When he was caught by the prosecutors and thrown into the Yulin District Prison, Luo Yu'an thought that he would soon be put on the gallows and executed by the judges.
However, after half a month in Yulin District Prison, her fate suddenly took an unknown direction.
"Look, these are all death row prisoners who meet the requirements." The supervisor in charge of guarding them said to the man beside him in an unprecedented flattering tone.
The man was dressed in formal attire, and his eyes were fixed on the prisoners in the room with undisguised criticalness. Even though he spoke politely, his whole body was filled with a sense of superiority.
He said, "Is that all?" and seemed to look down on them.
Luo Yu'an didn't know what they were here for. She was just asked to change into clean clothes in the morning like everyone else, and then was driven into the cage to wait.
The supervisor bent over slightly, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and said with an apologetic smile: "You know, last month was the execution month, and that batch of death row prisoners had already been dealt with. This batch only came in within the last half a month, so the number of people is a little less."
The conversation between the two people outside as if no one was around was heard clearly by the death row prisoners in the cage. This group of death row prisoners included both men and women, all of whom were arrested for crimes such as murder, robbery, or rape, and there were many brave and smart people among them.
Most of them will be executed soon, and at the longest they can only live until the execution month of next year. But the man outside gave them hope, and he seemed to want to choose what the death row prisoners would do. No matter what he wanted to do, it would definitely be better than waiting to die in this prison.
"I don't know what this gentleman wants to do. How about choosing me? I'm willing to do anything." A man in the cage quickly stepped forward and said.
He approached the cage, and the man in formal attire outside frowned slightly as he approached, pretending to take out a handkerchief to cover his nose, with no intention of talking to him at all. The supervisor standing next to him seemed to have received some signal, and changed his servile appearance, instantly returning to his usual arrogant attitude, stretched out the electric baton in his hand and reached into the cage, and hit the man to the ground with a fierce swing.
"Who gave you permission to speak? Shut up! Get down on the ground!"
Seeing this, the other prisoners who were ready to move retreated one after another, not wanting to be the target of the same anger as the unfortunate man. Luo Yu'an also retreated. She stood at the back of the crowd, like a shadow from beginning to end, not speaking or moving, quietly staying in the corner, cowardly and mediocre.
In her more than 20 years of life in this world, she has indeed always been like this, ordinary, simple, hardworking, and seemingly easy to talk to, but easily bullied. She is an ordinary woman that can be found everywhere.
She didn't dare to recommend herself, nor did she dare to think about the identity of the man outside or what he was going to do. She just hoped that it would be over quickly and she could go back to prison. But -
A black cat suddenly appeared in front of her.
The black cat walked leisurely in front of her, and its long tail swept her feet. Luo Yu'an's eyes widened slightly, not knowing how a black cat suddenly appeared here, and it was silent, as if it appeared out of thin air.
"The woman in there." The voice of the man in formal clothes pierced into Luo Yu'an's ears with a penetrating sound.
Luo Yu'an felt the crowd in front of her disperse, and suddenly there was light under her feet. She couldn't help but raise her head half a beat late. The man in formal clothes pointed at her from a distance, "That woman, come and take a look."
From the corner of her eye, the black cat suddenly disappeared, as if it was just her illusion.
Under the supervisor's scolding, Luo Yu'an walked to the front of the cage, looked at the two men outside, and lowered his head a little awkwardly.
The man in formal attire looked her over and asked, "What crime did she commit?"
The supervisor immediately picked up the notebook he carried with him and flipped through it, and quickly replied, "She has committed murder."
The man in formal attire was a little surprised, as if he couldn't believe that such an honest-looking skinny woman could kill someone. "She, killed someone?"
The supervisor added: "Yes, she killed three people, a famous university professor, a business owner, and a little-known actor. She cut off the hands, feet and heads of all three, and stabbed them many times. She was a vicious murderer."
"Yes, then she is the one."
Luo Yu'an was taken out by the supervisor alone, and then she saw the man in formal clothes select three people, including her, a total of four people, two men and two women. They were taken to wash again, put on new clothes, and then taken out of the prison again.
Seeing the gate of Yulin District Prison, the gray-white walls, and the bright red roadblocks, Luo Yu'an felt as if she was in another world. She never thought she could get out alive. All this was too unreal.
They were taken in a high-end and spacious car that they had never ridden before, and gradually left the Yulin District Prison and drove onto a main road. The bustling high-rise buildings and crisscrossing lanes were orderly in the chaos, and all the people living here followed the rules. And on this street that was usually the most crowded and blocked, this car had privileges and did not stop at any traffic lights along the way, passing through the central area unimpeded.
The car drove for a long time, and no one in the car spoke. There was a suffocating silence. Finally, another female prisoner sitting next to Luo Yu'an couldn't help but ask: "Where are we going?"
In addition to the man in formal attire, there was another young-looking man in the car. He was also dressed in formal attire and smiled as if he had a good temper. Upon hearing this question, he looked at the four uneasy prisoners and laughed, "It's a great thing for you."
A male prisoner's eyes lit up and he asked, "What's the good news?"
The man in formal clothes at the beginning interrupted their conversation impatiently: "Shut up, it's too noisy."
The smiling man spread his hands innocently and shut up. Others did not dare to ask any more questions, but they all felt hopeful. If it was not a bad thing, but a good thing, then what kind of good thing was it? Only Luo Yu'an still felt uneasy, but she did not dare to speak out, and sat in her seat honestly waiting for what would happen next.
As dusk approached, the car slowly drove into a forest. The fresh forest air with the smell of rotten wood rushed into her nose through the slightly open car window. Luo Yu'an looked out the window silently, a little unsure whether this was still the Yulin District where she had lived for more than 20 years. The Yulin District had been completely developed, and there should not be such a large area of forest.
The wide and clean long mountain road had a gatehouse at intervals, spanning the road. The car was driving too fast, so Luo Yu'an couldn't see the gatehouses clearly. He only saw red lanterns hanging on the left and right of each gatehouse. The two red lights that lit up in the dusk were like the eyes of a monster gradually waking up.
The car finally stopped in front of the first gatehouse. Luo Yu'an and the others got out of the car and looked up at the gatehouse in front of them. The three-story eaves were supported by red-painted stone pillars, on which were carved many strange patterns without specific shapes. The complex patterns made people feel dizzy after looking at them for a long time. In a trance, the red mottled marks eroded by wind and rain seemed like blood stains, slowly flowing down the pillars.
The two men in formal attire who looked arrogant and frivolous in the car also got out. When they saw two old men waiting at the door with red lanterns, they bowed quickly and behaved like a pair of grandsons.
They were two old ladies with gray hair and wearing white dresses. They looked different, but they were dressed similarly and had the same expressionless faces. At first glance, they looked exactly the same. One of the old ladies waved at Luo Yu'an and the other two, then turned around and led the way into the gatehouse.
As for the two men who brought them here, they said nothing. Their expressions were awed and solemn. They quickly returned to the car, turned around and drove away, like deliverymen who had completed their mission.
A strange place, strange people. At this devilish hour at dusk, the four death row prisoners looked at the receding car, then at the guide in front of them, and hesitantly followed the two old ladies into the gatehouse but had no choice, as if they were voluntarily sending themselves into the monster's mouth.
The building that appeared inside the gate tower surprised and shocked the four people again.
Nowadays, most of the places outside have been built with prosperous high-rise buildings. Buildings like this one, built with wood and tiles, seem to be in the style of hundreds of years ago or even earlier. They are relics from several centuries ago and have long disappeared from the daily lives of ordinary people. Even in various TV and film dramas, they have never seen such a large, luxurious and exquisite old house.
Being in it, they only felt that they had traveled through time and space, and even the world was in chaos, with fear and doubts in their hearts constantly accumulating.
Door after door, gloomy and mottled tree shadows, silent corridors and courtyards. The old man who led the way like a shadow led them into the interior of the maze-like ancient house and brought them to an extremely strange courtyard.
The whole courtyard is shaped like a mouth, with four rooms in each direction, and a smaller building in the center of the courtyard. Different from the ancient buildings seen along the way, Luo Yu'an felt that the building in the middle of the mouth was more like an enlarged shrine - she had seen this type of shrine in a customs hall with her sister, and it was said to be a shrine of the highest standard.
"You will live in these four rooms respectively." said an old lady.
She stood there, looking at them with her slightly cloudy eyes. That emotionless look, as if she was looking at a dead object, made people feel uncomfortable from the bottom of their hearts.
The four people were frightened by this strange place and unconsciously did what she said. Under her gaze, they obediently entered the four rooms in the square courtyard.
Luo Yu'an entered the room on the right. The room was very empty and there was nothing in it. The floor was smooth and clean, the walls were painted red, and the beams were made of stacked wood. Due to the poor light, he could not see clearly what was carved on it.
There were footsteps in the corridor outside the door. It was the two old ladies. They walked in the corridor and closed four doors one by one. The sound of the door closing gently made Luo Yu'an's heart jump for no reason.
It was completely dark, and nothing could be seen clearly in the house. There was only a little light coming through the window. Luo Yu'an couldn't help but lean over to the crack of the door and looked out. She saw two red lights leaving the yard. They were two old ladies holding lanterns, leaving through the small door they came in through. They must have locked it. She heard the lock click. When she entered the yard just now, she noticed the lock on the small door. There were two locks, both thick and heavy.
Luo Yu'an hugged herself in the dark. She looked around the empty dark room, and she always felt that something would quietly appear from the darkness, maybe a pair of hands suddenly grabbing her feet, or strands of hair suddenly hanging from the beams in front of her. Luo Yu'an couldn't control her imagination and couldn't help curling herself up.
After an unknown amount of silence, she heard the sound of a door opening. One of the four people opened the door, probably a man. His footsteps were particularly dull as he walked down the corridor, and even if he tried to lower his voice, they were still loud.
The man knocked on the door next to him and whispered, "Open the door, everyone come out!"
"Hey! Come out quickly, what the hell is this place? You're not really going to stay in the house all night, are you? Come out and tell me what you're going to do!"
Luo Yu'an saw through the crack in the door the blurry shadow of a man standing in front of the next door. She pursed her lips and identified that this was the tallest man among the four.
In such a weird environment, being with other people does make her feel safer, but... this man was imprisoned for raping and killing more than a dozen women. The man failed to knock on the door and walked towards her, cursing. Luo Yu'an quickly raised her hand and closed her door tightly.
At this moment, a red light lit up faintly in the deep darkness - in the shrine-like room in the center.