Chapter Forty-Five: Fatty's Strange Night

Chapter Forty-Five

Ma Hongjun considered himself rather unlucky.

Originally, he was just a cook from a small southern city on the continent, having spent several years in culinary school. In his youth, he believed that being a chef was a promising career. Only after graduating, after years of study, did he discover how difficult it was to find work!

High-end hotels only hired those renowned and accomplished master chefs. As a graduate of a third-rate culinary school, he wasn't even qualified to be an assistant. After half a year of washing vegetables in a dirty, rundown little restaurant, Ma Hongjun finally understood: the path of a chef was not an easy one.

Fortunately, he had a sturdy physique. Fat, yes, but with strong arms—after all, to be a chef, one had to wield large woks, and without strength, those heavy iron pans couldn't be lifted.

Ma Hongjun fancied himself an idealist: if he did something, he had to do it well—or not at all. His catchphrase was: professionalism.

With no prospects as a chef, the honest fat man could not make ends meet. Luckily, he had a good sister, and her boyfriend was involved in some less-than-legal circles, so he pulled the fat man in as well. His brother-in-law had served in the military and knew a bit about firearms; he managed to procure a few homemade guns from the black market.

But fate was not kind to the honest. On their very first job—a bank robbery—they were caught immediately. Their car was overturned by a strange woman, and all three of his accomplices, including his brother-in-law, were killed on the spot.

After Ma Hongjun was captured, the police interrogated him for a day, only to reach a firm conclusion: this fat fool was insane! He kept ranting about some strange woman who "roared" the car over, and other such nonsense... Who would believe that? Continuing to question him would only waste time. With both criminal and evidence in hand, they simply locked him up.

Poor guy... His first time doing something bad, and he hadn't even fired a shot.

In truth, Ma Hongjun was an honest man, not very brave, and if poverty hadn't driven him mad, he would never have followed his brother-in-law to rob a bank. At twenty-five or twenty-six, he had never even tasted the pleasures of a woman. A grown man needed to eat, marry, support a family, buy a house... He really had no way out.

If anyone was to blame, it was that damned brother-in-law! Back then, he lured him in with a crook of his finger and a single promise: "Follow me, and you'll have meat to eat." The fat man, eyes shining, followed along. In the end, he never got the meat—only a prison sentence.

After entering prison, the fat man felt thoroughly wronged. He sobbed and complained to the guards, pouring out his grievances and pitifully adding, "It's society's fault... it ruined my chance to be a good man..."

The guard just rolled his eyes at him: "Fatty, you've watched too many fantasy dramas."

Ma Hongjun lost all hope. Locked in his cell, every night he clung to the barred window, singing mournful prison songs—since he had not yet been tried, he was only being held temporarily, so he had a cell to himself.

But then... he started acting strangely again.

One night, he insisted he saw an immortal outside the window, and banged on the door, yelling for the guards. The guard was so irritated he nearly kicked him. The next day, they punished him for insubordination and locked him in solitary confinement.

The solitary cell in this prison was truly a "black room": a tiny, windowless chamber, a few square meters at most, where no sunlight ever reached. Trapped in such a place for long, the loneliness, isolation, and fear could truly drive a person mad!

After only half a day inside, Ma Hongjun was already sobbing. When the guard brought his meal that evening, the fat man clung to the iron door, tears and snot streaming down his face as he begged, "I was wrong! Let me go back to my cell, please? I won’t shout again. Even if I see an immortal—or even an alien—I’ll treat it as air, okay?"

The only response was the heavy clang of the door slamming shut.

In the middle of the night, the fat man suddenly heard strange noises outside. He pressed his face to the small window in the iron door, peering out into the corridor...

The hallway was pitch black, not a single light. But Ma Hongjun could see everything clearly—this was his little secret, known only to his parents and sister. Since childhood, he had night vision, his eyes like a cat’s: he could see clearly in the dark.

Such a trait was rare among normal people, but he rarely mentioned it. In his superstitious hometown, elders believed that "night vision" was a kind of "ghost eye," something unclean that attracted spirits. So he always kept this ability to himself.

In the darkness of the corridor, Ma Hongjun clearly saw a figure drifting past. Through the small meal slot in the iron door, he saw it distinctly: a person in prison uniform, with a large head—he couldn’t make out the features, but the way this person walked was utterly brash, swaggering with a splayed gait, as if he were strolling through his own garden rather than a prison.

In the dead of night, a prisoner, unaccompanied by guards, wandering outside his cell... It was highly abnormal. The fat man suppressed his curiosity, but in the end, he couldn’t help himself and called out softly, "Hey, brother."

The man started, whipped around, and looked in the direction of the voice, spotting the pair of eyes peering through the door’s window.

As the man turned, Ma Hongjun finally saw his features: small nose, small eyes, small eyebrows—all his facial features seemed squeezed together. Seeing such a face brought to mind a well-known rodent: a rat.

"You can see me?" The man seemed to raise his eyebrows. His voice was hoarse as he walked to the outside of the door and squatted down, meeting Ma Hongjun’s gaze.

Even separated by the iron door, Ma Hongjun felt a chill of fear under that stare.

"I... I..." he stammered, swallowing hard before managing to squeeze out a reply: "I’ve been able to see in the dark since I was a child..."

The man seemed to smile—a ghostly, eerie smile—then sat right down, leaning against the door. "Brother, what are you in for?"

"Bank robbery," the fat man replied honestly, then quickly added, "Attempted."

"Ha!" the man laughed. "A serious crime. You’ll probably get ten years, at least."

Ma Hongjun grew gloomy, then asked, "What about you?"

"Me?" The man thought for a moment. "I ran into some trouble outside. A few old acquaintances came to K City in the past few days, and I didn’t want to see them, so I came in here for a few days—consider it a vacation and a way to hide out."

A vacation?

Who the hell comes to prison for a vacation?

Ma Hongjun’s eyes bulged. The other man, seeing his silence, guessed his thoughts and drawled, "Think about it—prices are so high nowadays. Housing is expensive, food too. What’s better than this? Free room, private cell, free meals... Where else in the world is there such a good place?"

"But... this is a prison," Ma Hongjun said, nearly in tears.

"Pfft, so what? If I wanted to leave, who could stop me?" The man curled his lip, completely unconcerned. "See, I was bored in my room, so I came out for a stroll."

A stroll... Ma Hongjun’s jaw dropped—did this guy really think this place was a hotel?

He decided he’d met a true master, and gazed at the man with awe. "Brother, how should I address you?"

"Mei Liu," the man said, as if reluctant to mention his name, speaking vaguely before sighing. "That was my old name. Now, I have no name."

At this, his mood seemed to darken. He stood, brushed off his clothes, and swaggered away.

The fat man watched the master leave, staring as he vanished around the corridor’s bend, then rubbed his eyes...

"Maybe I really am losing my mind. Was it a hallucination?"

He rubbed his eyes until they hurt—then suddenly his gaze brightened!

Right where the man had been sitting, something had apparently fallen from his pocket—a round object, roughly the size of a glass marble he’d played with as a child, lying quietly outside the iron door.

Curiosity piqued, Ma Hongjun realized the meal slot was too small for his hand, so he fetched his chopsticks from dinner, stretching them out with difficulty. Luckily, he could just reach. After much maneuvering, he managed to bring the little ball inside.

Clutching it, he discovered it was wrapped in foil. Unwrapping it, he found a blackish lump with a faint, sweet scent.

Chocolate?

Ma Hongjun felt a wave of anger! Look at how this guy does prison time—wandering at will, snacking on treats—while he couldn’t even get a cigarette!

In a fit of pique, he tossed the chocolate into his mouth, chewing fiercely before swallowing it.

Then...

A few seconds later, there was a thud, and the fat man collapsed stiffly to the floor, snoring away.

He slept deeply, dreaming many strange and jumbled dreams. When he finally woke, his back and legs ached. Rubbing his shoulders, he sat up with a start.

The solitary cell had no windows; he had no idea what time it was, so he pressed his face to the iron door, staring longingly outside.

He couldn’t help but recall the events of last night... Was it really just a dream?

But the lingering taste of chocolate in his mouth proved otherwise.

A surge of indignation rose within him!

Hmph! Why? That guy could wander at will, but he had to stew in solitary!

As he brooded, hands resting on the iron door...

(If only I could open this door and go for a stroll too...)

The prison doors were all electronic locks now, not the old-fashioned kind. As he fumed, suddenly he heard a faint "click!"

The sound sent a jolt through him—he leapt up in alarm!

Then, his eyes went wide—

The heavy iron door before him... the lock had disengaged by itself, and the door was slowly opening!

Staring at the open doorway, Ma Hongjun gawked.

"Holy shit, could there really be immortals?"