Chapter 32

When you search deliberately for something, you often cannot find it. Everything in the world has its own time to come and go.

— San Mao

“Hey, Idol Bro, have you figured out your plan? If it’s too risky, maybe you should just forget it. Staying here isn’t so bad either,” Xu Tianyou said absentmindedly, flexing his arm muscles. Hu Jianming and Yang Bo were still busy working, so the two of them took the chance to shower in the cell.

An Xiaohai knew that Xu Tianyou’s words were only half-serious.

It wasn’t true that Xu Tianyou didn’t want to leave. An Xiaohai already learned from the newspaper that Xu Tianyou had received a suspended death sentence.

If he didn’t escape, there was a good chance he’d grow old and die here.

But it was also clear Xu Tianyou didn’t hold out much hope for a successful escape. This was obvious from his preparations. He did them, but without any real enthusiasm.

It was no wonder, after all. Domestic prison management is extremely strict, and the odds of a successful escape are incredibly low.

Xu Tianyou’s show of excitement was largely an act, just enough to fit his image.

An Xiaohai had been trying to understand Xu Tianyou more deeply. He was a very complex, conflicted individual.

Xu Tianyou appeared to have a good education. His wild behavior was partly genuine but also partly a necessity of his identity.

As the son of “Sea Buddha,” Xu Tianyou was constantly mingling with drug traffickers. If he acted too refined, he wouldn’t survive in that world. He had no choice but to act this way.

But that didn’t mean his craziness was entirely an act. He was merely unleashing and amplifying another side of his personality.

“Hey, fanboy, give me a little faith, will you? I’ve got a plan to get out, but it’s way easier for one person. Two? Much harder!”

“Idol Bro, what’s the rush to get out? Missing your girl? You can’t eat seafood every day!” Xu teased.

An Xiaohai shook his head. “It’s not about her. Someone’s looking to mess with my family.”

“Who? The family of that idiot you dealt with?”

“No. That trouble is mostly sorted. It’s Liu Jun’s two brothers. He got his kidney stabbed and is ruined for life, so he blames me.”

“But that *was* you, wasn’t it?”

“No way! Who told you that?” An Xiaohai frowned, wondering if Yang Yuanbing had released the news too early, despite promising to hold it back for two weeks.

“Just easy to guess, right? Who else could it be? Oh, and Wang Bulai is already bragging on the outside that he learned the real deal: how to go straight for someone’s kidney.”

“Then he’s more suspicious! Don’t blame me!” An Xiaohai shot Xu Tianyou a glare.

An Xiaohai wasn’t worried about what the inmates thought. Everyone in the cell was a suspect, and they would naturally try to blame someone else if questioned. Their words couldn’t be trusted.

When Yang Yuanbing spoke of releasing the news, he meant having officials discreetly pass on the information, so Liu Jun’s brothers would use it to target An Xiaohai and his family.

Would the underworld care about such things? Most actually would.

Every world has rules and systems. Otherwise, it would collapse. The underworld may be ruthless and lawless, but they ignore only the rules of the world above. They still abide by their own code.

If the underworld itself didn’t follow its own rules, the whole thing would fall apart without the police even needing to step in.

In prison, for example, there were also rules. Even someone as powerful as Xu Tianyou had to follow them. Xu had taken his share of beatings here, but he never threatened anyone’s family. At most, he’d say, “When I get out, I’ll get you.”

That’s the code.

But lately, An Xiaohai understood that none of this was the main point.

The main point was that Liu Jun’s two brothers were thugs, incapable of much, not even true members of the underworld. They would likely harass his family.

He needed to deal with them.

“Obviously it was you,” Xu Tianyou smirked. “I’ve looked into it, and it could only be you. Liu Jun was sent to get you, wasn’t he? By Hu Haikong?”

“Haha.”

An Xiaohai chuckled dryly, his guard up. How could Xu Tianyou, in his situation, be so curious about his affairs? Was that normal?

“Why exactly does Xu Tianyou take such an interest in me?” he wondered.

“Okay, no more jokes. Let’s hear the plan.

Honestly, I think I can go out alone. You don’t need to do anything. You’re not serving a long sentence anyway. Your family issues aren’t a big deal. I’ll settle it; just say the word.”

An Xiaohai glanced at Xu, who was toweling himself dry. He seemed perfectly normal.

And that was weird!

There had been a conclusion long ago: the more normal Xu Tianyou looked, the more likely he was joking.

“Idol Bro, don’t look at me like that. I know you’re into my body, but sorry, I’m not that kind of guy!”

Alright, back to normal…

“Seriously though, Idol Bro, could you stop calling me ‘fanboy’? It sounds like ‘addict’ and is pretty unlucky!”

You’re kidding, right? You’re literally an addict! A top one!

“In this line of work, addicts have the lowest status.”

Figures, it’s a status thing.

“You call me ‘Idol Bro,’ so of course I call you ‘fanboy’! How’s that my problem?”

“Fine, my bad!” Xu raised his hands in surrender. “In that case, I won’t call you Idol Bro anymore. Just your name, alright? Xiaohai?”

“Sure. And how should I address you? Tian-ge, or Crazy?”

“Call me Tianyou.”

An Xiaohai gave him another look. This was odd; cellmate Hu Jianming had warned An that Xu Tianyou hated people calling him by his name.

Without showing any reaction, An just accepted it. If Xu Tianyou wanted to be called by his name, so be it.

“Alright, Tianyou.”

“Good. Xiaohai!” Xu tossed his towel aside, flashed a big grin, and raised his brows at An.

For a moment, An felt dazed.

This boy in front of him didn’t seem like a feared drug lord but more like a classmate in school. And this cramped, dark room was less of a cell and more like a college dorm.

“Hey, I told you, don’t look at me like that! It makes me shy!”

…

Life is so short; can’t we make the good parts last a bit longer? Damn it!

—

At 8:30 p.m., Hu Jianming and Yang Bo had yet to return. With a rare opportunity, An Xiaohai stayed in the cell, half-reclined on his bed, thinking quietly.

Xu Tianyou stayed silent, not disturbing him.

In An Xiaohai’s plan to escape this prison, three main challenges needed to be overcome: appearance, timing, and keys.

For appearance, it was ideal to resemble a prison guard. Guards were as common as inmates in prison, so they wouldn’t draw much attention.

With Xu Tianyou’s looks, he could convincingly play a young guard. But the critical issues were hair and a uniform.

A wig was already in the works—Xu was handling that part. An didn’t worry; if Xu couldn’t manage this much, then he’d wasted all his years here.

As for the uniform, there were three possible places to get it.

The first, obviously, was off a guard. The second was the guard office in the prison block, where they might have spare uniforms. The third was the guard dormitory in the prison.

Stripping a guard of his uniform was unrealistic—too risky and practically suicide. An Xiaohai didn’t even consider it.

That left the office and the dormitory.

The office was unlikely; even if they could sneak in during the day, there was a high chance of running into guards. And even if they managed to get a uniform, they’d have nowhere to hide it.

Nighttime was even harder. It was tough to get out of the cell block at night, and at night, security tightened considerably.

So, the only option was the guard dormitory, which required getting through two locked doors. Though unguarded, they were locked.

This led to the key issue.

A faint smile appeared on An Xiaohai’s lips.

To others, getting the keys to the prison’s four iron gates without alerting anyone seemed almost impossible.

But to An Xiaohai, it was a piece of cake!