Chapter 214 Tragedy and Comedy

Chenyu Valley Prison is the largest prison in Taoyuan City. It is located in a sparsely populated ravine on the outskirts of Taoyuan City. On the top of the mountain is a wind power plant built in recent years, and at the bottom of the valley is a long-abandoned jade mine.

In the early years, stonemasons from Zanju Town would come to this valley to quarry stones. Later, this small artisan town famous for its jade and stone carvings gradually declined. In addition, environmental protection issues were put on the agenda, and rare earth deposits were discovered underground in Taoyuan City… Due to various reasons, the mine in Chenyu Valley was abandoned.

The abandoned mine site was later converted into a prison. Due to its geographical advantages, there has never been a successful jailbreak since the prison was built.

After several expansions and renovations, this ‘Chenyu Valley Prison’ has become the largest and most famous prison in Taoyuan City, and most of Taoyuan City’s local criminals are serving their sentences here.

In the past two months, the crime rate in Taoyuan City and surrounding areas has suddenly soared, and most of them are violent crimes involving injury or murder. For these recent vicious crimes, the Taoyuan City Court adheres to the principle of severe and swift sentencing, and strives to reduce the impact as soon as possible, whether it is the impact on public opinion or the political impact.

As a result, Chenyugu Prison has become unusually busy recently, with many new faces being sent in every week, and most of them are first-time offenders with no criminal record.

Prisoners in prison are also ranked according to seniority.

Financial and political prisoners sound superior and superior. Even in prison, they are still superior people. There are many people in prison who want to have a good relationship with such people, fantasizing that they can get away with it after they get out. Sexual crimes, especially those against minors, have long been at the bottom of the contempt chain.

Generally speaking, violent criminals such as robbery and murder would be labeled as “untouchable” by their fellow inmates, but this new batch of prisoners were a little different. There were almost no hooligans who had committed repeated robberies and were repeatedly arrested among them. Instead, most of them were honest people.

He is an honest man who has never committed a crime and has a clean record.

“I say, Lao Li, you are just a farmer who can’t read a single word, how dare you chop the village chief with a knife?”

In the cell with the lights turned off, the inmate sleeping on the upper bunk couldn’t help but ask this.

Old Li, who was sleeping on the lower bunk, was silent for a long time before he answered woodenly, “I, I don’t know either… I was just impulsive and hot-blooded, and when I came to my senses…”

So they killed the chief of their village.

Li Tie, male, 53 years old, single, farmer, semi-illiterate, making a living by farming in the countryside, was put into this prison for murder in a fit of passion, the person he killed was the village chief.

“Old Li, I’ve heard from others these past few days that your village chief is really a piece of shit…”

The voice of the person on the upper bunk was very low, because chatting was not allowed after lights out in prison:

“I heard from Brother Wang that your village just had a cement road last year, and your village chief embezzled a lot of money from this road and used it all to build his villa…”

Country people all have a sentiment of protecting their land, and village chiefs are no exception, even though they don’t have to farm.

The chief of Lao Li village used the embezzled money to build a fancy two-story villa on his family’s abandoned land. It looked very magnificent, but Lao Li’s land was right below the villa. As soon as the foundation of the house was laid, all kinds of construction wastewater flowed directly into his land, killing the rice that Lao Li had worked so hard to grow.

That year, he had no harvest.

Old Li tried several times to complain to the village, but to no avail. He could only watch the village chief’s villa become more and more beautiful, while not a single rice seedling grew in his own fields.

On the day the villa was completed, the village chief set up 20 tables of housewarming banquets and invited all the villagers, including Lao Li, to congratulate him. In the joyous atmosphere, Lao Li drank glass after glass of wine. He looked at the village chief’s old face smiling like a chrysanthemum, and the glazed tiles on the roof of the villa sparkling in the sun, and hated him in his heart.

Whether it was because of the alcohol or hatred, Lao Li left the table with a gloomy face before the dishes were even served.

He fished out a hatchet from the ditch beside the field and put it on his waist. He rushed into the villa, which was too luxurious for a country man, and chopped off the village chief’s joyous head in front of all the guests.

He committed murder in passion, the circumstances were egregious, and he showed no remorse afterwards. No matter how the mediators tried to persuade him, he was unwilling to bow his head and apologize to the village chief’s family. He only regretted that he had killed the official too decisively, causing the official to die too easily.

Then he was sentenced to here severely and quickly, one of the most difficult prisons to escape from in Qinzhou.

“I was sentenced to 25 years in prison, and my land was auctioned off to pay compensation to the village chief’s family. When I got out… I was already years old.”

Old Li lay on the bed, two lines of tears sliding down the corners of his eyes and into his ears.

How is a countryman in his seventies supposed to survive, with no fields or land?
But if you ask him if he regrets it, Lao Li’s answer is no. Even if he has to do it again, he will still choose to pick up the axe. He only hates that he was too nervous at the time and only chopped the village chief, allowing the family of the dog official to continue to be arrogant in this world and bully the poor…

Yes, his family.

Old Li opened his eyes wide in the darkness and clenched his fists silently.

He is over 50 years old, and his waist is not in good condition due to years of hard work in farming. If the court’s attitude had not been too tough, the prison would not be willing to accept someone like him, for fear that he would have an accident in prison.

“I heard that if you behave well in prison, you can get a reduced sentence… I’m so old, the prison guards definitely don’t want to serve me all the time, I have to strive for a reduced sentence…”

Yes, he has to fight for a reduction in his sentence, fight to be released from prison early, and fight to not be too old to lift a knife after he is free.

Old Li gritted his teeth in the darkness, hatred replaced confusion and filled his mind.

“Twenty years later, the village chief’s youngest son should have started a family…”

A gust of wind blew through Chenyu Valley, causing the blades of the wind power plant on the top of the mountain to turn continuously. It also blew away the dark clouds covering the moon. A new moon appeared in the turbid pupils of the uneducated farmer, and the cold moonlight passed through the iron window.

The gloomy life had a purpose again, and Lao Li fell into a deep sleep contentedly. He was determined to perform well tomorrow.

Old Li, who was asleep, did not see that in the silvery moonlight, a beautiful butterfly bathed in the snow-white silver light gently landed on the iron window.

“Another tragedy caused by the stamp of thought.”

Ning Zhe closed his ice-blue wings and landed on the iron railing. He tilted his head and stared at Old Li lying on the bed with his compound eyes, muttering in his heart:

“But even without the influence of ideological stamp, would his life have become a happy ending?”

(End of this chapter)