Chapter 155: Insomnia — a First in His Life
Seeing Nan Xun acting so smug, the others were grinding their teeth in anger.
Reluctant as they were to admit it, the truth was exactly that—they felt this kid had it far too easy. Forget the others; even Brother Tie, the toughest among the five, had taken losses before and still had to bow and scrape when facing Scarface.
But who was this kid? He’d arrived and immediately beaten the notoriously vicious Scarface, without a single mark on his face. Fair-skinned and tender-looking—he was whiter than a little lamb!
They knew he was good at fighting, so of course they didn’t dare confront him openly. They just wanted to see him suffer once, to regain some psychological balance.
Who would’ve thought that this time, too, the kid would come back completely unscathed.
After this episode, they completely gave up on the idea of messing with Su Mobai and instead began sincerely chatting with him about life and ideals.
Nan Xun didn’t want to make things too tense either. He tugged at the corner of his mouth and smiled. “I’m the type of person—if someone treats me well, I’ll treat them well too.”
As he spoke, he shot a glance at Du Pan. “On the other hand, if someone schemes against me, I’ll definitely beat their teeth all over the ground.”
Du Pan smiled awkwardly and couldn’t help scratching the bridge of his nose.
“Second Brother, I’m really curious—what did you get locked up for?” Nan Xun sized Du Pan up. He looked a bit like a shrewd businessman, but if he really were one, he’d definitely be the kind who couldn’t handle big deals—too crafty.
Du Pan shrugged. “Nothing much. Basically, I just scammed a bit of money.”
Fourth Brother chimed in noisily, “Xiao Liu, your Second Brother’s being way too modest. He scammed the richest man in S Country—two hundred million in fraud!”
Nan Xun let out a whistle and mocked him. “Didn’t expect that, Second Brother. So you’re a con artist. No wonder you like tricking people so much.”
Du Pan didn’t mind. “Xiao Liu, even though I’m a scammer, I’ve got professional ethics. I don’t scam the elderly, kids, or good people. Do you know how much money that tycoon funnels through illegal channels every year? He makes so much he couldn’t spend it all in a lifetime. I just wanted to help him spend some of it. Too bad—I failed in the end and still got found out by that old fox.”
Nan Xun added gleefully, “Serves you right.”
Maybe fate was looking out for Su Mobai, because the inmates assigned to this cell weren’t especially extreme villains.
Boss Tie, though someone from the underworld, valued brotherhood greatly. He’d split someone’s head open, killing them on the spot, and was sentenced to life.
Second Brother was a fraudster with principles, but the amount he scammed last time was too large—and it was cross-border—so the circumstances were serious. He got fifteen years.
Third and Fourth Brother both had their reasons. Third Brother’s only elderly mother had run into a quack doctor. What should’ve been a minor illness turned fatal because the doctor wanted to squeeze out more money. In a moment of rage, Third Brother stabbed the quack. He didn’t kill him, but left him in a vegetative state, earning himself twenty years.
Fourth Brother’s young child was poisoned to death with rat poison. He accused the culprit, but the police couldn’t find evidence. In a fit of fury, he set fire to the man’s house, thinking no one was inside. Who would’ve known the murderer’s wife was in there? She was horribly disfigured by the fire, and he was sentenced to fifteen years.
As for Fifth Brother—this one was a bit of an idiot. His child fell gravely ill, and he couldn’t raise the money for treatment. In a moment of madness, he went to rob a supermarket. Not only did he fail to grab even a cent, he was subdued in no time and sentenced to ten years.
Add it all up—arson, murder, robbery—everything was represented in this room.
All of them were serving heavy sentences of ten years or more, but Nan Xun felt none of them were inherently evil. Everyone has moments when dark thoughts flash through their mind; it just so happened that in that moment, they impulsively committed a crime.
Still, people must pay for their impulsiveness. Now they were gathered in Cell 242, wasting ten, twenty years—or even a lifetime—inside, seeing friends and family only a few times a year, separated by a pane of glass. That was their punishment.
After they’d chatted for a while, Du Pan gathered his courage and asked, “Xiao Liu, you ran into Yan Luo in the bathhouse just now, right? He didn’t blow up at you?”
Nan Xun glanced at him. “You were hoping I’d get into a fight with him and come back beaten black and blue, weren’t you?”
Du Pan chuckled dryly. “Xiao Liu, still holding a grudge? Not even calling me Second Brother anymore?”
Nan Xun planted a foot on the bed and yawned. “This is the last time I’m calling you guys ‘brother.’”
The five exchanged looks. Boss Tie rubbed his shiny bald head—his rough features looking much gentler than usual—and hurriedly said, “Don’t be like that, Xiao Liu. Are you really going to distance yourself from us?”
Nan Xun waved his hand. “It’s really not because of that. I just acknowledged Yan Luo as my brother. If I call everyone ‘brother,’ wouldn’t that be awkward? After today’s encounter, I think Yan Luo’s pretty proud and high-strung. If I were to—”
Before he could finish, the others cut him off immediately, shaking their heads like rattles. “Don’t call us brother—absolutely don’t! We don’t have the guts to call ourselves brothers with Yan Luo!”
Still, they were baffled. How had Xiao Liu ended up connecting with Yan Luo? That man never noticed anyone, did he? Wasn’t he a famous lone wolf? How did he even allow Xiao Liu to get close?
Then it clicked. Xiao Liu had performed exceptionally well today. Yan Luo must have taken a liking to his fighting skills and wanted to take him under his wing.
What ridiculous luck. If Yan Luo really took a shine to him, once Yan Luo got out, he’d surely find a way to take his little brother with him.
That was why, over the past year, so many people had tried to cozy up to Yan Luo.
Unfortunately, all of them ended up beaten black and blue, with broken arms and legs.
Xiao Liu truly was someone who’d stepped in dog shit—he’d connected with Yan Luo the moment he arrived.
“Lights out soon. Get on your beds and chat,” Brother Tie reminded them.
Everyone complied and climbed onto their bunks.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, all the cells went dark. Only the corridor lights remained on, controlled by a separate switch, for those who needed to use the toilet at night.
Tonight, everyone seemed unusually excited—especially Third Brother, whose admiration for Su Mobai had reached a whole new level. He was practically on his way to becoming a diehard fan.
On his first night in prison, Nan Xun fell asleep amid the snores, teeth-grinding, and sleep-talk of several burly men. In a single day, he had successfully become the underling of Yan Luo—the efficiency was astonishing.
Moonlight streamed through the barred window of the cell, spilling onto Nan Xun’s bed and softly tracing the contours of his refined face.
Nan Xun lay there with his eyes open, staring out the window, his gaze dark and bright.
For the first time in his life, he couldn’t fall asleep.
