Deep prison

Author: Haiyan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: I’m going to tell you a story. It’s not made up. It’s a piece of experience I’ve heard, seen, and even lived through—about one person’s fate, or perhaps, about his love. I’m also a character in this story, but I won’t tell you my name. Besides me, there are other people in this story with their own backstories and identities, and I won’t reveal them either. I’ve thought long and hard about the opening of the story, contemplating where to begin. Initially, I planned to start with Pang Jiandong, who had a dream of becoming a police officer since he entered the police academy at sixteen. After three years of vocational school and two more years of junior college, he graduated but was assigned to a prison to manage inmates. Deep Prison continues all the elements that made Haiyan’s previous novels bestsellers, portraying a young man who grows through hardship. In this book, cruel reality and beautiful aspirations, evil crimes and breathtaking love still coexist. The three women in the novel have completely different attitudes toward love, leaving one to sigh in despair—love destroys love; love also creates love. What is time? How does fate demonstrate its unpredictability? And how does love bloom its beauty? Deep Prison continues all the elements that made Haiyan’s previous novels bestsellers, portraying a young man who grows through hardship. In this book, cruel reality and beautiful aspirations, evil crimes and breathtaking love still coexist. The three women in the novel have completely different attitudes toward love, leaving one to sigh in despair—love destroys love; love also creates love. Unlike Haiyan’s previous novels, Deep Prison breaks away from his usual romantic and poetic style, emphasizing the social realism. In both content and writing style, it innovates. The latter half of the book is set in Beijing Tianhe Prison, based on real-life stories from the prison system, and meticulously depicts the protagonist’s physical and mental trials in prison. The internal management mechanisms, the classification of inmates for reform, daily life, and the humanistic management for inmate rehabilitation provide readers with a fresh perspective on prisons, holding unique social cognitive value. Step into Haiyan’s Deep Prison and meet a young man named Liu Chuan, experience a fate as enigmatic as time, and a love as unforgettable as a lifetime. This time, Haiyan offers you not just gentle comfort and a soul-stirring impact, but also a powerful shock and unique reflection.
Plot Summary:
· Young Prison Officer Retires to Become Boss
Several young prison officers, fresh from college, are assigned to Beijing Tianhe Prison. One of them, Liu Chuan, has been living with his grandmother since childhood. His grandmother, a former union chairperson at a state-owned enterprise, is quite traditional. Liu Chuan’s father, who had been thriving in business, suddenly passed away. His grandmother asks Liu Chuan to quit his job and take over the company. Just before Liu Chuan resigns, a local public security department needs his prison’s assistance in solving a case, so the prison bureau sends him to help. After completing the task, Liu Chuan finds that many company matters are being handled by his grandmother. She mistakenly signed a guarantee document for a company, dragging her own company into a debt trap. The company Liu Chuan joined is soon sealed. Coincidentally, a colleague of Liu Chuan, Pang Jiandong, is celebrating his birthday, and at the party, Liu Chuan meets and falls for Pang’s girlfriend, Ji Wen. Ji finds Liu not only handsome but also a boss, and she too falls for him. This leads to a rift between Pang and Liu.
· Accidental Injury Turns Him into a Prisoner
Soon after Ji’s birthday, she wants a laptop as a gift, but Liu Chuan is extremely short on money. He asks the financial manager which companies still owe them money. To buy a gift for Ji, he has to chase debts everywhere. The case Liu Chuan solved earlier involves the mother of the culprit, who brings her daughter and accomplices to Beijing to seek revenge on Liu Chuan. They scratch his car, cut his phone lines, and cause chaos in his home. They even hang a broken shoe outside Ji’s door and shave her bald before assaulting her. Liu Chuan seeks help from the public security department, but the individuals involved are questioned and sent back to their hometowns. Soon after, they return and continue their mischief. Enraged, Liu Chuan confronts them personally. He pours hot porridge on the culprit’s mother, leaving the old woman severely burned and disabled. Liu Chuan is then prosecuted and sentenced to five years in prison.
· Takes a Little Sparrow “Liu Xiang” as a Brother
Upon entering prison, Liu Chuan is placed under Level 2 strict management, required to “clarify identity, learn norms, develop habits, and confess remaining crimes.” He laments his fate and feels unjustly treated. At first, he rarely speaks to others, and his cellmates think he’s too proud and ignore him. One day, a wounded sparrow flies into his cell, and he names it “Liu Xiang,” treating it like a brother. Despite his daily care, “Liu Xiang” still dies. The prison leadership believes that raising flowers and fish can inspire compassion, so they encourage everyone to keep a pot of flowers and a fish. Liu Chuan misses his girlfriend Wen, so he orders flowers for her. Captain Zhong specially goes out to buy them for him.
· Wen Leaves, and Xiao Ke Appears
Before going to prison, Wen often argued with Liu Chuan. Later, she was innocently targeted in the revenge plot and began to hate him, wanting no further contact. Captain Zhong sends someone to Wen’s house to persuade her to visit him in prison. She visits once but never returns. However, Liu Chuan still believes Wen will wait for him. Although she no longer visits, he often receives money and books sent by her. It turns out that everything is done by Xiao Ke, a female colleague from the prison work unit, who has always liked him but never confessed because she knew he was dating Wen. Pang Jiandong, a former colleague, initially avoids Liu Chuan after his imprisonment, unable to forget Liu’s betrayal of his love. Once, Liu Chuan fakes illness to seek parole, but Pang discovers and stops him. Later, Pang becomes Liu Chuan’s cell team leader. Although he knows Ji has fallen out of love with Liu, he still doesn’t tell him. On Ji’s birthday, Liu Chuan is too poor to buy a gift. Xiao Ke secretly sends him five hundred yuan in Wen’s name, and he asks Pang to buy twenty-three flowers for Ji. Despite his anger, Pang eventually buys the flowers and delivers them with Xiao Ke.
· Good Conduct and Heroic Action Earn Early Release
Due to his exemplary performance and his assistance in stopping a prison escape, Liu Chuan is rewarded and released two years early. Three years later, Liu Chuan is released from prison. His grandmother has already moved into a nursing home. Liu Chuan struggles to re-register his household registration, with no company or friends willing to take him in. Xiao Ke proposes that he register his household at her home. At Xiao Ke’s house, Liu Chuan discovers the receipts for the multiple gifts she sent him over the years. Her kindness deeply moves him, and they fall in love.