chun jie di xiao long
Chapter 212 Big Shot!
Zhou Ze silently observed his surroundings. He knew this should be a dream, but this time, he could finally understand the adjective Zhang Yanfeng had used when describing that dream: real.
Yes,
this dream was very real.
Everything, everything, you could see clearly.
Its reality was reflected in the details:
temperature,
humidity,
brightness.
There wasn't the slightest hint of dreamlike haziness. In fact, it seemed excessively clear and distinct. You could just casually glance around, but you could remember exactly how many bricks there were and even the wear marks on them.
Cold, damp, oppressive. This place was like the deepest part of a nightmare, a corner within the abyss. The environmental factors were actually secondary; the most crucial thing was the people sitting or lying in this narrow space.
Their expressions,
their gazes,
that numbness, that dissipation,
added the thickest layer of despair to this place.
The air was filled with a nauseating stench.
You could no longer specifically analyze where each individual component of the odor came from. It was a mix, an unimaginable mix that made your scalp crawl.
The stench of urine, the smell of pus, the other foul odors emanating from people's bodies, including the stench of corpses, were all mixed together.
Zhou Ze lowered his head.
This environment
really made him uncomfortable. Every second was torture.
Even if this was a dream,
he hoped to wake up.
Screw the clues,
screw the traces,
screw the truth.
Making me stay in this place, even in a dream, is unacceptable!
Boss Zhou was being very willful at this moment.
He closed his eyes
and slowly imagined the feeling of floating up from underwater. People who experienced "sleep paralysis" or "lucid dreams" could also try this method to accelerate their awakening.
However,
a hand suddenly pressed on Zhou Ze's forehead, and this hand was very smelly. That rich, pungent odor directly penetrated Zhou Ze's nostrils, stimulating his nerves.
"The fever...has gone down."
The speaker was a middle-aged man with messy hair and two scars on his face.
Zhou Ze slowly opened his eyes, subconsciously reaching out to remove the hand pressing on his forehead, but he suddenly found his body so weak that his strength was unimaginably depleted.
His hand only reached halfway before falling back down, and he felt a wave of dizziness.
"It's okay, it's okay, the fever has gone down, it's not a big problem."
The man opened his arms and hugged Zhou Ze.
"..." Zhou Ze.
Boss Zhou now hated this damn reality.
Why make it so real?
Was it fun?
The skin contact outside the tattered clothes was now so clear. The "mud" of accumulated oil and grime on that man's body even seemed to have a lubricating effect.
Every detail, every point of contact,
even the damp heat of his breath on his face,
carried a kind of vomit-inducing despair!
"Still cold?"
the man asked, his voice very gentle.
Zhou Ze listened carefully to his accent, which had a bit of Sichuan flavor. In short, it wasn't the local Tong City accent.
Boss Zhou wanted to curse, but he wanted to end this awkwardness sooner. He shook his head, wanting to speak, but the words wouldn't come out. He was too tired, so tired that he couldn't make a sound in his throat.
"Clang, clang..."
The sound of chains rang out, getting closer and closer.
The people in the cell, who had previously been like "mummified corpses," suddenly became excited. They all got up and rushed to the iron bars, grabbing them with both hands and looking outside.
It was like market day in the countryside, everyone crowding around to see the excitement.
"Clang, clang..."
Closer,
very close.
The person wearing shackles was coming!
Zhou Ze wanted to get up and take a look. This should also be the scene Zhang Yanfeng had seen in his dream, but it seemed that either he was seeing it more realistically than Zhang Yanfeng, or he and Zhang Yanfeng were not even in the same perspective.
Get up,
get up for me.
He had smelled the stench,
experienced this dirty place,
and even been hugged by a man.
If he didn't get up to see what was going on, Zhou Ze felt that all this suffering would be in vain, and he would be at a huge loss.
He winked at the man in front of him, signaling him to help him up to take a look.
"Your fever has just gone down, lie down for a while. I'll go take a look."
With that, the man gently settled Boss Zhou on the ground. This area was padded with thicker straw, so it was softer than other places.
Boss Zhou just looked up at the ceiling of the cell.
And now, the entire cell,
including the man who had been with him before,
was crowded at the iron bars, craning their necks to look outside,
like a group of crazed fans chasing after a celebrity.
Only Zhou Ze,
alone,
lay there motionless.
Zhou Ze felt like an idiot, a bit like an extra, and an extra without lines, a corpse. And after the camera switched to other places, the lousy director wouldn't even let him get up, forcing him to continue playing dead.
No one spoke,
no one made a sound.
Damn it,
he couldn't watch a live broadcast,
couldn't even listen to an audio broadcast?
Zhou Ze cursed again in his heart. He really wanted to close his eyes right now and shatter this dream without interference so he could wake up.
He should be lying on Yingying's lap, sleeping soundly and fragrantly. When he woke up, he could even have Yingying make him tea.
Why did he have to continue lying in this place that was dirtier than a latrine?
But Zhou Ze was a little unwilling. He had suffered so much, been taken advantage of, and was just going to come and go empty-handed?
Also, he remembered Zhang Yanfeng saying that he remembered that dream very clearly because it was very real, but he had only had that dream once.
So,
it was very possible that
Zhou Ze only had this one chance.
I'll endure it,
I'll continue to endure it.
Zhou Ze began to recall the state of "suspended animation" after his car accident in the final stages of his previous life.
Thinking about the experience of being made up and pushed into the crematorium,
now,
it didn't seem so unbearable.
The breathing of the onlookers grew thicker and heavier.
Their breathing was filled with a kind of eagerness and longing,
like a group of horny male gorillas, snorting and almost pounding their chests with both hands and shouting "Ooh ooh ooh!"
Don't ask Zhou Ze how he deduced so much from the sound of breathing.
After all, what else could he study besides these tiny changes in sound?
"Clang, clang, clang..."
Here it comes,
here it comes.
The person dragging chains
slowly walked over,
and based on the sound, Zhou Ze could confirm that the person had reached the door of his cell.
Zhou Ze used all his strength to turn his head.
He wanted to see,
to see,
he had to see!
But then,
Zhou Ze despaired.
He could only see the backs of a group of men blocking the bars, packed in tightly.
Boss Zhou couldn't even find a gap to peek through!
Damn it!
Zhou Ze roared in his heart.
"Clang, clang, clang..."
The sound faded away, slowly stretching out,
the person
must have walked away.
They left just like that?
Without saying anything?
Without shouting, "The door for people to enter and exit is locked, but the hole for dogs is still open?"
Zhou Ze had discussed this with Zhang Yanfeng before. According to the environment at the time, the person wearing shackles was likely a martyr, a martyr who would rather die than surrender. Although some problems might contradict this, the probability of that possibility was really high.
Now,
Zhou Ze could rule out the previous speculation.
Because when the person wearing shackles walked away, Zhou Ze didn't see sadness or anger on the faces of the other people in the cell.
On the contrary,
their faces were full of envy and longing.
As if they wished they were the ones wearing shackles and walking out.
This made Zhou Ze a little confused. What did this all mean?
The man turned back and reached out to fix Zhou Ze's hair.
Seriously,
if Xu Qinglang were to do this to him,
he would at most feel a little uncomfortable, but not too disgusted. But for this greasy guy with an incredibly dirty body to do this, it made Boss Zhou's disgust, which he had finally suppressed, rise again.
He really didn't want to stay in this place
for even a moment longer.
"Sleep a little longer. When it's time for dinner, I'll get your portion for you,"
the man said gently.
Boss Zhou really had no interest in eating. He couldn't even eat normal food, let alone considering what the food for these people would be like, given the environment here.
Was the dream over yet?
Was it over yet?
Zhou Ze was like someone who had watched a movie and didn't leave after the credits, waiting for a post-credits scene.
But after waiting for a long time, it seemed there wasn't one.
Just as Zhou Ze was preparing to really close his eyes and leave this dream,
suddenly,
Zhou Ze felt a sharp pain in his abdomen, as if something was kicking his stomach.
Damn it,
did he get a stomachache from food poisoning?
"What's wrong? Are you in pain?"
The man looked at Zhou Ze anxiously, then reached out and touched Zhou Ze's stomach.
"..." Zhou Ze.
Just then, there was a rustling sound from over there. A wooden bucket was placed outside, probably the food.
The man stood up and walked over there.
The expected scramble didn't happen. Everyone seemed to restrain themselves spontaneously, waiting for the man to take a broken bowl, scoop out the first portion of food, and take some soup before everyone else started scrambling.
Damn,
a prison bully?
Zhou Ze's bookstore had a lot of "Dominant CEO Falls in Love with Me" books, which many young girls liked to read.
Was this "Prison Bully Boss Falls in Love with Me"?
"Come, sit up first, eat."
The man helped Zhou Ze up and leaned him against the wall.
Zhou Ze sat up,
looked down,
and found his stomach bulging out, very big.
Gas?
That serious?
"Thank you for your hard work, and thank you for the child in your belly," the man said apologetically.
The child...in his belly?
Damn it,
was this a woman's body?