Chapter 48: A Snippet from Her Past Life
(A Snippet from Her Past Life 1)
“Inmate 1705, squat down and put your hands on your head, do you hear me? Inmate 1705…”
High walls and a large courtyard, the tops of the walls wrapped in barbed wire with sharp blades and broken glass. Inside, countless women in gray prison uniforms and uniform short hair were out in the yard, enjoying the breeze and the sun.
On the watchtowers above, guards were patrolling. The inmates in the courtyard seemed peaceful, but beneath the calm surface, filth was hidden.
The young Zhou Wanfeng was being held down by two guards. Opposite her, an old woman who could have been her grandmother was smiling at her with a hideous expression.
“1705 again?”
In the yard, many of the short-haired women in gray prison uniforms had already obediently squatted down with their hands on their heads, but the gossip-loving ones still couldn’t help but steal a glance.
“What’s going on?”
“You don’t know? The one who started the fight was 1705. That old woman is the head of their cell. But this 1705 is not old, but she’s ruthless.”
“What was she in for?”
“I heard she offed her own father.”
A few of the women in gray prison uniforms whispered, “Did you see the look in her eyes when she hit her just now? All of us, young and old, whether we’re sentenced to a few years or a few decades, we all say, ‘Even if I have to die, I want to die outside.’ Outside is freedom, and there are our families. Look at her. She has no intention of getting out alive. She’s just trying to get herself killed.”
“There are more than a dozen people in one cell. It’s supposed to be a shared bed, but if the cell head tells you to sleep on the floor, you have to. She beat up everyone in her cell by herself. She was put in solitary for a month, and she’s still the same after she got out. All the guards have a headache. She doesn’t even make a sound when she’s being tortured. She’s a tough one.”
“I heard from a guard that she’s doing all this to get the attention of the higher-ups. The reason her sentence has been delayed for so long is mainly because of her mother. Their testimonies are different…”
(A Snippet from Her Past Life 2, N years later)
At eight o’clock in the evening, the commercial district in the center of North City was brightly lit, and the streets were crowded with people. Across the road, a commercial plaza that was supposed to have been completed last March had been abandoned for a year and a half. It was usually dark, and not a single person could be seen. But now, several sedans had driven in.
A faint light could be seen, but the surrounding buildings were wrapped in cloth and blocked by plastic boards. The sound of the discount speakers from the surrounding shops was getting louder and louder.
A piercing scream, but no one heard it.
“We’ve been looking for you for more than half a year. You’re a fcking rat. You’re really fcking good at hiding. Because of you, you son of a bitch, the company was sued, the partners withdrew their investment, and the head office has put all the losses and the breach of contract fees on Sister Zhou’s head. Even if we tear you apart, it won’t be enough to compensate.”
The group of people cursed and went up to give him another round of punches and kicks.
“Sister Zhou, Sister Zhou, I’m not lying! I swear to God, the original copy of the commission contract was really destroyed,” a painful plea was mixed in with the screams. The person was curled up, but still trying to crawl to the other side.
In the dim light, a person could be vaguely seen leaning against the scaffolding of a building. They were wearing a pair of thin pants, so straight and slender that there were no wrinkles, and a black leather jacket. Their hands were in their pockets, and they were looking up at the light show on the tall building opposite.
Zhou Wanfeng walked over slowly, her expression dark. Her subordinates brought over a chair for her to sit down. “Sister Zhou, this guy is a stubborn bastard. He’s still not admitting it.”
“Sister Zhou, Sister Zhou, you have to believe me! I really had nothing to do with this! By the time I found out there was a problem with the contract, it was already too late,” the person shouted as he was dragged to the side.
Zhou Wanfeng stood up and squatted down, her voice cold and ruthless. “You’ve sent your wife, children, and parents away. You think you’re just a worthless life, and that with the contract money, your whole family can live without worries for the rest of their lives. But I’m afraid they’ll have the money but not the life to spend it.”
She stood up, took out a piece of paper and a photo from her pocket, and threw them at his feet.
When the person saw the recent photo of his family, his face changed drastically. And when he saw the current address written on the white paper, he began to tremble violently.
“Zhou… Zhou Wanfeng, what are you doing? Are you even human?” he roared, trying to rush over, but he was held down firmly on the ground.
“I gave you a job to support your family, but you took my money and colluded with outsiders against me. And you haven’t said a single word about paying me back. You tell me, are you even a person?”
…
Not long after that, Zhou Wanfeng was ambushed and assassinated.
In the outskirts, in an abandoned shack, Zhou Wanfeng was lying in a pool of blood, the wounds on her chest and abdomen gushing blood.
In the moments before her death, she seemed to see her sixteen-year-old self, curled up in a pool of blood. Her father’s head had a large gash, blood pouring out.
She had sat in the narrow and dark kitchen for a whole day and night.
She clearly remembered that she was waiting for someone. Why hadn’t the person who had gone to get help come back?
She had been imprisoned. Why had no one come to see her, not even once?
Zhou Wanfeng had let go of it a long time ago. But sometimes, she would wonder, if nothing had happened when she was sixteen, what kind of life would she have had?