Chapter 85 - Weeding

The name Xiao Su had indeed left him with a strong impression.

Even before he watched this movie, he had suspected the possible relationship between Xiao Su and Chen Su. Now, he finally got the answer to one of his questions.

“Is this your nickname?” Su Min spoke very calmly.

Chen Su smiled but no one could see it in the dark, “You can take it like that.”

Su Min felt that it was amusing, “What do you mean I can take it like that? Do you not know your own nickname?”

When his grandmother called out those two words, he had suspected it. Now that it was mentioned again, it could be said that there was a definite connection.

Su Min didn’t speak. He just gently touched his earlobe.

He and Su Min were very close together and they could feel each other’s body temperatures. One was extremely cold while the other was warm. The warmth clearly indicated that he was a living human.

Su Min wasn’t surprised when his question wasn’t answered.

If it was that easy getting an answer, he would have already reached the answer a long time ago and he wouldn’t have had to wait until today.

Chen Su lowered his voice: “Do you really want to know?”

Su Min could tell that there was a hidden meaning in his words. It was as if he would tell him if he gave him a positive response and that it was something very important.

“If I said that I want to know, would you tell me?” Su Min asked in return: “Or are you just going to fool around.”

Chen Su laughed.

His voice had always been low. With him laughing right next to Su Min’s ear, and his vague figure pressed up against him, it made him feel a little numb and tingly.

Su Min pushed him away.

The bed was just too small. It was originally already difficult for one person and, now that there was another ghost, they were practically locked in one position.

For example, he was currently lying on his side with Chen Su hugging him from behind. He could clearly feel Chen Su’s chest pressed up against his back.

It had to be said, it would be okay keeping it up for a minute or two, but any longer than that resulted in all his attention to be focussed at that point of contact.

Su Min felt like there was a block of ice behind him.

Chen Su held his hand. Su Min wanted to struggle free but he couldn’t overpower him so he could only let him do as he pleased.

He whispered: “Of course I can tell you.”

Su Min: “Humph.”

He was certain that he wouldn’t tell him. Afterall, every time he asked him a question about him, it was all overlooked so why would he suddenly answer his question today?

He might even tell him a lie.

That would be really irritating.

“Why do I want you to call me that?” Chen Su spoke with a soft whisper: “Because………I was called that before.”

Su Min froze in place.

He had thought that it was something Chen Su had intentionally said. Afterall, he had called him Xiao Min so having him call Chen Su Xiao Su in return was common courtesy.

But if it had something to do with the word “Xiao Su” from his grandmother’s end, then was that Chen Su’s previous nickname?

Su Min could tell that he was getting close to the answer.

Then who was it that called him that? His grandmother?

Chen Su probably had guessed the thoughts that went through his mind. He stuck close to his back and smiled: “Go sleep now. Stop blindly asking questions.”

Su Min: “……….”

Sure enough, the moment he managed to elicit out something, he wasn’t allowed to continue asking anything else. He must be hiding a lot of secrets.

But it was getting late and he should really sleep.

Because it would be uncomfortable being unable to move for the entire night, Su Min pushed Chen Su away. Chen Su however was very thick skinned, and he was unwilling to move.

After a long stale mate, Su Min could only give up.

Let’s just sleep like this. It wasn’t his first time anyway.

With lots of questions inside, Su Min fell asleep. His breathing became steady.

Chen Su had always been awake.

It was a pity that he was unable to hear those two words coming from Su Min’s mouth.

……………

Late at night, Su Min was awakened by the cinema’s prompt.

The prompt was the same as usual: 【Audience Member Su Min, congratulations you have successfully changed your script. Please keep up the hard work. As a reward, you will be given keyword hints. The first hint: Corridor.]

His surroundings were spacious. He didn’t know when Chen Su had left. Su Min didn’t notice anything the entire time.

Su Min was silent for a while. His thoughts once again returned to the movie.

He had originally felt that there was something wrong with the corridor.

It was because his character was set to meet his doom in the corridor. The movie had also mentioned that there were screams at night. It probably came from down the corridor.

It was very likely that the corridor had something to do with it.

As he pondered over this, a sound suddenly came from outside. It sounded like crying sounds, but it was very faint and hard to make out.

Su Min listened to the intermittent sobs. After about a minute, it was gone. If he didn’t hear it, he would have thought that it was just his imagination.

Just as he thought it had completely stopped, he suddenly heard another sound.

This time it was different. It wasn’t the sound of crying but an actual scream. Like the sound coming from the depths of a monster’s throat, it roared out.

Su Min who heard this felt his scalp go numb.

Yin Ze in the upper bunk appeared to have awakened. He turned over and over.

Su Min asked: “Do you hear this sound every night?”

Hearing that, Yin Ze stopped moving. He said: “Yeah, it’s been like that since my first day here. It has never stopped and would happen every night. The sound is also different each time.”

Su Min didn’t know what he meant by the sound being different.

Yin Ze laid flat and said: “You’ll get used to it.”

Su Min faced the ceiling and asked, “Don’t you find it suspicious?”

“What’s the point?” Yin Ze asked back: “The more you know, the earlier you die. Let me tell you, there are people dying here everyday and everyday there would be people going missing.”

The roaring outside stopped. It then started again. It sounded like the final struggle before their death. Soon afterwards, everything was calm again.

All that was left were the soft sounds coming from the other rooms.

Su Min was shocked by Yin Ze’s words.

But when he thought about it, it didn’t seem strange. Afterall, this was a horror movie, so it was normal for people to die.

Take that man who died from a pair of scissors today as an example. It was unknown whether it was truly an act of suicide or if it was the doing of a ghost.

Yin Ze eventually reminded him: “Hurry and sleep. Tomorrow we still have work.”

Su Min sighed internally. He laid there for a long time before sleepiness took over him and he fell asleep.

Outside, there were still small sounds that could be heard.

Early in the morning of the next day, they once again were awakened by the whistle.

Su Min didn’t get up particularly early. There were people in the other rooms who had woken up very early and one was even singing. He suspected that he was probably the opera singer from last night.

After he was done washing up, the prison guard came.

Everyone lined up again for breakfast. Breakfast in the prison was very simple. It consisted of congee, steamed buns and some small side dishes.

Su Min took in the ordinary food and couldn’t help but miss his schools xiaolongbao. Just the thought of it made him drool.

After breakfast, they were taken outside to weed.

It was Su Min’s first time doing this kind of labour. He didn’t do much at home and school, and was a healthy young master.

Yin Ze waved his hand, “After weeding, we have class.”

“What class?” Su Min looked into the distance and asked casually: “Teaching us how to reduce our sentence?”

Yin Ze replied: “No, but it’s similar.”

In any case, it was something for their own good.

This place was very big. The prison guards escorted them out and gave each of them a tool. Once they did it for about an hour, they could go back in.

It could be regarded as setting them free for a while.

Not far away was a tall metal fence. Freedom was just outside that. Almost every prisoner would look out when they come here.

For the first time, Su Min understood how good being free was.

Yin Ze and he were only a few metres away.

A man ran over and said: “Go to Brother Hao over there.”

Su Min glanced at Brother Hao. Yesterday he was crying because of a ghost but today he acted the same as usual, “Not going.”

The man reached over to grab him, “I gave you face yet you don’t want it!”

Su Min avoided his hand.

The next minute, Brother Hao who was standing not far away screamed and fell to the ground, “Ghost! A ghost!”

The prison guard went over but he didn’t see anything. He again shocked him with his baton.

As for the person who called Su Min, he ran back and cared for his big brother.

Su Min shrugged. He squatted down and got ready to weed but he didn’t expect something strange to happen when he did that.

He watched a piece of grass that his hand came into contact with disappear. It was almost instantaneous. It was a sharp contrast to the green grass around it.

He suspected that there was something wrong with his eyes. He again touched another patch of grass only to see that it again all disappear.

Su Min: “…………”

What’s going on?

Su Min stood up and looked at the other prisoners. They were still weeding and didn’t pay any attention to anything else. Everything was normal.

A prison guard shouted: “488! Squat down!”

Hearing that warning, Su Min squatted down. He stared at the barren patch of grass in daze.

Was this because Chen Su was helping him?

Chen Su pushed away some of the tall grass and finally found the culprit.

———–From within the dirt, several pairs of hands reached out. They were all bones. It was unknown how long they had been dead for.

Su Min reached out to touch another patch of tall grass on the other side. Long bony hands reached out and plucked the grass before he could.

Su Min: “…………”

With this done repeatedly, almost all the grass in that area was gone. Su Min didn’t exert any effort and just had to touch the grass.

There seemed to be a lot of skeleton hands buried in the ground.

Su Min didn’t know if there was a mass grave below. Like those schools in the legends, perhaps the prison was established over a mass grave.

After an hour, all the prisoners gathered.

When Yin Ze came back from his area, he saw the empty patch around Su Min and was shocked, “You’re amazing.”

Su Min: “………I’m average.”

Yin Ze: “Don’t be so humble.”

Su Min kept quiet and didn’t say anything.

After the guards inspected the grassland, they naturally took note of Su Min’s clean patch and recorded it down.

And so this afternoon Su Min received a chicken drumstick as reward.

Many people were jealous of this drumstick. They stared at him as they ate and some even had the urge to snatch it from him.

“Is he a fucking human mower? How did he get it done so cleanly?”

“I misjudged him. He must have worked as a weeder in the past. Otherwise he can’t be this skilled.”

“Dammit!”

Su Min silently ate his chicken drumstick. The taste was just average, but they didn’t usually get much meat, so it was better than nothing.

After eating, the prison guards took them over to another empty room. They said. “Watch half an hour of TV.”

You naturally weren’t allowed to watch movies or TV shows here. It would either be the news or a music show. Right now, it was a music show being played.

Probably because they didn’t have any other form of entertainment for a long time, as soon as they saw people singing and dancing, the prisoners couldn’t help but also sway left and right. Some even got up and started to dance.

Soon, everyone in the room was dancing. That singing man even cleared his throat and started to sing.

Su Min really wanted to get them to stop dancing.

Do you realise you’re dancing over a grave?!