Chapter 46: "Big Brother, I Think This Is a Misunderstanding"
Chapter Forty-Six: “Big Brothers, I Think This Is a Misunderstanding”
The corridor was eerily quiet. The guardroom was at the very end, the last room in the corridor, serving as the electronic control room from which all cell doors could be operated. Hugging the wall, the Fatty crept his way out, his heart pounding with a mix of excitement and fear—could it be a malfunction with the door lock?
Yes, that had to be it… High-tech gadgets always acted up. Back when he worked at that little restaurant, the owner’s son’s computer crashed all the time.
He shuffled to the corridor’s end, his heart thumping wildly—if a guard caught him, would they think he was trying to escape?
But the cell door had opened by itself!
At the corridor’s end was a large iron gate. Fatty hid around the corner, peeking into the empty guardroom. No one was there! The room was lit, with a lunchbox still on the table.
Mustering his courage, Fatty tiptoed to the iron gate and gave it a hopeful tug, only to be disappointed—it was locked.
So, it was just his cell door that had broken. Still, he was reluctant to go back so easily. With trembling hands, he prayed, “Bodhisattva, please let the door open, please, let it open…”
As his hand touched the gate, he felt a strange sensation, like an electric shock, his whole body trembling with excitement and nervousness.
Then—
Click!
That subtle sound was like celestial music to his ears! The red light on the electronic lock turned green…
It really… opened again!
“Blessed be the gods!” Fatty knelt reverently, bowing his head to the heavens.
•
Most prisoners didn’t know that, at that very moment, a Fatty was kneeling in the solitary wing, giving thanks. But as he rejoiced and the cell door opened by itself, in the main prison building—three stories tall, with over four hundred cells—every single electronic cell door suddenly swung open at once!
All the red lights turned green!
Prisoners who were awake stared in disbelief. Soon, after a brief shock, the bolder ones dashed out! To their delight, not only had their cell doors opened, but all the corridor gates leading out were wide open as well!
The initial shock gave way to pandemonium.
“Run!!!!!”
•
At three in the morning, chaos engulfed the prison! For reasons unknown, all electronic systems had failed at once, flinging open every cell and corridor door.
The guards were caught completely unprepared! Hundreds of prisoners poured out like madmen, overwhelming the scattered patrols and swallowing them up in the tidal wave of escapees.
The alarm blared. Guards on the watchtowers fired warning shots, but the prisoners, now desperate and crazed, all believed: everyone’s running, only a fool would stay! Who cares about gunshots? With any luck, you won’t get hit!
Especially the ones serving life—they charged out with reckless abandon.
•
Meanwhile, Fatty, still clueless about his role in this, crept out of the solitary wing, only to find chaos erupting on the prison yard!
Countless prisoners were stampeding toward a single target: the main gate!
Gunshots cracked sporadically; alarms and megaphones blared warnings. Teams of guards rushed out, but prisoners swarmed everywhere. The guards barely had time to grab batons, let alone firearms. The scene was sheer bedlam.
Every main gate was wide open. Some guards struggled to force the doors closed, but the control panels were dead… No matter how hard they pulled, the heavy iron doors wouldn’t budge!
“To hell with all this high-tech garbage!” a guard raged, but before a defensive wall could be formed, the horde crashed through.
That night, in the western suburbs, the blaring sirens pierced the sky and echoed through the long hours.
•
Fatty was swept out with the crowd, then sprinted down a side road faster than he’d ever run in his life! Even many fellow escapees stared in disbelief as the lumbering Fatty dashed by, leaving them in the dust as if he were a world-class sprinter.
When the police cars gave chase, he heard the shouts behind him and the sound of weapons being readied. Panic-stricken, he stumbled, fell off the roadside, and tumbled into a thicket. Thudding painfully against rocks and branches, he yelped and cursed, finally plunging with a splash into a small river…
The thicket where he fell remained dense and undisturbed; police cars roared past, unaware.
•
When Fatty came to, he found himself lying like a dead dog on the riverbank, gasping for air. He had no idea how he’d dragged himself out—he’d never learned to swim as a child!
Could it be that in a life-or-death moment, a person’s hidden potential is truly unlocked?
By now, dawn had broken—probably already mid-morning. He crept from the river to the roadside, hiding behind a tree for ages. No police cars, no officers in sight.
He had no idea where he was. Glancing around, he couldn’t even see the prison—he must have come a long way. Maybe the current had carried him far downstream.
Remembering last night’s ordeal sent a shiver through him.
Bank robbery and now prison break—if they caught him, would he be shot on the spot?
He sat behind a tree, pondering. First, he stripped off his prison-issue shirt—it was too conspicuous. The pants were a dull gray, not so noticeable if he kept his head down. He was left in a plain white undershirt.
•
After a while, he spotted a private car approaching in the distance. Fatty snapped off a branch from a nearby sapling, stuffed it in his pocket, and gripped it tightly. When the car drew near, he suddenly leapt out from behind the tree!
•
Chen Xiao sat in the passenger seat, lost in thought, while Old Tian drove quietly. Neither spoke. Suddenly, a man jumped out by the roadside. Uncle Tian hesitated, then chuckled and braked.
Fatty charged up, face fierce, pressing himself to the window. One hand gripped the branch in his pocket, pushing it forward to make a bulge.
“Don’t move! I’ve got a gun! Out of the car, now!”
Old Tian smiled. Chen Xiao smiled too.
A robbery?
Glancing at Old Tian’s odd smile, Chen Xiao sighed inwardly: Trying to rob a four-hundred-year-old monster—this bandit clearly hadn’t paid his respects to the gods before venturing out.
Old Tian casually stepped out, and Chen Xiao got out as well, curious to see the show.
When two men climbed out, Fatty grew nervous, stepped back, and kept the stick in his pocket aimed at them, shouting, “One move and you’ll eat lead! Don’t come any closer!”
Chen Xiao got a good look at Fatty’s face and was stunned.
“Hey? It’s you?”
Fatty was taken aback too, squinting at Chen Xiao. “Hey? You look familiar, kid!”
A second later, realization dawned and he shouted, “Ah! It’s you, pretty boy!”
Chen Xiao sighed. “Hello, Mr. Bandit.”
After a pause, he added apologetically, “Fatty, next time you use a branch to fake a gun… could you please check if your pocket has a hole in it first?”
A hole?
Fatty looked down and froze.
His pants pocket had a giant tear, and the end of the branch was sticking right out.
With a slap, Fatty dropped the stick, his chubby cheeks screwing into a groveling smile. He raised his hands high, looking utterly abject.
“Gentlemen, I think… I think this is all a misunderstanding… A misunderstanding, ha ha ha ha ha…”
—
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