Yang Jinglun felt as if he had never really known Li Jingran.
He silently watched Li Jingran, who did not resist and allowed the police to take him away. The boy's resounding answer that day rang in his ears again: "I just did what I thought was right, and I also have the courage to bear all the consequences. All their attacks and retaliations against me only made me more determined that I was right."
Is this the courage he meant to bear all the consequences?
If he had previously taken the boy's bold words as a sign of a newborn calf not afraid of a tiger, he could no longer do so now. The boy proved with his actions that he was a man of his words.
Doing something without knowing the consequences and choosing to do it despite knowing the consequences are completely different in nature. The former is the fearless recklessness of the ignorant, while the latter is the lone courage of going forward even if there are thousands of opponents.
The young boy accepted his inevitable fate meekly and without resistance, just to encourage more people to resist fate.
Yang Jinglun felt regretful because he never recognized Li Jingran, but he also felt proud because he recognized Li Jingran.
Like Mr. Tan, a young man named Li Jingran was also a martyr. He lived for his beliefs and died for his beliefs.
It was because he saw this clearly that he could only watch him being taken away by the police in silence. He could not stop it, as it was an insult and betrayal to the boy's firm belief.
"Sir, sir, please save my brother, please save him!" Li Shuran, who was crying in panic because of her brother's departure, suddenly saw Yang Jinglun standing silently beside her. She hugged his thighs tightly as if she had grabbed the last straw, and knelt down and cried.
Yang Jinglun came to his senses from his deep thoughts. He quickly helped the crying Li Shuran up, gently wiped the tears from her face, and answered firmly: "I will definitely save him."
He would never let Li Jingran share the same fate as Mr. Tan.
There are too few people in this world who can always do the right thing. Every one less is a loss to humanity. People like Mr. Li should be shining and admired by everyone, and should not face such a tragic fate.
…
Although he had prepared himself mentally before coming here and knew that the prison environment in the Republic of China would definitely be very poor, everything he saw still deeply challenged Le Jing's sensitive nerves.
It was bright daytime, but the cell was very dark. With the weak light from a small window on the wall, Le Jing could barely see the general layout of the room. The cell he was in was a single room, about four or five square meters, with a bed and a toilet that smelled terrible. I don't know what was stuck on the mottled, damp, black wall, which gave off a disgusting stench.
The so-called bed was just a layer of straw, without any "luxury" such as pillows and sheets. What made Le Jing feel relieved was that the straw on the bed was probably new, not only clean, but also smelled like sunshine.
But it is so unusual to see these fresh thatches here.
In fact, the police treated him quite courteously when they arrested him. They were not so rude and did not lynch him. During the whole process, there was a police chief who looked very kind and asked Le Jing to do something.
What needs to be done is simple.
Le Jing was asked to publish an article in the newspaper, admitting his mistakes to the readers, saying that he was young and ignorant and made rash remarks, which led to bad consequences, and he was deeply sorry for it. He was also asked to change his ways and make some comments in support of smoking. This way, Le Jing would not have to go to jail, and he could also get a lot of money.
Of course Le Jing refused.
Then he was locked up in a cell. The police chief, who had been so kind before, now looked fierce and told him to think it over carefully, "Come out when you have figured it out!"
There was no doubt that they wanted to teach Le Jing a lesson for not accepting the toast, so it was only natural that the cell environment was so poor. The clean, warm straw on the bed in such a simple and dirty cell seemed particularly strange.
No matter what strange calculations were behind this, being alive was good after all, which was similar to what he had expected. After all, if they really wanted to execute him on trumped-up charges, even if they were extremely powerful, they would have to consider their appearance and reputation. Once public resentment was ignited, it would not be so easy to extinguish.
"Brother, why were you locked up here?" asked the inmate in the next cell.
"Me?" Le Jing chuckled. "I wrote an article in the newspaper advocating a ban on opium, so they locked me up. What about you?"
The cellmate was stunned for a moment, as if he didn't expect to get this answer, and then he stammered: "I, I stole something..." His voice became smaller and smaller. After a moment of silence, he suddenly said solemnly: "Brother, you are a good person."
Le Jing asked: "Why do you say that? Isn't this the first time we met?"
The cellmate chuckled and said, "I am a rough man with no education, but I know that opium is harmful to people. If you want to ban opium, then you are a good person."
Le Jing fell silent, but his cellmate started to chatter.
"My father sold all his land just to smoke opium, and my mother couldn't make a living, so she ran away. I don't blame my mother, my father is such a jerk. If it weren't for my father, my family wouldn't be so poor, and I wouldn't have to work as a farmhand for someone else. In fact, I didn't want to steal things. Stealing is not good. My mother taught me that, but..." He smiled bitterly and murmured, "There was no other way. The landlord ate white flour every day and didn't even give me a steamed bun. I was so hungry that I couldn't help it..."
Le Jing suddenly realized that this person might be only a few years older than him.
Because the average life expectancy of people in the Republic of China was 35 years old.
Since he could work as a long-term worker for others, he must not be too old, at most in his twenties.
In this small cell, Le Jing got a glimpse of the suffering of the world from the narration of his cellmate next door. The more he understood the world, the deeper his disgust for the current society became.
The pursuit of a better life is human instinct, and any attempt to distort, obliterate or prevent it is an atrocity against humanity.
When the poor in a society can only fill their stomachs by stealing, then this society is terminally ill and beyond salvation and can only be destroyed and reorganized.
He has now added fuel to the fire of this massive "war" with his imprisonment. Now let him see how the fire outside will burn.
After all, people can only appreciate the rights they have fought for themselves.
Hopefully they won't let him down.
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