Chapter 128: Prison Chapter (Memory) 17: A Jumble of Words
Chapter 128
Ma Sha was forced to live the life of a shut-in with Shen Yue, eating all three meals a day in Building 1.
Because Ma Sha had to recuperate, she couldn't exercise, box, or go out to show off her might, she could only chatter incessantly at Shen Yue.
From the power structure of the prison, she talked about what kind of thing each building's person in power was, and told Shen Yue the little secret that the person in power of Building 8 only wears red underwear.
"Do you know why I had to go over there yesterday when my protector was injured?" Ma Sha changed the subject, from how the person in power of Building 7 was just a chuunibyou, to yesterday's events.
Shen Yue shook her head. She wasn't very good at thinking about these kinds of things that required thought.
Ma Sha asked casually, "Do you still remember the matter of the money flows in Flightless Bird?"
Shen Yue nodded.
Ma Sha said, "Repeat it back to me."
Ma Sha had just told Shen Yue about this not long ago. Shen Yue didn't even need to specially recall it to be able to answer, "The prisoners in Building 1, some people want to protect them, some people want to kill them.
Flightless Bird is isolated from the world, its defenses are strong, forcing entry is impossible. So no matter if it's protection or assassination, it can only rely on the people inside the prison.
Building 2 has no shortage of assassins sent in from the outside, protectors work the same way, they have the financial support of the outside. Building 3 not only sells information within the prison by leveraging their intelligence capabilities, but also sells information to the outside, while also obtaining information from the outside world.
Building 4 keeps Building 2 in check, preventing the prison from being completely controlled by the outside.
Building 5 is an asylum, Building 6 is medical, Building 7 is a specialist building that can solve some problems that Building 2's killers who only know how to kill can't solve, Building 8 supports the income and expenditures of the entire prison. If anyone obtains money through means other than their own strength, they will find a way to take it away. The 8 buildings balance each other out, working together to form Flightless Bird."
Shen Yue said it all in one go. What awaited her was Ma Sha's shock and awe.
"Little Yue Yue is so amazing, she actually completely memorized it all." Because of differences in language translation, Ma Sha didn't realize yet that Shen Yue had completely recited the original text from the headset translation verbatim.
Shen Yue was praised by Ma Sha and shyly turned her face away, saying softly, "I just remembered it, it's not that amazing."
Seeing Shen Yue's appearance, Ma Sha directly grabbed a pillow and threw it over, hitting Shen Yue squarely on her lowered forehead, "What are you doing, saying such silly words, being able to remember it means you're amazing. Come tell me, I'm very amazing."
Shen Yue picked up the pillow that had fallen to the side and hugged it, stubbornly saying, "I'm not amazing."
"You're amazing."
"Not amazing."
"Amazing."
"No."
"Amazing."
"No."
After 100 back and forths, Ma Sha got tired. She gave up struggling and started changing the subject, "Forget it, back to the question from before, combine the makeup of the 8 buildings and tell me why I had to go yesterday."
Shen Yue knew her brain was stupid, and she only knew some very basic provocation tactics, but she still tried her best to think about it, then gave her answer, "You went to avenge your little brother."
Ma Sha laughed at Shen Yue's straightforward answer, "Hahahahaha, little Yue Yue you're so cute hahahahaha."
"I really can't imagine what you went through to end up being sent here..."
But in the end, Ma Sha didn't ask. Instead she started explaining to Shen Yue, "Originally I did want to avenge him, so I first went to the person in power of Building 3 to buy information, but I discovered that no matter if it was information on the perpetrator or information on whether there was someone behind the scenes orchestrating it, it had all been bought up. Prisoners from the same Building 3 can't sell the same information to different people. And for yesterday's incident, aside from Building 3's person in power, no one else knew. Up to here, I made a preliminary judgement that this was an assassination attempt targeting me by one of the building's persons in power, otherwise there wouldn't be so few sources of information."
"But it would be very troublesome to judge which person in power it was. I can only use myself as bait to lure the snake out of its hole. Waiting to be killed has never been my style."
As Shen Yue listened to the headset's translation while also listening to Ma Sha's words, she silently memorized a word from Ma Sha's language that could be translated as "lure the snake out of its hole."
How nice, she learned another new phrase.
《I'm Learning a Foreign Language in Prison》.
After briefly spacing out, Shen Yue asked, "The persons in power are dangerous, so why did you still call Li Feng and Si Chengyou?"
Looking at Shen Yue hugging the pillow, Ma Sha smiled and said, "Out of all the persons in power, only Si Chengyou won't participate in these kinds of things. He isn't interested in money, and is also the only strong person in the prison who will meddle in other people's business."
Shen Yue listened, seeming to understand and yet not understand, and asked Ma Sha, "What about Li Feng then?"
"Little Yue Yue, have you heard of the heroic effect before?"
Shen Yue shook her head.
"When someone receives another person's protection and support, they will likewise feel seen, heard, cared for, and connected. Building 2 are all a bunch of desperados. When they obtain absolute powerful protection, they will naturally want to rely on it, even going against their original intentions, becoming slaves driven by emotion. Desperados who obtain loyalty are more frightening than ordinary people."
"This chess piece Li Feng can easily render so-called protectors and assassins meaningless."
As Ma Sha spoke, her gaze met Shen Yue's clear eyes that held no thoughts at all, and she instantly snapped out of her previous contemplation, laughing loudly, "Hahahahaha, sorry, what I just said was too vague. Probably after our fight yesterday, the power structure of the prison will undergo changes now. Protectors and assassins exist in name only now for this period of time. Don't go out, be good and stay by my side accompanying me, understand?"
Shen Yue nodded.
Accompanying, that's what she was best at.
When her older sister did experiments before, she would just accompany her at the side like this too.
Ma Sha's bed was very big, it could easily fit three more Shen Yues.
Shen Yue was originally sitting across from Ma Sha. After sitting for a while she felt tired, so she sprawled next to Ma Sha. After sprawling for a bit, she felt the position was off, so she changed to lying down.
Lying next to Ma Sha, Shen Yue's nose could clearly smell the sunny scent coming from Ma Sha's body.
She had only smelled this scent a very, very long time ago, from the quilt at home that had been sun dried. But later the auntie who helped around the house was changed, and the quilts only ever smelled of detergent.
"Ma Sha, you smell so nice."
She heard light laughter from above her head, "My little brothers used to say that too..."
After Ma Sha said this, she was silent for a very long time. But Shen Yue, immersed in the nice smell, didn't notice anything off.
Their surroundings were very quiet, with only the sound of their shallow breathing, and the tiny patch of azure blue sky that could be seen through the window.
Shen Yue felt sleepy. Wearing the headset was uncomfortable, so she took it off and threw it to the side.
After a while, she heard gentle singing by her ear, giving her a warmth reminiscent of when Shen Hui held her for the first time, as if in a dream.
"GutenAbend
GuteNacht
..."
* The countries in the story are completely fictional, the lullaby lyrics were copied online, please do not associate any of it with reality, thanks.