None of the changes in the prisoners here could be hidden from the jailers. The scar-faced jailer was looking at Luo Kai more and more suspiciously. Even though Luo Kai's skinny body didn't change much, the light in his eyes couldn't be concealed.
On this day, the scar-faced jailer opened the iron gate with a cold face. He stroked the black revolver on his waist and looked at Luo Kai with a scrutinizing gaze.
Luo Kai suppressed the fear in his heart and lay on his side on the ground, trying his best to pretend to be weak.
The scar-faced jailer sneered. He suddenly pulled out a leather whip from his waist and lashed it at Luo Kai's skinny body.
The long period of starvation had slowed down Luo Kai's reaction speed. This kind of weakness couldn't be recovered in a short period of time. Even if he was in a healthy state, he couldn't dodge this lightning-fast whip.
"Pa!"
With a crisp sound, Luo Kai was whipped like a piece of paper to the wall behind him. With his weak body, he couldn't withstand this blow. His eyelids rolled and he fainted.
The scar-faced jailer put away the whip with satisfaction. He looked around and then turned to leave.
After an unknown period of time, Luo Kai groggily regained consciousness. He gritted his teeth and struggled to get up, but he felt an itch in his throat and began to cough blood. With the help of the dim moonlight outside the iron window, he looked at his chest. A purple whip mark was clearly visible.
After coughing for two minutes, he coughed out all the blood in his trachea. Finally, he could breathe normally. Anger, despair, and hatred were growing in his heart like bacteria. This whip had injured his lungs. There was no way anyone could heal him here. That scar-faced jailer wanted to kill him!
He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and looked at the iron gate above him. The burning pain in his chest couldn't extinguish the coldness in his heart.
Luo Kai once again had a dream. This time, the dream was much clearer. He could even clearly hear the words of the person in the dream. He had never heard the language of the other party, but strangely, he could understand the meaning of the words. Moreover, the words that came out of his mouth were the same.
After waking up, he had completely forgotten the scene of the dream. However, he remembered the words clearly. Luo Kai vaguely realized that this was not a dream at all. It was his memory. No, it was the memory of this body!
An idea popped up in his mind. The universe was infinitely large, and anything could become possible under an infinite probability, including everything that humans could imagine. On this basis, the idea of a parallel space appeared.
For example, when people were doing something or encountering a certain scene, they would inexplicably feel a sense of familiarity. This could be something that they had experienced in another world. Those worlds could just be projections in their spiritual consciousness, or they could also be real. The so-called Zhuang Zhou dreaming of butterflies, was Zhuang Zhou transforming into butterflies?
Or the butterfly transformation of Zhuang Zhou?
Reality and illusion were just concepts that people believed to be infallible.
Then, did his consciousness merge with his other self in another world?
Or did he have a dream that he would never wake up from after death?
He rubbed his lungs while trying to recall the fragments of the dream. He seemed to have been born in a very warm family. He had parents and an older sister. The two memories merged and rejected each other at the same time. The rejection made him unsure whether he was himself or not. However, when they merged, his consciousness became clearer. At the same time, his thinking speed became faster. His body's resistance to pain and hunger also became stronger. It seemed that his willpower also became more tenacious.
According to his previous pampered body and cowardly personality, after being locked in this dark prison for so long, he might have already committed suicide. However, it was because of the fusion of his memories with this body that his willpower became more tenacious. That was why he could hold on until now.
Tonight, for the first time, Luo Kai did not dig the tunnel. Instead, he recalled the dream. Unfortunately, the scenes in the dream were very vague. Once he woke up, he would forget most of it.
The next day, the prison door opened again. A hunchbacked prison guard walked in. He looked at the bloodstains on the ground and then looked at the half-dead Luo Kai curled up in the corner. He sighed slightly and said to himself, "In seven days, the new warden will take office." Then he left with the toilet bowl full of feces and urine.
After a long time, Luo Kai raised his head and looked at the closed iron door. His eyes turned from confusion to surprise. He actually understood the hunchbacked prison guard's words!
It seemed that it was just as he thought. He was merging with the soul of this body. However, the memories in his mind were a mess. It was as if he had schizophrenia and could not clear his mind.
Among the jailers he had met, the scar-faced one was the most ferocious. The hunchbacked one was a man of few words. He had never heard him speak before. Why would he tell him all this?
The recovery ability of this body was far beyond Luo Kai's imagination. When he was half asleep, he even felt that his lungs were itchy and unbearable. In a hazy state, it seemed that the injured cells were constantly dividing and multiplying. Except for the first two days when he often coughed up blood, he gradually recovered. At the same time, he could not help but feel hopeful.
The injuries that he thought would kill him gradually healed. However, he had to pretend that he was dying. He even had to pretend that he could not crawl over the food he ate every day. At the same time, he became more anxious. The scar-faced prison guard obviously wanted him to die early. He could not sit still and wait for death!
Late one night, Luo Kai frowned and felt the hard granite foundation in front of him. As long as he could pass through this stone wall, he should be able to escape. However, he only had one iron awl. It was not enough to break through the stone wall. Besides, the sound of the iron awl hitting the stone wall was too loud. He could only go around it or continue to dig.
"Squeak squeak."
The big grey rat dragged a salted fish out of the rat hole on one side of the tunnel. It kept squeaking at him in a low voice, as if it was asking for praise.
Luo Kai stretched out his hand and stroked the big grey rat's smooth fur. He said softly, "Big grey, what do you think I should do? Should I change the path or continue to dig?"
He had not spoken for a long time, so his voice was hoarse. It was very loud in the quiet tunnel. He was scared and hurriedly lowered his voice.
The big grey rat obviously did not understand what he was saying. It rubbed its head against his finger, as if it wanted him to help it scratch its itch.
Luo Kai scratched its little belly and began to dig.
In the next few days, Luo Kai pretended that he was dying during the day and tried his best to dig the tunnel at night. As expected, some parts of the tunnel collapsed. Fortunately, the impact was not serious.
Every day, the scar-faced prison guard would look at him through the small window on the iron gate. It seemed that he was waiting for him to die and then drag his body away.
Time was running out. If the prison guard found that he was still alive and kicking, he would definitely torture him even more.
On this day, there was a sound of neat footsteps outside the cell. There was a faint shout: "The new warden is doing a ward round. All of you better f * cking pay attention!"
The footsteps were getting closer and closer. They stopped at the door of Luo Kai's cell. It seemed that they were observing him. After a while, the footsteps sounded again and gradually went away.
At night, Luo Kai continued to dig. Now that the soil had changed, many small stones began to appear, which greatly increased the difficulty of digging. His iron awl had been ground into a thick needle. He had no choice but to change to a sharp stone to dig.