Newcomers

Hammond Phil was transferred away three days now ago and nothing happened since. Yang Yi requested to speak to Owen but it seemed that Owen was avoiding him.

Although he wasn't in a rush to talk to Owen, Yang Yi was quite curious about what Owen was planning.

*****

During free activity period on the same day, Yang Yi was sitting on the same bench as Zhang Yong.

"Nice weather today."

"It's passable."

"What have you learned these past few days?"

"I was learning how to act, hadn't I already told you that?"

"I do have a question for you. What can a spy get from learning how to act? Are you planning to become an undercover agent?"

"Actually I'm also not sure if a spy will find acting useful or not. It's not like I know what skills a spy will need anyway. I believe it will be useful though. Life is like a play after all. You need to put on an act at times."

"Actually, I don't think you need to learn how to act. You're good the way you are. I believe you'd be one of the best agents if you did go undercover."

"Oh, thanks for the confidence."

"Haha, I'm actually just pulling your leg." Zhang Yong burst out laughing.

Yang Yi was quite curious what had him in such a good mood today. "Brother Yong, can I ask you a question?"

"Ask away."

"Can you tell me about Wayne the Beast? I'm really curious."

Zhang Yong just gave Yang Yi a glance before he nonchalantly said, "Why are you asking about him. I don't want to think of him. Moreover, what has he got to do with you? So, stop asking." Zhang Yong could definitely put up an act. Although Zhang Yong hated Wayne the Beast to the core, he sounded outright indifferent when he spoke of him as if Wayne was a total stranger.

Yang Yi just brushed it off in annoyance, "So petty. Forget about it then."

Zhang Yong had immediately retorted, "I must say Little Egg, you're one strange guy. Do you know that?"

"How am I strange?"

"Why are you in prison? To learn, right? If that's the case, why would you meddle in the affairs of other people? As a matter of fact, there's nothing much that I would like to say. Our minds start getting unstable after being in prison for a very long time. Even still, I have no idea why you would plan to kill Wayne. I have started to regret telling you about him."

"What? I'm not planning to kill Wayne."

Zhang Yong firmly asked him, "How's your progress in learning how to act?"

"It's going quite well."

"I don't believe you. At a glance, I already know you're lying." Zhang Yong then looked up into the sky before he continued, "Mind your own business. Wayne is my target and no one is allowed to meddle with him."

"I have no plans of killing him. As you have said, what reasons do I have to kill him? Moreover, it's not like I have the capability to kill him right?"

Nowadays, Yang Yi could lie so smoothly that he found it easier than drinking water for him. As such, Yang Yi was wondering if Zhang Yong was just making a guess or if he indeed discovered the lie.

Right now, Yang Yi was surrounded by his underlings. There was nothing much to do so they were just chatting to pass the time. Soon after, Yang Yi caught sight of a group of inmates walking in a line escorted by guards passing through the main gate.

It was a new batch of inmates.

Kerry immediately stepped beside Yang Yi and said, "Boss, seems like there are newcomers. Do you want me to find out more about them?"

"Sure, go ahead."

Yang Yi was observing this group of new inmates from behind the fence of the recreation field. This group of new inmates still needed to be processed before they could be assigned a cell. Though most of the old-timers in the recreation field just looked at this new batch of inmates indifferently, there were a few old-timers who were trying to intimidate the newcomers.

One of the newcomers actually caught Yang Yi's attention. All the other inmates were only wearing handcuffs but this particular inmate had shackles on his legs as well and had to take small steps as a result. In fact, the way he walked was in a very funny looking way.

In general, only extremely dangerous criminals were treated in such a manner. Thus, Yang Yi pointed at him and said, "Go and find out what crime he committed."

"Sure Boss, I will go now."

Amongst Yang Yi's underlings, he had two who had joined his gang immediately after they entered prison. One could pretty much find all sorts of people in prison. Yang Yi didn't just let any random inmates join him. He would only pick inmates who had the skills he needed and were willing to teach him.

Usually, it was never easy to meet a multi-skilled criminal. However, this type of criminals was very common in Pelican Bay State Prison. The American Judiciary system had filtered out only the most dangerous and high-profile criminals and sent them to the prison. So, the underlings Yang Yi took in were the elites in their criminal fields which made them good teachers and underlings.

Kerry ran to one of the guards and passed him two packs of cigarettes. Kerry soon returned after a quick chat with the guard.

"Boss, I got the details. Not much detail is out yet on what the crimes of all these newcomers are, but the guy wearing leg shackles is definitely out of luck. He managed to break out of prison but the authorities caught him soon after that. That's why he got sent here."

It was no longer surprising why this particular inmate was wearing leg shackles. It was because he had actually managed to pull off a prison break successfully. Moreover, he would also be given some extra treatment as well. At the very least, the guards would let him know who's in charge so that he wouldn't think about attempting another prison break.

"Wow, a prison break. What was his original crime?"

"This guy attempted to break out of prison twice. He's a thief and apparently a very good one too. Oh yeah, his name is Hank."

"He's a thief?"

Yang Yi couldn't help taking another look at the inmate after hearing that. However, there was nothing much that could be seen from so far away. What piqued Yang Yi's curiosity the most was how this particular thief managed to make two attempts at breaking out of prison.

"Yes, the guard wouldn't be able to tell if there are other attempts but it can be confirmed he tried to escape twice. In fact, he even managed to escape successfully once but was soon caught after. Because of this incident, he was sent here. It will be impossible for him to escape this place." Kerry said with absolute confidence due to the high level of security at Pelican Bay State Prison. A person may be able to escape from any other prison in Los Angeles, but the same couldn't be achieved here.

Yang Yi let out a breath before he said, "I believe he should be sent here to the felony section. Go ask this guy if he's willing to be part of our group when he gets sent here. If he doesn't want to join us… Rodriguez."

Rodriguez stepped forward and said, "Yes, boss?"

"If he doesn't want to join us, you go and beat him up until he begs you to let him join."

"Sure, Boss."

"Also, go and remind the other gangs not to fight over this guy with us."

"Understood, Boss."

Zhang Yong just laughed as he asked, "Has he piqued your interest?"

Yang Yi just signaled with his hand, "Yup. I think he's very promising."

Zhang Yong unhappily asked, "Why would you want a thief in the gang? Are you going to tell me you're planning to learn how to steal as well?"

Yang Yi gave a direct answer, "Of course. As per my understanding, aren't spies supposed to steal stuff? That's how the movies always show them. Regardless of whether it's intelligence or whatever it was that got taken, to put it plainly, those are all stolen goods rights?"

Zhang Yong nodded after giving it some thought. "I can't refute that. Go and take him under your wing. I need to pay closer attention to my own wallet in the future. Who knows when you might try to steal it. Hahahaha."