CH 5

Poet.

A romantic profession.

In the history of mankind, many outstanding poets have emerged. Some were also great philosophers, thinkers, and writers.

Before the criminal psychology subject had appeared, Western poets began to explore the related themes in a form of poetry.

From Aristotle, Dante Alighieri, to Shakespeare, Goethe, Shelley, Dickinson, these great poets continued to write with pen…

Crime was the eternal theme for their writing, life and death, love and hate, crime and punishment, sacrifice and revenge, light and darkness, law and order…

Poets were sensitive and intelligent. They experience the world from their unique perspective, integrate their understanding of good and evil into words, and turn them into works of art one by one…

On the summer afternoon in Huadu, Su Hui sat in a rickety bus, taking time to read the information in his hand.

His eyes fell on a photo of a note, the information was not very clear, and Su Hui’s eyesight wasn’t good either. It took him some effort to recognize the small letters on the note— “Had I not seen the Sun, I could have borne the shade, But Light a newer Wilderness, My Wilderness has made.”

These sentences came from the famous American poet, Dickinson’s work— “Had I not seen the Sun.”

The bus swayed without warning, giving out a clattering sound, then the driver stepped on the accelerator. Su Hui gathered his thoughts, turning his eyes from the information to the bus. The bus began to go up the mountain, and for safety purposes, he put away the information.

“Are there any stops in the next three stations? If not, we will go straight up to the Baihu Mountain.” The driver shouted.

Everyone on the bus agreed tacitly without answering. The people who took the bus here basically went to Baihu Mountain, and the several stops on the way were useless.

The driver said, “Alright!” Then he sped up, almost throwing away the bag in Su Hui’s hand.

Su Hui hadn’t driven for a long time, plus with his current vision, he could only bid farewell to the driver seat.

He originally wanted to take a taxi. However, when the driver heard it was the Baihu Mountain, he was unwilling to come over. The place was far from the city center, so the driver didn’t have time to wait for him.

Another reason was that those people felt unlucky and unsafe.

After all, this was the place where prisoners were locked up.

Inside were devils that had committed various crimes, and although they were now in prison, they were still scary.

Su Hui hesitated for a moment, yet in the end, he chose to take a bus.

The bus drove very fast nowadays, and the driver was also accustomed to this road. He didn’t slow down on the edge of the steel cliff. From time to time, he would make a sharp turn, it was as if the window would break off at any time without pulling the handrail.

The tires clashed against the road, and occasionally, there would be a car passing by their bus swiftly. Nevertheless, the driver was incredibly calm while the passengers broke out in a cold sweat.

The people’s hearts hadn’t calmed down when another winding road appeared.

Su Hui was sitting in the back, having motion sickness. He clenched the handrail in front of him until his knuckles turned white.

Su Hui tried to maintain his balance, he felt suffocated in his chest, making him cough a few times. The car shook so much that he felt his soul and internal organs would be thrown out of his body.

Su Hui had long been used to not seeing things clearly. This situation exacerbated the motion sickness. Everything seemed to have fallen apart, which was completely different from ordinary people’s world, just like Picasso’s abstract paintings.

His hearing wasn’t clear, and the time to time conversations in the bus sounded far away, like water in the pot that was about to boil.

The senses were separate from the body, Su Hui felt like he was in a fish tank glass that was filled with water. The fish tank was transparent, but there wasn’t any fish in it, only him.

He watched the outside world quietly across the glass.

All the people in front of him have become actors. He seemed to be in a TV series, and he was one of them trying to adapt to his role.

“Are you here for the first time?” A voice beside Su Hui pulled him back to reality.

Su Hui turned his head, looking for a moment, did he notice an old aunt sitting on the seat next to him by the window.

The aunt was in her fifties, with permed hair and a slightly fat body. She was obviously very familiar with the whole journey. There were two bags in front of her, one was full of melon seeds, while the other bag was filled with melon seed shells. Sitting on this rickety bus, she cracked the melon seeds to kill time.

Su Hui nodded politely. “This is the first time.”

Seeing his pale face, the aunt handed him a plastic bag kindly. “No wonder, it’s almost there, hold on for another ten minutes.” Then she said, “It’s fine to go up the mountain. You’ll know once you go down the mountain, it’s like a roller coaster, the speed is twice faster than this, it’s very exciting…”

Su Hui couldn’t think that far, he only hoped to get through the current situation. He thanked the aunt and took the plastic bag, holding it tightly in his hand.

The aunt asked him, “Do you want to eat melon seeds?”

Su Hui waved his hand and thanked her again.

The aunt obviously had a good impression of this handsome and polite young man, thus she asked, “Come to see your friend?”

Su Hui was too dizzy to speak, his Adam’s rolled, yet he couldn’t throw up now, but after a while, it was hard to say.

The aunt took his silence as an acquiesce answer, and continued to chat with him, “I’m here to see my son, that damn boy injured someone after getting drunk. It has been three years, and it will take about four years. He has now improved, and maybe will come out sooner. What kind of penalty does your friend get? Just have been sentenced? How long?”

Su Hui pursed his lips, finally took a breath and said, “Death penalty.”

The aunt cried out, covered her mouth with melon seeds and didn’t dare to ask more, just looking at him with sympathy, a bit scared, and somewhat…curious.

This bus led to Baihu Mountain Prison in Huadu. In addition to mountain people, there were also several of them coming to visit the prisoners.

The prison only received visitors on the fifth and tenth day of each month, and if you missed it, you wouldn’t be able to visit.

After a thirty minutes journey, the bus finally stopped in front of several gray buildings. At last, he had arrived at Baihu Mountain Prison.

The air conditioner in the bus was a bit low, hence as soon as the door opened, a wave of heat drifted in from the outside.

The people on the bus got off one after another. Su Hui got out of the bus, carrying his backpack, and stood still with his scepter for a while before the dizziness dissipated.

He gazed at the gray buildings in front of him from a distance, followed behind other people into the gate of the prison.

After passing through a small yard, he entered the office building of the prison. The prison guard was in charge of registering names one by one. When it was Su Lian’s turn, he asked, “Have you registered in advance?”

Su Huai paused for a second, he had already regained his usual indifference. He stretched out his hand, handed over the ID card that he had prepared ahead of time, police authorization, various procedures and an explanation letter that was sealed by the academy.

The other party took a look at it, and quickly bent at the waist. “Oh! Teacher Su, Supervisor He said repeatedly that you will come. Please follow me.”

The little prison guard took a few steps and turned back. “In fact, you can call us when you arrive at the foot of the mountain, we can pick you up.”

Su Hui had recovered from motion sickness. He waved his hand and smiled mildly. “Don’t bother, you guys are very busy with work. It’s convenient to go up the mountain by bus.”

The prison guard had obviously experienced the roller coaster on the way as well. After chatting with Su Hui for some time, he explained to him about the situation here and led him to the administrative area.

During the afternoon, it should be time for free activities in prison. There was some noise outside. Su Hui couldn’t hear it well, he could only hear some chaotic and sharp whistle sounds.

The prisoner guard took Su Hui to a road where only the interior guard was permitted. There were fewer people here, the building was spacious and empty. Su Hui’s scepter touched the ground, producing a faint echo sound.

Su Hui was quickly ushered into a one-way mirror interrogation room. The guard poured him a glass of water and said, “We’ll bring the person here right away.”

Su Hui nodded, placing his scepter aside, then remembered something. “Has anyone come to see him?”

The little prison guard shook his head. “Such a notorious and cruel murderer, all relatives probably want to avoid, so no one comes to visit him.”

Su Hui asked again, “His parents never come?”

The prison guard nodded. “He had no father since he was a child. His mother seemed to be ill and couldn’t take care of him.”

Su Hui nodded when he heard this. He touched his pocket and realized that he had forgotten something. He lifted his head and asked, “Can I buy something from you?”

The prison guard asked, “What does Teacher Su want to buy?”

Su Hui: “Cigarettes and lighters.”

Hearing this, the little prison guard took out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his pocket, and handed it over. “Teacher Su, you don’t have to be polite. Supervisor He said to take good care of you. If this isn’t enough, I’ll find another pack for you.”

Su Hui replied, “Thank you so much. This is enough, I came here in a hurry, so I forgot to buy it.”

The prison guard went to take the person, Su Hui put the cigarette and lighter into the backpack, then he took out a thick stack of information from the backpack. 

Among the information were newspapers as well as the stamped file, photos, and also the photocopy information from the police.

Su Hui lowered his head, struggling to recognize. He arranged the information and placed them on the table in different positions. The recorded file name was: Song Rongjiang.

That was the reason he came to Baihu Mountain Prison today.

A little while later, the prison guards brought a man in his thirties in. The man’s hands and feet were shackled. He was obviously a criminal.

He was a little thin, with sunken eyes sockets, and short hair. However, he didn’t look weak, the muscle lines could be seen on his arms, like a swift and powerful leopard. There were still some bruises on his elbows as well as scratches on the side of his neck, which should be the result of a recent fight.

The prison guard pressed the man on the seat opposite Su Hui. For a short while, the interrogation room was filled with a bloodthirsty aura.

It’s the kind of aura that a serial killer who killed many people had.

Su Hui looked up and said, “Remove the shackle.”

The prison guard was flabbergasted. He hesitated for a moment. “But…”

Su Hui coughed twice. “It’s okay, you guys are watching from the outside. Besides, his ankles are still shackled, I just hope he relaxes a bit while we talk.”

This was the core of the entire prison. There were several prison guards with guns guarding on the outside of the one-way mirror. The prisoners couldn’t escape. Su Hui hoped that when he was in this room, he could have a calm conversation with the other party.

Only then did the prison guard remove the shackle on the man’s hands. As if facing the enemy, he didn’t forget to warn him, “Behave yourself later!”

Song Rongjiang leaned sideways on the chair, shaking his wrists, raising his head, looking curiously at the handsome man in front of him…

The author has something to say:

Note: “Had I not seen the Sun, I could have borne the shade, But Light a newer Wilderness, My Wilderness has made.”

—Dickinson “Had I not seen the Sun.”