While eating in the prison cafeteria, Sam snuck up to Asho, smiling and revealing his old teeth. He sat down next to him and began to eat his portion of mac and cheese.

"We've got to talk. Sam said.

Sam was the darkest black man Ashur had ever seen. He could be 60 or 80 years old. Ah Xiu has met someone who, although only 30 years old, looks older than Sam.

"What?" Ashu asked.

"The storm is coming. Sam said.

"Sort of. "Maybe it's about to snow." ”

"Not an ordinary storm, it's a more violent storm. I'm telling you, boy, when the storm comes, you'd better stay here and don't go out into the streets. ”

"I'm out of here on Friday when my sentence is over. Ah Xiu said.

Sam stared at Ashu for a moment, "Where are you from?" he finally asked.

"The town of Braunau, Austria. ”

"You deceitful bastard. Sam said dissatisfied, "I'm asking about your origin." Where did your family come from?"

"Cherbourg. Ashu replied. His mother lived in Cherbourg, France, when she was young, and died there more than a decade ago.

"As I said, a big storm is coming. Keep your head down and be patient, Ah Xiu buddy. It's like...... What do you call these things that carry these continents? What are they called?"

"Tectonic plates?" Ashu said presumptuously.

"That's right, tectonic plates. It's like when the continent is dangling on the board, and North America collides with South America. You don't want to be in the middle of two continents. You know what I mean?"

"I don't understand at all. ”

He blinked a brown eye slightly. "Don't say I didn't warn you beforehand. Sam said, scooping up a piece of quivering Jelly and stuffing it into his mouth.

"I won't. ”

Ashu barely slept that night, half-asleep, listening to the sound of his new roommate snoring in the lower bunk. Outside the adjacent cells, someone was whimpering, howling, and sobbing like a wild animal. Every now and then, someone will yell at him and tell him to shut his fucking stinky mouth. Ah Xiu tried his best not to pay attention to the noise, and let the time pass quietly and slowly, immersed in it alone.

There are still two last two days, forty-eight hours. Breakfast on this day was cereal and coffee from prison. While eating, a guard named Wilson suddenly patted Ah Xiu on the shoulder. "Are you Ashu? come with me. ”

Ah Xiu checked his own conscience. Conscience is peaceful, but in prison, that doesn't mean you haven't gotten into big trouble. The two men walked almost side by side, their footsteps echoing across the metal and concrete floor.

Ah Xiu felt a taste of fear welling up in his throat, as bitter as bitter coffee. Something unfortunate is about to happen......

In his head, a voice whispered that they were going to give him an additional year in prison, to put him in confinement, to cut off his hands, to cut off his head. He reassured himself that it was foolish to think so, but his heart was still beating almost out of his chest.

"I don't understand you, Ah Xiu. As the two walked, Wilson said suddenly.

"What don't you understand, sir?"

"You. You're so fucking quiet and so polite. Just like those old guys. But how old are you? 25 years old, 28 years old?"

"32 years old, sir. ”

"What race are you, Spaniard, Gypsy?"

"I don't know, maybe, sir. ”

"Maybe you still have blood in your veins. You're of blood, aren't you, Asho?"

"Possibly, sir. Ah Xiu straightened his back, his eyes staring ahead, concentrating on not letting himself be provoked by this man.

"Really? I think you're a little fucking horny anyway. "Wilson had sand-blond hair, a sand-blond face, and a sand-blond smirk. "Good thing you're leaving us soon. ”

"I hope so, sir. ”

They go through several checkpoints, and each time Wilson shows his ID card. After climbing a few flights of stairs, they finally reached the door of the warden's office. On the door hangs a warden's name tag spelled in black letters, H. Patterson. Next to the door is a miniature indicator light.

The red light above is on.

Wilson rang a doorbell under the light.

They stood there silently and waited for a few minutes. Asho tried to reassure himself that everything was normal and that by Friday morning, he would be able to fly back to his hometown of Braunau. But deep down, he didn't believe in that thought.

The red light goes out and the green light comes on. Wilson opened the door and two men walked in.

In the past three years, Ah Xiu had only seen the warden a few times. One time he led a politician on a tour of the prison, and the other time he took a prisoner on a level 1 probationary period, where the warden spoke to hundreds of inmates and told them that the prison was overcrowded, but that they had to learn to adapt to it if they were to continue to be overcrowded.

Up close, Patterson looked even more haggard. He had a rectangular face, gray hair trimmed to a military-style short head, and a stale smell of perfume. Behind him was a row of bookshelves, all of which had the word "prison" in their titles. The desk was neat and clean, empty except for a phone and a tear-off desk calendar. He also wears a hearing aid in his right ear.

"You may be seated. ”

Ashu sat down, and Wilson stood behind him.

The warden opened the drawer, pulled out a file, and spread it out on his desk.

"The dossier says you were sentenced to six years in prison for aggravating assault and assaulting someone. You have served 3 years in prison and will be released on parole on Friday. ”

Really? Ashu felt his stomach and intestines crumble. He wondered how long they had added him to his sentence — one year, two years, or three years, but when he answered, it was, "Yes, sir." ”

The warden licked his lips. "What did you say?"

"I said, 'Yes, sir. ’”

"Ah Xiu, this afternoon, we will release you early, a few days earlier than the original date. Ah Xiu nodded, he waited for the warden's next blow. The warden looked down at the papers on his desk. "This is coming from John Memorial Hospital in Braunau Township...... Your wife, she passed away in the early hours of this morning, in a car accident. I am sorry to tell you this sad news. ”

Ah Xiu nodded numbly again.

Wilson escorted him back to his cell, saying nothing along the way. He unlocked the cell and let Ah Xiu in, and then said, "It's like that 'good news, bad news' joke, isn't it? The good news is that we released you early, and the bad news is that your wife is dead." He burst out laughing, as if it was really funny.

Ah Xiu remained silent.

He numbly packed up his belongings, leaving most of his personal belongings behind. He left behind Herodotus of Loki and the book that taught people to play coin magic. When he left behind the blank piece of metal that he had smuggled out of the prison factory, he felt a moment of sadness in his heart. It was used by him to practice his tricks instead of coins. But what is out there are coins, real coins. He shaved his beard, put on ordinary clothes, and walked through prison door after prison door. When he realized that he would never return here, he felt an inexplicable emptiness.

The sky was overcast and began to rain, cold and biting rain. Xiaoice hail hit Ah Xiu's face, and the rain soaked his thin coat. A group of released prisoners walked to a yellow bus that had been a school bus and took it to a nearby city.

When they got into the car, everyone was drenched. A total of eight people were released, but 1,500 prisoners remained in the prison behind. Ashu sat in the bus shivering until the heat started to warm him up. He didn't know what he was doing, or where he was going.

His mind was filled with strange visions. In his imagination, it seemed as if he was leaving another prison a long, long time ago.

Imagine that he was held in a room without light for a long time. He had a full beard and his hair was unkempt. The guards escorted him down a gray stone staircase to a brightly colored plaza filled with brightly dressed pedestrians and brightly colored objects. It was market day, and he was dazzled by the sounds and colors. He squinted his eyes at the bright sunlight that filled the square, breathing in the damp air filled with the smell of sea salt and the smell of all the goods in the bazaar, and on the left side of his body, the sun was shining on the surface of the sea......

The bus staggered to a stop at a red light. Outside, the cold wind howled past the bus, and the wipers on the front window swayed heavily. The damp rain from the car windows blurred the city outside into a patch of red and yellow neon. It's just afternoon, but looking through the window, it looks like it's late at night.

Ah Xiu swallowed a mouthful of saliva. He suddenly realized that he hadn't cried so far. To be honest, he didn't feel any sadness. No tears, no sadness, nothing to feel.

He realizes that he is reminiscing about a guy named Rush, with whom he had shared the same cell when he was first brought in. Rush told Ashur that he had been released after serving five years in prison with $100 and a plane ticket to Seattle in his pocket. His sister lives in Seattle.

Rush came to the airport and handed his ticket to the woman behind the counter. She asked to see his driver's license.

He showed her his driver's license. However, the driver's license expired a few years ago. She told him that the license could not be used as proof of identity. He told her that it might not be a valid driver's license, but it could certainly be used as proof of identity. Hell, who does she think he is if he wasn't him?

She asked him to speak quietly.

He warned her to hurry up and get him on the plane, or else he would have to give her some color. He can't tolerate her being disrespectful to him, and in prison, you definitely can't tolerate other people being disrespectful to you.

As a result, the woman pressed an alarm, and airport security soon appeared. They tried to convince Rush to leave the airport quietly, but of course he refused to leave. The two sides began to argue.

As a result, Rush couldn't fly to Seattle. For the next few days, he had to stay in a bar in the city. After running out of $100, he robbed a gas station with a toy pistol so he could buy alcohol. The police caught him while he was urinating on the street. Soon he was brought back to serve his sentence and sentenced to several more years for robbing a gas station.

For Rush, the educational point of the story is: don't mess with airport staff.

"I think the educational meaning should be, 'A certain behavior can work in a certain environment, such as a prison, but in an external environment it is not only ineffective, but it is harmful. 'What do you think?' Ashu asked after listening to Rush's story.

"No, listen to me, I'll tell you, man. Rush said, "Don't mess with the bitches at the airport!"

Thinking of this past, Ah Xiu couldn't help but smile. Thankfully, his driver's license is still a few months away.

"The station arrived. Everyone gets out of the car. ”

The station is filled with the smell of urine and rancid beer. Ah Xiu gets into a taxi and tells the driver to go to the airport. He also told the driver to tip him an extra $5 if he could drive quietly without talking. They arrived at the airport 20 minutes later, and the driver really didn't say a word along the way.

Ah Xiu stumbled through the brightly lit halls of the airport terminal. He was a little worried about his e-ticket. He knew that the date on his ticket was Friday, and he wondered if he could change it to today. Ah Xiu felt that anything electronic seemed to have an incredible magic power, and could disappear at any time.

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THREE YEARS, HE HAD A WALLET IN HIS TROUSER POCKET CONTAINING SEVERAL EXPIRED CREDIT CARDS AND A VISA CARD, WHICH HE WAS SURPRISED AND DELIGHTED TO FIND OUT WAS EXPIRING AT THE END OF JANUARY NEXT YEAR. He has a predetermined ticket number. And he also realized that he had a certain feeling that once he got home, everything would be normal and Laura would be safe. Maybe it was just a ruse they used to get him out of prison early. Or maybe it's a mix-up: it's another woman named Laura who dies in a crash on the highway.

Through the glass curtain wall, the lights outside the airport flickered. Ah Xiu suddenly realized that he had been holding his breath, as if he was waiting for something. Thunder roared in the distance. He finally let out a breath.

A tired-looking woman stood behind the check-in counter, staring at him.

"Hello," Ashu greeted her. You're the first live strange woman I've spoken face-to-face for the first time in three years. "I have an e-number for an e-ticket. I was supposed to fly on Friday, but I had something to do today and had to fly early. Someone in my family has died. ”

"I'm sorry to hear such unfortunate news. She tapped on her keyboard, stared at the computer screen, and then tapped a few more keys, "No problem, I'll put you on the 3:30 plane." However, the plane may be delayed due to the storm, so pay attention to the on-screen notifications. Do you want to check and check your luggage?"

He held up his backpack to show her. "You don't need that, do you?"

"No need. She said, "Do you have any photo ID?"

Ah Xiu took out his driver's license and showed it to her.