Chapter 02: Death Row Reprieve
408 Words
June 7, 2002, Midnight
The shrill ring of police sirens shattered the silence of City 1’s municipal headquarters. Within hours, every government official in H Province was summoned to an emergency summit. The gruesome m******e of five students and twelve gang members—orchestrated with sadistic precision—had even hardened detectives trembling.
By dawn, all leave was canceled. Mayor and police chief convened a war room, vowing to capture the killer within days. Pressure mounted: the victims included minors, and political careers hung in the balance.
Investigations moved at breakneck speed. Within two hours, all evidence pointed to a single suspect: Xing Ying, an 18-year-old honor student and class president at No. 2 High School. Police files detailed his double life:
Profile: AB-blooded, 6’2", 180 lbs, known for rebellious streaks.
Victimology: Girlfriend Huang Qi kidnapped by Wang Kewei’s gang and sacrificed to crime lord Tie Tou. Xing’s rampage left twelve mutilated bodies marked with blood-written “REVENGE.”
Armed with riot squads and SWAT teams, 300 officers swarmed the city. At dawn, they cornered Xing at a suburban cemetery. Before their eyes, the teenage killer knelt beside five decapitated heads, arranged in a shrine of rage. Fingertips spelled “REVENGE” in grotesque symmetry.
Without resistance, Xing was cuffed and paraded before cameras. The case seemed closed—until the trial. Despite damning evidence, the judge stunned the courtroom: death row with a two-year reprieve. Parents of the slain students, inexplicably silent, filed no appeals.
Xing’s parents, owners of a ramshackle noodle shop, wept as he bowed ten times before boarding the prison transport. The city breathed a collective sigh—but something about the resolution felt...unsettling.
Prison Transport
The convoy’s two-hour journey stretched to a grueling day. Through checkpoints and steel gates, Xing sat numbly, his mind adrift. The iron doors of Cellblock 105 clanged shut, sealing him among twelve hardened inmates.
First Encounter
Guard: "Listen up, maggots. This is Xing Ying. Show him respect—or else."
Inmate 1 (Shan Mao, a rotund thug): "Kid’s fresh meat. Time to bleed some manners into him."
Inmate 2 (Baldie): "Teach him who runs this cage."
Shan Mao spat in Xing’s face. When Xing wiped it away, Shan Mao struck. Xing’s counterstrike—a lightning-fast knife-hand strike—cracked ribs and punctured the gang leader’s heart. Blood spattered the cell walls.
Silence fell. Xing’s eyes, cold as winter frost, whispered:
"Don’t. Ever. Test me."
- Writer
