By the evening of the next day, the chubby middle-aged man gradually woke up. He groaned and tried to get up, but his whole body was in extreme pain. Especially the previous beating and kicking by the prison guards had pulled on the steel nails under his shoulder blades. At the moment, his hands were weak and he couldn't get up for a while.
He roared angrily, "Are you all dead? Come and help me up!"
Those people shrank back, looked at each other, and glanced at Dudian. They didn't dare to act. Even the burly young man who had previously reminded him shrank into the corner and remained silent.
The chubby middle-aged man roared a few times. Seeing that no one responded to him, the fear and desolation in his heart made him even angrier. But he already understood that he had been abandoned. A wounded and blind tiger, no matter how fierce its expression was, it was difficult to intimidate others anymore.
Moreover, he was not like Old Jin and Black Scar, who had high prestige in the prison. Even among the leaders of each prison cell, they were among the best and could support each other. Even if one of them was seriously injured, no one dared to bully them.
Loneliness, helplessness, despair, and darkness.
He seemed to experience again the feeling when he was first thrown into the prison. At that time, he was violated while crying and flattered with a forced smile. It was not until his boss's term expired and was executed that he got the opportunity to rise to power.
Now, he had fallen again.
Dudian watched him silently and didn't say anything. After a while, the dinner was delivered. This time, fortunately, four pieces of bread were thrown in.
Dudian picked them all up.
Hearing the sound, the chubby middle-aged man suddenly crawled, but instead of pouncing to snatch them, he kowtowed in Dudian's direction and begged, "Please, spare me. You will be my boss from now on. I admit defeat. The others here often have fights. I'll be your fighter in the future. I'll do whatever you ask. Please don't hold a grudge against me..."
Dudian frowned slightly. He didn't expect such a big reversal from him. He thought he would launch a desperate counterattack. After a moment of silence, he said to the others, "What do you think? Should I forgive him?"
Those people were sitting on the straw mat. Looking at the black bread in Dudian's hand and hearing the question, one of them tentatively said in a low voice, "Boss, why don't you forgive him? We are all assigned work in each prison. If we cripple him, there will be one less person to do the work, and we will suffer a loss."
Dudian nodded slightly. After the two prison guards left, he said, "Cripple one of his arms and his third leg."
The others were taken aback when they heard this.
The chubby middle-aged man's face changed. The fingers on the ground couldn't help but clench, but then he loosened them again and pleaded, "Brother, they are right. We have work every week. If you cripple my arm, I'll be a useless person. Then the work will be evenly distributed among everyone, and you will also suffer a loss."
Dudian looked at him quietly and said, "Do you think I need to do the work myself?"
The chubby middle-aged man was stunned.
The faces of the others changed. They understood the meaning of Dudian's words. They didn't expect that even with a new boss, their lives would still be the same. They couldn't help but feel a bit resentful.
Dudian looked at the others and said, "Is no one going to do it?"
The others looked at each other. They were angry but remained tacitly silent.
Dudian took out two pieces of black bread from his arms and said, "Whoever is obedient will get these."
This trick was used by the prison guards in the past two days, and now he was using it right away.
The others were stunned and hesitated for a moment. Finally, one of them stepped forward and said, "I'll do it. But I'm afraid I can't beat him."
Dudian said to the chubby middle-aged man, "Did you hear that? I believe that if you are smart, you won't resist. Otherwise, it won't be just one hand that gets broken. If I'm not wrong, the rules here are very simple. There are only two: no killing and ensuring the workload. So, a little torture shouldn't be a big deal, right?"
Hearing him casually say the words "a little torture", the chubby middle-aged man trembled. It was a mixture of anger and fear because he knew that what Dudian said was completely right.
As long as there was no killing and no impact on the workload, the prison guards would be happy to see the prisoners fight among themselves.
Dudian took out the other two pieces of black bread, took a bite, and ate them slowly. While eating, he said, "The show can start now."
Hearing his words, the others looked at the black bread he was chewing on. Gritting their teeth, they stepped forward and surrounded the chubby middle-aged man.
Naturally, the people in the other prison cells also noticed the situation here. However, it was rare that there was no noisy laughter. Everyone felt a faint chill. They had seen extremely vicious criminals and cold-blooded killers, but they had never seen someone adapt so quickly. Because Dudian was not purely seeking revenge. Even from his instructions, there was not the slightest hint of hatred or killing intent, but a kind of calmness.
It was precisely this calmness that made people feel an extremely dangerous aura.
Screams and angry roars resounded in the prison. The sound waves crashed against the steel bars of the prison cage and were mercilessly shattered.
Dudian chewed the black bread that tasted like expired food slowly and watched the scene in front of him quietly. When he finished eating, the violence in front of him also ended. Only the chubby middle-aged man was left lying in a pool of blood, barely alive. His crotch was covered in blood, and his left hand was broken.
The show was over. The others looked over, eyeing the black bread in Dudian's hand.
Dudian was a man of his word. Without saying more, he casually threw the black bread, and it landed in the bloodstains flowing from the chubby middle-aged man.
The others quickly picked it up, divided it evenly, and wolfed it down.
Days passed by.
Although Dudian didn't take action again, the people here were not fools. From his initial struggle, they could see that he was not an ordinary person but a warrior with extraordinary strength.
After all, some things couldn't be achieved by just being angry and bursting out with extraordinary strength. They had seen too many people struggling in anger and despair, and in the end, they were still forced to lower their unyielding heads and lie on the ground for others to take advantage of.
Pure anger was completely useless in the face of absolute power. It would only make one look more pathetic and sad.
In the past few days, Dudian had occasionally talked to Black Scar a few times and learned that this prison was located at the bottom of a lake. The prison had three floors, and they were on the first floor, which also meant that they were the weakest criminals in this prison.
To prove whether a criminal was weak or strong, besides relying on their own strength, it also depended on the crimes they committed outside.
Someone like Dudian, who was imprisoned for the crime of "theft", naturally belonged to the weakest category.
In these few days, Dudian also learned about the crimes committed by the chubby middle-aged man and the other people. Just like his appearance, the chubby middle-aged man had once been a wealthy merchant. He was imprisoned for raping a noble lady. However, it was precisely his status as a wealthy merchant that gave him the opportunity to buy the "Divine Blessing" on the black market. That's why his strength was much higher than that of an ordinary person, equivalent to that of a junior scavenger.
And this was the first time Dudian had learned that an item called the "Divine Blessing", which was regarded as "sacred", could actually be bought on the black market.