Damn it! Let's smash the darkness together!

"Ah! I'm dying! Ah~"

"Help! You little brat, aren't you coming out yet? Your grandpa is starving to death here!"

Inside the prison, only the man in cell 217 was cursively muttering weakly, while the other three maintained their silence.

"Shut up if you don't want to die!"

The bald man in cell 101 couldn't take it anymore, he was going to die of annoyance if not of thirst.

Among these four, except for the skinny man in cell 302 who wasn't part of their gang, he, the guy from 217, and the one opposite in cell 102 were old buddies, well acquainted with each other.

They had originally planned to drag along the young fellow, to stabilize him, to live just one more day at a time, hoping to be rescued once patrol soldiers happened to pass nearby.

The only miscalculation was that the boy looked harmless and inexperienced, but he was actually so vicious, he truly intended to starve them to death.

No, before starvation there would come dehydration.

For ordinary people like themselves, even with decent physical condition, if things kept going like this, they would die of dehydration in three or four days at the most.

"Who would have thought I'd fall into the hands of such a punk," the man thought bitterly and with resentment.

The plan for now was to conserve energy, to live one more day was a victory, hoping the patrol team might pass by.

Only the idiot in cell 217 was still screaming, wasting his energy...

"Heh, he'll definitely be the first to die."

The man in cell 101 licked his cracked lips, looked at the urine in the plastic container, golden and frothy with a pungent smell, and struggled with the thought of drinking it.

He brought it up to his nose, his own urine smell was barely bearable, but the thought of drinking it still made him nauseous.

But it was the only way out!

Even if it could help him last half a day, an hour longer, that meant one more chance of survival!

He pinched his nose and took a big gulp.

"Gurgle... Ugh... Blargh!~"

"Ton-ton-ton~"

He swallowed in big gulps, tears barely visible in the corners of his eyes.

"I, Li Sheng, I must survive!"

"Asheng, you actually..."

Seeing his brother like this, Wang Qiang from cell 102 also gritted his teeth, picked up the large bowl filled with urine, hesitated for a second, then with another grit, he did it.

After finishing their "frothy drink," they looked at each other across the corridor, both seeing a strong desire to survive in each other's eyes.

Brother, hang in there! You must live!

Just then.

Click.

The door next to them opened, and Xu Shu walked out holding water and canned food, heading straight to the door of cell 101 and calmly said:

"Look at my memory, I was dead asleep and forgot. Honestly, you all should die, but I keep my word, promised to starve you for one day, so it's just one day, here, take the water."

"..." Li Sheng.

"..." Wang Qiang.

Both of them looked at Xu Shu, then at the clean, clear, odorless bottled water he held.

For a time, neither of them spoke, and a strange silence lasted for over three minutes.

Xu Shu found their expressions odd and frowned, "What, you don't want it? Then I'm leaving."

"Don't!"

"Give it here!"

The two almost simultaneously cried out.

Xu Shu stuffed the water through the narrow door window and watched as the burly man unscrewed the bottle cap and drank desperately, tears seemingly falling from the corners of his eyes.

It had only been one day and one night after all; although extreme hunger and thirst were unpleasant, wasn't their reaction a bit exaggerated?

Xu Shu shook his head, suddenly reminding them, "Oh, right, you'd better ration a bit, the three of you... oh no, two of you are sharing this bottle of water."

"What?"

At those words, Wang Qiang from across the way was dumbfounded.

Fuck, you're a Demon, aren't you!

But now he dared not yell at Xu Shu, watching Li Sheng glug down most of the bottle, he quickly spoke up, "Asheng! Bro! Brother Sheng! Leave some for me!"

"..." Li Sheng's eyes slightly furrowed, but in the end, he stopped, leaving about a third of the bottle he passed it over.

"Brother Sheng, you're like my parents reborn!" Wang Qiang was nearly moved to tears.

Xu Shu, however, seemed slightly displeased and halted his action of handing over the water, "Hmm? Who? Who is your rebirth parent?"

Wang Qiang's expression froze, his pride told him not to back down.

But staring at the clean water just before his eyes, he forced a smile uglier than crying, "Bro, it's you, you are my parents reborn."

"Interesting, drink up."

Xu Shu's eyes flashed an odd color, then he opened a can of chicken.

Since the can was metal, Xu Shu carefully chose to pour the food into a paper cup, passing it to Li Sheng, he said:

"The food is the same, the three of you share, how much you eat, how much you leave, it's all up to you. I won't force you, after all, I'm no demon."

"..."

Li Sheng looked deeply at him, said nothing more, picked up the paper cup and silently began to eat.

This time he ate about half before giving back the cup, finally asking, "Will it be like this tomorrow?"

Xu Shu smiled and said, "Yes, it will always be like this. You three will get one bottle of water and one can of food, and you'll all share. I'm quite generous, right?"

This would allow them not to starve, but not to get too full and desperate.

"..." Li Sheng once again fell silent, his eyes full of thoughts.

"It's your turn now; you decide," Xu Shu said as he passed the remaining chicken to Wang Qiang.

"Every day like this?" Wang Qiang took the cup and asked as well.

"Yes." Xu Shu didn't hesitate this time and casually reminded him, "The same for you, you decide how much to eat and how much to leave."

"Hmm."

Wang Qiang began to eat with indifference, finishing all of the remaining chicken and drinking all the water.

Throughout, Xu Shu quietly observed their behavior, without stopping or reminding them of anything.

"Give me back the bottle and cup or you won't have your next meal," Xu Shu said.

"Got it, big bro." Wang Qiang seemed to know how to act a bit better, obediently handing the items back out.

"I hope you keep your promise, three meals a day," Li Sheng suddenly said, feeling that such a statement would satisfy his basic survival needs, and the outcome was acceptable.

"What three meals? There's only this one meal a day. But fine, I'm a good person, so depending on my mood, normally it's one meal a day, but occasionally there could be two," Xu Shu said.

Li Sheng's eyes widened in disbelief: "You... how can you do this, are you still human?"

"At least I'm more human than a human trafficker like you."

Xu Shu turned and walked away, but after a few steps, he stopped slightly and turned his head to look at his own distorted face reflected on the bright handrail. He watched it for a moment.

"What? You think I'm going too far? Starving captured prisoners to death isn't in line with core socialist values?"

"Oh, what now, they trafficked people with good intentions, and I'm taking revenge with bad ones, right?"

"Who gave you the courage to talk about this now!"

"Human traffickers like these deserve nothing less than death; isn't starving them a mercy to them?"

"Huh? What about abuse of vigilante justice? Overcorrecting the wrongs? The vestiges of humanity?"

"I laugh at your ignorance!"

Xu Shu spoke to himself with a rather strange expression, it was unclear if he was talking to himself or someone else. (Note 1)

At this time, the person in room 217 saw Xu Shu leaving from Li Sheng and Wang Qiang's door and immediately banged on the door and shouted, "My turn now! Little brother, come here quick!"

They had all heard Xu Shu's loud conversation earlier and knew that the meals for the three of them now depended on Xu Shu. So this time, he was a bit smarter and didn't hurl abuse.

Xu Shu narrowed his eyes, his expression as usual, and walked over: "There's nothing left for you."

The man from room 217 was stunned and didn't react at first, thinking Xu Shu might still be holding a grudge, he hurriedly apologized: "Ah? I... Little brother, I was being an asshole before. I should die, don't hold a grudge, okay?"

"It's fine, I forgive you," Xu Shu said indifferently, "but really, there's none left for you."

"What do you mean? Isn't there still one-third left?"

"Their portion didn't include you," Xu Shu said, deliberately raising the empty water bottle and the paper cup that had been used for the chicken, devoid even of scraps, for him to look at.

He turned and left without waiting for a reaction, still needing to deliver some food to the small-framed person in room 301.

"..."

The person from room 217 fell silent, then erupted into several minutes of furious cursing.

"Damn it! Li Sheng! Wang Qiang! You two are worse than beasts! I've helped you guys out so much, and this is how you repay me?"

"Ah ah ah ah **** you ****** you *****"

After a few minutes, his cursing became pleading cries with sobs.

But from beginning to end, Li Sheng and Wang Qiang didn't respond with even a single word, simply allowing him to curse and cry in silence.

When they heard room 217's crying, both Li Sheng and Wang Qiang's eyes flashed with indifference.

Sorry, brother, don't blame us for not being righteous. To blame, blame that thief who's even worse than a demon!

There's only so much food; we must survive.

"Dare to condemn me with rules and regulations? Just you wait, I have plenty of ways to deal with your nasty habits, hehehe..."

Xu Shu took a long look at doors 101 and 102 and then, whether he was talking to himself or someone else, showed a meaningful expression on his face.

And then, as if nothing had happened, he walked to room 301 and delivered a bottle of water and a paper cup filled with canned food.

The skinny man inside, also suffering from hunger and thirst, had sallow eyes and terribly cracked lips.

However, unlike the others below, after receiving the food, he first whispered a "thank you" before starting to eat slowly, chewing carefully.

Xu Shu found this surprising.

Watching the man eat slowly, Xu Shu said casually: "You seem to know quite a bit, understanding that you can't wolf down food after being starved for so long, it would harm the body."

The skinny man remained silent for a while before uttering from his throat: "Hmm."

"Return the bottle and cup to me after you're done," Xu Shu said, not leaving any room for error despite the other's politeness.

"Okay."

Xu Shu just stood at his door, watching him eat.

He ate in a very orderly manner, always taking a sip of water first, holding it in his mouth for a while before swallowing, clearly moistening his mouth.

Then carefully, he bit into a piece of chicken, holding it with his teeth before gradually pushing it in, and if any crumbs stuck to his lips, he immediately wiped them clean.

Occasionally, he'd stick out his tongue and lick his lips to make sure they stayed clean during the meal.

His lips slowly became moistened, tender like jelly.

"Psst..."

Xu Shu felt slightly uncomfortable, awkwardly touching his nose.

Brother, it's just food you're eating, what's with all the licking? Is it bordering on erotic?

I'm getting a bit thirsty watching all this.

If it weren't for the small bulge of his Adam's apple, Xu Shu might have suspected this guy was cross-dressing—no, the other way around.

Because he seemed a bit too fair and delicate.

Wait, he's not doing it on purpose, is he?

Xu Shu was on guard.

"Heh, little ladyboy, don't even think about seducing me!"

It took about ten minutes for the skinny man to finally finish eating.

It was probably around six-thirty now. Xu Shu tossed the trash carelessly into the cell next door to use as a trash bin and prepared to go back to sleep.

He would have to wait until tomorrow morning for the Tai Chu Scroll count to refresh; there was nothing he could do today. He had just checked, and that damn land shark was still squatting outside the door, so he couldn't leave.

With nothing better to do, he might as well go back to sleep and get a good rest.

At that moment, the skinny man suddenly said, "Wait a second."

"What is it?" Xu Shu wondered.

After hesitating for a moment, he said, "My name is Gu Qian."

"Oh?"

What's with this 'Gu Qian, no looking back?' Did I ask for your name? Xu Shu raised an eyebrow, stopped in his tracks, and signaled for him to get to the point.

Gu Qian's eyes drooped slightly, appearing to struggle for quite a while before slowly saying,

"Your..."

"What?"

"That thing!"

"What???"

Gu Qian bit his lip: "If, I mean if! If I could help you with it..."