Chapter 2

Li Xiaofeng felt like a speck of dust, aimlessly drifting in the vast, boundless space, not knowing when it would all come to an end. Just drifting with the flow would have been enough, but what drove him to the brink of madness was that he seemed to have lost all his senses. He couldn't hear, see, or feel anything, as if he were blindly wandering in an endless silence, in a state that was neither dream nor wakefulness.

He had no idea how much time had passed—whether it was a hundred years, a thousand years, or even ten thousand years. All Li Xiaofeng knew was that it had been a very, very long time, so long that he almost forgot who he was. Suddenly, his world became clear!

Li Xiaofeng once again felt his body, stretching his arms, moving his legs, and taking a deep breath. What made him the happiest was the long-lost light in his eyes. Ignoring the pain from the sudden brightness, he lunged toward the orange-red light like a madman, as if a drowning man had grabbed a lifeline.

"Ah! Damn pretty boy, you dare to grab my face! Damn, are you tired of living?"

After the orange-red light, a voice roared, seemingly extremely angry, like a wretched man kicked off the bed at the peak of his climax.

Rain-like heavy blows fell on Li Xiaofeng's face. In that moment of pain, he was moved to tears, not from the pain but from the joy of being alive. Of course, Li Xiaofeng was heterosexual and had no masochistic tendencies. His joy stemmed from the fact that he once again felt like a human, a human with all five senses!

Of course, the joy was short-lived. After that moment of happiness, Li Xiaofeng was knocked unconscious. As he fell, he vaguely saw a man with a police baton, a high nose, blue eyes, and a face full of scars, glaring at him fiercely. It seemed that the man kicked his groin a couple of times—damn, it really hurt!

"Damn it, this kid just needs a beating!" The man with the beard fiercely swung the baton in his hand, carefully took out a cigarette from a crumpled paper bag, and slowly lit it. The orange-red flame lit up his ugly face, making it even more sinister.

The man with the beard took a deep puff of the cigarette, impatiently tapped the wall behind him with the baton, producing a dull thud. With a tearing sound, a window opened on the wall behind him, and a monkey-like face appeared, asking impatiently, "What's up?"

The man with the beard pointed at the unconscious Li Xiaofeng with the baton, saying disdainfully, "This pretty boy was being disobedient, so I gave him a couple of hits! How much longer until we get there? I need to go to the black market to buy bread! These damn guys are delaying my business!"

The monkey-like face clearly showed a sneer, glanced at Li Xiaofeng, and mocked, "We're almost there, it's Rabbit Island ahead... Once we get there, even the most disobedient will become obedient..."

The monkey-like face turned to look outside the carriage. Through the two chestnut horses, a black-brown river was clearly visible. Behind the narrow river, through the gray wall, a tall spire pierced the gray sky. At the top of the spire, a golden angel statue overlooked the ancient city.

Li Xiaofeng felt like he was dragged like a dead dog for a considerable distance. When his head made intimate contact with the steps, he finally woke up. A bone-chilling cold made him shiver. It was really damn cold!

"Stop dragging him, the pretty boy is awake, let him walk by himself!" a voice ordered.

Li Xiaofeng struggled to get up from the ground and found that half of his body was already soaked. He was about to tighten his clothes to ward off the cold, but the two people behind him pushed him forward without any regard.

They passed through a snow-covered gravel path and several checkpoints, and he was pushed into a house with a double-headed eagle emblem.

Did I go abroad? Although he was an engineering major, Li Xiaofeng recognized the double-headed eagle of the Eastern Roman Empire. With doubts in his heart, he naturally couldn't help but look around. But the whistling stick that immediately followed made him behave. A string of gibberish rushed into his ears: "Behave yourself! Damn, you need a beating!"

Li Xiaofeng was full of surprise. He could swear to the Jade Emperor that he wouldn't have understood a single word of this gibberish in the past. By heaven and earth, he had cheated to get a score of 425 on his College English Test Band 4, not a point more. So, he was completely clueless about foreign languages. Now, he was 100% sure that this gibberish was not English. This gibberish seemed even more obscure, but he understood it perfectly, which was truly bizarre!

Of course, at this moment, Li Xiaofeng had no time to ponder how he suddenly understood a mysterious foreign language, because he was about to face an awkward reality—he was stripped naked by a group of fierce men!

A sharp whistle, and three men pounced on him. One first ripped off his scarf and handed it to the man with the beard, who then passed it to the monkey-like face. In the blink of an eye, Li Xiaofeng's scarf disappeared in the room, who knows who took it.

The man who took the scarf grabbed the left sleeve of his coat, while the second man grabbed the other sleeve. They pulled the coat off from behind. At this point, the third man was already kneeling to take off Li Xiaofeng's shoes. In less than two minutes, the three men had stripped Li Xiaofeng like a newborn baby, their actions and coordination were astonishing.

At this moment, an extremely bad thought appeared in Li Xiaofeng's mind. He covered his groin with one hand and his behind with the other, fearing that these men would take advantage of him.

Fortunately, these men were not into that. After stripping Li Xiaofeng, the man with the beard put his hand on his shoulder and pushed him into a chair. One man messed up his hair with his fingers and a comb, another leaned close to his ear and twisted his toes, checking his hair, ears, and toes. Then, the man with the beard held his head under his arm, while another grabbed his arms and rotated them, thoroughly inspecting Li Xiaofeng from head to toe.

This kind of animal-like inspection made Li Xiaofeng furious, but he didn't dare to move. During the inspection, he discovered a shocking fact: the chest and arm hair, as well as the noticeably larger groin, clearly indicated that this was not his body. At this moment, his soul seemed to have entered a foreigner's body!

Of course, even more shocking things were yet to come. After stripping Li Xiaofeng, the three men dressed him again, but it was clearly not his original clothes. Li Xiaofeng was shocked when he saw the clothes—a black and white striped zebra suit, which was the legendary prison uniform!

Damn!

Li Xiaofeng was about to lose it. He never thought that after escaping from the endless silence, he would end up in the body of a prisoner. This was truly jumping from the frying pan into the fire!

After dressing in this classic prison uniform, while Li Xiaofeng was still dazed, a fat man dressed as a prison guard raised his right hand and read out the rules in a formal manner: "This is the Peter and Paul Fortress Prison. You are a prisoner. Here, you are not allowed to speak loudly, make noise, knock on objects, whistle, sing, or write on the walls. You are not allowed to write on the books provided by the library. Violators will be punished by losing the right to read, meeting visitors, communicating with family, or going outside. If these punishments are not enough, and you continue to violate the rules, you will be placed in solitary confinement, or restrained with a straitjacket and shackles."

Peter and Paul Fortress Prison!

This name made Li Xiaofeng draw a sharp breath. He now knew which country's language he had just learned. Even if he was a layman, he had heard of this famous place. This fortress is located in the heart of St. Petersburg, Russia, on an island called Rabbit Island in the Neva River. This fortress is as old as the city of St. Petersburg, being the first building constructed in the city. Strictly speaking, its history is even a bit older than the city itself.

Of course, the long history is just one aspect. More terrifying is the significance of this fortress to Russia, similar to the Bastille to France. Although the Peter and Paul Fortress was built as a defensive structure, it never served its intended purpose as a sea defense. From the day it was put into use until the fall of the Tsarist government in 1917, it never functioned as a sea defense. Since the mid-18th century, it has been a specialized prison for the Tsar to detain political enemies and opponents.

Three generations of revolutionaries in Russian history who fought against the Tsarist autocracy and serfdom—the Decembrists, the Narodniks, and the Bolsheviks—were all imprisoned here!

Even more terrifying is that in the two hundred years since its establishment, no one has ever successfully escaped from this prison, and countless people have died here. For example, Peter the Great's eldest son, the former heir Alexei, the famous economist Ivan Tikhonovich Pososhkov, and Alexander Ilich Ulyanov, Lenin's older brother, who encouraged Lenin to take the path of revolution but was executed for attempting to assassinate Tsar Alexander II.

To put it simply, the Peter and Paul Fortress Prison would never house small-time criminals or petty thieves. Even murderers and arsonists who committed heinous crimes were not qualified to be here. In short, the Peter and Paul Fortress is the Russian equivalent of the Qin Cheng Prison. The Tsar was never merciful to political prisoners in his country. Now that Li Xiaofeng had the "honor" of entering here, his future was undoubtedly bleak!