Chapter 9: Chapter 9: The Mine
After a while, all the prisoners had been branded with numbers. The Prison Guards raised their whips and herded the prisoners back into long lines. Any who had fainted were rudely awakened with splashes of cold seawater.
The procession passed through the prison’s massive iron gates, and the world outside came into view. Ahead was a barren mountain, and on it, a dense black mass of human heads—countless miners excavating ore. A fleet of single-person wheelbarrows zipped along the winding mountain path, hauling ore down to the base like a colony of ants.
A sprawling camp was situated at the foot of the mountain. Tall smokestacks belched black smoke, and white steam hovered over the camp. Beside it, a small stream of inky-black water flowed silently by.
The Prison Guards shouted, herding the prisoners toward the camp. Luo Kai stared at the open-pit mine before him, momentarily stunned. A black whip lashed out at him, and the searing pain made him cry out as he staggered and fell to the ground.
Gritting his teeth, he forced himself back to his feet and rejoined the line. His back was already covered in welts from the day’s floggings, but compared to the pain of Bone Forging with Shui Su, these lashes were nothing.
The entire mine was enclosed by a four-to-five-meter-high chain-link fence. At regular intervals, stone watchtowers rose up, and on them, several heavily armed guards stared down coldly at the scene below.
The prisoners were herded into the camp in a single file, where an overpowering stench immediately assaulted their nostrils. In a square within the camp stood a row of crosses. Several gaunt-faced prisoners were bound to them, their skin dried and cracked by the scorching sun. Faintly, one could see maggots crawling in the open wounds...
In front of the crosses stood a wooden sign, on which was written in large, blood-red words: "This fate awaits all who run."
The new prisoners immediately fell deathly silent. They quietly accepted their assignments from the Prison Guards and were herded into dilapidated barracks.
Luo Kai and the four other death-row inmates were shoved into a barracks made of rubble and wood. It was little more than a crude shack. Blinding sunlight streamed through gaps in the roof. Inside, a dozen or so prisoners of various ethnicities lay scattered about—white, black, but most of them Yellow. Every one of them was sallow and emaciated, their bodies barely covered by rags. The smell of feet mixed with body odor created a nauseating stench.
The voices of the scar-faced Prison Guard and another man drifted in from outside the shack.
"Han the Third, you brought them to me, so why the long face? Here, it doesn’t matter if they’re a tiger or a dragon—they’ll lie down and stay put for me!"
"These guys are trouble. If they stir anything up, it’ll be a real headache. It’s safer to send them back to their cells after they’re done working."
The other man’s voice was laced with scorn. "Han the Third, since when did you get so timid? We’ve seen it all. Hell, we’ve even taken care of plenty of bigwigs from the Commandery City!"
The scar-faced Prison Guard grew furious. "Dammit, I’m doing this for your own good! I’ll arrange for an escort for them every day. The rest of the time, you just watch them closely!"
"Alright, fine. I’ll find some people to ’look after’ them. Han the Third, you haven’t visited in ages. Come on, I just got a few barrels of some fine sugarcane wine...
As the voices faded into the distance, the shack began to stir. A white prisoner, leading a few emaciated inmates, walked over and brazenly sized up the five newcomers. His eyes flickered with fear when he saw the Four-armed Giant. Of the remaining four, the black man was clearly not to be trifled with, and the two skinny youths were hard to read. It seemed only the white-haired old man was an easy target. The man boomed, "Hey, old man, what’s your name? What’re you in for?"
The old man squinted, a light chuckle escaping his lips. "My surname is Li, given name Gui. You fellows can just call me Old Li. As for my crime, well, it’s better left unsaid!"
"Hey, you old coot! You looking for a beating?" one of the other prisoners blustered, raising his hand to strike.
The white prisoner, however, held him back. "Han the Third was talking about you lot, wasn’t he?" he said in a low voice. "I don’t care how tough you were before. In this barracks, I’m the boss. Any objections?" After speaking, he glanced warily at the Four-armed Giant.
"I certainly have no objections," Li Gui said with a gentle smile. "As for the others, I can’t speak for them."
The white prisoner looked to the other four, but they simply stared off into space or pretended to sleep, showing no interest in him. He wanted to say something more intimidating, but he felt a flicker of apprehension. The other prisoners were all shrewd enough to know what was happening, and the room fell silent.
It was the white-haired old man, Li Gui, who broke the silence. "Alright now, friend. Didn’t you hear Han the Third? We don’t stay here. We get sent back to the cells after our shift."
...
This was an open-pit iron mine where over a thousand prisoners toiled. They used sledgehammers and iron spikes to pry ore from the mountainside, then smashed the huge chunks into smaller pieces. From there, they carried the ore in baskets on their backs, bit by bit, to the winding path, where they used wheelbarrows to transport it down the mountain.
In the ore-storage yard at the foot of the mountain, four or five strange, bloated trucks were parked. A massive boiler protruded from the side of each cab, taking up more than half of its total volume. Black coal smoke and white steam billowed together from the front of the vehicles, and the roar of their engines was deafening. They were clearly steam-powered trucks.
At the foot of the mountain, Luo Kai received his tool for the day—a massive sledgehammer. The heavy tool bent his back. Although his food rations had increased recently, it was far from enough to make up for his physical depletion. He felt as if he were carrying a mountain on his shoulders. His consciousness began to blur, and he could only press forward slowly, relying on sheer Willpower.
He had no idea how much time had passed before he finally reached his designated worksite. Piles of enormous black ore already littered the ground. His job was to smash the rocks. A prisoner beside him picked up an iron spike and motioned for him to start.
Perhaps it was the effect of the Body Techniques he was cultivating, or perhaps this body’s Recovery Power was simply too strong. After gasping for breath for a moment, Luo Kai surprisingly found the strength to lift the sledgehammer again. With a sharp CLANG, the hammer slammed down hard on the iron spike. A nearby overseer, who had already raised his Long Whip, slowly lowered it.
Under the blazing sun, Luo Kai was soon drenched in sweat. The sweat stung the wounds on his back, sending searing waves of pain through him and causing him to hunch over even more. He didn’t know how he managed to endure until the end of the day. After mechanically eating some unidentifiable slop, he was herded back to his cell by the Prison Guards.
Luo Kai dreamed again. In his dream, he saw a face both Charming and a little playful. It was his wife. It was as if he had returned to the days of their first love. They were strolling across campus, passing notes in the classroom, frolicking on the beach...
In the Darkness, Luo Kai’s eyes opened blankly. Faint moonlight streamed in through the iron-barred window. The stinging pain radiating from every part of his body helped him distinguish reality from his dream. He tried to recall his wife’s face, but for some reason, the harder he tried, the more her image blurred. A searing, gut-wrenching regret flooded his heart.
He viciously punched the wound on his chest, the brand that read "9527." The scab broke, tearing the wound open again. The pain of his Physical Body brought a slight relief to the torment of his Mind Spirit.
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