As we walked through the darkened prison block, the beam of the flashlight cut across rows of barred cells. At first, everything was quiet—too quiet. The inmates lay under their white blankets, still as if they were corpses in a morgue.
Suddenly, a voice rang out from the shadows. "Who's there?" A guard upstairs had spotted us. After a brief reply from Li Yangyang's friend, silence returned.
But then chaos erupted. From one of the cells came the sounds of shouting and fighting. Several women were on the ground, ganging up on another inmate. The guards rushed forward, yelling for order.
I stood back, watching the scene unfold—until I made the mistake of coughing.
Instantly, dozens of eyes turned toward me. In the flashlight's beam, I saw a woman's face twist in shock, her voice sharp and cutting through the darkness: "It's a man!"
The word spread like fire. A wave of inmates rushed to the bars, pale faces pressed against the metal, hands reaching out, voices shrieking. "A man! A man!" The air filled with a frenzy of noise, screams bouncing off the cold walls.
Before I could step back, rough hands shot through the bars, seizing my sleeves, clawing at my uniform. My body was dragged against the iron railings, pinned there as if I were a prisoner myself. My chest tightened—I couldn't breathe.
Guards shouted and swung batons, striking at the desperate hands. Some women backed away, but others clung on, their eyes wild, refusing to let go.
Finally, one of the senior officers arrived, her strikes ruthless and efficient. One by one, the hands fell away. The last was a strikingly beautiful inmate whose eyes burned into me with a strange mix of rage and desperation. Even after blood trickled down her forehead from a blow, she refused to release me until another strike finally knocked her back.
Shaking, I stumbled away from the bars, my clothes torn, my heart pounding. Li Yangyang stood frozen nearby, both hands over her mouth, too terrified to speak.