Chapter 303: All Because of That Face

When he heard the word "prison," Yu Dazhang nearly slammed the table.

Why use that word specifically? Couldn't you use any other descriptor?

Could a private individual even open one?

Who in China has the ability—and the nerve—to run a private prison?

Even if someone had the guts, they could never hide it.

Though he thought Fang Peng's story was implausible, Yu Dazhang held back and didn't interrupt.

"They dug out a huge space, at least two stories high."

Fang Peng took another drag, exhaled a thick cloud of white smoke, then continued:

"On both sides were rows of iron doors; the open space in the middle was half the size of a soccer field."

"I knew it was a prison because the first thing I saw were the guards."

"They wore uniform outfits, with electric batons and handcuffs hanging from their belts, patrolling back and forth in front of the iron doors."

This is insane… By this point, Yu Dazhang wanted a cigarette too.

He had been watching Fang Peng's expression the whole time—and saw not a single trace of lying.

Could everything he said be true?

Possible?

A private prison hidden underground in China, undiscovered for all these years?

Just the scale of that construction alone couldn't have been built in secret.

But if they'd done it openly, they'd have been reported within a week.

Even tomb robbers who dig a single hole in the ground get reported the next day—let alone a project this massive.

Fang Peng across from him fell silent, as if unsure how to proceed.

"You must've been locked up there a long time," Yu Dazhang reminded him.

"Tell me how you lived inside."

Fang Peng nodded, gathered his thoughts, and replied:

"At first, I was locked in a single cell. Food was brought twice a day."

"A week later, just as I felt I was going mad, the guards opened my door and let me out."

"I was allowed to move freely in the central open area, and the iron doors of all other cells opened too—everyone emerged from their cells and gathered in the prison's central yard."

"That's when I realized how many people were imprisoned there."

Hearing this, Yu Dazhang mentally calculated.

From this, the so-called prison wasn't large at all.

In China, even a small prison holds eight hundred to a thousand inmates.

Ordinary cells house twelve to fourteen people.

This doesn't even qualify as a micro-prison.

But that place wasn't a prison.

From another angle: if a gang kidnapped so many people, what kind of case would that be?

Across the entire public security system, no such large-scale kidnapping has ever been recorded.

Or rather, this can't even be called kidnapping—it's closer to terrorism.

What was their purpose?

Up to now, this was the one thing Yu Dazhang couldn't understand.

If it were for ransom, once the money was paid, there were only two choices: release them or kill them.

Either way, there'd be no reason to lock them in an underground prison far from the city.

And with a kidnapping operation this massive, any money-handling activity would let police pinpoint and arrest the perpetrators.

Since the place has never been discovered, they're not holding people underground for ransom.

Then what for?

Personal hobby?

That's too perverted—Yu Dazhang immediately dismissed the idea.

Even if it were a personal hobby, no one would imprison so many people and go through the motions of assigning guards.

He glanced at Liu Miao and Ma Jian beside him—both wore blank expressions, clearly just as confused.

"It was during that first outdoor period that I noticed something strange."

Fang Peng took two more drags, crushed out the cigarette, tossed it on the ground, then continued:

"All the prisoners had severely impaired intelligence—blank stares, expressionless faces."

"They rarely spoke to each other, and when they did, it made no sense."

Key point… Yu Dazhang perked up.

The planners wouldn't imprison people without a purpose—they must have had a goal.

The fact that all the prisoners had impaired intelligence was a breakthrough.

"So there wasn't a single person with normal intelligence?" Yu Dazhang couldn't help asking.

"Of course not," Fang Peng said, looking exasperated.

"I'm the one with normal intelligence."

"Just you?" Yu Dazhang's eyes widened.

Staring at Fang Peng's Down syndrome face, he suddenly had a thought.

Those people probably kidnapped the wrong person.

They had taken Fang Peng for a person with intellectual disabilities!

"That's right, I'm the only normal person here." Fang Peng nodded and laughed self-deprecatingly:

"It's laughable, isn't it — the entire underground prison holds nothing but people with intellectual deficiencies, and I'm the only exception."

Yu Dazhang and Ma Jian exchanged a glance, each guessing the other's thoughts from the look in their eyes.

Fang Peng wasn't wronged in the slightest.

Who told him to have a face like Down syndrome.

If he stood there quietly without making a single sound, anyone who saw him at first glance would, without hesitation, take him for a person with intellectual disabilities.

From this one point, it was clear that the so-called underground prison didn't just take anyone.

Their target was very clear: only imprison people with intellectual deficiencies!

Getting a bit closer to logic… Yu Dazhang muttered to himself.

Only these special groups of people would not leak the secrets of the underground prison.

Besides, they didn't have the ability to escape either.

"Why only imprison these kinds of people?" Yu Dazhang continued to ask.

In his view, Fang Peng had been locked up there for a year; even if he wasn't all that bright, he should have figured out the situation by now.

"I don't know." Fang Peng shook his head:

"I only know the underground prison is the first stop. The people held there are arranged to do things every day."

"For example… cleaning, hauling, making handcrafted products. During this process, these people are divided into many groups to distinguish levels of IQ, and the members in each group have roughly the same IQ."

Pretty professional… Yu Dazhang figured out those people's purpose the moment he heard it.

It was nothing more than sorting out people of equal intelligence.

After all, even among people with intellectual deficiencies, you could split them into tiers.

You could tell when they did things day to day, and then, based on these people's intellectual levels, assign them different work.

"What does 'first stop' mean?" Yu Dazhang picked out the key point from his words.

"A cycle." Fang Peng explained:

"Every so often, these people who've been sorted into groups get sent out — usually whole groups together."

"Each group has a fixed eight people, and the number sent out each time varies; sometimes it's one group, sometimes two or three groups go together."

"At the same time, new people are constantly being added into that underground prison. In the year I was in there, quite a few people were sent out."

Damn!

Hearing these words, Yu Dazhang's hair stood on end.

He'd underestimated those people before. The so-called underground prison they'd dug out was never meant to imprison people at all.

This freaking thing was a transit station!

Put another way, it was a training center.

Here, they first got these intellectually deficient people whipped into complete submission.

Then, based on each person's IQ, they sorted them and assigned corresponding work.

And so the question arose.

Yu Dazhang's face was now a picture of bewilderment.

Where was the next stop?

(End of chapter)