Transmigration; Married to My Ex-Fiancé's Uncle-Chapter 396; Dark - ... Lin Feng

Lin Feng’s screams slowly dissolved into ragged breathing, each exhale wet and painful. By the time the men finally stepped back, he was barely able to lift his head from the cold concrete floor. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, pooling beneath his cheek in a small, dark puddle that spread slowly across the filthy surface.

The cell fell silent, though not with calm or mercy. Just waiting. The kind of stillness that preceded something worse.

Chen Wei wiped his knuckles slowly on the edge of his shirt, examining the blood there with detached interest before looking down at the broken man on the ground. "Do you remember what you used to say?" he asked quietly, his voice carrying through the small space with unsettling clarity.

Lin Feng didn’t answer. He couldn’t. His throat was too swollen, his thoughts too fragmented by pain and terror to form coherent words.

Wang Jian crouched beside him, gripping a fistful of Lin Feng’s hair and forcing his face upward with deliberate cruelty. Lin Feng’s neck strained at an unnatural angle, tears mixing with the blood on his battered face. "You said powerful men could do whatever they wanted," Wang Jian said softly, his voice almost conversational. "That the weak just had to endure it. That survival meant accepting whatever those in power chose to inflict."

His gaze drifted toward the metal door of the cell, then back to Lin Feng with cold satisfaction. "Well, now you get to learn exactly how that feels. Now you get to be weak while we decide what happens to you."

The first cellmate hopped down from the bunk with a slow stretch, his movements casual and unhurried. His smile was thin and unsettling, the expression of someone anticipating entertainment that would last for days. "We’ve got five full days before your court hearing," he said, letting the timeline settle over Lin Feng like a suffocating blanket. "Five days to make sure you understand every single lesson you need to learn."

Chen Wei stepped back toward the shadows near the bunks, his silhouette barely visible in the dim light filtering through the cell bars. The movement wasn’t a retreat, but a repositioning, like a predator circling wounded prey.

"Close the door curtain," Wang Jian said quietly, releasing Lin Feng’s hair and letting his head drop back to the concrete with a dull thud.

The thin cloth was pulled across the bars, blocking the already minimal light from the hallway. The cell grew darker, the shadows deepening until Lin Feng could barely make out the shapes of the men surrounding him. But he could hear them. Could feel their presence in the cramped space, moving with deliberate purpose.

Lin Feng’s breathing quickened, panic overriding pain as understanding crashed over him. This wasn’t over. The beating had just been the beginning. What came next would be worse, would last longer, would strip away whatever shreds of dignity he still possessed.

"No, wait, please...." he managed to gasp out, his voice breaking on the words.

No one answered him. No one even acknowledged that he’d spoken. The men moved through the cell with practiced coordination, their footsteps shifting around the cramped space in patterns that suggested this wasn’t their first time doing something like this. Someone dragged a stool across the floor, the scraping sound harsh and deliberate. Another voice murmured something too low to understand, words exchanged between the cellmates that excluded Lin Feng entirely from the conversation about what they planned to do to him.

Lin Feng’s panicked voice rose once more, higher and more desperate, begging for mercy he knew wouldn’t come. And then the noise inside the cell swallowed his cries completely, muffling them behind concrete walls and locked doors and the complete indifference of guards who’d been paid to ignore whatever happened in this particular cell tonight.

Outside in the corridor, silence reigned. No alarms. No intervention. No rescue. Just the normal background sounds of a prison at night, distant shouting from other sections, metal doors clanging somewhere far away, the steady rhythm of guards making their rounds without bothering to check on cells where specific prisoners had been placed for specific purposes.

Hours passed in that darkness, each minute stretching into eternity for the man who’d once thought himself untouchable, who’d never imagined his power could be stripped away so completely, who was learning in the most brutal way possible what it meant to be utterly helpless at the mercy of people who had every reason to show none.

When the curtain was finally pulled back and dim light filtered into the cell again, Lin Feng lay motionless on the concrete floor. His prison uniform hung in tatters, torn beyond repair, exposing skin marked with bruises that would darken by morning. Blood trickled from fresh wounds across his back, collecting in small pools beneath him where it soaked into the fabric bunched around his waist. His entire body radiated pain so profound that even breathing felt like an insurmountable task.

He didn’t move. Couldn’t move. His mind had retreated to some distant place where the physical violations and systematic degradation couldn’t fully reach, leaving his body an empty shell that trembled with shock and trauma.

The three men moved about the cell with casual satisfaction, their breathing slightly heavy from exertion but their expressions carrying the deep contentment of debts finally repaid. Wang Jian straightened his uniform, adjusting the fabric with deliberate care. Chen Wei wiped his hands on a rag pulled from his pocket, cleaning away evidence with methodical precision. The first cellmate zipped his trousers slowly, the sound of the zipper unnaturally loud in the quiet cell, and smiled down at the broken man on the floor with cold satisfaction.

"That’s just the first night," Wang Jian said conversationally, settling onto his bunk as if nothing unusual had occurred. "We’ve got four more days to make sure you understand every single thing you put us through."

Chen Wei climbed onto his own bunk, lying back with his hands behind his head. "Tomorrow we’ll start earlier. Won’t waste time with talking."