Chapter 19: Escaping from Prison (Part 1)

  The predecessor of the juvenile detention center was a prison, with a history dating back to the Anti-Japanese War period. These isolation cells were left over from that time. As far as Li Fan knew, he had never seen such professional isolation cells in China before, where even adults would collapse mentally, let alone these children.

  In Li Fan's opinion, Qin Feng was much more mature than ordinary children, but after staying here for a day, he might not be able to hold on either. It was like the first time Li Tianyu came in, and it was him who carried him out personally.

  "Qin Feng, come out, wait a bit and slowly open your eyes outside, be careful not to get hurt."

  After opening the iron gate, Li Fan cast his gaze into the narrow confinement room under the dim light of the corridor, ready to go in and support Qin Feng out at any time. This was not the first time for him.

  "Already gone so soon?"

  Qin Feng opened his eyes, revealing a look of discontent on his face. In the past, he had only practiced martial arts to avenge himself and avoid being bullied, and with the need to rush around every day to make a living, Qin Feng simply didn't have the time to carefully experience and think things through. Now that he had finally gotten such a good opportunity, it was suddenly interrupted by someone, and he couldn't help but want to throw Li Fan, who had appeared before him, out.

  "What...what did you say?" Li Fan was extremely skeptical that there was something wrong with his ears, and yet someone was still willing to stay in this godforsaken place?

  "Cough, I said thank you for the advice." Qin Feng also realized he had misspoken and hastily stood up to leave, but the unwilling expression on his face was beyond words, rendering Li Fan's previously prepared speech completely unspoken.

  "Qin Feng, now that you're here, you must reform properly and don't bring the bad habits from your previous social life, got it?"

  Seeing Qin Feng off to the detention room, Li Fan could only give him a few lukewarm words of advice, because for this abnormal youth who had reached an extreme, he really didn't know what else to say. The professional knowledge he had learned seemed completely inapplicable to Qin Feng.

  "Got it, discipline." Qin Feng nodded slightly, his face showing no signs of dissatisfaction, which made Li Fan extremely disappointed, shaking his head and turning to leave.

  "Hey, kiddo, you're quite the celebrity?"

  Just as Qin Feng was about to turn around, a strong gust of wind suddenly came from the back of his head. His heart moved, but Qin Feng didn't dodge and allowed a hand to slap onto his shoulder.

  "Li Lao Da, what did you say? I didn't quite catch it."

  Qin Feng turned his head around and saw that the person who patted him on the shoulder was Li Tianyuan. His face suddenly showed a puzzled expression, and he made a tense appearance, saying: "Li Lao Da, I didn't run away from the fight yesterday."

  "I know you little guy didn't run away, you're a real man."

  Li Tianyuan made a great effort to put on a bold and generous appearance, but his face was really too miserable after being beaten. Even after passing by for a day, his eyes were still like those of a giant panda. He threw a cigarette at Qin Feng and said, "It's okay if you can't fight, the key is to have courage. From now on, in this place, you are my brother Li Tianyuan."

  "Brother Feng, come on, let me light one for you."

  Qin Feng had just taken the cigarette when Jiang Ping came over with a sly smile, striking a match to light it for him.

  "Damn it, Jiang Ping, where did you run off to yesterday?"

  When he heard Jiang Ping's voice, Li Tianyuan suddenly became angry. There were about ten people in this cell, and almost everyone had injuries on their faces. Even Qin Feng had bruises all over his arms, but only Jiang Ping was unscathed. He had been walking at the back of the group when they went to the playground yesterday, and he took advantage of the distraction to slip away unnoticed.

  "Boss, I... my stomach hurts yesterday." Seeing Li Tianyuan raised his palm, Jiang Ping hurriedly covered his stomach and shouted: "It's true, ask Skinny Monkey, I've had diarrhea all day today!"

  "Damn it, you good-for-nothing, move your bedding to beside the latrine."

  Jiang Ping's expression was quite annoying, and Li Tianyuan didn't want to bother with him. He just arranged for Jiang to move to a different place to stay. The kind of cell he was in didn't have an independent bathroom, it was near the toilet, so naturally the smell wasn't very good.

  The bed by the window in the Jiangping Plain originally belonged to Qin Feng. This is what Li Tianyuan called "rewarding those who have made contributions".

  "They're just kids, yet they've managed to make it so complicated."

  Qin Feng shook his head in his heart, he didn't expect himself to blend into this cell so seamlessly, but for him, it was a good thing, at least when he had some unusual behavior, the people in the same cell wouldn't report to the guards.

  Time passed quickly, and Qin Feng had been in the juvenile detention center for a month. He was also familiar with the situation of the juvenile detention center.

  The juvenile detention center implemented a militarized management system. Every morning at 6:00, they had to get up and do exercises. From 7:00 to 7:30 was breakfast time. After resting for half an hour, they had to start taking political classes, including law and cultural classes. The purpose was naturally to prevent these young people from repeating the same mistakes in the future.

  In the afternoon, there were some team training exercises, which helped to strengthen the discipline of the young people. In the evening, it was time for the juvenile delinquents to summarize their studies and they had to write a reflective essay every day, which would be checked by the instructors on a regular basis every week.

  For Qin Feng, this kind of day is happier than when he first started wandering with his sister, not knowing how many times more blissful it was. Every day, there's food and drink, and he can even learn about culture. If it weren't for having to go out and find his sister, Qin Feng really wanted to stay here.

  "Why does it always feel like someone is staring at me?"

  After playing basketball on the playground for a while, Qin Feng looked around suspiciously, wondering why he had been feeling like he was being watched for the past month, especially on this playground, as if there were eyes constantly staring at him.

  "We have to be even more careful, if we can't get away next time, it will be even harder." With the feeling of being monitored rising again in his heart, Qin Feng also lost interest in playing basketball and played absent-mindedly for a while before returning to the cell with Li Tianyuan and others.

  Qin Feng had been practicing martial arts for almost six years, and if he didn't practice a few moves every day, his whole body would feel uncomfortable. However, in this place, he didn't want to let Li Tianyuan and others notice anything, so every day during class, he would secretly squat in a horse stance, never sitting on the chair at all.

  "I say, Qin Feng, let me teach you a thing or two. With strength like yours, it's a pity if you don't know any martial arts."

  Watching Qin Feng doing push-ups on the ground, Li Tianyuan was also amazed. This kid looked a bit weak, but his muscles were as hard as iron, and he did three hundred push-ups every night without fail.

  Of course, Qin Feng had never shown off his skills before. Several times when he encountered people from Nie Yuandong's side who were provocative during meals, Qin Feng also chose to retreat with a humble attitude, appearing to be very timid. Therefore, the same cellmates thought that he was just born with great strength and didn't suspect anything.

  As the leader of the dormitory, Li Tianyuan naturally didn't want to fall behind in showing off his martial prowess. However, after waking up with a sore waist and back on the second day, almost unable to get out of bed for roll call, he gave up on the idea of competing with Qin Feng. Nevertheless, he developed a habit of exercising every night, and his body did become much stronger than before.

  "Li Lao Da, forget it, I don't fight with others, what's the point of learning kung fu?"

  Qin Feng lifted his head, smiled stupidly, and after doing a set of 300 push-ups, he picked up his book and seriously started writing down his learning reflections. No matter who it was, no one could see that Qin Feng had already made up his mind to escape from the juvenile detention center today.

  Within a month, the taciturn Qin Feng had already thoroughly understood the layout of this reformed prison turned juvenile detention center. He knew exactly when the armed police would change shifts, when the guards would hand over duties, and what times the sentries were most likely to be off their guard, all firmly etched in his mind.

  At nine o'clock, the whistle for lights out sounded, and except for the big lamps on the walls of the juvenile detention center shining brightly like daylight, all the lights went out, plunging the entire facility into darkness.

  Five hours later, Qin Feng, who originally looked like he was already fast asleep, suddenly opened his eyes and carefully listened to the breathing frequencies of several people beside him. Qin Feng slowly sat up, and if the lights were turned on at this moment, it would be discovered that Qin Feng had not taken off his clothes when he went to sleep.

  He stuck his head out the window and observed for several minutes. The armed police who used to patrol the post were nowhere to be seen. Qin Feng took a deep breath, turned over and got out of bed.

  Without making a sound, Qin Feng put on the sneakers on the ground, lowered his body and came to the window. He used a prepared bed sheet to tie two steel bars together, then took a short stick and inserted it into the middle of the bed sheet.

  Before going to sleep, Qin Feng had wet the bed sheet with water. After getting wet, the bed sheet became exceptionally tough. After stirring it with a short stick, the bed sheet slowly tightened up and tightly bound the two steel bars together.

  As for the wooden stick, it was Qin Feng who deliberately broke the mop handle a week ago and hid the remaining half. Since it wasn't made of iron, no one paid special attention to it, but now it came in handy.

  As the wooden stick continued to rotate, the two thumb-thick steel bars began to deform gradually. Qin Feng's movements also became more and more careful, in order to prevent the steel bars from making a sound when deformed, almost every time he rotated the wooden stick, Qin Feng had to spend about two minutes.

  Half an hour passed, the two steel bars in the middle of the window were actually pulled together under the action of the bed sheet, and the gap beside it was already enough for a person to stick their head out.

  Carefully prying the wooden stick open, Qin Feng nimbly slipped out of the gap, his body quickly advancing in the darkness. He knew that behind the window was the playground, and the only dead angle on the playground was the northeast corner's vegetable field. Due to the obstruction of the iron wire mesh, there were no electric nets on that section of wall either.

  "He's actually going to run away?"

  Qin Feng didn't know that just as he had climbed out of the window, Li Tianyuan, who was sleeping on the other side of the window, suddenly opened his narrowed eyes and covered his mouth tightly with his right hand.

  PS: First update, seeking recommendation votes!