The rumbling sound of water could still be heard in the distance, but the two prison guards on duty no longer looked nervous. They thought that the back mountain should have been opened up and the water had been diverted out.

Lu Rankong gave another random explanation and the two returned to prison. Along the way, there were prisoners returning to their cells in groups of two or three, and there were no prison guards supervising them.

Before reaching the back mountain, I could hear the sound of flowing water and the roar of machines from afar. When I got closer, I found that in just this short period of time, a canal had appeared in the flooded area, extending nearly a hundred meters, flowing out of the mountain through a gap blasted in the back mountain.

There were people busy everywhere, including prisoners and prison guards. The warden stood on a bench and gave orders through a loudspeaker.

Lu Rankong walked forward and the two of them talked in low voices for a few words. After he turned around, the warden stood still for a while with the loudspeaker and continued to give orders in an orderly manner.

"Did you tell him about Officer Wang?" Lan Yu asked.

Lu Rankong nodded. "He will send someone to retrieve Officer Wang's body shortly, and will take good care of the funeral arrangements. He will also notify the military immediately."

Seeing Lan Yu lowering her head and keeping silent, he asked again: "Can we still stay in the cell tonight?"

Lan Yu knew that there was no need for them to pretend to be prisoners anymore and they could go to the new residence, but she still said, "Just live in the cell..."

The two walked towards the cell. The night breeze was cool. Lan Yu had been running and felt hot all over. She felt very comfortable in the breeze and her pace slowed down.

There were prisoners coming and going around me, some going back to their cells, some taking a walk, some gathering under the ginkgo tree chatting... Anyway, everyone was busy, and if you couldn't help, just don't make trouble.

There was a dim light in the distance. He emptied his mind and thought of nothing. He just followed the footsteps of the people around him and walked slowly.

Two shadows fell on the ground, shoulder to shoulder. Although they didn't say anything, it made him feel calm and relaxed.

Returning to the cell, Lan Yu found that everyone was there. When they saw the two of them come in, they all sat up straight from their beds.

"You're all here. Didn't you stay behind to help?" Lu Rankong walked towards the bathroom to wash his hands and asked casually as he walked. Lan Yu opened the cupboard, took out her toiletries, and prepared to take a shower.

The room was silent. No one answered, and no one made any other sound.

Lan Yu noticed the unusual atmosphere and peeked at them from the cabinet door. Lu Rankong also stopped and slowly turned around.

"Brother Qiao, Brother Bao." After a period of silence, Liu Junjie was still the first to speak.

But the voice was dry, revealing a bit of awkwardness and deliberate ease.

Lan Yu saw Qiao Fei and Lin Lin lowering their heads and not saying a word, while Wang Jin and Qiu Dao kept stealing glances at them from time to time. Only Chen Zheng remained in the same state, half leaning against the headboard, lost in thought and immersed in his own world.

He put down the basin in his hand, stood up, and looked at Lu Rankong.

"We are all in the same cell, so just say whatever you want to say. Don't be secretive. Brother Bao is not a stingy person. As long as it's not a big problem, he won't mind." Lu Rankong said.

Liu Junjie hesitated and wanted to speak, but then he closed his mouth. Qiao Fei asked bluntly, "Brother Bao, Brother Qiao, who are you two?"

Lan Yu knew that they had seen the conversation between Lu Rankong and the warden, and began to doubt their identities.

The room fell silent again, no one spoke. Lu Rankong laughed and said in a relaxed tone: "Brother Bao and Brother Qiao are indeed not criminals. They came here because of other things."

Several people's eyes lit up, and Liu Junjie asked: "Agent? Spy? Secret agent?"

"Are we here to conduct a secret visit to the prison as an inspection team?" Qiao Fei eagerly responded.

Lin Lin asked: "Interstellar Chadala Detective?"

Qiao Fei patted his head and said, "Have you watched too many fucking movies?"

Lu Rankong said: "Don't ask for details. Brother Bao and Brother Qiao won't harm you anyway."

"That's for sure, but...but..." Liu Junjie sat on his upper bunk and scratched his head.

"Just what? Just say whatever you want to say. Come on."

Qiao Fei said a little embarrassedly: "It just feels weird that you are not prisoners. Look, we are all prisoners..."

Lan Yu put the basin of toiletries on the ground, walked to Lu Rankong's empty lower bunk and sat down.

"Brother Qiao, come and sit here, come and sit here. There's nothing on Brother Bao's bed, and my bed is soft." Qiao Fei said, patting his bunk.

"No, I'm dirty, I'll just sit here."

Lu Rankong also walked over slowly and said casually, "Liu Junjie, you were sent to prison for someone else's crime. The person you sent to prison was the youngest son of the richest man in the universe. You have already served two years of a six-year sentence. How much money did he give you?"

Liu Junjie was originally lying on the upper bunk looking down with a smile on his face, but after hearing this, the smile froze on his face.

Lu Rankong sat down next to Lan Yu and asked, "How much debt do you owe from gambling? Do you need to take the blame for someone else?"

Everyone looked at Liu Junjie, except Lan Yu who was looking down at her nails.

"Brother Bao, I..." Liu Junjie said in a hoarse voice.

"If you get out, will you still gamble?"

Lu Rankong asked calmly.

Liu Junjie lowered his head, and when he looked up again his eyes were red.

He wiped his face and said, "When I am released from prison, I swear to never gamble again, live a good life, and stay with my parents."

Lu Rankong added, "Qiao Fei, Lin Lin, one of you was tricked into making a template for counterfeit money, and the other was tricked by the boss who absconded with the money. In fact, the main responsibility is not on you, you are just acting as a shield for others."

After a moment's silence, Qiao Fei began to sob, and Lin Lin took off his glasses to wipe the mist off them.

Lan Yu didn't know when Lu Rankong had figured out all the details about these people. After all, the information given to them by the military was not very complete. She didn't expect that although he seemed careless, he was actually very careful in his work.

Lu Rankong looked at Wang Jin and Qiu Dao again, smiled and said, "Brother Wang, Brother Qiu, I admire you two very much."

"What do you admire about us?" Qiu Dao and Wang Jin, both sitting on the lower bunk, looked at each other blankly.

"You two have been adopted by the interstellar bandit leader since you were young. Although you did some wrong things against your will, they were not serious. As far as I know, you two secretly donated the money you shared to welfare organizations, so I admire you." Lu Rankong said.

Qiu Dao was unusually shy, and Wang Jin also looked embarrassed. "Because we are both orphans, we just hope that those children don't end up like us, so... it's no big deal."

Lan Yu looked at the two people and couldn't help but smile.

He himself is an orphan. After he started making money by making movies, he would donate a lot of money to the welfare home every year. On his days off, he would buy a lot of things to visit those children. When he heard that these two people were the same as himself, he felt a lot closer to them.

The room became quiet again, with only Qiao Fei's occasional sobbing being heard.

"My sister, who depended on me for everything, was pushed down from the upstairs while struggling. When I rushed over from the concert, she was already lying in the cold morgue." A cold voice suddenly sounded, breaking the silence.

Everyone was stunned and looked at Chen Zheng's bed.

Chen Zheng has sat up, his face no longer showing the usual indifferent expression, but is filled with sadness and despair.

Perhaps because he had been suppressing his feelings for too long and had no one to talk to, his voice trembled: "Even if the evidence is conclusive, what's the use? He is too powerful and has completely eliminated all the evidence. I am just a small pianist, and I could only stab him at a banquet, right after a performance..."

"Stab him to death? People like this should be stabbed to death." Wang Jin said gritting his teeth.

Chen Zheng smiled sadly and said, "If I had stabbed him to death, I wouldn't have been imprisoned here for only ten years."

At night, Lan Yu lay on her side on the bed, unable to fall asleep, staring at the nearby wall with her eyes open. Behind him, Lu Rankong was facing him, breathing shallowly.

The cell was completely silent. There was no snoring or grinding of teeth or talking in sleep as usual. It was obvious that everyone was troubled tonight and suffered from insomnia.

"Can't sleep?" Lu Rankong whispered softly behind him, so softly that it seemed almost inaudible. He could only feel the air blowing on his earlobes.

Lan Yu nodded imperceptibly.

"If you have anything to worry about, leave it until tomorrow. Even if you can't solve it, there's still Brother Bao." Lu Rankong said softly.

"Do you want Brother Bao to pat you while you sleep?" he asked again.

"No, I'm not a child." Lan Yu closed her eyes, not realizing that her voice was very soft, a bit like she was acting coquettishly.

Lu Rankong seemed to chuckle.

Qiao Fei, who was sitting on the opposite bunk, turned over and made a sniffling sound, apparently shedding tears silently.

Wang Jin also sighed faintly from where he was, and Qiu Dao asked in a low voice, "What's wrong? Are you cold?"

"You know nothing, just go to sleep." Wang Jin said.

"I can't sleep while you're awake."

"So you mean you can't sleep because of me?"

"Why are you so unreasonable?"

"It's not the first day that I've been unreasonable. Do you despise me?"

The iron bed shook and creaked, and the two men started fighting again.

Qiao Fei interrupted with a thick nasal voice: "Can you two stop fighting tonight? Let us have a peaceful night."

The two men immediately stopped their attacks and stopped.

"The moon is round, shining on the sea. The lights are the fishermen's boats returning..." A low voice sounded, and Lu Rankong began to hum a song.

This is a nursery rhyme that Lan Yu has heard him sing.

Last time, when they dealt with the Longte people on the bus, the military sent a car to pick them up. When they were driving off-road in the desert, he was humming this song.

His voice is deep and mellow, with a little rustling, and very magnetic. Lan Yu's back was against his chest and she could feel the slight vibration there.

Lan Yu moved her lips slightly and sang along silently: "The crescent moon shines on the beach, the stars are shining, they are your eyes..."

Qiao Fei stopped sobbing from time to time, and the others stopped sighing and just lay quietly on the bed.

It was late at night, and the light from outside poured in through the windows, coating the room with a layer of white frost. The entire prison was silent, with only the faint sound of an excavator coming from the foot of the mountain behind.

After a while, Lu Rankong slowly stopped humming and leaned over to look at Lan Yu's face. Seeing that he was fast asleep with heavy breathing, she smiled silently, then lay down and closed her eyes.

The next morning, there was no whistle as usual. It was almost eight o'clock before the prison guards shouted at the door of each cell: "Wake up, everyone, get up, don't sleep anymore, get up, get up."

The person behind her moved, and Lan Yu woke up. However, surrounded by the warm feeling, she continued to close her eyes and pretended not to wake up yet.

The voices of prisoners in other cells could be heard.

"Wolf-Sir, are we going mining today or something?"

The prison guard said: "There will be no mining or work today. Everyone will have a rest after breakfast."

Cheers broke out in every cell, and some people were banging on the iron bars excitedly.

"Sir, why are you the one waking us up today? Where are Officer Wang and Officer Liu?" someone asked curiously.

Except for Lan Yu and Lu Rankong, the other prisoners didn't know about what happened between Officer Wang and Officer Liu.

The prison guard was silent for a moment, then said, "They are both sick."

"Why are you sick? You were fine yesterday afternoon."

The prison guard lowered his voice: "What does this have to do with you? Don't ask if you shouldn't."

"Bah... wolfdog..." A prisoner started cursing again.

"Sir, how is the water in the back hill?"

When this was mentioned, the prison guard's serious face softened a little and he said, "You performed very well yesterday. The warden will give you seven consecutive days of rest and an extra chicken drumstick at each meal. You must also report this matter and everyone will receive a corresponding reward."

Although he did not explicitly state the reward, it is most likely related to a reduction in sentence. The prisoners began to cheer again and stopped calling him "wolf dog". They just called him "sir" politely.

It was so noisy outside that Lan Yu couldn't continue pretending to be asleep, so she raised her hand and rubbed her eyes.

"Awake?" Lu Rankong's voice was very clear, and it was obvious that he had been awake for a long time.

Lan Yu nodded.

"Get up and wash up. We'll probably be leaving soon." He whispered.

Lan Yu was about to ask where they were going, but then she realized he was talking about leaving Qu Yuxing, and she shut up.

The automatic door opening system was activated, and each cell door clanged and opened at the same time.

Everyone in cell 11 also got up, took turns washing, and then went to the cafeteria.

Lan Yu and Lu Rankong did not sit at a separate table this morning. Instead, they sat with several other people in the cell and ate breakfast in silence.

"Brother Bao, Brother Qiao, you will leave today, right?" Qiao Fei asked with his head down, stirring the porridge in the bowl with a spoon.

As soon as Lu Rankong opened his mouth, a huge roar came from outside, drowning out his voice.

All the prisoners looked up at the sky from the windows, and Lan Yu was no exception. In the azure blue sky, a starship was seen slowly descending.

"It's not an ordinary transport ship, it's a military warship." Some prisoners recognized it and began to whisper.

"Something happened in the prison, and the higher-ups came to inspect?"

"I guess this year's Star Prison will be ruined. The warden will be pissed off."

Several people kept looking at the starship until it completely disappeared from their sight, then they turned their heads back.

"That starship is here to pick you two up, right?" Qiao Fei asked again.

Being watched by several pairs of eyes, Lan Yu said calmly: "Yes..."

The few of them stopped talking and lowered their heads to eat. The quietness at this table formed a sharp contrast with the excited noise at other tables.

After finishing their meal, they left the cafeteria together in tacit understanding and stopped at the fork in the road leading to the back mountain and the cell.

There were two soldiers in military uniforms standing there. When they saw Lan Yu and Lu Rankong, they stopped and saluted.

Liu Junjie scratched his head and smiled as usual: "Brother Bao, Brother Qiao, are they here to pick you up?"

Lu Rankong hummed.

Several people hugged each other silently. When Chen Zheng finally walked up to Lu Rankong and hugged him, he suddenly whispered in his ear: "In fact, I knew you were not a criminal on the first day you came."

Lu Rankong was stunned.

"Because I saw you at the Valen banquet." Chen Zheng said again.

The two patted each other on the shoulders and separated.

Seeing that no one was paying attention, Lu Rankong mouthed something to him: "Thank you..."

On the wide playground, Lan Yu and Lu Rankong followed two non-commissioned officers out. The area under the ginkgo tree was still full of prisoners. When they saw this scene, they all stood up in shock.

"Where did this wild dog come from? Where are you taking the Boss and Brother Qiao?" someone began to shout angrily.

The smarter ones interrupted immediately: "Can't you see that those two wild dogs respect Brother Qiao and Brother Bao? What the hell are they yelling at?"

"They must have saved us yesterday. The military wants to commute their sentences and send them to a better prison first."

"Yes, yes, you are smart. This must be the case."

"Boss, Brother Bao, Brother Qiao, take care!"

Lan Yu just looked at the road in front of her, but Lu Rankong waved at them like a hero on a glorious journey. The prisoners began to cheer and applaud, causing the two non-commissioned officers to look back repeatedly, not knowing what was happening.

After passing the playground, a row of houses appears on the left, and beyond that is the prison’s medical clinic.

Lan Yu stared at that place and gradually slowed down his pace.

"Go take a look and say hello." Lu Rankong knew what he was thinking.

Lan Yu nodded and said, "Okay..."

The medical center is a separate small building, very quiet. The first and second floors are the clinics, where prison guards accompany the prisoners to see the doctor. The third and fourth floors are the wards.

The two men took the warden's pass and quickly arrived at Officer Liu's ward on the fourth floor. Lan Yu walked to his bedside and stood still. Lu Rankong was standing at the door.

The room was very quiet, with only the beeping sounds of medical equipment being heard.

Officer Liu lay motionless on the hospital bed. Although his face did not look good, it had regained some color. A thin blanket was draped over his body, and his chest was rising and falling slightly.

"We are leaving and probably won't be coming back, so we're here to say goodbye to you," Lan Yu said.

A medical officer walked to the door and said in a very soft voice, "The patient is still in a coma and needs more rest. You should hurry up as much as possible."

Lan Yu didn't turn around and heard Lu Rankong respond softly, promising to leave soon.

After the medical officer left, Lan Yu continued, "The Longte man in the prison is dead, you can rest assured. When you recover, you must cheer up and live a good life to fulfill your promise to Xu. You can go to the sea of ​​Chaya on his behalf and taste the wine you have never drunk. Your eyes are his eyes, and he can feel everything you see."

Officer Liu did not open his eyes, but moved his fingers outside the quilt.

"Live a good life, and Xu will always be in your heart." After saying this, Lan Yu stood in silence for half a minute, then turned and walked out.

Lu Rankong had been standing at the door. When Lan Yu came over, he did not move aside. He just looked at him with a strange look that flashed with ambiguous meaning.

It was not until Lan Yu looked up at him in confusion that he hastily turned his eyes away and asked, "Are you not going to talk about it anymore?"

Lan Yu said nothing, just nodded.

"Let's go..." Lu Rankong walked towards the stairs.

When they arrived at the prison gate, the guard on duty reminded them earnestly as they walked out of the gate: "Although you two have made contributions and are being transferred to other prisons, you must not be complacent and relax your reform. Strive for better performance and get your sentence reduced and be released from prison as soon as possible."

Lu Rankong did not explain, but smiled and said, "Thank you, officer. We will definitely reform ourselves."

After leaving the prison, we went to the paddock and boarded the battleship. As soon as Lan Yu stepped into the cabin, she saw a female alpha officer in a skirt-style military uniform.

She is Lu Rankong's cousin, Jiang Zhi, the deputy chief of staff of the Third Army who assigned them the task.

"Congratulations to Colonel K and Colonel Lu for successfully completing the mission." Jiang Zhi quickly looked at Lu Rankong and then extended his hand to Lan Yu, "Colonel K, thank you for your hard work."