Ma Hongjun felt he was quite unlucky.
He was originally just a cook from a small city in southern China, who studied at a culinary school for several years. Back then, he thought being a cook was a promising career, but after graduating, he discovered that jobs were incredibly difficult to find!
Truly high-end hotels only hire renowned chefs who have already achieved great success. Graduates from third-rate culinary schools like himself aren't even qualified to be their assistants. After washing vegetables in a dirty, run-down local restaurant for half a year, Ma Hongjun finally understood: the path of a chef is not easy.
Fortunately, he still had a good physique. He was a bit chubby, but he still had strength in his arms—after all, as a chef, you have to lift a large ladle, and if you don't have strength, you can't lift such a big iron pot.
Ma Hongjun considers himself an idealist; if he's going to do something, he'll do it well! His motto is: Professional.
There was no future in being a cook, and the honest, fat man couldn't make ends meet. Luckily, he had a good younger sister whose boyfriend was involved in organized crime, so he dragged the fat man into joining them. His brother-in-law was a former soldier and knew a bit about firearms, so he got a few homemade guns from the black market.
Unfortunately, honest people are just unlucky. His first job (robbing a bank) resulted in his immediate arrest. A strange woman overturned his car, and his three accomplices, including his brother-in-law, were killed on the spot.
After the fat man was arrested, the police interrogated him for a day and made a firm conclusion: This fat man is insane! All that weird woman yelling at a car to "flip" it over... No one with a normal mind would believe that! Continuing the interrogation would only waste time, since they had caught him red-handed—and so, Ma Hongjun was honorably imprisoned.
Poor thing... It was his first time doing something wrong, and he didn't even fire a single shot...
Actually, Fatty was an honest man, not very brave. If he hadn't been desperate for money, he wouldn't have gone with 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 needs to eat, get married, support a family, buy a house... He was driven to desperation.
Blame it all on that damned brother-in-law! He beckoned to him with his finger and said, "Follow me, and you'll get meat." The fat guy went eagerly. In the end, he didn't get any meat, but ended up in jail.
After entering prison, the fat man still felt quite wronged. He poured his heart out to the prison guards, crying and complaining. After explaining his grievances, he pitifully added: "It's all this society's fault for ruining my chance to be a good person..."
The guard rolled his eyes at him: "You fatso, you've been watching too much 'The Promise'."
The fat man gave up and locked himself in his cell, singing "Tears Behind Bars" every night while hugging the bars of the window—because he hadn't been tried yet and was only temporarily imprisoned, he was given a single cell.
As a result... the fat guy went crazy again.
That night, he pointed out the window and insisted he saw a deity, and he banged on the door, yelling at the guard. The guard was so angry he wanted to kick him. The next day, he punished the boy for being disobedient by locking him in a dark room.
The small, dark cells in prison truly are dark cells. A tiny single room of just a few square meters, without windows, never seeing the sun for 24 hours—completely enclosed. The loneliness, isolation, and fear experienced by someone confined in such a place for an extended period can truly drive a person insane!
The fat man started crying after only half a day in jail. When the guards brought him food that evening, he clung to the iron gate, begging for mercy with snot and tears streaming down his face: "I was wrong, please let me go back to my cell, okay? I promise I'll never shout again. Even if I see a god, I'll pretend it's not there, okay?"
His response was a loud slamming of the door.
In the middle of the night, the fat man suddenly heard strange noises outside. He peered through the small window of the iron gate into the corridor...
The corridor was pitch black, without a single light. But the fat boy could see clearly—it was his little secret, known only to his parents and sister. The fat boy had always had "night vision," his eyes like a cat's, able to see clearly even in the dark.
This kind of physical condition is rare among normal people. However, the fat man rarely talks about it. In his small hometown, the elders are very superstitious and believe that this kind of "night vision" is a kind of "ghost eye," a symbol of evil and uncleanliness, and that it easily attracts ghosts. So the fat man has never dared to tell outsiders that he has this ability.
In the pitch-black corridor, amidst the darkness, the fat man clearly saw a figure strolling past. Through the small window on the iron gate where meals were delivered, he could clearly see a person in a prisoner's uniform, with a large head. He couldn't make out the person's features, but the person walked with an arrogant swagger—swaggering and walking with a pigeon-toed gait, as if he weren't in a prison but in his own backyard.
In the dead of night, a prisoner, without any guards accompanying him, was walking alone outside his cell... This in itself was an unusual phenomenon. The fat man tried to hold back, but his innate curiosity finally gave way, and he couldn't help but whisper, "Hey, brother."
The man was startled, then suddenly turned around and looked at the fat man in the direction of the sound, where he saw a pair of eyes through the small window of the iron gate.
The man turned around, and the fat man finally saw his face clearly: a small nose, small eyes, and small eyebrows; his features seemed all squeezed together. Seeing such a face easily reminds you of a well-known gnatous animal: a rat.
"You can see me?" The man seemed to raise an eyebrow. His voice was hoarse. He walked to the iron gate, squatted down, and looked the fat man in the eye.
Although separated by an iron gate, the fat man felt a sense of fear as he was being stared at by this person!
"I...I..." The fat man blinked, swallowed hard, and managed to squeeze out a voice: "I've been able to see in the dark since I was a child..."
The man seemed to smile, a smile that was almost ghostly, yet he casually sat down and leaned against the iron gate: "Brother, how did you get in?"
"Robbery of a bank." The fat man was honest, but quickly added, "Unsuccessful."
"Ha!" The man chuckled. "It's a serious crime, it should be sentenced to at least ten or eight years."
The fat man was a little annoyed. After a moment of silence, he asked, "What about you?"
"Me?" The man thought for a moment: "I'm in some trouble outside. A few old acquaintances came to K City these days, and I don't want to see them. I just want to come in and stay for a few days, which can be considered a vacation and a way to avoid people."
Vacation?
Does anyone ever come to jail for a vacation?
The fat man's eyes widened. Seeing that the fat man was silent, the other person guessed what he was thinking and slowly chuckled, "Think about it, prices are so high now, housing is expensive, food is expensive too. Isn't it great to come here? Free housing, a single room for everyone, and free meals... Where else in the world can you find such a good place?"
"But...this is a prison." The fat man said with a mournful face.
"Tch, so what if it's prison? If I want to leave, who can stop me?" The man curled his lip, looking completely unconvinced. "Well, tonight, I got bored in my room, so I came out for a stroll."
Wandering around... the fat man's mouth dropped open—did they really think this was a hotel?!
The fat man thought he had met a master, and looked at the other person expectantly: "Brother, what's your name?"
"Mei Liu." The man seemed reluctant to mention his name, speaking vaguely before sighing, "That was my old name. Now, I don't have a name."
At this point, he seemed to suddenly become upset. He stood up, dusted off his clothes, and swaggered away.
The fat man watched the expert leave, staring intently until he disappeared around the corner at the end of the corridor, before rubbing his eyes...
"Could it be that I've really lost my mind? Or is it just a hallucination?"
The fat man rubbed his eyes until they hurt, but suddenly his eyes lit up!
Right where that person had just been sitting, something round, about the size of a marble I used to play with as a child, probably fell out of their pocket. It lay quietly outside the iron gate!
The fat man immediately became curious. The window was too small; he definitely couldn't reach his hand out. After thinking for a moment, he turned around and grabbed the chopsticks he used for dinner, barely managing to reach them outside. Fortunately, the distance was just right. After fiddling around for a while, he finally managed to pick up the small ball and carefully put it back inside the iron gate.
Holding it in my hand, I realized it was a package wrapped in tin foil. When I opened it, it was dark and had a faint sweet smell.
chocolate?