429: Dude, you're in jail, stop acting tough.

The next day.

The cafeteria.

Since he was not a prisoner in solitary confinement, Liu Yan was just like the other prisoners.

When the time came, they were all escorted by the Prison Guard to the cafeteria to eat.

The prisoners held flat, compartmented trays and lined up to get their food.

When it was Liu Yan's turn, he pushed his tray forward, and that was when he noticed.

The people responsible for serving the food here were not Prison Guards, but prisoners themselves.

The Prison Guards just stood to the side, holding guns and watching over everyone.

The prisoner serving the food looked at Liu Yan carefully for a moment, then scooped a ladle of stir-fried celery with peanuts from the side.

Clang—after dumping it onto Liu Yan's tray, he jerked his chin to the side, signaling that he could leave.

Liu Yan looked at the food on his tray, then glanced at the prisoners already sitting at the long tables eating.

He pointed at their trays and asked, "Isn't it supposed to be two meat and two vegetable dishes?"

The prisoner serving the food grinned.

"You look new. Just got here, right?"

"You're used to eating big meals on the outside, so go a few days without the grease."

"The extra food we save goes to the other Brothers to help them bulk up."

After saying this, the prisoner lifted his spoon in a shooing motion.

A few drops of oil even splattered onto Liu Yan's face.

At the same time, the prisoners behind him started to get impatient.

"What are you doing? Can you hurry up? Everyone's waiting to eat."

"Who is that! Who's just standing there? Get lost once you've got your food!"

Liu Yan ignored the urging from behind; instead, he gripped his tray tightly and shot a cold glare at the prisoner serving the food.

"You damn..."

Just as Liu Yan was about to speak, a prisoner with slightly curly hair behind him tugged on him.

"Hey, hey, hey, Brother, I don't have much of an appetite today, so I'll give you mine."

At the same time, the prisoner smiled apologetically at the other prisoners: "Big Brothers, sorry about that. This is a brother from my hometown; he just got here today and doesn't know the rules."

"Go ahead and serve, go ahead..."

After appeasing the prisoners, this prisoner pulled Liu Yan over to a table on the side.

"Why did you stop me?" Liu Yan frowned at him.

Beside him, Liu Yan could clearly see his name: Kim Jae-wook.

Kim Jae-wook sighed heavily and swapped his own tray with Liu Yan's.

"Sigh, I haven't been here long either. I was the same as you back then, and I paid a heavy price for it later."

"Look at this." Kim Jae-wook lifted his clothes and sleeves.

His abdomen and arms were covered in bruises.

Grr—at the same time, Kim Jae-wook's stomach let out a growl.

Liu Yan glanced at the other tray: two vegetable dishes and a little meat broth.

"Your food is short, too."

"Of course. We're both new here; how could we possibly eat the same as them?"

Kim Jae-wook looked at Liu Yan as if he were an idiot.

"Eat up. My food is at least a lot better than yours."

"There's no such thing as fairness here. The prisoners have their own little factions."

"And many of them have Prison Guards backing them."

"Since we're new, if you had gotten into an argument with them just now..."

Kim Jae-wook stopped here, secretly glanced at the prisoners in line, and then lowered his voice: "You would've been in big trouble."

"That group would have closed in on you. The big, burly ones would have blocked everyone's view."

"Then the ones in the middle would have started beating you, covering your mouth while they did it."

"The Prison Guards would pretend not to see it."

As Kim Jae-wook spoke, he recalled the scene of his own beating.

After finishing, Kim Jae-wook waited for Liu Yan to show a look of shock or something similar.

But the latter just smiled and shook his head.

"If you hadn't stopped me, they would be dead."

Kim Jae-wook rolled his eyes in disbelief.

"Buddy, you're already in prison. Let's just keep our heads down and stop acting tough."

"Being low-key is better than anything."

"Let me put it this way: do you think they're mindlessly fighting you for food?"

"What else? Isn't this just the simple principle of a dog guarding its food?" Liu Yan said dismissively.

"It's not that simple."

"To prevent newcomers from causing trouble, they make them go hungry for a few days at the start."

"This leads to a lack of energy, so both your reaction time and strength are greatly reduced."

"I've already been beaten, so they probably won't hit me again, but you should be careful."

Before Liu Yan could answer, a Prison Guard walked over toward them from not far away.

"Number 3751! Stop chatting and eat up. Once you're done, go to the solitary confinement cell to feed the prisoners!"

"Here!"

"Yes!"

Hearing "Number 3751," Kim Jae-wook quickly stood up.

After acknowledging, Kim Jae-wook sat back down and started shoveling food into his mouth without a word.

No matter how much Liu Yan tried to engage him, Kim Jae-wook wouldn't respond anymore.

After trying a few more times.

Liu Yan could only shake his head helplessly.

It looked like the guy really had been beaten up pretty badly.

"Your food, you eat it yourself."

Liu Yan pushed the tray back to Kim Jae-wook.

Then he slowly stood up and walked toward the food serving window from earlier.

At this point, no one was manning the serving window.

Liu Yan had originally intended to serve himself some food.

But the food compartments were already bottomed out; there wasn't even any soup left to ladle.

"Hey, you prisoner! What are you doing! Get back to your seat!"

Seeing Liu Yan get up abruptly and wander around, the Prison Guard nearby shouted sternly.

Liu Yan ignored him and, in the crowd, found the prisoner whose tray had the most food.

Since he had nothing, this was obvious.

And the other guy had so much.

Liu Yan took his tray and walked straight up to the other prisoner.

Then, in front of everyone, Liu Yan swapped his tray with the other prisoner's.

Before leaving, Liu Yan casually ladled some soup from the tray he'd just received and gave it to the other guy.

Clang—

The prisoner stared at Liu Yan in stunned silence (o.O).

Even the spoon in his hand accidentally dropped onto the table.

The other prisoners had their mouths agape, looking like they were ready to watch a show.

Even the Prison Guards hadn't expected such a scene.

Kim Jae-wook looked at Liu Yan, whose tray was now full of meat; the celery he was about to put in his mouth stopped in mid-air.

"Let's eat together."

Liu Yan pushed the tray forward.

"My brother! Are you crazy..."

Before Kim Jae-wook could finish expressing his shock, the prisoner from before had already sat down beside him, directly opposite Liu Yan.

Other prisoners gradually gathered around, completely surrounding the two of them.

"Ah, shit... I should've just left you alone..."

Kim Jae-wook looked at Liu Yan, sighed helplessly, then slowly lifted his feet, squatted on the chair, and covered his head with his hands.

"Big Brothers, go easy on me later... I haven't even taken a bite."

Watching the Prison Guards who had surrounded him and Kim Jae-wook, Liu Yan remained indifferent and just ate on his own.

For the past few days in Santorinoya, Liu Yan had basically only been drinking.

He had barely eaten any food.

His emotions had made it hard for him to swallow.

Now, he was truly hungry.