Fifteen Years in Prison

Early morning, outside Sunshine Orphanage in Haicheng.

Ye Wudao carried a cake in his hands. Today was his eighteenth birthday. Once the day was over, he would have to leave the orphanage.

The children had insisted on celebrating his birthday for him. He'd used the money he'd saved from odd jobs to order the cake, then picked it up from the bakery first thing that morning.

When he saw the police car outside the orphanage, he froze for a moment, but didn't think much of it.

He pushed open the rusty iron gate and called toward the shabby two-story building, "Mom Wang! I'm back!"

No one answered from inside the courtyard. Carrying the cake, he headed toward the old building.

He'd only just reached the entrance when the director and Auntie Ma, the dorm supervisor, came out.

Two uniformed federal security officers followed behind them.

The moment the officers saw him, they quickened their pace and strode over.

"Are you Ye Wudao?"

The middle-aged officer stared hard at him and asked in a low voice.

Ye Wudao looked at the two officers in confusion and nodded. "I am!"

The officers exchanged a glance. The middle-aged one took out a pair of handcuffs and snapped them around Ye Wudao's right wrist.

Feeling the cold metal against his skin, Ye Wudao came to his senses and asked, "What are you doing?"

The middle-aged officer said in a low voice, "We suspect you're connected to a hit-and-run. Please come back to the bureau with us and assist with the investigation."

Ye Wudao frowned. "You've got the wrong person. I don't even own a car. How could I have committed a hit-and-run?"

The middle-aged officer ignored him, cuffed his other wrist, then turned to the dorm supervisor. "Sorry for the trouble, but we'll need you to come with us and give a statement too."

Ye Wudao looked at the dorm supervisor.

She glanced back at him, her eyes evasive, and muttered, "All right."

With that, the two officers escorted Ye Wudao toward the orphanage gate.

Ye Wudao struggled briefly, set the cake on the ground, and called to the director, "Mom Wang, give the cake to the kids. I'll be back soon. They must have made a mistake."

The director pressed her lips together and looked at him with pity. In a soft voice, she said, "Wudao, if you really did something wrong, just own up to it. Then you can ask for leniency."

Hearing the director's words, Ye Wudao froze.

There was something unusual in what she'd said.

In the police car, Ye Wudao sat in the back, while Auntie Ma sat in the front passenger seat.

"Auntie Ma..."

"Don't speak, or I'll have to take coercive measures!"

He had only just started to speak when the young officer beside him cut him off.

The police car drove straight ahead and soon reached the local Public Security Bureau.

In the interrogation room, two different officers questioned him.

A young woman handled the record-keeping, while a young man conducted the interrogation.

"Name?"

"Ye Wudao."

"Age?"

"I turned eighteen today."

"Do you know what you've done?"

"No."

"Where were you at ten last night?"

"Asleep in the dorm."

"But your dorm supervisor says you weren't there last night."

"That's impossible!"

At the interrogator's words, Ye Wudao remembered the dorm supervisor's evasive look. He tried to stand and protest.

His voice rang out, but his body remained firmly fastened to the interrogation chair.

The interrogator frowned, took out a photograph, walked up to the chair, and placed it in front of him. "Is this you?"

Ye Wudao studied the photo, his brow furrowing slightly.

It was a still from a surveillance camera: a red sports car with a shattered windshield and a dented hood. A young man sat inside.

The longer he looked, the more something felt wrong.

The photo was blurry, but the person in it really did look like him!

But he didn't even own an electric scooter, let alone a sports car that expensive.

He quickly shook his head. "That's not me. I don't own a car like that. He just looks a lot like me. You've got the wrong person."

Hearing this, the interrogator took out a sheet of paper and held it in front of him. "This is the declaration of paternity signed by you and Ye Zhenshan. We examined it, and the handwriting on it is yours."

"The declaration was signed yesterday and notarized."

"It clearly states that Ye Zhenshan gave you a sports car worth eight million under his name. Its license plate is 'Hai A·11111.'"

Ye Wudao stared at the declaration of paternity, stunned.

Who was Ye Zhenshan?

When had he ever signed this?

Realizing something was wrong, he shouted, "This is forged! I never signed it!"

The interrogator furrowed his brow, pulled out another sheet of paper, and slapped it down hard on the interrogation chair. He barked, "Then explain this to me: why was your blood found on the airbag in that car?"

"Would we have come after you without conclusive evidence?"

"Buzz..."

At those words, Ye Wudao's mind went blank. All that remained was a constant ringing in his ears.

Just then, the interrogation-room door swung open.

A middle-aged man in a white shirt and glasses addressed the two interrogators. "Xiao Tian, Xiao Chen, step outside for a moment."

The two interrogators left one after the other. Ye Wudao stared at the doorway, frowning as he tried to figure out what was going on.

After quite a while, the door opened again.

This time, it wasn't an officer who came in, but a middle-aged man in a suit.

The moment Ye Wudao saw him, he froze. The man looked familiar, yet he didn't think they'd ever met.

"My name is Ye Zhenshan. I'm your father!"

The middle-aged man walked up to Ye Wudao and spoke.

Ye Wudao's mind went buzz. The declaration of paternity, the sports car, the DNA... All the clues fell into place.

He shouted, "It was you! You forged all this evidence! Auntie Ma gave false testimony because you bribed her!"

Ye Zhenshan nodded without expression. "I did it. I had no choice. Your younger brother has been accepted into Haicheng Martial Arts Academy. His future is limitless."

"I can't let him go to prison, so you'll have to take the blame."

"Don't worry, I've arranged everything. You'll be out after a few years."

"Once you're out, I'll give you enough money to enjoy the rest of your life!"

Ye Wudao stared at the biological father he'd never met in his eighteen years of life. Looking at that strange yet familiar face, he shouted, "Why! Why!"

"You abandoned me for eighteen years, and now you're sending me to prison!"

"Why!"

Ye Zhenshan didn't answer. He only replied coolly, "If you weren't my son, I wouldn't have come here to see you."

With that, he turned and headed for the door.

Ye Wudao clenched both fists. As Ye Zhenshan reached the doorway, he demanded, "There's just one thing I want to understand. How did you get my blood?"

Ye Zhenshan opened the interrogation-room door and replied, "That wasn't your blood. I just had someone switch the report!"

Then he left the room and disappeared through the doorway.

Staring at the empty doorway, Ye Wudao seemed to have lost his soul. He slumped in the interrogation chair.

One month later, in the First Courtroom of the Haicheng City Federal Court.

"Defendant Ye Wudao, you caused the death of one person in a traffic accident and fled the scene. The circumstances are serious. In accordance with Article 133 of the Blue Star Federal Criminal Law, you are sentenced to fifteen years in prison."

"Bang..."

The judge's gavel came down.

Ye Wudao stood in the dock without struggling or arguing.

In the gallery, Ye Zhenshan sat without expression.

Beside him sat a young man who looked much like him, his head lowered as he played on his phone.

That was Ye Mingyuan, his half-brother. Ye Wudao was the one going to prison in his place.

A bailiff led Ye Wudao away. As he passed the gallery, he brushed shoulders with Ye Zhenshan.

They were less than a meter apart.

Neither of them said a word.

Instead, Ye Mingyuan looked up at him and smiled faintly.

There was no kindness in that smile, only boundless contempt!

Two months later, outside Haicheng First Prison, a prison transport van stopped before the iron gate.

"Host meeting system-binding requirements detected. Binding in progress..."

"Martial Arts Self-Improvement System successfully bound!"

Ye Wudao stepped down from the van. The moment his feet touched the ground, two mechanical voices sounded in his mind.

He froze.

Then he followed the prison guards through the iron gate.