Chapter Eighty-Eight: Prison Turmoil I

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Li Wenwu had always been arrogant and overbearing at the station, forever shirking real work. The thugs he dragged in could only get out after paying him off.

He had been able to get away with it for so long because his brother-in-law was the station chief. The beautiful policewoman had graduated from police college only six months earlier and had been assigned here. From the start, she had disliked Li Wenwu’s conduct, but after repeated reminders from the other officers to mind her own business, and with their saying that those hoodlums were no good to begin with, she had held back and not reported it upward.

Today, when she saw Jiang Xiwen use only a few casual words to leave Li Wenwu at a loss, the beautiful policewoman naturally took a liking to him. Then, seeing that Li Wenwu was about to strike again, she hurriedly stopped him. “Stop. You cannot abuse private punishment.”

No sooner had the words left her mouth than she saw Li Wenwu, in the pull and twist of Jiang Xiwen’s hand, go sprawling onto his back.

“You little bastard, if I don’t beat you to death today, I won’t be surnamed Li.” Li Wenwu scrambled up and rushed to the doorway, roaring outside, “He’s assaulting the police!”

This was no small matter. Four or five officers still hanging around the station rushed over at once. One was the station chief himself; the rest were all his confidants.

This had blown up badly. Jiang Xiwen did not regret provoking the fat man. Since it had already happened, all he could do now was find a way to deal with it.

The beautiful policewoman quickly said, “Chief, Li Wenwu struck first. This child was acting in self-defense.”

The chief glanced at her and said in a calm voice, “I’ll handle this here. Xiao Mu, you go outside first...”

“Brother-in-law, you...” Li Wenwu was afraid his brother-in-law would not stand up for him, and hurriedly spoke.

The chief shot him a fierce glare. “You, you. All you know is how to make trouble!” Then he turned to Xiao Mu again. “Don’t worry, nothing will happen...”

Hearing Li Wenwu call the chief brother-in-law, Jiang Xiwen immediately understood the meaning behind the chief’s words. He hastily put on an innocent look and said, “Sister Xiao Mu, come here for a moment. I have something to tell you...”

“Mm.” Xiao Mu had rather liked Jiang Xiwen from the start, and she quickly walked up to him. Jiang Xiwen leaned close to her ear and said, “Go outside and help me dial this number. Find Zhang Song and tell him I’m here.”

Xiao Mu froze slightly at this, and then heard Jiang Xiwen say, “Sister Xiao Mu, you’re really beautiful...” His voice was clearly louder this time.

Even though it was praise from a child, Xiao Mu’s face still reddened. “You...”

“‘You’ what? Even the chief told you to go outside. Hurry up and go!” Jiang Xiwen glared at her.

“This child is far too disobedient. Xiao Mu, go outside. I’ll handle the questioning myself!” the chief said again.

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Xiao Mu left the interrogation room. She did not know whether she should call the number Jiang Xiwen had given her, and could only stand outside hesitating. It was not long before she heard a scream from inside. She quickly pounded on the door. “Chief, what happened?”

Then she heard the chief shout, “Mu Rong, it’s nothing. Get back to your post at once...”

Mu Rong was much smarter than Li Wenwu. She had already guessed what was happening inside. She wanted to keep pounding on the door, but an old policeman stopped her. “Mu Rong, didn’t we tell you? The chief and the others may be a bit wrong, but they’re only beating up bad people. If we do our part well, that still counts as serving the people.”

“No, that child is a good person...” Mu Rong tried to argue, but she stopped halfway through. She knew that saying more would be useless.

The confident look on Jiang Xiwen’s face when he spoke to her on the phone sent her running to the office, where she picked up the telephone and dialed.

Inside the interrogation room, a thin policeman about the same height as Li Wenwu, but the complete opposite in build, was already down on the floor after being kicked by Jiang Xiwen and unable to get up.

After Mu Rong left, just as Jiang Xiwen had expected, those men surrounded him without the least politeness.

“Chief, let me ask you something. Both this place and the police stations I’ve been to before are supposed to serve the people. Why does this one smell like a toilet?”

“Damn you!” The thin policeman would not allow the chief to be insulted. In his ears, calling the chief a toilet chief meant he himself was a maggot in the toilet.

Of course he was not doing it for the maggot’s sake, but for the chief’s. He charged forward with the greatest zeal. Li Wenwu wanted to warn him, but it was already too late. The scream Mu Rong had heard outside was this thin policeman’s.

“Kid, you’ve got some skill.” The chief gave a faint, cold smile. He did not look at the thin policeman. Li Wenwu and the others quickly dragged the injured man aside, then swarmed back in.

Jiang Xiwen had not used full force in that kick. After all, they were police. Moreover, the only witness, Mu Rong, had gone outside. When the time came to explain, even with Elder Zhang Song stepping in, it would still be troublesome.

“Brothers, go!” the chief ordered. The remaining men rushed at him like hungry tigers pouncing on prey, truncheons in hand. This was the first time Jiang Xiwen had faced five adult men alone. And since his opponents were police, he had to be a little restrained in his strikes. So at the start he only brought down one man, then saw the other four raining blow after blow down on his head with their truncheons.

Jiang Xiwen used the footwork taught by Wang Wu, dodging left and right, making clever use of the chairs to block their attacks. He was waiting for the phone call. Once Zhang Song received it, the chief should be called out before long.

A crackling sound of electricity came from behind him. Jiang Xiwen turned instinctively. He had not forgotten Wang Wu’s lesson: in battle, if something feels wrong in a place you cannot see, never look back if you can avoid it; move away instead.

But he still turned his head. That was the difference between one seasoned in countless battles and one with too little experience.

“Ah...” A tremendous agony spread from his spine through his whole body. Jiang Xiwen’s legs went weak, and with a thud he collapsed to the floor. The chief had somehow slipped quietly behind him and, with a single surprise attack, stunned him with an electric baton.

Damn it. Jiang Xiwen regretted not being more ruthless. These people were not even worthy of being called police, not even the dregs among police. They were nothing but street thugs, social scum. He cursed furiously, but his body had gone limp, and he could not get up no matter how hard he tried.

“We have to stand guard on the first day of the New Year because of social scum like you!” the chief boasted shamelessly.

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Smack! Someone’s foot came down hard on Jiang Xiwen’s broken hand. Another wave of searing pain came with Li Wenwu’s frenzied abuse, and Jiang Xiwen lost consciousness.

In truth, his martial skill was considerably stronger than someone like Old Seven. If pressed to the limit, Jiang Xiwen could now take on six or seven Old Sevens head-on. But against Five Lu, he might not have been able to beat even one. His success in the previous strike had depended entirely on a perfect ambush.

And now, his lack of real combat experience was exposed, allowing the chief to land a clean hit so easily. In his previous life, before learning martial arts, he had only ever been in a few fights in all his years. After being reborn and learning martial arts, he kept running into fights all the time. Heaven was truly damned fair.

When he woke again, Jiang Xiwen found everything around him pitch black. He was in a fairly large room, with more than a dozen people lying haphazardly all around. Crude snores filled the place. Turning his head slightly, he saw iron bars at the door. It was clearly very much like a prison cell in a film or television drama. Damn it, what is going on? They dumped me here?!

A surge of anger rose in him. With that excitement, the pain in his broken hand flared up again. The final blow must have been that fat pig twisting the bones out of place.

Calm down, calm down! Jiang Xiwen kept telling himself. Why hadn’t Mu Rong called? If Elder Zhang heard about it, why wouldn’t he come? Could it be that these bastards had locked me up and deliberately hidden the news?

Jiang Xiwen’s mind worked at high speed. He was not worried about whether he could get out. A fight like this would not lead to a prison sentence. Once he was brought in for questioning again, he only had to give his parents’ address and pay compensation to get the person back.

But every day he spent here made it more likely that Zhang Ya would run into danger. He did not know whether Zhang Ya had any relatives or friends in Ink Capital.

Things were getting worse and worse. Jiang Xiwen frowned deeply and leaned against the wall behind him. He did not blame Zhang Ya for running away from home, nor did he regret what he himself had done earlier. He only kept thinking about how to solve the problem next.

No one knew how long he sat there before hunger finally dragged Jiang Xiwen into a deep sleep. Only when someone kicked his leg did he wake again.

The sky had already brightened, and the room was becoming clear. Only then did Jiang Xiwen realize that this did not seem to be a prison cell, merely a temporary holding room, because policemen were working just outside the iron bars.

“Hey, kid. What did you get brought in for?” The one who had kicked him was a broad-shouldered man about six feet tall, muscular and sturdy. He opened his mouth to ask.

Jiang Xiwen ignored him and called out toward the outside, “Excuse me, is Mu Rong here? I want to see her.” That was the only way left to him right now. As long as he could get in touch with home, everything could be resolved.

“What else do you want? Let me tell you this: if you don’t stay here for two full days, forget about getting out.” The policeman outside turned and said bitterly to Jiang Xiwen.

At a glance, Jiang Xiwen saw that the one guarding them was none other than the thin policeman he had kicked down first yesterday.

“Hey, kid, Big Brother Wei is talking to you!” A classic toady came over and slapped at Jiang Xiwen. Clearly he was the muscular man’s underling.