp.
After a month, Li Dao was used to it. He took the food and found a spot to sit down.
Looking at the hard bread, he tested its texture, feeling that biting into it could break his teeth. As before, he soaked the bread in the water, waiting for it to soften before eating.
The soldiers quickly left after distributing the food.
Li Dao, seeing the bread sufficiently soaked, prepared to eat.
At that moment, a tall figure suddenly cast a shadow over him.
"Kid, give me your food."
Li Dao looked up to see a burly man, at least 1.9 meters tall, standing before him.
The man had a long scar on his face, making him look particularly menacing.
His eyes were bloodshot, staring intently at the soaked bread in Li Dao's bowl, filled with greed.
For someone like the burly man, a palm-sized piece of bread wasn't enough to fill the gap between his teeth, let alone satisfy his hunger.
What to do when one person's food isn't enough?
Naturally, he chose to seize someone else's food to fill his stomach.
And Li Dao was the burly man's target.
In his eyes, this skinny, weak-looking pretty boy seemed easy to bully and surely wouldn't dare resist him.
And as the burly man expected, Li Dao didn't resist but lowered his head in silence.
"Haha, smart choice, kid."
The burly man grinned, crouching down to grab the bowl with the bread.
Inside the cell, many witnessed this scene, but none intervened, their expressions varied.
Mockery, indifference, amusement, and so on.
In short, no one pitied Li Dao.
Because this was the rule of the Death Row Camp, the reality.
Survival of the fittest, the law of the jungle.
This phrase was vividly demonstrated in this place.
These people wouldn't pity Li Dao; they would only envy why the burly man acted first instead of them, for if they had, the bread would be theirs.
As the burly man picked up the bowl, he taunted, "Kid, don't say I'm bullying you. Since you're so sensible, I'll look after you in this cell, but you'll have to hand over half your food from now on, got it?"
Seeing Li Dao still silent, the burly man felt his pride wounded and raised his hand to slap him.
Suddenly, the burly man felt a chill in his heart.
At that moment, Li Dao looked up.
In his right hand, he held something unknown and swiftly thrust it toward the burly man's face.
Pfft!
The sound of something piercing flesh echoed.
There was a moment of silence, followed by a shrill scream within the cell.
When everyone in the cell came to their senses, they saw the burly man had already dropped the bowl to the ground, his hands trembling in the air, crying out in pain.
In his left eye was a sharp wooden skewer, blood streaming from the socket, a chilling sight.
But it wasn't over yet.
After disabling the burly man's eye, Li Dao decisively looped the chains on his hands around the man's neck and pulled hard, causing the man to fall to the ground.
Then, Li Dao placed both feet on the man's shoulders and pulled the chains with all his might.
At this point, the burly man ignored the pain in his left eye and began to claw at the chains around his neck.
Losing an eye was one thing, but being strangled meant death.
However, no matter how the burly man struggled, it was futile, for above him, a frail young man used all his strength to pull the chains, veins bulging on his arms.
"Spare me... uh..."
Facing imminent death, the burly man begged for mercy.
Li Dao remained expressionless, mechanically tightening the chains, his entire body trembling from exertion, but he gave the man no chance.
He knew that if the burly man survived this time, he would be the one to die next. He didn't want to die, so the burly man had to.
After an unknown amount of time, the burly man's struggles weakened, his face turning red, then purple.
Finally, the burly man couldn't hold on any longer, dying with deep resentment in his heart.
He never imagined he would die at the hands of a frail young man.
On the other side, Li Dao didn't release the chains just because the burly man stopped struggling. He tightened them for another half-minute, only stopping when he was sure the man was truly dead.
"Ah."
Li Dao exhaled deeply, lying on the ground, staring at the dark ceiling, murmuring to himself, "I didn't expect killing someone to be so exhausting."
As for the nausea often associated with killing, he felt none of it.
As an adult, he had heard of places like prisons, seen them in news reports in his previous life, and was aware of the depravity of death row prisoners. He always assumed the worst of others.
So, before entering the Death Row Camp, he had mentally prepared for everything, including being forced to kill.
And his month-long experience in the Death Row Camp proved his preparation was correct.
He wasn't the first to have his food stolen.
In the past month, he had witnessed seven or eight death row prisoners starve to death or die from weakness after being deprived of food. He was just lucky to have lasted a month before becoming a target.
For this reason, when the burly man tried to take his food, he was ready to fight for his life.
And it seemed he had won, protecting his food and his life.
Glancing at the burly man's corpse, Li Dao removed the chains from his neck.
The chains had left a deep, purplish indentation on the man's thick neck from the force.
Standing up, Li Dao walked to where the bowl had fallen.
The bowl was shattered, the water soaked into the ground, and the soaked bread lay in the dust.
He didn't mind, picking up the bread, glancing around, and finding a corner to sit in.
As soon as he sat down, the surrounding death row prisoners scattered like they'd seen a ghost.
Killing was simple; most in the Death Row Camp had killed, some quite a few, as they were all condemned criminals.
But those who killed so nonchalantly, without a word, were the most feared.
Because no one knew when such a person might suddenly lash out.
Li Dao welcomed their reaction, at least it seemed no one would bother him for a while.