Chapter 1

This is a prison cell, holding three people.

A sliver of light filtered through a small air vent high on the wall, and in the dimness, a severed finger could be seen on the dirty straw.

The young man named Li Xia, who had the same name in both his past and present life, asked his cellmate, "You mean to say that his finger was bitten off by me?"

"Yes, you’re quite ruthless," the other replied.

The one who answered was a slender, short young man with a shifty look, so small that it seemed he could slip through the bars, but unfortunately, he couldn’t.

This young man was named Bai Mao, who claimed to be a very skilled thief with the nickname "White Rat."

Li Xia didn’t know how skilled Bai Mao was, but he remembered that in the TV series "Journey to the West," there was a beautiful white rat spirit. However, the appearance of the White Rat in front of him was far from pleasant.

It’s worth noting that "White Rat" Bai Mao had never heard of "Journey to the West," as he said it was the fourth year of the Xingchang era of the Song Dynasty.

Li Xia recalled that in his past life, he had never heard of the Xingchang era in the Song Dynasty, which left him quite puzzled.

However, Bai Mao couldn’t provide much more information, as this so-called skilled thief seemed to know little about the outside world.

The severed finger they were discussing belonged to the third person in the cell, a large and fierce-looking man named Lü Bingxiong.

Lü Bingxiong had a massive frame, and he might have been a towering giant outside, but now, in the prison, he was so emaciated that only his bones remained.

Lü Bingxiong’s right index finger had been bitten off and was bandaged, and he had just returned. He was now sitting there, pretending to sleep, silent.

Li Xia glanced at Lü Bingxiong, and from his physical appearance, he judged that the man had been in prison for at least half a year.

As for why he had bitten off Lü Bingxiong’s finger,

Before Li Xia could figure it out, Bai Mao began to describe it vividly.

"Lü Brother just wanted to have some fun with you. In my opinion, letting him do it wouldn’t have been a big deal. If he wanted to do it to me, I would have agreed! Being in this prison is so boring. But you, you bit his finger so hard that even after being beaten up, you didn’t let go. I’ve been wandering the world for a long time, and I’ve rarely seen someone like you."

By this point, Li Xia had a pretty good idea of what had happened.

The reason he had bitten off Lü Bingxiong’s finger was to protect his "purity."

But Bai Mao continued to chatter.

"The most amazing thing is, even though you were beaten to death by Lü Brother and seemed to be completely dead, you somehow came back to life. It’s truly miraculous."

He slapped his thigh, unable to express his excitement, and started to rub his smelly feet, muttering, "Miraculous, miraculous."

Li Xia rubbed his forehead, also finding the situation quite unbelievable.

He was originally a modern person who had died in a plane crash and somehow ended up in this stinky prison cell.

Additionally, the crashed plane was his private plane, which made him feel particularly regretful.

At first, he had some hope that this might be a prank from a reality show, and that the prison door would open to reveal a studio.

But reason told him that this was impossible, as his body was not the same as before, and he must have traveled through time.

After a short while, he had learned that the original owner of this body had been admitted to prison the day before and had died in a fight with a cellmate. He had somehow come back to life in this body.

He hadn’t had the chance to see what he looked like, but he wondered why Lü Bingxiong had wanted to do something so despicable to him.

There were no mirrors in the prison, and even if he urinated, he probably wouldn’t be able to see his reflection.

However, he could tell that this was a young, slender body, well-nourished and with well-defined muscles, suggesting that the original owner had a good background and upbringing, though it was unclear why he ended up in prison.

Li Xia had also tried to find out why he was in prison by asking Bai Mao, but the other man just rolled his eyes and gave a knowing smile, saying, "How would I know? Looking at you, maybe you eloped with someone’s daughter."

This answer was clearly off the mark.

He would have to slowly gather more information from the guards, but on the surface, he remained calm, though he felt very uncomfortable inside.

The prison cell had no sunlight and poor ventilation, with a stifling mix of foot odor and the stench of feces and urine. The environment was dirty and chaotic, and the moans of sick prisoners from nearby cells added to the sense of decay.

More dangerously, the cellmate whose finger he had bitten off was still in the same cell. Could things really be resolved peacefully?

Although Lü Bingxiong was pretending to sleep with his eyes closed, Li Xia remained vigilant. After some thought, he was about to speak to Lü Bingxiong when there was a commotion outside.

The sound of keys clinking, and several guards holding torches led an official into the cell.

Li Xia turned to look, and by the light of the torches, he could see the conditions of the other cells.

His cell was at the back of the corridor on the west side, and the cells on the east side were mostly crowded with ten or more people, becoming less crowded as they moved back.

This suggested that his cell, with only three people, was relatively well-treated.

However, perhaps the better the treatment, the harsher the punishment?

Seeing the guards leading the official in, all the prisoners remained lying down, no one getting up to cry out for justice, showing a certain level of discipline.

The official, wearing black boots, walked slowly down the corridor, only starting to look into the cells on either side when he reached the back.

"Sir, this is the cell for death row inmates."

"I am not on death row," Bai Mao suddenly interjected, leaning on the bars and smiling, "Warden Liu, when can I...?"

"Shut up," Warden Liu quickly interrupted, then flatteringly said to the official, "Sir, this man is a thief, very agile."

Li Xia had already noted that this was a death row cell and observed the official.

The official was around thirty, with a stern expression and sharp eyes, looking quite capable. He had a commanding presence, like a high-ranking official, but his clothing was only slightly better than the guards'.

Warden Liu held the torch and shone it into Li Xia’s cell, but not at Li Xia, rather at Lü Bingxiong, who was sitting cross-legged, pretending to sleep.

"Sir, this is Lü Bingxiong," Warden Liu said, "Last May, he had an affair with a woman and was caught by her husband. He killed the husband and his father and brother. He was unarmed, while the three had kitchen knives and a machete."

Lü Bingxiong opened his eyes and glanced at them, but said nothing. He seemed arrogant but actually shrank back.

The official scanned the scene and said, "Thin."

With just this one word, he seemed to lose interest in Lü Bingxiong and was about to turn away when he suddenly paused and asked, "What about the severed finger?"

Warden Liu pointed at Li Xia, "This boy was admitted yesterday, and a fight broke out at night, and he bit off someone’s finger."

"Why haven’t they been moved to different cells?"

Warden Liu lowered his head, glanced around, and whispered something to the official, his voice very low.

Li Xia focused his mind, closely watching the official’s lips, and faintly heard the last few words, which seemed to be "won’t last two days."

The official seemed to sneer, then turned to the next cell.

The next cell was on the west side of Li Xia’s, which he had thought was empty in the dim light. As the guards shone the torch inside, he saw that there was someone in there.

"Hey, Pang Tianlu, get up!"

The sound of chains clinking, a large man rolled over and sat up, clearly annoyed at being disturbed, making a threatening "huh" sound.

In the torchlight, the man had a broad chest with thick black hair, a bear-like build, and a face full of scars.

"Sir, this is Pang Tianlu, who enjoys cooking and eating human flesh. He has cooked and eaten eleven people in Lin’an Prefecture and was captured two months ago, killing four officials in the process..."

Pang Tianlu, who seemed a bit slow, stared at the torch for a while before turning to look at the guards, his eyes filled with menace.

Li Xia watched for a moment, then glanced at Lü Bingxiong.

He had initially thought Lü Bingxiong was a fierce man, but compared to Pang Tianlu, Lü Bingxiong seemed quite weak.

As for Bai Mao, he had already moved to the other side of the cell, far from the neighbor on the west side.

The official approached Pang Tianlu’s cell and said, "I am Nie Zhongyou. Two months ago, I assisted the Qiantang County Yamen in capturing you."

Pang Tianlu spoke in a hoarse voice, "Come closer, and I’ll kill you."

His Chinese was not very fluent.

Nie Zhongyou said, "Do you want to live? Work for me."

Li Xia had quietly moved to the nearest corner, observing Nie Zhongyou’s expression.

Nie Zhongyou remained stern, and the idea of letting a death row inmate work for him and spare his life seemed normal to him.

Pang Tianlu said, "Why should I work for you, a dog of the Song?"

Nie Zhongyou said, "Your brother is in my hands..."

Li Xia had only heard this much when Warden Liu approached his cell and pointed at him, "Boy, move over there! The official is conducting business, what are you doing here? Get lost."

Li Xia stood up and moved to the other side of the cell, sitting next to Bai Mao.

With this distance, he couldn’t hear the details clearly.

Finally, he faintly heard Pang Tianlu say, "I’ll think about it."

~~

After this brief episode, Nie Zhongyou and the guards left, and the cell fell quiet again...

Li Xia organized his chaotic thoughts and felt that something was not quite right.

He pondered for a moment and asked Bai Mao in a low voice, "Do sick people in this prison usually get taken out to see a doctor?"

"Of course not," Bai Mao said, "Who are we? We don’t have that kind of luck."

"Then what about him?"

"Lü Brother is different, maybe he has someone outside who pays for it?"

Bai Mao said, then turned to Lü Bingxiong with a smile, "Right? Lü Brother, in my opinion, you and Li Xia should just let bygones be bygones?"

Lü Bingxiong opened his eyes, looked at Li Xia, and said, "Boy, I clearly killed you once, but you came back to life. This is the will of heaven. Since we are in the same cell and both facing execution, I don’t want to think about doing anything to you anymore. Let’s just sleep peacefully and forget any grudges, okay?"

Li Xia’s eyes narrowed, thought for a moment, and said, "Okay."

"Good, you’re ruthless and lucky, I respect that," Lü Bingxiong said, "From now on, we are brothers in the same cell."

"Okay."

"Great," Lü Bingxiong smiled, as if a burden had been lifted.

Bai Mao laughed and clapped, "That’s great, from now on, we three will be in the same cell and should get along well. If Lü Brother wants to have some fun, just come to me."

"Get lost..."

The atmosphere seemed to become more harmonious.

That evening, there was no food in the cell, and it was said that they only got one meal a day.

Li Xia had hoped someone might come to visit, but no one did.

The light from the air vent grew weaker and finally turned to darkness.

At night, there were no candles in the cell, only a faint moonlight that barely revealed the outlines of the people.

Lü Bingxiong had already fallen asleep on the straw, and after a while, a light snore could be heard.

Li Xia lay down on the straw, feeling the hunger and the new world, pondering how to escape as a death row inmate.

...

Deep into the night.

Lü Bingxiong’s light snore gradually stopped.

He quietly turned over, reached under his body, and pulled out a bone fragment as sharp as a dagger, and fiercely stabbed towards where Li Xia was hiding!