Restrictive Zone

RA 2 - Falcon

There seemed to be something on his hands. Unable to make out what it was, Jiang Chijing could only take out his monocular.

Once focusing it on the target and magnifying the visual, Jiang Chijing could clearly see the specks of blood on the man's joints.

This wasn't strange; that guy had brought it onto himself for not wearing his bandages. It was only natural to break skin from the force with which he used to box.

But the scene that appeared next stunned Jiang Chijing.

After staring at his hands for a while, the man suddenly stuck his tongue out, licking the wounded joints.

The curious sight of this caused Jiang Chijing's heart to stutter. He unconsciously set down the monocular, but less than a second later, he couldn't help but raise it again, continuing to observe the actions of the other man.

The ruthless expression from earlier had vanished, replaced instead by a tranquil calm that was without the faintest billow. The man appeared to have fully vented his rage through his boxing, and now his face was utterly expressionless. Even so, Jiang Chijing could tell that his mind was preoccupied.

At this moment, it looked closer to cold calculating.

Jiang Chijing had always been astute at reading people. Yet to his surprise, at this very moment, he was actually unable to discern the other man's emotional state.

He thought of the most dangerous convicts in the prison. This man's expression as he licked the blood was a mirror image of those convicts, and he couldn't stop the budding suspicion that formed—exactly how many facets did this man have?

On this night, Jiang Chijing cast his monocular aside. He felt that he needed to stave off it for a bit, else he would die of curiosity about this neighbour living across from him.

He passed the rest of the night watching television. The various media platforms successively broadcasted recent news concerning a financial crime case that shook the nation's economy, in which a hedge fund firm was suspected of maliciously shorting dozens of stocks, unlawfully profiting by nearly a hundred million dollars.

The case was still under investigation at present. The preliminary investigation revolved around the individual activity of each manager.

Cases occurred day in day out; the prison had no shortage of fresh faces. Disinterested, Jiang Chijing turned off the television and read a book until eleven, then routinely got ready to go to bed.

The watch placed on his nightstand was once again two minutes behind standard time. This was a common failing of mechanical watches, that they'd often go off with the ticking of time.

It wasn't as if Jiang Chijing couldn't afford a new watch. Conversely, the salary for prison work was much higher than regular office jobs. He was simply reluctant to change from the watch that his parents had given him. After all, this watch could somewhat count as a family heirloom.

Winding the clockwork spring was a job that demanded patience. Jiang Chijing spent a long time winding it. However, when he was almost done, the sound of a dislocated spring suddenly twanged from the dial and in the next second, the knob in his hand suddenly loosened.

Brilliant. He broke the spring from winding it.

After deliberating for a fleeting moment, Jiang Chijing concluded that this shouldn't be anything major, and thus got down to fixing it himself.

Two hours later...

Jiang Chijing flung the phone that was playing an instructional video aside, looking at the disorderly mess of watch components across the table with a headache.