Volume One, Chapter Seven: The Unsuccessful Debut

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Morning sunlight filtered through the iron-barred window into the training room, yet the faint light did nothing to dispel the gloom lingering inside. When Li Yang stepped into the classroom, his eyes immediately found Xiaoling in the corner. She sat rigidly like a statue, her face unnaturally pale, eyes bloodshot and vacant, her gaze empty and unfocused. The girl who had cried just yesterday seemed to have lost all vitality overnight, reduced to a hollow shell.

Seeing the thick bandages wrapped around Xiaoling’s wrist, Li Yang’s heart tightened painfully. The stifled sobs and thudding sounds that had come from her room the night before still echoed in his ears. The despair in those sounds nearly suffocated him, yet he was powerless, only able to bite into his palm hard enough to numb his rage and helplessness through pain.

“Starting today, we begin real combat training,” Wang Meng paced onto the podium, wearing his usual cold smirk. “Each of you must complete a real phone scam. The targets have already been selected: ‘premium clients’ carefully screened through big data and on-site investigation. Remember, this is not a drill. If you screw up, you bear the consequences.”

Li Yang took the assignment materials handed out by the assistant instructor and felt a wave of nausea as he flipped to the first page. The target was a 68-year-old retired woman named Zhou Guiying, whose husband had died of cancer three years ago. She lived alone with savings of 1.3 million yuan, mostly from her husband’s pension and their joint savings. She exercised at Jiangbin Park every morning from 6:30 to 8:00, often dancing in the square with a few elderly friends. In the afternoons from 2:00 to 4:00, she habitually visited the community library. She had recently undergone tests at Xiehe Hospital for knee arthritis and was especially concerned about her health.

The dossier even included photos of the elderly woman: a typical kindly grandmother with neatly pinned silver hair and wrinkles softened by a warm smile. Below the photos were notes on her spending habits: weekly grocery trips to Yonghui Supermarket every Tuesday, frequent purchases of brown sugar ginger tea and joint capsules, and regular travel on bus route 337.

Such alarming details could only have been obtained through long-term surveillance and monitoring. Li Yang clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white. This was no mere "client screening"—it was a meticulously crafted hunt. But in this place, mercy was merely a synonym for weakness, and sympathy often proved a fatal flaw.

“Remember this well,” Wang Meng’s voice was sharp and uncompromising. “The first call is the most critical. You must make the target fully believe your identity and use our practiced scripts to stir her fear and anxiety. Today, you must secure your first payout, or...” His gaze swept the room meaningfully, lingering on Xiaoling for several seconds.

During the break, Li Yang encountered Xiaoling in the corridor. She kept her head down and tried to hurry past, but he called out, “Are you alright?”

She looked up, forcing a smile more pitiful than tears. Thick bandages wrapped her wrist, but blood seeped from the edges. “Sorry, I don’t think I can hold on,” her voice was as light as a feather.

“You need help—” Li Yang began, but before he could finish, Assistant Instructor Daniu approached with a grim expression. Xiaoling immediately fled like a frightened bird.

“Concerned about your classmates?” Daniu sneered with a cold smile. “Focus on your own tasks, or you’ll be taking a vacation in the ‘battery room’ too.”

At two in the afternoon, the practical training officially commenced. Each person was assigned to a separate cubicle, fitted with noise-cancelling headphones, scripts, and detailed target information laid out before them. Li Yang took a deep breath and pressed the dial button.

The call connected quickly, followed by a gentle elderly female voice: “Hello? Who is this?”

“Ms. Zhou, hello. This is Officer Li from the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Municipal Public Security Bureau,” Li Yang forced himself into the trained tone. “We need to verify a suspicious financial transaction involving your account.”

“Ah? What transaction?” The elderly woman sounded confused.

Li Yang noticed Wang Meng standing silently behind him, watching. He continued, “We are investigating a major money laundering case and found a suspicious transfer through your account. This is serious, and we require your cooperation.”

“No, no, I haven’t done anything like that…”

“Ms. Zhou, money laundering is a serious crime, punishable by life imprisonment,” Li Yang raised his voice and adopted a stern tone. “For your safety, please cooperate fully with our investigation.”

A heavy silence followed. Li Yang heard the woman’s rapid breathing; fear was taking hold. But then a voice stirred inside him: “Are you really going to do this? Use an old woman’s fear and trust to steal from her?”

He glanced again at her photo. The kind smile was so familiar, so much like his late grandmother’s. That money was likely their lifetime’s hard-earned savings, her only support in old age.

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“Officer Li, what should I do?” The trembling voice came again, filled with helplessness.

Li Yang gritted his teeth and abruptly changed his tone: “Ms. Zhou, I suggest you immediately visit the nearest police station to verify my identity. This kind of matter must be handled in person. Phone calls can’t be trusted.”

“What did you say?”

“I mean you should report this to the police right away. There are many telecom scams nowadays. Please be vigilant.”

Before he finished, a heavy blow struck the back of Li Yang’s head. He staggered to his feet and saw Wang Meng’s face darkened with anger. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

He could still hear the panicked woman on the other end shouting, “This is a scam! I’m calling the police!”

“Take him to the battery room for three days of reflection!” Wang Meng roared. Before the sentence was finished, two assistants seized Li Yang’s arms and dragged him out like a dead dog.

In the hallway, more people joined the “lesson.” Fists and feet rained down on Li Yang’s battered body; he could distinctly feel his ribs cracking under the brutal blows. Some aimed specifically at his abdomen and lower back, each strike threatening to knock him unconscious. Worst of all were the electric batons striking his spine, tearing flesh and skin, forcing him into agonized screams.

“Cry louder! Louder!” one assistant sneered. “This place is soundproof. No one will hear you.”

By the time they dragged him down to the basement level three, Li Yang was barely conscious. The acrid stench instantly sharpened his senses—a nauseating mix of sewage, excrement, and rotting garbage. Damp cold air was thick with a rusty metallic scent of blood.

The battery room was only six square meters, but to a battered man it felt suffocatingly small. Piles of foul waste cluttered the corners, and the flickering LED light overhead was so harsh it made his head spin.

“Welcome to paradise,” an assistant mocked. “Many predecessors have ‘lived’ here. See those scratches on the walls? Their souvenirs.”

Li Yang curled up in a relatively cleaner corner, his body trembling uncontrollably. Every breath stabbed his fractured ribs like needles; his back burned with fierce pain. Worse yet, he began running a fever—deadly in this damp, cold environment.

Time blurred into darkness. No food, no water, not even basic sanitation. The filthy floor reeked, and cockroaches and rats scurried past him. Li Yang felt imprisoned inside a living coffin, suffocating to death at any moment.

The fever and infection brought hallucinations. Xiaoling’s pale face appeared in the shadows; the old woman’s desperate cries echoed in his mind. Images flickered between reality and illusion, indistinguishable. Sometimes he would suddenly awaken, drenched in cold sweat, trembling uncontrollably.

The next day, his wounds began to fester. Untreated injuries worsened rapidly in the filth. Li Yang could feel the redness and swelling spreading, the burning pain intensifying. The fever clouded his consciousness; several times he contemplated ending it all.

After an unknown length of time, the iron door creaked open slightly. In the dim light, Li Yang saw Xiao Zhou cautiously peering in.

“Oh my god...” Xiao Zhou gasped. “They really went too far.”

He brought water and simple medicine he’d stolen from the infirmary. Xiao Zhou cleaned Li Yang’s wounds and injected penicillin to prevent infection.

“You have to hold on,” Xiao Zhou whispered. “They want to break you. If you can’t endure, things will get far worse.”

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Li Yang nodded weakly. He knew this was only the beginning; more trials awaited. But at that moment, someone willing to risk helping him stirred a faint glimmer of hope.

“Drink some water,” Xiao Zhou handed him a bottle of mineral water. “I got the janitor to sneak it in.”

Li Yang drank greedily, his parched throat finally soothed. “Thank you,” he whispered.

“You’re too idealistic,” Xiao Zhou sighed. “In a place like this, conscience only gets you killed. We’re all forced into this—who isn’t trying to survive?”

“But—”

“I know what you want to say,” Xiao Zhou interrupted. “But you have to learn to survive in the cracks. Not all targets are helpless old ladies. We pick the rich ones. That way, we get our tasks done without being utterly heartless.”

Li Yang fell silent. He understood Xiao Zhou was right, yet such compromise was itself corruption. Once you justify evil, the bottom line vanishes forever.

“By the way, what happened to Xiaoling?”

“She was transferred to another training site,” Xiao Zhou lowered his voice. “Every month someone breaks down or kills themselves here, but new recruits come in fast. The whole chain is like a meat grinder that never stops.”

“Why doesn’t Wang Meng just sell me off?”

“Because you’re still useful,” Xiao Zhou gave a bitter smile. “You have good basic skills and decent eloquence. They can’t give up on a potential asset. Besides, selling you outright is too risky—what if something unexpected happens? It’s safer to crush your will this way and mold you into what they want.”

Footsteps approached outside, and Xiao Zhou quickly shut the door. Darkness enveloped Li Yang again, but this time he felt less hopeless. At least someone was willing to risk helping him—proof that the light of humanity had not been fully extinguished.

Three days of solitary confinement taught Li Yang much. He must learn to survive in this hellish place and find a chance to escape and expose everything. But first, he had to master the art of disguise, becoming cold and ruthless on the surface. This would be a long psychological battle, and he had to prepare thoroughly.

On the day he was released, Li Yang trembled all over, his face pale as death, but his eyes held greater resolve than before. Wang Meng scrutinized him with a faint, inscrutable smile. “Looks like you’ve figured it out. Training continues tomorrow—don’t disappoint me again.”

Li Yang lowered his head and said nothing. He knew he had to play along for now, but he would never truly become the monster they wanted. In a way, this was also a test of himself: how to protect the last flicker of light in his heart amid the darkness.

Back in the dormitory, Xiao Zhou handed him a packet of medicine. “Use this on your wounds. I grabbed it from the infirmary. You need to recover quickly—harder trials lie ahead.”

Li Yang looked at Xiao Zhou gratefully. In this place full of deceit and betrayal, finding someone who genuinely cared was a rare blessing.

Late at night, the training base finally fell silent. Li Yang lay on his bed, listening to distant, faint dog barks, lost in deep thought.