Taken to the Detention Center

The police car had been driving through the night for almost twenty minutes.

Chen Yuan sat in the back seat, with Zhang Xiu'e leaning against his shoulder. She neither cried nor spoke, but her eyes looked vacant.

The lights outside the windows grew sparser, the buildings lower, and the trees more numerous.

Walls began appearing on both sides of the road, topped with barbed wire. Lamps stood at intervals, their harsh white light making the shards of broken glass along the walls glitter.

The car finally turned into an alley and stopped before a large iron gate. Above it hung a sign with black lettering on a white background—Deep City Second Detention Center.

Chen Yuan's heart sank completely.

He looked out through the window. The iron gate stood a good four or five meters high, with barbed wire coiled across the top. A uniformed officer sat in a guard booth at the corner of the wall.

The perimeter wall stretched back as far as he could see.

A row of trees grew along its base. He had no idea what kind they were, but their leaves drooped, as lifeless as the place itself.

Chen Yuan gave a bitter inward laugh. He had misjudged Zhao Jianguo after all. Apparently, he wasn't a good man either!

Society had wasted no time teaching him his first lesson!

At school, his teachers had told him that everyone was equal before the law. Back in the village, he had also heard people talk about officials colluding with businessmen and how money could make anything happen.

At the time, Chen Yuan had thought those things only happened on television and had nothing to do with him.

Now he finally understood. Not only did they have something to do with him, they affected him more than he could have imagined!

Wang Dahai knew that policeman named Liu. Liu had spoken up for them, and then Chen Yuan and Zhang Xiu'e had been sent to the detention center.

Chen Yuan turned to look at Zhang Xiu'e.

She leaned against his shoulder, her eyes half closed and vacant, fixed on some spot on the back of the seat in front.

The tears on her face had dried into streaks. Her makeup was ruined, and dark smudges lay beneath her eyes.

The hand he held was ice-cold.

Chen Yuan felt a crushing tightness in his chest!

Sister Ezi had spent seven or eight years in Deep City. She must have endured so much hardship and humiliation.

She had put up with Wang Dahai bullying her and Li Yan plotting against her, all for that job, for a few thousand yuan.

But now? Her job was gone, and she was locked up too.

He turned his head, brought his mouth close to Zhang Xiu'e's ear, and whispered, "Don't be scared, Sister Ezi. I'm here."

Zhang Xiu'e neither moved nor answered. But her fingers curled faintly against his palm.

A young policeman sat beside them. He was twenty-three or twenty-four, with a round face, and had been dozing against the window. Hearing Chen Yuan speak, he opened his eyes and turned to look at him.

"No talking!" The policeman wasn't loud, but his tone was harsh. "Behave yourself!"

Zhang Xiu'e flinched at his voice, drawing in her shoulders and nestling closer into Chen Yuan's arms.

Chen Yuan glanced at the policeman without saying a word.

The policeman looked him up and down too. Then one corner of his mouth lifted, exposing part of his tobacco-stained teeth.

"You're pretty handy in a fight, aren't you?"

There was a teasing edge to his voice.

"Two men, and you took them both down on your own. The fat one had glass stuck all through his knee, and you nearly knocked the skinny one's nose crooked. Wouldn't have guessed it, looking at that little frame of yours."

The policeman in the front passenger seat turned around too. It was Liu Ming, the one who had spoken up for Wang Dahai at the hotel. His face was expressionless, but the corners of his mouth also curled upward.

"The woman wasn't bad either. Split someone's head open. Blood all over the face. Looked pretty scary."

After saying that, he exchanged a glance with the policeman beside Chen Yuan, and both men laughed aloud.

Neither Chen Yuan nor Zhang Xiu'e said anything.

Chen Yuan leaned back against the seat and looked at the large iron gate outside. It was still closed. The man in the guard booth was on the phone, though Chen Yuan had no idea what he was saying.

He really didn't want to speak to either of these policemen. One had sided with Wang Dahai at the hotel, and the other was treating them like a joke.

What could I say? What was there to say?

Zhang Xiu'e felt the same. She leaned against Chen Yuan's chest, eyes closed and lips pressed tightly together.

Her heart ached. She turned to look at Chen Yuan, and her tears began falling again.

This was all my fault!

She was the one who had brought Chen Yuan out of the village. She had promised to take him to Deep City to find work, to give him a better life. And what had happened?

Before he had even found a job, she had gotten him dragged into this.

Zhang Xiu'e gripped Chen Yuan's hand and squeezed gently.

Feeling it, Chen Yuan looked down at her and understood what her eyes were saying.

He gave Sister Ezi a firm nod, then shook his head.

The nod meant, I know. The shake meant, I don't blame you.

Chen Yuan drew Zhang Xiu'e back into his arms, holding her tighter than before.

To be honest, he wasn't all that scared.

He had injured people, so he would pay compensation. If he couldn't afford it, he could go to prison. He was the one who had hit them, after all. It had nothing to do with Sister Ezi.

Besides, he had controlled his blows. Wang Dahai and Sun Deming looked awful, but their injuries were only superficial.

The iron gate slowly opened with a grinding creak.

The police car drove into a small courtyard where several cars were parked. Across from it stood a gray building with iron bars welded over its windows. A harsh white light shone by the entrance, illuminating every yellow and white line on the ground.

The car door opened.

"Get out." Liu Ming stood by the door and beckoned to them.

Chen Yuan got out first, then turned to help Zhang Xiu'e. Her legs were weak, and she couldn't stand steadily. She held on to the car door for a long while before she could just barely stay upright.

The two of them were led into the building. The corridor was long, and fluorescent tubes hummed on the ceiling, flooding it with glaring white light.

Iron doors lined both sides, each with a small viewing hatch. Eyes appeared behind some of the hatches, then vanished in an instant.

An odd smell hung in the air, something like disinfectant, something like mildew, with a sour stink mixed in. Chen Yuan took a breath, and his throat tightened.

At the end of the corridor, Liu Ming pushed open a door into an office.

It was small, with a desk and a few chairs. A computer, a desk lamp, and an insulated cup sat on the desk.

A commendation banner hung on the wall, but Chen Yuan couldn't make out the words.

"Sit." Liu Ming pointed at the chairs.

Chen Yuan and Zhang Xiu'e sat down. Liu Ming took a seat across the desk, switched on the computer, tapped a few keys, then pulled a notebook from a drawer and opened it.

"Name."

"Chen Yuan."

"Age."

"Eighteen."

"Address."

"Potou Village."

Liu Ming looked up at him. "Your address in Deep City."

Chen Yuan paused. "I just got here. I don't have a permanent address yet. I'm sharing a place with someone, in..."

He gave the address of Zhang Xiu'e's rented apartment. Liu Ming wrote it down, then asked Zhang Xiu'e. In a voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz, she gave the same address.

Liu Ming asked a string of other questions—ID number, phone number, employer, how long they had been in Deep City.

When he finished, he set his pen on the desk, leaned back in his chair, and looked at them both.

"All right, tell me what happened tonight."

Chen Yuan took a deep breath and started from the beginning.

Sister Ezi had brought him to Deep City to find work. Wang Dahai was her manager, and he had forced her to dine with a client. The three of them had then worked together to ply her with alcohol, dragged her from the private dining room to a hotel room, and the man named Sun had tried to rape her.

Liu Ming wrote down everything Chen Yuan said. Occasionally, he looked up at him before lowering his head to write again.

When Chen Yuan finished, Liu Ming turned to Zhang Xiu'e. "What about you? Anything to add?"

Zhang Xiu'e shook her head. Her voice was so hoarse that she could no longer speak.

Liu Ming closed the notebook and stood up.

"All right, that's enough for tonight. You'll both stay here tonight. We'll deal with the rest tomorrow."

He went to the door and called in two uniformed officers, a man and a woman.

The man said to Chen Yuan, "Come with me." The woman said to Zhang Xiu'e, "You come with me."

Zhang Xiu'e stood, but her legs gave way, and she sank back into the chair.

Chen Yuan quickly caught her. "Sister Ezi."

Zhang Xiu'e clung to his hand. She looked up at Chen Yuan, her eyes red and her lips trembling. She wanted to say something, but couldn't get the words out.

"It's all right." Chen Yuan patted the back of Sister Ezi's hand. "Everything will be fine tomorrow."

Zhang Xiu'e shook her head hard, tears pattering down. She knew she shouldn't act like this, but she simply couldn't control herself.

The policewoman came over and gently loosened her grip.

"Come on." Her voice was much gentler than Liu Ming's. "Get some rest tonight. Whatever you have to say can wait until tomorrow."

Zhang Xiu'e was helped to her feet and walked toward the door, looking back every few steps. At the doorway, she suddenly stopped and turned around.

"Yuan."

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry."

Chen Yuan froze for a moment, then smiled.

"Sister Ezi, what do you have to apologize to me for?"

Zhang Xiu'e opened her mouth, and tears fell again. Supported by the policewoman, she slowly disappeared down the corridor.

Chen Yuan stood in the office, looking at the doorway. Only after a long while did he follow the male officer out.

The lights in the corridor still hummed, glaring white.

Eventually, he was led into a small room.

There was an iron bed with a thin mattress and a neatly folded blanket. A stainless-steel toilet gleamed in the corner. There were no windows, only a small ceiling light protected by an iron cage.

"Go in." The policeman pushed the door open.

Chen Yuan stepped inside, and the iron door closed behind him. The lock clicked into place.

He stood there, looking at the door.

A small hatch in it let him see the light from the corridor. Chen Yuan stared at that little opening for a long time, then slowly walked over to the bed and sat down.

The iron bed creaked.

His mind was a jumble. One moment he saw Zhang Xiu'e crying, the next Wang Dahai lying on the floor with that smug look on his face, then Zhao Jianguo standing in the corridor with his back to him, making a phone call.

Zhao Jianguo!

What exactly was he playing at? Weren't they even going to investigate?