Chapter 205: Is it about who dies first or later, but who dies and who lives?

"It's not Feng Yujing, don't suddenly stop talking! If you don't talk, we get worried!"

A crowd of prisoners stared longingly at Feng Mu, feeling that their bodies were in his hands, and the corpses constantly glued and pieced together overlapped together.

Feng Mu was also very troubled in his heart; they all called him a good person, and he really couldn't bear to tell them the truth that would hurt them.

"Feng Yujing, if you don't speak, does that mean you agree?" a prisoner asked, unwilling to give up.

Feng Mu glued the last fragment together with glue, then looked at the latter who had asked the question; that prisoner's complexion looked even paler than the corpse in his hands.

He comforted him reluctantly: "Don't be afraid, you might not die so soon; specifically, it depends on how much balance is left in your account."

Feng Mu paused for a moment and asked: "So, is there still much balance left in your prison account?"

The prisoner stiffly shook his head.

Feng Mu: "Then you might have to find a way to transfer some money into your account, or ask your relatives outside to deposit some more for you; that would be better."

The prisoner's complexion was as white as paper, and he said miserably: "I just received money last week, and now I have to pay again this week, and double the amount! If this goes on, when will it ever end?"

The prisoner beside him answered for Feng Mu: "When we are completely squeezed dry, and beaten to death like Hou Laosan, then it will be over."

The atmosphere in the cell was heavy enough to suffocate, as if even the air had frozen.

Feng Mu felt the time was about right, then squeezed out a forced smile on his face and said:

"You shouldn't be too desperate either; maybe after a while, the prison policies will change, and you should still hold hope for life."

The prisoner who spoke the truth seemed to have no money left in his account, and he coldly laughed, giving up all hope:

"Feng Yujing, don't try to fool us here; we've been in this Second Prison longer than you have. This Second Prison has always been famous for demanding money, and today I heard they've implemented a 【Last Place Elimination System】. They really want to strip our tendons, peel our skin, squeeze us dry of every last drop of oil and water, leaving us no way to survive at all."

Feng Mu frowned slightly, then stood up and gritted his teeth: "I haven't lied to you. Although I'm just a new prison guard and can't help you with anything, I can only let you die with a bit more dignity, but..."

Feng Mu turned to look at Wang Cong, pushed Wang Cong in front of everyone, and said: "But, I believe he can change your terrible living environment."

A crowd of prisoners looked at Wang Cong in astonishment.

They naturally recognized him; he was the prison guard who had worked the most night shifts over the past half year.

The prisoners were all sharp people and could naturally tell that Wang Cong was being ostracized and bullied by his colleagues; how could they believe that such an oppressed prison guard could change their situation?

Wang Cong walked out with a slightly stiff complexion, took a deep breath, looked at the crowd of prisoners, imitating Feng Mu's patient and compassionate expression when speaking, and said:

"Yes, what you just said is correct. Your future situation will only get worse and worse, until you all die."

After speaking, Wang Cong ignored the desperate, man-eating gazes of several prisoners, and repeated the rules of the 【Last Place Elimination System】 that he had told Feng Mu in the afternoon to the crowd of prisoners once again.

Although the prisoners had already heard this news, they hadn't inquired about it completely.

At this moment, Wang Cong expounded the rules of the 【Last Place Elimination System】 one by one; every word struck their hearts like a heavy hammer, letting the prisoners' hearts sink to the bottom of the valley.

Wang Cong didn't care about the prisoners' moods; he only followed what Feng Mu taught him, constantly using the most real, most bloody words to stimulate the prisoners.

He said: "Today is only the first day of the 【Last Place Elimination System】, and the prison guards are still quite restrained. But wait until next Monday, when the specific rankings are announced; those security bureaus located at the bottom, from top to bottom, will fall into true madness."

He also said: "And once this madness starts, if you don't want to be at the bottom, you can only become more and more excessive each time. This is an endless competition; every week, the survival fund you need to pay will double."

He finally said: "You might be able to bear it in the first week, but by the second week, you must pay double the survival fund. In the third week, this number will double again."

"And the money in your accounts will only keep shrinking until it suddenly returns to zero one day. Thus, you will all eventually become pools of corpses; the only difference is whether it's a few weeks earlier or a few weeks later."

Wang Cong said while his palm slowly slid toward the electric baton at his waist. He felt these prisoners had been stimulated into a rage, and killing intent was bursting out of their eyes.

As if in the next second, anger would drown their long-tamed fear, and they would rush up together and tear him into pieces.

Wang Cong's voice suddenly rose in pitch, and he said urgently: "Unless, you refuse to pay from the very beginning."

At the same time, Feng Mu also walked to Wang Cong's side. His face lost its usual warmth, replaced by a rare coldness and severity, and his voice was cold and ruthless:

"That's right. If you want to survive, this time you absolutely, absolutely, absolutely cannot submit and obey the prison. This bad start absolutely cannot be opened."

The flames in the eyes of the crowd of prisoners were frozen. They stared in shock at Feng Mu and Wang Cong, their gazes focusing more on Feng Mu's face.

Although Feng Mu kept saying Wang Cong was the one who could change their situation, for some reason, they instinctively felt deep in their hearts that Feng Mu was the one who was more powerful and more trustworthy.

"What do you mean?"

"If we don't pay, the prison guards who collect money will beat us to death."

The prisoners in the room asked in a confused and panicked chorus.

Feng Mu wasn't in a hurry; he patiently waited for the prisoners, then said in a deep voice:

"Paying money is like cutting flesh with a dull knife, slicing you to death piece by piece. And once one person pays, others won't be able to hold back, and eventually everyone will be sliced to death together, equivalent to collectively rushing to commit suicide. I don't need to explain the reasoning behind this in detail, do I?"

Whether prisoners who can enter prison have high education or not is hard to say; whether their cultural level is high or not is unknown. But their understanding of human nature, especially the side of "evil," is at least above passing grade.

The scene Feng Mu described with his words, they could understand.

Feng Mu saw that they agreed with his reasoning, so he continued: "As for not paying money possibly getting you beaten to death, that is indeed a cruel fact placed before you."

The crowd of prisoners looked at Feng Mu full of hope, hoping he could give a solution.

But Feng Mu shook his head and said in a tone chilling to the bone:

"There's no way around this, because if you want to live, someone must die in the end. But the former is dying collectively, nothing more than a matter of dying early or late, while the latter is drawing lots—a matter of who dies and who lives."

Feng Mu paused slightly, giving the prisoners some time to slowly digest the heavy meaning in his words.

When their expressions changed from shock to contemplation, he slowly opened his mouth and continued:

"Those who resist not paying money and get beaten to death by prison guards can be said to have bad luck. But as long as they resist several times in a row, and a few people die while others survive, then the remaining people can all live."

Feng Mu withdrew the cold ruthlessness on his face; his eyes showed his usual compassion and gentleness, and his voice became low and full of emotion:

"To fight against the misfortune fate brings down, it's impossible to pay no price at all. Using the sacrifice of a few to exchange for the chance of survival for the majority—I think this is the most fair and best result acceptable to both those who die and those who live."

End of Chapter