Restrictive Zone

RA 18 - Princess

Regular inmates would only be handcuffed under special circumstances, whereas Block A inmates would be handcuffed when they stepped out of the cell, only released during free time or when doing labour.

Jiang Chijing pushed open the door to the small meeting room, telling the guard behind, "Just release his cuffs."

The guard looked conflicted. "That isn't too good, no?"

"It's fine," said Jiang Chijing. "I'll take responsibility if anything happens."

Zheng Mingyi flexed his wrists, following behind Jiang Chijing into the meeting room. This time, he didn't sit at the very back, but at the first row, saying to Jiang Chijing, "Thanks, Officer Jiang."

Jiang Chijing didn't reply, directly flipping open the prison rulebook and reading it aloud.

Despite being called a reformatory class on paper, it was mayhap better called a conversation. The ultimate purpose wasn't to cleanse the inmate's heart, but to see if the attitude had changed.

If he still held a defiant attitude, then he'd be tossed back into the confinement cell.

Following the usual flow of these classes, Jiang Chijing finished reading the content pertaining to fights and scuffles, and lifting his eyes, he asked Zheng Mingyi, "Are you clear on all of this?"

Zheng Mingyi appeared a little bored, as though he wasn't attentively listening to the contents that Jiang Chijing spoke of, but still paid lip service, "Crystal."

Still, when it came to Zheng Mingyi's attitude, Jiang Chijing wasn't worried, or he wouldn't have gotten the guard to uncuff him.

He closed the book and walked to the front of the desk, leaning his hips against it and folding his arms in front of his chest, then said to Zheng Mingyi, "Your sentence is very short, you'll be out soon. It's not worth it to get in trouble in prison."

"Mm." Zheng Mingyi acknowledged, his gaze lightly brushing over Jiang Chijing's legs.

With the way that Jiang Chijing was leaning against the desk, his legs were stretched slightly forward and appeared long beyond measure. His legs had always been very straight; now, wrapped in the uniform pants, it assaulted the visuals with a surge of forbidden desire.

Jiang Chijing noticed Zheng Mingyi's line of sight. He frowned faintly, asking, "Are you listening to me?"

"I am," Zheng Mingyi raised his gaze to meet Jiang Chijing's eyes. "I can multitask."

In other words, he was admitting that his attention was split.

Veins faintly bulged at Jiang Chijing's temple. "Did I ask you to multitask?"

Zheng Mingyi raised his right hand, tapping his own brain with his index finger. He said, "I can't help it."

At this, the fire that had surged to the roof of Jiang Chijing's heart putted out.

He knew that feeling. Because he, too, couldn't control himself from analysing others, nor could he control himself from taking up his monocular to look through the windows of Zheng Mingyi's house.

Sometimes, human brains were akin to their subconscious selves, just refusing to cooperate with their external selves.

Jiang Chijing didn't say anything more. He stood back behind the table, changing the subject. "Why did you learn how to fight?"

Actually, what Jiang Chijing wanted to ask was boxing specifically, but that would be too revealing, so he chose a safer way of putting it.

Zheng Mingyi's punching had technique; he was obviously someone who had been trained. Among the convicted felons that Jiang Chijing had encountered, he'd never come across one like Zheng Mingyi—a guy clearly in for a financial crime, yet not losing out in the slightest to those in for more vicious crimes.