The prison guard frowned and looked into the cell. Even the light from the nearest oil lamp was extremely dim. In the hazy darkness, he could vaguely see a figure lying on its side in the cell, seemingly asleep.
"Come and eat," the prison guard called out, somewhat annoyed. Seeing that the figure didn't respond, he snorted coldly and pushed the cart away.
...
...
Outside the prison, it was raining steadily.
The Black Snow Season had just passed. In the early days of the Disaster Rainy Season, the rainfall was extremely frequent. The turbid raindrops shrouded the sky and the earth in a curtain of rain, making everything hazy.
At the edge of the lake, on a grassy area where raindrops trickled, there was a slight movement. A patch of the grass turf lifted slightly, revealing a pair of deep black eyes inside. They scanned the surroundings. Although disturbed by the heavy rain, one could still see the ancient castle standing alone in the center of the lake in the distance, and his position was on the left side of the ancient castle.
He glanced in the direction of the watchtower on the left side of the castle. Vaguely, there were two blurred figures standing guard there.
"I started digging the night before last after eating the bread. After a whole day yesterday and until noon today, I finally dug through in one go," Dudian's eyes flickered. "Tonight is the last chance. When the prison guards come to deliver the food, they will definitely notice something is wrong. Even with the previous 'cry wolf' hint, by noon tomorrow, they will surely find out. There are only half a day left..."
The escape plan that he had been planning for several years was basically successful by now, but he knew that escaping from prison was just the first step. The real danger was only about to officially begin at this moment!
He quickly reached out from the entrance of the hole and grabbed the surrounding weeds. After a while, he slowly lifted the grass turf and crawled out. He wrapped the grabbed weeds around his body. As he crawled, he continued to pick up the weeds along the way, covering his entire body in a patch of green.
The heavy rain soaked him through, and the cold was bone-chilling. He crawled faster and faster. When he looked back and saw that the entire ancient castle was very blurred, he immediately stood up and started running.
After a long time, when he couldn't see the ancient castle anymore when he looked back, Dudian let out a slight sigh of relief, but he still didn't dare to stop. Dragging his tired and aching body, he walked barefoot through the thicket of grass towards the front.
"I wonder which district's outskirts this Thistle Flower Prison is located in..." Dudian stopped to catch his breath for a few moments. He raised his hand to shield himself from the heavy rain and looked up at the high sky. He saw that there were faint thunder and lightning rumbling in the dark clouds. Although the sky was dim and cold, he could still see a relatively brighter area, which should be where the sun was.
After calculating the time in his mind, Dudian immediately knew his current position. He thought to himself, "The Great Wall is in the south, and the Inner Wall is in the north. I should go north."
Based on the direction judged by the sun, he found the position of the north and walked straight towards it.
The Great Wall and the Inner Wall were like an "=" sign. The horizontal line outside was the Great Wall, and the horizontal line inside was the Inner Wall. The middle part consisted of three districts, the outskirts, and the radiation zone.
Under the wash of the heavy rain, all the dirt on Dudian's body was completely washed away. He picked up some leaves and weeds along the way. As he walked, he twisted them into ropes and weaved the leaves together to cover his body, so as not to be naked and get infected with wind-cold.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
In this desolate wilderness, Dudian walked alone. He stumbled along the way. The biting rain poured on his body, making him feel icy cold all over. As he struggled to move forward, he sniffed the air, sensing the surrounding smells to prevent bumping into the patrolling guards of the defensive line outside the prison.
More than an hour later, the rain finally stopped, and Dudian's body felt much lighter. Before long, he saw a border fortification. Judging from the familiar path outside the fortification, it was actually the fortification leading to the commercial district.
"I didn't expect that the Thistle Flower Prison wasn't set up in the slum district or the residential district, but in the wilderness of the commercial district," Dudian raised his eyebrows slightly and suddenly understood. If the prison was set up in the slum district, it would be much easier for others to gather people to break into the prison. After all, the border inspections in these two districts and the inspections of the defensive lines in various areas were far less strict than those in the commercial district.
Invisibly, this was a defensive line to prevent prison breaks.
And those who escaped from prison would also be blocked by these layers of strict defensive lines if they wanted to enter the living area again. They could only wander in the wilderness or enter the radiation zone, in which case they would sooner or later meet their end.
Looking at the sky, although the heavy rain had just stopped, the dark clouds remained, as if brewing another heavy rain.
Dudian quietly returned along the original path. All the way, he looked at the towering fortification from a distance. The walls of the fortification were made of stones and sharp wooden stakes, more than twenty meters high. Through his sense of smell, he could clearly smell that there were soldiers stationed at regular intervals on it.
"There are soldiers on the wall, and there are soldiers patrolling inside the wall..." Dudian stared at the high wall and fell into thought.
Suddenly, he smelled two breaths rapidly approaching from the direction of the prison in the distance. One was the smell of a human body, and the other was the smell of a horse. He was shocked. "Are they here to track me down?"
He quickly moved away from the high wall of the fortification and ran horizontally.
After running more than a thousand meters, he stopped. He could still smell that the breath was still running along the previous straight line and didn't change direction because of his position.
"They didn't sense me. They're not after me," Dudian's eyes moved, and a hint of coldness flashed in his eyes.
Clip-clop!
A large black horse galloped rapidly. A young man was sitting on the horse, whipping the black horse furiously.
When passing by a small forest, suddenly a figure rushed out from inside, startling the black horse. The horse stopped abruptly, its front hooves raised high, and it let out a long neigh.
The young man on the horse was greatly surprised. He couldn't hold on tightly and suddenly rolled off.
At the same time he landed, that figure pounced on him, pinned him to the ground, and held a hard stone in his hand, raising it high and smashing it down.
When the young man saw the face of the figure pouncing on him, his pupils shrank sharply, and he exclaimed in horror, "It's you—"
With a thud, the stone hit his head, and blood gushed out immediately. He passed out.
Dudian raised the stone and smashed it down several more times. He didn't stop until he heard the sound of the young man's skull cracking. He gasped for breath. Then he turned over and came to the somewhat flustered black horse. He took hold of the horse's reins, tied it to a small tree beside him, and then returned to the body of the dead young man. With a glance at his armor, he immediately knew that he was from the Thistle Flower Prison.
Suddenly, he saw a scroll on the young man's waist, which was something used to store letters on rainy days.
Dudian's eyes flashed. He opened the scroll and saw a piece of parchment paper inside. He pulled it out and unfolded it. Immediately, he saw a portrait of himself, and below it was his personal information resume: Dudian, male, sixteen years old... Wanted throughout the city. Anyone who provides valid information will be rewarded with 100 gold coins.
After reading it, Dudian silently tore up the wanted poster and twitched the corner of his mouth slightly. "A hundred gold coins. It seems I'm still quite valuable."
For an ordinary family in the residential district, 100 gold coins was a huge sum of money that they could hardly earn in their entire lives.
"It's not time for the evening meal yet, and it's been quite a while since the midday meal. The prison guard must have thought something was wrong later and went back to check. It's earlier than expected. Fortunately, I intercepted this wanted poster on the way." Dudian realized the urgency of the situation. Once the wanted poster was out, his actions would be greatly restricted. Fortunately, this world hadn't entered the information age yet. It would take a lot of time for the wanted posters to be pasted all over each district. He had to rush to complete his plan before that.
He stripped the young man of his clothes. Dudian put on his underclothes, while the more noticeable armor was discarded in the nearby grass. Then he threw the young man's body into the grass as well.
As for pretending to be the young man and sneaking into the fortification? The armor didn't fit his body at all. Anyone with a discerning eye could tell that it was not symmetrical and would easily expose him.
After that, Dudian led the black horse into the nearby forest, picked up a stone, and killed it to prevent it from being seen by passers-by and exposing the matter here in advance.
After doing all this, he hid a stack of silver coins he found on the young man in his chest. He crouched down and groped his way to the front of the high wall. Through his sense of smell, he sensed the movements of the patrolling soldiers inside. After a while, when this group of patrolling soldiers walked away, he immediately grasped the wall and climbed up quickly like a spider.