As I open my eyes, the glaring brightness from the fluorescent light painfully pierce my eyes. I blink, but still cannot see clearly. I could only squint, and some tears secreted by the stimulation of the light blurs my vision.
The air is cold and dry, and it smells of disinfectant, which I have never liked.
For a while, I forgot what had happened. As my eyes start to adjust to the light, I stare at the unfamiliar pure white ceiling and wait until my head, which is constantly feeling a dull pain, starts to properly work. Only then did I recall my miserable beating from a prisoner. But the white ceiling and dazzling lights make me disoriented.
Where is this place? I blink again and take a deep breath, but a sharp pain stirs up in my ribs, which makes me shocked, and I couldn’t help letting out a painful whine.
“Yo, awake? Rookie?” I hear an unfamiliar man’s voice.
The brightness of the light suddenly diminished. I look up and see that a man has his head bent, looking and smiling at me face to face.
I struggle to get up, but my body painfully protests my rashness. The man next to me naturally helps me sit up. I then found that I am currently lying on a bed.
“Where is this place?” I ask, the muscles on my temples suddenly throbbing and hurting.
“This is the medical room, little fool.” The voice comes from my right, and the first thing I notice is that there is a woman in front of the bed.
I’m surprised that there are women in such a place.
“Is this… inside the Absolute Wing Hall?” I couldn’t help but wonder whether I was carried out of the Absolute Wing Hall after being beaten unconscious.
“Were you beaten stupid? Of course, you are in the medical room in the Prison Hall, and I am the doctor.” The woman chuckles, and the ridiculing smile on her face makes me feel uncomfortable.
The woman is beautiful, but looking too vulgar with heavy makeup on her face. She is wearing a white robe, a doctor’s uniform to be precise, but the top is a low-cut waistcoat, and her lower body wears a narrow mini skirt.
Isn’t the Absolute Wing Hall only for men prisoners? I don’t understand how this woman can dress like this…No! How could she be in such a place?
“…Was already sent to the hospital on the first day, isn’t it too effortless for you?” The woman speaks again, and her plump lips with brilliant red lipstick gleams brightly in the light.
“Hey, Luo Luo, don’t ridicule him. After all, he is a newcomer and doesn’t understand the rules here.” The man next to her says.
The man wears the same uniform as mine, with a tall and thin body with very pale skin, showing a beautiful and gentle face. When I see him, I couldn’t help wondering whether the people inside the Absolute Wing Hall are really picked based on their looks. He caresses his short and smooth light brown hair with his hand, and turns his head to meet my eyes.
I panic and look away, but my peripheral vision still catches his playful smile.
“Hello newbie, you haven’t seen me yet, right? My name is Yaren, and I’m also a prison guard here.” The man stretches out his hand to me, and I naturally reach out to shake it.
He shakes my hand and smiles at me, showing his neat white teeth.
“I’m Ye ShiJiu Lang…new here.” I really find these two words[1]hateful.
“Ye ShiJiu Lang? Haha, a very funny name!” Yaren laughed.[2]
“Wolf? He was beaten and sent in here like this. I think he’s most suitable to be called a Lamb, right?” The woman says with her arms crossed around her chest, constantly mocking me, which makes me a little embarrassed and ashamed.
The Yaren beside her is even more energetic, laughing loudly as he wipes the corners of his eyes exaggeratedly.
“Luo Luo, your joke is funny, I’m going to die laughing! Calling him lamb is really good, I will call you Night Lamb[3]in the future!”
I don’t feel funny at all, please don’t really call me night lamb.
“Oh! Is that not funny? It’s because you are a little idiot, okay?” The woman called Luo Luo rolls her eyes, gets up from the swivel chair, and walks towards me.
As soon as she comes over, she immediately pinches my face with her white fingers coated with pink nail polish, swings my face left and right, opens my eyelids, and takes out a pen-shaped flashlight to shine my eyes to take a closer look.
“Although the injury is not minor, but you’ll not die! It seems that there’s a slight concussion, but it will be all right if you take a break. I have put gauze on your head where you were knocked out; I’ve also used good medicine for the bruises in the upper part of your body; as for the small injury in the bridge of the nose…” The woman explained to me. She then takes out a box of bandages from her pocket, takes a piece from it, and puts it on the bridge of my nose.
“Thank you, Miss….Luo Luo?” I’m not sure what kind of address is appropriate to call her, but she doesn’t seem to be satisfied as her brows raise.
“My full name is Huimeng LuoLuo. You can call me Doctor HuiMeng or Doctor Luo Luo. Just don’t call me Miss because I am a doctor.” The woman seems to mind calling her that.
“Yes, Miss Luo Luo.” As soon as my words come out, she immediately grabs my face and pinches it hard. She also scolds me for being an idiot, and the Yaren next to her chuckles again.
“Ah, in order to take care of you, this lady delayed her dinner and is now starving to death!” Doctor HuiMeng lets go of my pinched cheeks and smoothes her pretty short hair. “Yaren, please take care of him first, I’m going out to get food.”
Regardless of whether Yaren will agree or not (though Yaren seems to have no objection), Doctor HuiMeng walks out of the medical room on her high heels.
I haven’t been in the medical room yet. The medical room in the prison is much larger than I expected. There are eight beds including the one I’m lying on, and the two large wooden cabinets erected on the side are full of medical supplies.
I scan the surroundings roughly, and when I turn my head, I find that Yaren is looking at me. He sees me and does not look away, but also does not speak, he just smiles and stares at me.
I have never been good at playing this stare game with people. I used to play this with my sister but I always lost.
“You sent me here?” I start the conversation, trying to shift the awkwardness.
“Yes~” Yaren pulls the swivel chair that HuiMeng LuoLuo used just now onto the bed, and sits down. A pair of peach blossom eyes which are full of obvious playfulness look at me. “I heard Li yelling there and asking Gu Yan to take you. I just went over to see what was going on, but I didn’t expect to see your face covered with blood lying there. I can’t just leave you there, right?”
“Sorry…”
“You know, I should apologize too! You almost died! Li is a lunatic. Screaming here and there, and he didn’t even think about how far Gu Yan’s cell is from his… … If it weren’t for me being in Gui Shang’s cell, the one I am in charge of, and if it weren’t for mine and Teal’s building that happened to be connected to each other, just look at who’s going to save you!” Although Yaren’s words seem to be reproaching me, his expression is quite relaxed, and there is even a sense of ridicule.
Those people mentioned by Yaren’s words are all I haven’t seen before, which makes me feel a little confused.
“But why did you go to the ninth floor?”
“Because the Curator asked Cang Wu to show me the environment in the Prison Hall…”
“What about Cang Wu? What is he doing?” Yaren asks. I am just about to explain for Cang Wu’s side, but the door of the medical room is suddenly kicked open, interrupting our conversation.
I thought it was HuiMeng LuoLuo who comes back, but it’s a petite boy who comes in. The boy looks very cute and looks a bit like a girl, but he has the atmosphere of a cheerful and naughty boy. His melon-seed face, big round eyes, long eyelashes, and short light brown hair makes his complexion more tender and white.
“Who’s injured by Li? Damn, I just ran away and he already caused me trouble!” The boy looks a little agitated as he walks towards us with quick and energetic steps. He also wears a gray military uniform, similar to a prison guard’s uniform.
“Teal, where did you go and play? Whenever something happens in Li’s room, I’m the one who has to run and take care of it!” Yaren yells at the boy. Only then do I realize that this cute-looking boy is Teal.
Many questions immediately pop up in my mind.
“I just went out, who knew this would happen?” Teal walks up to me, his big grayish-green eyes rolling around. “When I heard the electronic watch ring, I thought something was going on. As a result, as soon as I returned to Li’s cell, I saw a pool of blood there, which almost scared me to death! The last time he severely wounded a prisoner, he had already caused me to be scolded by Xue Luoyi all day. What about this time? I’ll be scolded to death by Xue Luoyi again!”
“Don’t be nervous, he is not dead, he’s just lying next to me, beaten up as a pig.” Yaren points to me with his fingers, and Teal’s pair of big eyes looks at me immediately.
“Which prisoner are you? I haven’t seen you?” Teal tilts his head, his face full of doubts.
“No, his name is Ye ShiJiu Yang,[4] he’s a new prison guard.” Yaren introduces me to Teal. When he opens his mouth with a sly smile, I know nothing good will come out of it.
“Ye ShiJiu Yang? Like a bleating lamb?” Teal stretches out his index finger and places it on his head.
“No, my name is Ye ShiJiu Lang…as in Wolf.” I sigh lightly, resenting my lack of speech vocabulary.
Erza’s Note [Translator]: The Prison is called Absolute Wing Hall but you guys might get confused because sometimes it was just casually called; Hall, Prison Hall, Prison. Sorry the update got slightly delayed, but here it comes now, enjoy reading~
[1] This is originally three characters in chinese, but since it’s already in an english translation, I changed it into 2 words.
[2] Ye – night, Shi – ten, Jiu – long, Lang – Lamb
[3] The ‘Ye’ in Ye ShiJiu Lang means ‘night’.
[4] The Lang (Wolf) was replaced by Yang (Lamb). I kept it pinyin because Yaren used Wolf’s whole name with the replaced Lamb word, which resulted in ‘Ye ShiJiu Lamb’ that doesn’t look right to use.