chsdbacks Chapter 48 Digging Graves
Chapter 48 Digging Graves
For the rest of the time, the three of them kept watch outside, while Lao Zeng climbed onto the bed alone and loosened the baffle of the vent.
The three people standing at the door chatted and observed the movements outside. Before long, it was time to go to bed.
The prison guards took attendance methodically, and the lights in the cells were gradually turned off.
In the darkness, Lao Zeng carefully removed the barrier, making almost no sound.
While the prison guards were patrolling the other cells, Ron and Zeng Xiang climbed into the pipe one after the other.
Su Zixu lay on the bed, watching the two figures leave, clutching the painting tightly in his hand.
Before lights out, Liu Runyu and Luo En had already disguised the two upper bunks.
Su Zixu knew he would have a hard time falling asleep tonight, even though he was supposed to rest.
............
On the other side, in the prison's public area, apart from a few night-shift guards dozing off on patrol, there was no one else around.
Lizzie volunteered to work tonight.
Lizzie timed it carefully, and after 10 p.m., she got up and walked out of the dormitory.
The guards' quarters were right next to Prison Number One, and her destination tonight was the monitoring room.
Following the directions of the changing guards, Lizzie scanned her face to enter the building leading to the library; the upper floors were all public areas.
Lizzie continued upwards until she reached the third floor.
The corridor was quiet, and the archives were right in front of her.
After entering the archives room, Lizzie walked towards the innermost cabinet where the files were stored.
After searching the bookshelf for a moment, Lizzie pushed a red fake book inward.
The next moment, the entire cabinet began to move to the side, and an elevator appeared in front of Lizzie.
She glanced at her watch and realized it was still early; there were still nearly forty minutes before Ron and his companion were to set off.
Seeing this as a rare opportunity, she decided to take the elevator and explore each floor.
However, as soon as Lizzie entered the elevator, she frowned. The only buttons in the elevator were "-1", "3", and "4".
The fourth floor was undoubtedly Quaid's office. Seeing this, Lizzie had no choice but to head down to the basement.
Basement level.
Contrary to her expectations, the basement was not gloomy at all; on the contrary, it was brightly lit and exquisitely decorated.
Outside the elevator was a spacious hall, with off-white marble tiles and red ceramic tiles on the floor, which looked very festive.
"Come and sign in." A pleasant female voice rang out from behind the counter in the lobby.
Lizzie stepped forward and wrote Laura's name and badge number on the sign-in sheet.
They then asked the staff member about the location of the monitoring room.
"Is this your first time working here? The monitoring room is over here." The staff member didn't seem surprised and pointed to the privacy glass on the left as he spoke.
Then, seeing that Lizzie still didn't quite understand, the staff patiently continued to explain:
"This entire wall is made of privacy glass; you can just scan your face to enter through that door."
The monitoring room, the space station's control room, as well as the weapons depot and escape pods are all inside.
The monitoring room, the space station's control room, and the weapons depot can all be entered by facial recognition, but there are still access restrictions.
"And what about the escape pod?" Lizzie then asked.
"I don't know about that."
When Lizzie asked about the escape pods, the staff's expressions turned noticeably colder.
"OK, thanks."
After thanking her, Lizzie didn't press the matter of the escape pod.
She turned and walked in the direction the staff indicated.
After scanning my face, the two floor-to-ceiling glass doors opened to the sides.
A room filled with screens appeared before Lizzie; she roughly estimated that there were about seventy screens in the monitoring room.
There were three men and one woman sitting in the room, a total of four people, each of whom was in charge of about ten screens.
Upon seeing someone arrive, the four of them merely glanced at Lizzie before looking back at the screen in front of them.
Lizzie walked to the only empty seat and glanced at the screens in front of her. These screens showed surveillance footage of the female prisoners' prison, which was not what she needed.
Lizzie stood up and walked to a male prison guard, saying in an unquestionable tone, "The captain assigned me today to oversee the public exercise yard."
The man turned his head. He wanted to argue with her, but seeing Lizzie's confident expression, he didn't say anything more. He got up and switched workstations with Lizzie.
Lizzie sat down and let out a long sigh of relief. She then glanced at her watch; there were still ten minutes before Ron and his team's operation.
Because Ron and his men didn't have watches, they had agreed beforehand to begin their operation at 11 p.m., when the cell lights went out.
............
The junior prison guard took over the task of patrolling the exercise yard tonight.
To ensure that tonight's operation would not be disturbed, Zeng Xiang had previously threatened him, saying that only he could be present tonight, and anyone else would be in trouble.
The junior prison guard had complete faith in Zeng Xiang's methods, so before starting his shift, he had already given his colleague who would be working with him that night a sleeping pill.
He was the only one in the area at the moment, and the empty corridor made him feel uneasy.
He paced back and forth anxiously, hands on his hips, occasionally glancing up at the sky.
The young prison guard's expression improved only when he heard a muffled thud above him. He quickly followed the direction of the sound and arrived at the bottom of a ventilation shaft.
After some fiddling, the panel was removed, revealing Ron's face.
"You've finally arrived! Hurry up, let's finish up and leave as soon as possible."
The young prison guard was also doing this for the first time, and his tone was nervous. He looked around furtively, appearing rather sneaky.
On the other side, after the three appeared on the screen, a complex emotion appeared in Lizzie's eyes, and then she quickly switched the screen's perspective.
After scanning their faces, the junior guard led the two quickly into the exercise yard. The surroundings were utterly silent; the noise of the iron gate opening and closing made the junior guard break out in a cold sweat.
The playground was still as bright as daytime, with sunlight shining directly on the ground and not a single cloud in the sky.
The warm light shone on Zeng Xiang and Luo En, but a chill rose in their hearts.
"Have you prepared all the tools I asked you to?" Old Zeng grabbed the young prison guard's arm and asked, his tone sounding somewhat fierce.
"Gentlemen, it's all done," the young prison guard said in a low voice, his neck hunched.
Then, he led the two quickly to a dilapidated wooden hut on the edge of the playground.
"Go get it." Old Zeng pushed the young prison guard forward and urged, "Hurry up, we don't have much time."
Before long, the young prison guard came out of the dilapidated house carrying two hoes.
"Why are there only two?" Old Zeng looked at the two hoes in the young prison guard's arms and said with some dissatisfaction.
The young prison guard paused for a moment upon hearing this, then cautiously asked, "Do I have to dig too?"
Old Zeng didn't have time to argue with him. He picked up the shovel, turned around, and walked in the direction Lizzie had pointed out to them earlier. "The three of us will take turns digging. You'll be in charge of keeping watch."
Following Lizzie's instructions, the three of them first went to the meeting point of their two teams, and then Old Zeng began to dig.
Ron joined in the digging, and before long, a hole was dug out at the bottom of the iron fence.
The three climbed over one by one and arrived at the exercise yard belonging to the female prisoners.
Throughout this time, Lizzie's gaze never left the three of them.
She moved very quickly; as soon as the shadows of the three people appeared on the screen, she immediately switched the monitoring perspective.
She counted and found that there were eight surveillance cameras on the playground, which were enough to cover both the boys' and girls' playgrounds.