Chapter 104 Still Inside?

Pushing open the door,
Zhou Ze and Bai Yingying walked out together.
Outside,
the sky had already brightened, it should be the morning of the next day.

The clothes on his body were still torn in the same places. Even the nail on his little finger was still bleeding.

The shadow in the book had said that this world wasn't simply a matter of everything being either real or fake.

Now, Zhou Ze understood that feeling. After all, if it was fake, if it was exactly the same as the illusion he had experienced before, then when he came out, he wouldn't have any injuries, not even a trace of existence.

Bai Yingying held her boss's hand, carefully blowing on the wound on his fingernail, and comforted him:
"Boss, it doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt, *huhu*, it doesn't hurt."

"It's okay, it'll grow back."

Zhou Ze looked at his other hand, the one that had been holding the pen. But when he came out, the pen was gone.

The shadow said it was fake because the work wasn't finished, it was abandoned;
so it left a fake pen here, while the real pen wasn't here.

So,
where was the real pen?
Was it the Judge's Pen (a legendary writing implement used to record good and evil deeds)?

Zhou Ze thought of the female writer who had committed suicide by poisoning herself and her children. She wrote the story, and she was the one who couldn't take it in the end. She was already dead, so would the pen have been treated as her遗物 (yíwù, belongings left by the deceased) and disposed of? Or would it have been collected?

When he got back, he'd take a bath and have Lao Dao (Old Taoist) and the little loli investigate this matter. That pen was indeed terrifying, but if it continued to be lost outside, it would be even more terrifying.

Perhaps, it would brew a second similar tragedy.

Pushing open the door of the entrance hall,
Zhou Ze saw Zhang Yanfeng's car parked outside. Officer Zhang was leaning against the car door smoking a cigarette. Seeing the door open, Officer Zhang immediately walked over, looked at Zhou Ze's somewhat miserable appearance, and said:

"I couldn't get through to your phone. I wanted to go in, but I thought I'd better wait for you to come out."

"It's a good thing you didn't come in."
Zhou Ze was somewhat relieved. If Officer Zhang had gone in earlier, he would probably have gone into the book as well. Zhou Ze and Bai Yingying, who had already come out, didn't want to go into that story again.

Getting into the car, Zhang Yanfeng had even thoughtfully prepared breakfast.

"Is it resolved?"

"Which aspect do you want to know?" Zhou Ze asked.

"I just want to know if it was caused by someone or other reasons. Did my sister really commit suicide?"

"It wasn't caused by someone, and your sister should have really committed suicide," Zhou Ze replied.

"Was that thing resolved?"

"I will resolve it. By the way, how were your sister's belongings handled at the time?"

"My family kept some, and my brother-in-law's family kept some."

"Give me your brother-in-law's contact address, and I'll have someone go and take a look."

"Okay."

"Alright, that's it. Yingying and I will take a taxi back, so I won't bother you from going to work. As for this villa, you better not go in without permission, understand?"

Although this story was over,
if Lao Dao hadn't stuck that talisman on when he had nothing to do while going to the bathroom,
so many subsequent things wouldn't have happened.

But to be safe, it was best to stay away from this villa for the time being. Even Zhou Ze had decided not to live in it again until he found that pen. In case he encountered something again and triggered something, going through it again would really be a bit unbearable.

Getting out of the car, he waved to Officer Zhang's car, watching it disappear from view, Zhou Ze suddenly thought of a question and fell into contemplation.

"Boss, what's wrong?"

"I'm wondering if *that one* is still in my body."

Zhou Ze thought of that mirror,
and the one in the mirror.

In the story, he and he were separated.
Now that he had come out,
then,
what about him?

If he was gone, he would feel relaxed, without having to worry about being replaced one day.

But why did he feel a little虚 (xū, uneasy)?
Especially since he wasn't able to go all-out in the story this time, making him feel very unaccustomed.

At this time,
Boss Zhou felt that he was a bit too salty,
like those big girls who want to be with a rich man but pretend to be shy and say it's their first time and it hurts so much.

But it seemed that if he could find that pen, wouldn't that also mean he had a way to suppress him?
The days of being able to go all-out without any worries,
just thinking about it made him feel beautiful.

Yingying walked up to Zhou Ze,
and gently knocked on Zhou Ze's chest with her hand.
Zhou Ze was a little puzzled.

"Hey, are you still inside?"
Yingying shouted at Zhou Ze's chest.

"............" Zhou Ze.

As if she couldn't hear him,
Yingying took the initiative to put her ear against Zhou Ze's chest,
this action,
was like a girl actively throwing herself into your arms.

She reached out and gently tapped Zhou Ze's chest again,
"Reply if you hear me."

Zhou Ze smiled,
and naturally put his arm around the girl in front of him.

Yingying was also stunned for a moment,
stuck out her tongue,
and pretended not to know anything.

............

Zhang Yanfeng didn't go back to the bureau, but drove directly to the Tongcheng Prison located on Guanyin Mountain. He had made an appointment for a prison visit yesterday.

Originally, he wanted to come again to ask his brother-in-law about the situation according to Zhou Ze's needs. Now that Zhou Ze said that his sister had indeed committed suicide, and that the matter was indeed not caused by someone, the original prison visit became a consolation.

Zhang Yanfeng's heart was very complicated.
Originally, he felt that his brother-in-law had been wronged.
Now it had been confirmed by Zhou Ze.

His brother-in-law was really pitiful, his wife and children were dead, and he was still mistakenly considered the abuser and locked in prison.

As for how to exonerate his brother-in-law and give him freedom, it was difficult, really difficult. Could Zhang Yanfeng take the initiative to tell the judge that it wasn't his brother-in-law who committed violence, but a ghost who committed violence?

Sitting outside the glass partition,
his brother-in-law in prison clothes walked in accompanied by a guard.

His brother-in-law was tall and thin. After being in prison for a few years, he looked even thinner, but his mental state seemed good, and he didn't seem to be giving up on himself.

"Brother."
He picked up the phone and started communicating.

"Have you been doing well recently?"

"I'm doing fine."

Zhang Yanfeng nodded and comforted him: "Don't give up hope in life, never."

Officer Zhang's way of comforting people was always so blunt, just like when he "comforted" Zhou Ze at the detention center. But it was precisely this bluntness that made it easy for people to feel the sincerity in it.

His brother-in-law nodded and even smiled at Zhang Yanfeng.
"Brother, I know.
Quan Quan is gone,
my two children are also gone,
but I always feel like they are still by my side, watching me.

I plan to travel after I get out of prison, take their photos, and walk around and see the world. I used to be busy with the factory and rarely had time to spend with them.
After I get out, I will take them on a family trip together."

Zhang Yanfeng breathed a sigh of relief, "I will pick you up when you get out of prison."

"Okay, brother."

The two men were silent for a long time.

The time for a prison visit was not much, and Zhang Yanfeng was not interrogating a prisoner.

In the end, when the time was about to end,
his brother-in-law said with some melancholy: "Brother, thank you for still believing in me."

Zhang Yanfeng was speechless for a moment.
In the end,
he was the one who let him down.
As a police officer, he couldn't restore his innocence.

"Time is up, Officer Zhang," a prison director who was accompanying him came over to remind him.

"Okay, thank you."

Zhang Yanfeng nodded, watching his brother-in-law being taken away from the visiting room.

Ordinary people wouldn't have a leader accompanying them for a prison visit, but this director and Zhang Yanfeng were indeed friends who had known each other for a long time. They had met before because of work, and later they got along well and occasionally came out to drink and have a drink.

The two walked side by side, chatting casually.

"Lao Zhang (Old Zhang), do you really believe he was wronged?"

Zhang Yanfeng nodded.

"Forget it, this is your family matter, I won't say more. Actually, I also think he may have been wronged. His attitude and performance in prison are very good, and he has indeed set a good example. He has successfully reduced his sentence several times, and it is estimated that he will be able to come out in another year."

Next to the aisle was a wall of honor,
at the beginning was a commendation column for advanced party members and workers in the prison,
and behind was a pioneer column for transformation.
His brother-in-law's photo was at the top of the list.

"In prison, he often enlightened and encouraged other prisoners to actively participate in the transformation, which is of great help to us.
Also, he writes books and publishes them, which has a strong impact."

"Oh, writing books?" Zhang Yanfeng asked curiously.

"Yes, he wrote a book called *The Road to Redemption*. The protagonist is a prisoner, and the background is our Tongcheng Prison. It tells the story of a prisoner's mental journey from crime to accepting legal punishment.
How he went from initial incomprehension and resistance to actively accepting and recognizing and correcting his mistakes,
actively accepting transformation, striving to get his sentence reduced,
and striving to return to society as soon as possible, to be a useful person to society, and to face prison life and the future with a positive attitude.

I have also read the book, and it is really well written."

"That's really good."
Zhang Yanfeng nodded, very satisfied.

"I have a few copies in my office, would you like to take one back to read?"

"Lao Chen (Old Chen), are you giving out a copy to whoever comes, and using this book as promotional material for your prison?"

"Hey, I'm giving it to you and you're not appreciating it, right? I won't give it to you, you can go to the bookstore to buy it yourself."

The two continued to walk forward while arguing.
"Is he writing books every day?"

Zhang Yanfeng remembered that his sister seemed to have told him that they met online and fell in love because they wrote novels together.

However, at that time, both of them had relatively low incomes, and his brother-in-law's family was not in good condition, so he became an live-in son-in-law to take over the Zhang family's small mooncake workshop. His sister focused on writing at home after giving birth to a child, and later published many books.

So,
his brother-in-law can be considered as giving up his dream for love,
thinking about it,
it's really not easy.

Now,
his talent can only be used in prison.

"Let me tell you, our prison has its own computer room. I originally approved him to go to the computer room to write in addition to his daily transformation activities.
Don't all writers now use computers and keyboards to write stories?
But he refused,
he said he just likes to hold his pen and write stories on paper,
he said that stories written in this way are more down-to-earth,
more real."