After the male Alpha prison guard left, everyone in the workshop looked at Jiang Yue with sympathetic eyes.
Jiang Yue’s intuition also told her that something was wrong. Labor ended at six in the evening, and when Jiang Yue returned to Cell 666, she pondered for a moment before grabbing the blond male Alpha and asking, “What’s going on with that particularly alluring male Alpha guard?”
The blond, trembling with fear, said, “Reporting to Boss Jiang, that officer is called Zhong Lai. He was assigned here two months ago, and he has rather unusual tastes, he especially likes young, strong Alphas.”
His voice grew softer as he spoke: “The Alphas he sets his sights on… none of them ever come back alive. That’s why everyone in the prison calls him the Black Widow.”
Black Widow…
Just the name alone didn’t sound like anything good.
Jiang Yue asked, “And no one stops him?”
The blond gave a wry smile. “Boss Jiang, when you took care of Mo Qi and Ou Tie, did anyone step in? No matter how powerful someone used to be, once they end up on this garbage planet, their life isn’t worth a thing.”
Jiang Yue frowned. “What happens if you refuse to go?”
The blond replied, “Then it’s even worse. Go, and you die. Don’t go, and you die anyway. Personally, I think selling a bit of charm before dying isn’t such a big deal.”
Jiang Yue: “…”
In prison, of course, going against a guard was sheer stupidity.
At seven in the evening, with an unbearably heavy heart, Jiang Yue knocked on Zhong Lai’s office door.
A lazy voice called out, “Come in.”
Summoning all her courage, Jiang Yue pushed the door open and stepped inside.
Though it was called an office, it looked more like a lounge. Behind the desk was a single bed with white sheets, and further in was a bathroom; its glass, surprisingly, was transparent.
The alluring male Alpha was sitting in a chair, drinking tea. His long legs were propped on the armrest, a satisfied smile playing on his face. He pointed to the chair in front of him and said, “Sit.”
Jiang Yue, extremely uneasy, sat down and nervously asked, “Officer Zhong Lai, may I ask what you wanted to see me about?”
Her eyes swept over the dark red desk; there wasn’t a single file on it, only an exquisite tea set.
Zhong Lai curved his red lips into a smile. “My dear little Alpha is really so innocent… You wouldn’t actually be here to organize files for me, would you?”
He rose from his chair and stepped in front of Jiang Yue, extending his cold fingers to gently caress her cheek. A faint flush colored his face as he said softly, “I noticed you when I was going through the prisoner list. After all, a face like yours is rare, there’s simply no substitute.”
“Compared to you, other Alphas are completely bland,” he added with a teasing smile, lightly touching her lips with his fingertip. “Besides, taming a little wolf pup is quite an interesting game, isn’t it?”
Jiang Yue’s scalp tingled again, and her tongue began to twist. “S-Sorry… I… I don’t quite understand what you mean. What exactly did you want to see me for?”
“What could it possibly be about?” he said with a smile, straddling Jiang Yue’s thighs and lightly grazing her Adam’s apple with his fingertips.
So close, the scent of strawberry cream was even stronger. Jiang Yue swallowed hard.
Zhong Lai smiled and said, “Don’t worry, I’m very gentle. You don’t need to be nervous, just lie down and enjoy it.”
Jiang Yue: ?!
His smile grew more and more captivating as he reached for the belt at his waist.
Jiang Yue forced a stiff smile and gripped his wrist. “Officer… please, don’t do this.”
Zhong Lai let out a derisive laugh. “You can scream your lungs out, no one’s coming to save you. And just so you know, I like a little excitement.”
With a click, he unfastened the buckle on his belt and flicked it. She had no idea what mechanism he had triggered, but suddenly countless tiny steel needles sprang out from the belt.
Jiang Yue’s pupils constricted instantly.
Her eyes rolled slightly, staring blankly, and in a dry, flat voice she said, “Officer Zhong Lai… I’m a normal person.”
Zhong Lai laughed with pleasure, his tone soft. “But I’m not.”
He tapped Jiang Yue’s chest with a finger, his face wearing a half-intoxicated, half-satisfied expression as he looked at her. “You’d better not struggle. The more you resist, the more excited I’ll get.”
Jiang Yue had imagined all kinds of perverts she might encounter in the First Prison. She had mentally prepared herself, ready for anything.
But she never could have imagined that the first pervert she would encounter was a male Alpha prison guard with such an alluring appearance.
It completely broke her defenses.
As the steel whip was about to strike her, Jiang Yue couldn’t just sit there and wait to die. She lunged forward, toppling the chair. The two of them fell to the ground, and Jiang Yue immediately pinned the male Alpha guard beneath her.
Zhong Lai, however, was not to be underestimated. His strength matched Jiang Yue’s, and his fighting style was far from the orthodox training she had received at military school. It was a ruthless skill honed through life-or-death battles, every move deadly.
This was the first time Jiang Yue had encountered such a formidable opponent. After a fierce, vicious struggle, she grabbed Zhong Lai by the hair and instantly turned the tide of the battle.
Sitting atop his waist, she pinned him so he couldn’t move. Fueled by anger, Jiang Yue didn’t hold back, she snatched the steel whip from his hand and brought it down with full force.
The steel studs on the whip tore through flesh, and a vivid red streak of blood appeared on Zhong Lai’s shoulder. A victorious smile spread across Jiang Yue’s face as she pressed down hard on his wound with her hand.
Give me pain!
Zhong Lai’s crimson lips parted slightly, and his flushed face bore an expression of utter intoxication.
Jiang Yue’s pupils constricted violently as she stared at him in disbelief.
His hoarse voice murmured, “Keep going, little Alpha.”
The smile on Jiang Yue’s face cracked. She was on the verge of losing her mind. Regaining her composure, she spat and cursed harshly, “You lunatic!”
Then she fled in a panic.
She returned to Cell 666 in a disheveled state. Her cellmates were sitting together, gossiping, and upon seeing her come back with her clothes in disarray, they all wore expressions of “I knew it.”
Jiang Yue painfully reached for her hair, and remembered that it had already been shaved down to a stubble when she entered the prison. Only a thin layer of short hair remained on her scalp.
She was beyond frustrated. Sitting on the bed with a cold expression, she refused to speak. The blond male Alpha, emboldened, came closer and asked, “Boss Jiang, are you okay? Did you give in? I have some ointment to reduce swelling.”
Jiang Yue closed her eyes, her face expressionless. “I didn’t give in. I fought him and came straight back.”
Her cellmates were shocked, their jaws practically dropping. The blond gasped, “Boss Jiang… you’re finished!”
Jiang Yue asked, “Is he going to put me in solitary or something?”
The blond shook his head. “You’re thinking far too simply.”
He shook his head and said to Jiang Yue, “Do you know why the death rate in the First Prison on Garbage Planet is always so high?”
Jiang Yue frowned. “Why?”
The blond replied, “Because prisoners without connections are sent to the mining zones.”
Jiang Yue scoffed. “What era is this? Mining has long been handled by robots!”
The blond shook his head. “Do you know what Garbage Planet really is? It’s a dump. Its level of development can’t compare to other planets. Besides, the mines have strong magnetic fields, robots malfunction inside. And the white crystals are incredibly rare, worth a fortune. Even the slightest damage is an incalculable loss, so they have to be mined by humans.”
“What exactly are white crystals?” Jiang Yue asked.
The blond replied, “White crystals are both ornaments and a kind of miraculous medicine. It’s said that as long as you still have a breath of life, eating a white crystal will keep you alive.”
Jiang Yue shook her head. “I’ve never heard of such a thing before.”
Blond said, “White crystals have serious side effects. I don’t know exactly what they are, but eventually the Federation banned them. Garbage Planet is the only place that still uses them.”
Only then did Jiang Yue understand why the prison always smelled faintly of minerals.
But where was that strange woody scent coming from?
Her curiosity didn’t last long, because the next day Jiang Yue was taken away by a prison guard.
The prison guard sighed with regret, giving Jiang Yue a long lecture. “Why did you have to offend Zhong Lai? Now look at you, you can’t stay in the East Zone anymore. You’ll be sent to the West Zone to mine.”
She was escorted to the West Zone, moving from Cell 666 to Cell 888. West Zone cells held twelve prisoners each.
If the East Zone was a slum, the West Zone was a concentration camp. The prisoners here were pale, emaciated, and skeletal, their muscles wasted away.
Without even a moment to catch her breath, Jiang Yue was forced into a mining squad immediately after changing into her West Zone prison uniform.
What they were mining was called white crystal; a stunningly beautiful, white mineral.
The crystals emitted a faint woody fragrance, and only then did Jiang Yue understand where the prison’s peculiar scent had come from.
Her cellmate, Zhang San, who was working alongside her, was constantly coughing. At 32, in the prime of his life, he had already lost 32 jin (about 16 kilograms) after just three months in the mines.
Staying in the mines for more than six hours caused dizziness. Every prisoner was required to work more than twelve hours a day, but Jiang Yue didn’t feel any of these effects.
Having been through so much already, Jiang Yue knew all too well that being stronger or more resilient than ordinary people wasn’t always a blessing. So when the others began showing signs of dizziness, she pretended to feel faint as well; putting down her shovel, clutching her head, and crouching on the ground to look weak and sickly.
The squad leader supervising their mining approached and delivered a sharp kick.
“What are you resting for? Get back to work digging, now!”
Jiang Yue crouched for a moment, feigning heavy breathing, then picked up her shovel and continued digging.
Work ended at 11 p.m., and Jiang Yue was exhausted, hungry, and sleepy.
She had thought that Cell 666 had been bad, but she never imagined that the lower limit here could be so unimaginably terrible.
What were the West Zone cells like?
Every day, the three meals consisted only of water and extremely cheap nutrient fluid. The nightly snack was a single, nearly worthless energy bar, which tasted like biting into rancid lard that had been rotting for eight hundred years.
She never could have imagined that such horrifying food could exist in the world.
By the third day of mining, the strong magnetic fields still had no effect on Jiang Yue, but she was growing weak and fatigued from sheer hunger.
The prison rations were outrageous. After passing through multiple layers of skimming and theft, what actually reached the prisoners’ mouths was pitifully little.
In the East Zone, because most prisoners had connections, life was at least somewhat bearable. But the prisoners in the West Zone were treated like animals. The prison demanded the impossible: make the horses run fast, but don’t let them eat.
Jiang Yue knew that at this rate, her body wouldn’t hold up much longer. Quietly, she released her eyeballs, letting the delicate red filaments extend into the white crystals and absorb their energy.
Seven days later, Zhang San, who had been mining alongside Jiang Yue, collapsed to the ground clutching his heart, the white crystals he’d dug scattered around him.
Filled with fury, Zhang San had no desire to die. Summoning the last of his strength, he forced himself to eat the freshly mined white crystal.
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Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152
i love this webnovel so much. thank you!
Thank you for your translate. Plis don’t drop this!
Goated novel, eagerly awaiting the next chapters.