The Follow-up of “The Cop and the Anthem” (Yi Feng Wang)

Soapy was caught and sentenced to be locked up in Blackwell for three months. His sudden and wonderful change in his soul seemed faded away. He was complaining all the way up to the island where prison was located. The landscape out of the window moved fast. The freezing wind made him tremble.
When he was waked up by the bitter cold, he found himself in front of a gigantic prison. Leaves fell down and dropped on his head, greeting his advent. The wind is still freezing. The first person who he met is wardenry. He take a glance at Soapy.
“Take care of this guy, and put him into Room 23.” He said with a strange tone.
In the prison, no one will take care of anyone. That room is really nasty.
“Yo, fish. Do you know what is fish? It is the name for newbie’s. You look so shabby, man. You should do something for us, otherwise you will get the pain.”
A black man said with a contemptuous tone.
“What a hack.”
Soapy want to vent his discontentment, but the words get in the way. Because a few strappers was looking at him, they looked so tough. This is the first day when Soapy lived in the prison. It seemed that those strappers found some interesting things to do, so they had no time to “take care” of him. He stared at the moon through the window. The moon gave out the luminescence, and left its lonely shadow on the ground was lonesome.
“Wake up,dude,it is time for breakfast.”
A strapper strucked Soapy with his fist.
“I am still sleeping, what are you doing?”
Soapy goggled at him and pose as a lazy dog.
“Yo, boss. Came up, this lazy guy hates to get out of bed.”
Then came the “boss”, he was stronger than any strappers here, and he lifted Soapy with great ease. “Put me down, I have got a headache.” Soapy shouted, but he was still be in the air.
“Wake up, man. The delicious food is waiting for you. We want your steak, body.”
“Oh, gosh, that’s the reason why I came here, I wanna steak.”
Losing himself in thought, Soapy feel badly painful because “boss” gave him a forceful squeeze at his waist.
“Please put me down, man, we could negotiate.”
Soapy could hardly speak due to his pain on waist. Then they came to a “deal”, which is Soapy should gave his steak to them.
“What a dreadful place!”
Soapy was thinking about his humble arrangements for annual hegira to this prison a couple of days ago, but he regretted for it now.
“I thought I could get through this cold winter and have some delicacy to eat. I was all wrong, and nothing left for my breakfast now.”
Soapy talked to himself as usual. After exploited for a whole day, Soapy suffered the cold and hunger again at mid night, he felt so lonely. Those “warm-hearted” strappers ran out of their energy, and fall asleep. Soapy glare at their damn face, and wanted to smack them. But without any strength and courage.
“What a hack I am doing now? I look for trouble. I was used to play the role of the rascal. But now I am like a tremulous worm, trembling in front of these jerks.”
Soapy was in a fit of remorse.
“Hey, fish, what are you doing?” Silence. Because he was lost in thought.
“Fish, you dare keep silence in front of me!”
A strapper said rudely. Soapy woke up just now, and he was thinking about how to leave this damn place. After Soapy heard his shouting, he abruptly had a plan in his head.
“What you think you are? Man. Look at you, you the ugly freak!”
Silence again. After Soapy hysterically shouted out the words. There definitely were thirty seconds of silence. The strappers could not believe their ears. The person whose steak was contributed to them turned into now a mad bull.
“Wow, I am your boss, you wanna get a trashing?”
The strapper picked up Soapy, and beat him. Soapy’s previous pretending to be strong was gone.
“Yo, this guy is just a sissy.”
Soapy could not get on his feet, and he felt mentally and physically exhausted. Then came the wardenry.
“What happenend here? I cannot wait to see.” He said with the still strange tone.
“Sir, this guy was defiant, and we beat him.”
They stood akimbo and said.
“Was it you offend them? Listen, fish, you got to find your feet here. Those guys are grand old men here, you should admire them.”
The wardenry highered his tone.
“Admire? I really want to beat them thousands of times.”
Soapy responded in heart. The wind was still freezing, blowing through the window. Soapy felt upset, and went to sleep early. He had planned to ask the wardenry for transfer jail previously, and now he perished the thought.
“It is time for church, fish.”
Someone patted on his shoulder and let him go to the church in prison. Soapy hated the church. He came here because his stupid behavior beside that church. This time, still the cops’ patting on his shoulder, the difference is they let him go to the church.
“All right, I will go. Let me see what will happen with that pokey church.”
Soapy whispered. The abbe is the first people he met in the church.
“Hey, young man, you come for praying, right? You should be prayerful.” The abbe said.
“Yes, I will.”
Soapy responsed inadvertently.
“Help!”
Soapy was sleeping on the chair due to the boring atmosphere in church when he heard the voice. But when his line of sight turned to the stage, he found the abbe was threatened by a strapper whose face was familiar.
“Those jerk!”Soapy shouted out, “Stop doing it.”
“Hey, father, I am a Protestant, I do not want to hear your speech about Christianity.”
The strapper said ferociously. Just then, a sense of anger came to Soapy’s mind. Formerly he hated that guy because he beat him. It seemed that Soapy was transfused too much Adrenalin, he felt extremely forceful. He ran to the stage, and pulled away that guy.
“Oh, you hit me. You the kind of sissy, let me teach you a lesson.”
He shock his fist to Soapy, Soapy was punched unfortunately.
“Cops are coming!”
The strapper’s associate shouted. They all ran away. It was silent after they had run. Soapy lay on the floor, he cannot stop himself bleeding. Then came the cops and a big ambulance, Soapy was saved.
“Good job, young man. You are now safe, and congratulations. We decide to cut down the days you should spend in prison. After you recover, you are free.”
The head of prison stood in front of him. He faced a white world, white carpet, white sickbed, and white nurses’ uniform. “What, I can’t believe my ears? Sir?”
Soapy thought he was dreaming.
“It’s true, you save the abbe who is my close friend, he said you are the bravest man.”
After looking back everything happened in jail, Soapy cannot stop crying. The tears were soaked by the bed sheet. The wind was still freezing, but it was not so far away from spring.