Chapter 230: Are You Mocking Me, Or Are You Afraid Of Me?

Tian Tao stood in the restroom, staring at his face wrapped in gauze in the mirror, flames burning in his eyes.

Crash—

Suddenly, the sound of a toilet flushing came from a stall.

The Prison Guard on duty glanced casually at Tian Tao in front of the mirror while straightening the belt at his waist.

The moment their gazes met, he immediately lowered his eyes, greeted him carefully, then hurried out of the restroom.

Tian Tao still stood silently before the mirror; faint traces of crimson seeped through the white gauze, his cheek muscles twitching from time to time, the intense pain fierce yet not even one ten-thousandth of the humiliation deep in his heart.

"He doesn't dare look at me?"

"Why doesn't he dare look at me?"

"Is he afraid of me?"

"Or is it….."

Tian Tao's heart felt as if pierced by countless needles; every breath was like enduring horrific torture.

His short but stocky body trembled uncontrollably; his hands gripped the cold edge of the sink tightly, five fingers turning iron-blue from excessive force.

In the past, he was that Captain fierce as a bull calf; though not tall in stature, he was a giant in spirit.

He was very certain that in the Security Bureau under his jurisdiction, all prisoners and Prison Guards looked at him with eyes carrying reverence.

But today, in the afternoon, when he was tackled to the ground by Wang Cong, bitten on the cheek like a mad dog, let out fearful howls of pain, then had his face wrapped in gauze, Tian Tao felt the gazes of everyone in the Security Bureau looking at him had become strange.

"Although their expressions were calm one by one, still greeting him very respectfully, but, they thought he couldn't see, the contempt hidden in the depths of their eyes?"

"They are mocking me!!!"

Tian Tao's teeth ground with a creaking sound; he walked slowly out of the restroom, tilted his head up to look at the Electronic Eye flashing red light above, as if glimpsing one sneering face after another hiding behind the Surveillance Screen gloating over his misfortune.

Tian Tao suddenly whipped his head around to glare at the Cell next to him; the communal bunk by the door, a prisoner just drifting off to sleep, seemed to sense something and abruptly opened his eyes.

In a daze, he saw a terrifying white head without facial features in the square iron window on the door, only a pair of gloomy terrifying eyes staring dead at him.

His body wrapped in the blanket shuddered in fright, almost thinking he had encountered a ghost and about to cry out in alarm.

Reacting, he hurriedly covered his mouth with his hand, realizing it was merely a face wrapped in gauze.

"He's laughing at me?!!"

"Even prisoners dare laugh at me now??"

Tian Tao watched the prisoner's motion of covering his mouth to hide his laughter, steaming heat rising from the top of his head; he took out a key from his pocket, opened the cell door, and stepped inside.

Very soon.

Miserable shrieks echoed in the cell, waking the prisoners on the communal bunks.

They watched Tian Tao in horror, waving their fists wildly like a madman, smashing them viciously into their inmate's cheek again and again.

This time, Tian Tao did not use an Electric Baton, but chose to use his fists to feel the softness of flesh and blood.

Under his fists, flesh and blood gradually caved in, skin and flesh turned outward, presenting a heart-palpitating scene. Tian Tao seemed to be enjoying the pleasure brought by this power; his bones seemed to become hard and straight again because of it.

"Are you afraid of me?" Tian Tao's voice angrily interrogated.

"Ah, you're afraid of me ah ah ah!"

His roar was filled with madness and ferocity; the white gauze was dyed a bloody red, impossible to distinguish whether it was the prisoner's facial blood or the black blood seeping from Tian Tao's own wounds torn open by laughter, composing a terrifying and chaotic picture.

The prisoner died without ever getting to answer Tian Tao's question, but his entire caved-in face seemed to have already given Tian Tao the answer he wanted.

He released the corpse on the ground, looked at the prisoners shrunk into a row against the wall trembling, and suddenly felt everything was right again.

He walked out of the cell door refreshed, his bloody "head" held high, glanced at the Electronic Eye above, then side-eyed the Prison Guards patrolling in the distance, laughed loudly a few times, and walked back to the duty room.

The prisoners in the cell fearfully lowered their heads, not daring to look directly at his departing back.

In the corridor, the patrolling Prison Guards also subconsciously avoided Tian Tao's gaze.

Just then, the red light of the Electronic Eye above seemed to pause for an instant; the frame rate of the Surveillance Footage suddenly dropped significantly.

In this moment unnoticed by anyone, a blurry Shadow appeared in the corridor; a blurry mosaic appeared on the Surveillance Footage.

This Shadow seemed like a fleeting ghost, silently tailing Tian Tao, entering the duty room door together with him.

Tian Tao sat back on the bedside; he picked up the blanket and haphazardly wiped the remaining bloodstains on his hands.

Then, he took out his phone and called Chang Wei once again.

—The number you have dialed is powered off, please try again later.

The mechanical female voice from the phone made Tian Tao frown tightly; he hung up impatiently.

He scanned the call log; the record showed that starting from the afternoon, he had already dialed Chang Wei over a dozen times, but the calls never connected.

Thinking for a moment, Tian Tao lowered his head and opened the text message interface, pressing the virtual keyboard to start editing the text message content:

District Chief Chang, an accident happened, Wang Cong betrayed us, Feng Mu isn't dead, please hurry…..

Tap, tap, tap, the keyboard tapping sound suddenly cut off; Tian Tao's fingertips froze in midair.

His heart gave a violent jump; in horror he discovered that on the phone screen glowing with cold blue light, two, one-and-a-half overlapping faces were faintly reflected.

One was a red face wrapped in gauze; the other was……

"There's another person in the room besides me?!!"

This thought exploded in Tian Tao's mind; his whole body stiffened, he slowly raised his neck, and what appeared before his eyes was a slightly feminine and neutral face; those expressionless eyes coldly met his gaze.

That face seemed somewhat familiar; he had seen "him" this afternoon, quietly lying on the cold floor of the Incineration Room, mixed among those incomplete corpses.

Tian Tao's heart tightened violently, almost stopping its beat. His voice carried a barely concealed tremble: "Chen Ya?"

His eyes widened, almost popping from their sockets, staring at the familiar face before him, then looking at the close-fitting Prison Uniform still worn on the other's body; confirming he hadn't mistaken the person, a chill like an electric current instantly surged from his spine and spread throughout his body.

If one must describe his ghost-like terror at this moment, it would be much like the prisoner's horror just now when he saw Tian Tao wrapped in gauze through the iron window?

Chen Ya ignored Tian Tao's terror; he reached out with two fingers, lightly pinched Tian Tao's phone, lifted it gently, glanced at the text message content, and said with meaningful implication:

"Are you sure you want to send this text as your last words, hmm, sent to another dead person?"

(End of Chapter)