Restrictive Zone

RA 6 - Face-off

The three test scripts were returned to the Block C Supervisor. Unsurprisingly, the block supervisor would be going to give Zheng Mingyi a good talking to.

Over on this side, Jiang Chijing became idle again. Following routine, he had lunch before noon and went back to his office area to read while waiting for inmates to come.

The inmates' afternoon break was from noon to two in the afternoon. This was also the time in the day that inmates were given the most freedom.

Some inmates would take an afternoon nap in the cell blocks, but more of them would be outside. After all, lights-out was at ten o'clock every night; it naturally went that the hours that they had in the day were especially precious.

With the rising temperature in recent days, more people also came to the library to pass the time.

"Officer Jiang." An inmate came up to Jiang Chijing's office desk with a detective novel. "I've finished the book. Do you have any other recommendations?"

Jiang Chijing's gaze slid away from a corner in the distance, picked up the scanner to return the book, and said, "The works from this author are all pretty good, you can go check them out."

The inmate went to the fiction section, looking for other works from the same author, whereas Jiang Chijing continued to turn his gaze to the man in the distance.

Zheng Mingyi had come to the library, but he didn't borrow any books. He merely sat by the window watching inmates who were chilling in the yard outside, his thoughts inscrutable.

Jiang Chijing really couldn't get a handle on this man.

He hid half his face behind the computer screen, looking at Zheng Mingyi's side profile in slight vexation.

As Luo Hai said, Jiang Chijing was a gay man who had high standards for appearance and body build. The primary reason for this was because he himself was quite a looker, as such his standards for choosing a partner wouldn't be low as well.

Luo Hai was a pretty good partner. He was funny, accommodating, and sympathetic to the weak. But once Jiang Chijing completely understood him, that was also when his passion completely fizzled out.

But the paradox was that compared to actual interaction, Jiang Chijing preferred to spy on others from the darkness. This was because when he had completely gotten a grasp of someone, he would also completely lose interest in that person, and there was nothing that sped up this process more than actual contact.

Humans were by nature a mess of contradictions. Only today did Jiang Chijing learn that seeing through someone would bore him, whereas not seeing through someone would vex him.

Just then, Zheng Mingyi seemed to sense Jiang Chijing's gaze from across the room, suddenly turning his head over and meeting his gaze head-on.

But Jiang Chijing didn't dodge this time. The library was his territory. He had every reason to observe every inmate in the library.

Zheng Mingyi seemed not to expect that Jiang Chijing would stare back at him this brazenly. He was initially casually seated on the chair, his shoulders slumped naturally; but after meeting Jiang Chijing's gaze, he leaned back into the chair and folded his arms before his chest, affecting a posture of returning the 'compliment' in kind.

The two of them were sitting in the two corners of the library by the windows without anyone blocking their line of sight in between.

From the start, the library was already quiet. Their gazes met silently in the air, sounding out and staring each other down as if they had reached a common understanding that whoever looked away first lost.