chsdbacks Chapter 33 Necklace
Chapter 33 Necklace
"Sit on the bed and don't move. I'll go in and take a look." After giving these instructions, Su Zixu entered the secret room.
The entire room had black walls and floors, creating a very oppressive atmosphere. Apart from the hospital bed and the medical equipment beside it, there was nothing else inside.
Su Zixu approached the hospital bed slowly with light steps. When he saw the face of the person lying on the bed, his heart trembled slightly.
"Lawson," Su Zixu called softly.
The old man kept making sobbing sounds and speaking incoherently, sometimes loud and sometimes weak, and his condition looked very serious.
Looking at the medical equipment placed beside the hospital bed and the bandage on Lawson's head, Su Zixu realized that Lawson had been subjected to forced mental treatment.
Calling it treatment is an understatement; it's more like abuse.
Seemingly sensing the person beside him, Lawson tilted his head and tried to open his eyes to look at Su Zixu.
"Who are you?" Lawson's voice was weak, and he seemed not to have recovered from the abuse.
"I'm Ron's friend. We haven't seen you for days and we're very worried about you."
Su Zixu tried to evoke the old man's memories through Ron, but the effect was not very obvious.
Lawson paused for a moment before replying, "Ron... I don't know... Kid, go and call Jenny and Joe over."
"Mr. Lawson, Mr. Sissan was released from prison today," Su Zixu continued.
Lawson stared blankly at the dark ceiling, his lips twitching as if trying to recall something. A glimmer of light flashed in his eyes, but it quickly faded into confusion.
"Ha—ha—um—"
He opened his mouth wide and exhaled a long breath, "That's good, Xisan...who is that...good to get out...good..."
"Go home...children, I'm taking Jenny and Joe home."
As Lawson spoke, he struggled to pull the blanket off his body, pointing his finger at his neck.
Su Zixu lifted Lawson's collar and took out a silver necklace.
The necklace was adorned with a gold ring and a bronze key.
Su Zixu looked into Lawson's eyes, only to find that the other man had looked at him first.
Lawson nodded, then closed his eyes as if he were asleep.
Just as Su Zixu was about to take off the necklace, the door to the secret chamber suddenly began to descend.
The incident happened suddenly. Su Zixu only saw Liu Runyu crawl under the bed and look at him with an anxious gaze.
"Someone's coming," Su Zixu thought to himself, realizing something was wrong.
"Old Man Lawson, I'm sorry to offend you." He apologized silently, then ripped off the necklace and held it tightly in his hand.
At that moment, footsteps reached the door.
Su Zixu looked around and realized that the only place he could hide was under Lawson's bed.
Without hesitation, he quickly pulled Lawson's blanket toward the foot of the bed until it completely blocked his view from the front, then slipped under the bed.
At this moment, the door to the secret room slowly opened again, and the person outside walked towards Lawson. "Push him to the bedside, you two move him." A familiar voice rang out from the bedside.
"It's that '057' again." Su Zixu recognized the voice as that of the prison guard who was making room checks.
"Old man, you can stay here and be buried with your grandchildren. Stop playing the hero. If your family had been obedient, you wouldn't be in this situation of having no descendants."
"057" grabbed Lawson's hair and said to him with schadenfreude.
"Captain, let's go quickly. You go ahead, I'll push the old man. How can I let you do this job? Don't get your hands dirty."
The voice was extremely obsequious, and Su Zixu's expression turned strange.
He recognized the voice as that of the junior prison guard he had threatened that morning.
"You're doing well, getting on board with this big shot so quickly."
Su Zixu silently plotted in his heart. He decided to kidnap this unlucky guy again tomorrow. He was determined to fleece this sheep.
Outside the door, Liu Runyu hid under the bed, barely daring to breathe, fearing he would be discovered and then arrested and killed by the prison guards.
His tension only eased when he felt the guy sitting above him get up and leave.
Shortly after, Liu Runyu heard the elevator doors close a second time.
He waited a while longer, making sure the prison guards had indeed left, before daring to come out.
Liu Runyu sat back on the bed. After the door was opened, he saw Su Zixu staring at his palm, looking thoughtful. He asked, "What's that, Brother Su?"
"The key and ring he was wearing," Su Zixu said thoughtfully, his gaze lingering on the key.
"The design on this ring is quite unique; I can't tell what it is."
Out of curiosity, Liu Runyu also came over to examine it carefully.
"The first to sixth floors are all prison cells, right?" Su Zixu asked.
"That's right, brother. Do you think this key can open those cells?" Liu Runyu seemed to have seen through Su Zixu's thoughts. "Why don't we go down and try it? We have to go through them anyway."
Su Zixu nodded; that was also his plan.
The two prepared to try each level one by one. On the way down, Su Zixu took out the watch face clipped to the back of his waistband and glanced at the time.
Nearly three hours had passed since he came in, and it was almost time for dinner.
"We need to speed things up, otherwise it'll be troublesome if the guards come looking for us and we're not outside," Su Zixu urged.
"Okay, bro," Liu Runyu replied, looking very excited at the thought of leaving this place soon.
However, reality proved harsh. Over the next half hour, the two tried opening each cell on each floor, but to no avail.
"It seems this key isn't meant for this purpose." Su Zixu was somewhat disappointed, but he thought it was for the best, otherwise everything seemed to be going too smoothly.
If things went too smoothly, he felt it could only mean that there was an even bigger trap waiting for him ahead.
"Let's go downstairs and wait 10 minutes. If Lao Zeng doesn't come up, we'll go out first."
"Great, bro! I can finally leave this awful place. I feel like I've been here for years." Liu Runyu complained, but he looked very happy.
............
In front of the Third District Gate.
"Old Zeng, I really don't think he's dead."
Recalling what had happened before, Su Zixu offered his conjecture: "I think he's just trapped here."
"Sigh, now is not the time for us to be sad. Get up, we need to move forward."
Old Zeng walked to Su Zixu's side, gently patted his shoulder, and gestured for him to cheer up.
Old Zeng assumed Su Zixu was simply overwhelmed with grief, and after offering some words of comfort, he said, "Ron is still waiting for us, let's go and meet up first."
With red eyes, Su Zixu propped himself up. As if he had thought of something, he hurriedly reached into his pocket and only breathed a sigh of relief when he touched the white piece of paper.
Slowly standing up, Su Zixu let out a long breath, suppressing his grief, and followed Old Zeng outside.
The two had only taken two steps when the iron door of the hall was pushed open. Edwin opened the door along with two prison guards, one of whom was an old acquaintance of Su Zixu and his companions.
"Hey! Hey... is everything done?"
When the young prison guard saw that it was Su Zixu and his group working in Zone 3, he got so excited that he almost misspoke, but thankfully he managed to correct himself in time.
"A major leak occurred in the men's prison ward today, resulting in heavy casualties. From now on, I will be in charge of your work. This is also Captain Kurt's decision."
The young prison guard said in a pretentious tone.
Both of them gleaned important information from this seemingly ordinary statement.
Firstly, only their side was in trouble, while the female prisoner was safe.
Furthermore, the mold caused heavy casualties among the guards, which gave the junior prison guard an opportunity to get promoted.
The last piece of information is that this captain, also known as "057", was originally death row inmate number "009", whose name was Kurt.
Having his surname makes it much easier to search for clues about him.