Chapter 25: Evil Meets Its Match—A Shrew’s "Heavy-Handed" Revenge

The cell was silent, save for the rhythmic rise and fall of snoring. Jia Zhang, clutching a chamber pot that reached nearly to her waist, felt her heart hammering against her ribs. Tension, excitement, and a thrill of vengeance made her body tremble slightly. She inched forward, carefully stepping around the sleeping inmates until she reached the end of the communal sleeping platform.

Sister Dao was sleeping there, her back turned to the room, breathing deeply in a heavy slumber. A flash of malicious delight crossed Jia Zhang’s face as she watched her. Taking a deep breath, she endured the stifling stench, lifted the chamber pot high above her head, and aimed it at Sister Dao’s head and upper body.

Then, she tilted her wrists.

*Splash!*

A viscous, yellowish-brown liquid, thick with filth, cascaded down like a waterfall, drenching Sister Dao from head to toe. The sound was deafening in the stillness of the night.

"Aaargh!"

In her sleep, Sister Dao felt a torrent of putrid sludge engulf her. She jolted awake, letting out a shriek that sounded less than human. Instinctively, she wiped her face, only to find her hand coated in something sticky and reeking. When the reality of what it was hit her, she completely lost her composure.

"Ahhhhhhh!"

Her screams pierced the silence of the cell, jolting everyone awake.

"What's happening? What's going on?"

When the others caught sight of the scene in the dim moonlight filtering through the window, they were stunned. Sister Dao looked like a mud-man freshly pulled from a cesspit, dripping with filth from head to foot. An indescribable stench instantly permeated the entire cell. The prisoners closest to her gagged, their stomachs churning, and some began to retch violently. The room erupted into a chaotic symphony of screaming, vomiting, and cursing.

As for the perpetrator, Jia Zhang, she dropped the bucket the moment her earth-shattering blow was struck. She scrambled back to her original spot on all fours, curled up, and feigned the innocence of someone rudely awakened. Inside, however, she was ecstatic. *Satisfying! So incredibly satisfying!*

She could already imagine Sister Dao living in the shadow of this stench tomorrow—no, forever.

"Who! Who did this!"

Sister Dao had completely snapped. She clawed frantically at the filth covering her body and hair, but the sticky substance was not easily removed. Like a deranged beast, she rampaged through the cell, her eyes bloodshot as she scanned every person.

"Who was it! Get out here!"

Everyone was terrified by her madness, cowering in silence and shaking their heads frantically. Soon, Sister Dao’s gaze locked onto the shivering figure of Jia Zhang in the corner. Although she had no proof, she knew deep down that in this entire cell, who else would have the audacity and the motive to pull such a stunt other than the fat woman she had bullied just a few days ago?

"It was you! Wasn't it, you dead sow!"

Sister Dao roared and charged like a gale. Terrified, Jia Zhang shrieked, "It wasn't me! I don't know anything! I was sleeping the whole time!"

"Still trying to lie!"

Blinded by rage, Sister Dao lunged, grabbed Jia Zhang by the hair, and dragged her off the floor, her other hand clamping tightly around the woman’s throat.

"If I don't kill you today, my name isn't Dao!"

She smeared the filth covering her own hands all over Jia Zhang’s face and into her mouth. Jia Zhang nearly fainted from the overwhelming stench and struggled desperately, but Sister Dao’s strength was multiplied by her fury.

"Help... help me..." Jia Zhang’s face turned a bruised, liver-like purple from lack of oxygen.

The other inmates watched the two "human excrement" figures grappling, keeping their distance for fear of being tainted. At that critical moment, the iron door of the cell clattered open.

"Don't move! What is going on here!"

The night guard, alerted by the commotion, rushed in with a baton. When she saw the gruesome sight and caught the overpowering stench, she couldn't help but retch herself.

"What the hell! What is going on here!"

The guard's arrival restored a sliver of sanity to Sister Dao. She released her grip, and Jia Zhang slid to the floor like a heap of mud, gasping for air.

"Report, Officer!" Sister Dao pointed at Jia Zhang, her voice trembling. "This fat sow, she... she poured a chamber pot over me!"

The guard looked down at the filth-covered Sister Dao, then at the equally wretched Jia Zhang and the overturned bucket on the floor, her brow knitting into a deep furrow. She didn't need to ask to know what had happened. Such an incident was unheard of in the detention center! It was utterly vile!

"Both of you! Get out here!" The guard pointed her baton at them. "The rest of you, clean this room up immediately!"

Jia Zhang and Sister Dao were led out of the cell one after the other. Sister Dao was taken to wash, while Jia Zhang was taken straight to solitary confinement. It was a tiny, narrow room of less than two square meters, with nothing but four walls and a small slot for food.

"Stay here and reflect on your actions!" The guard pushed her inside and slammed the door shut.

Jia Zhang slumped onto the cold floor, aching and smelling of filth. She had thought this move would force Sister Dao to swallow her pride in silence, but she hadn't expected that in trying to steal a chicken, she would lose her own rice—getting herself trapped in the process. She didn't know that even more terrifying retaliation awaited her.

Elsewhere, Sister Dao stood under a faucet, scrubbing herself with freezing cold water for over half an hour. She scrubbed her skin raw with soap, but the stench seemed to have seeped into her very marrow, impossible to wash away. When she returned to the cell, it had been cleaned, but the air still held a lingering, ghostly odor.

Everyone looked at her with strange eyes: pity, schadenfreude, and a disgust they couldn't quite mask. Sister Dao knew that from this day on, her authority in this cell was gone. She was no longer the feared "Sister Dao," but a joke who had been doused in shit and urine.

She sat on her bunk, wrapping herself tightly in a blanket, her body still shivering uncontrollably. Only one thought echoed in her mind.

Once that fat sow got out of solitary, she would make sure she died.