"Bang..." With the sound of a heavy iron door closing behind me, two police officers in police uniforms led me into a wide and deep doorway. The reason why it is called the gate hole is because there is a tightly locked iron door in front of me. Inside this square box like gate hole, although it is late at night, the not dim lights illuminate the surroundings as bright as day.

"Come and register!" As my head was still in a state of panic and a hint of unease, I saw a small window on my right side. There was a row of extended platforms next to the window, and inside the window, a person in police uniform handed out a notebook and a pen with a thin rope tied at the end. The notebook is open, and there is a table above that contains information such as date, name, gender, age, etc. The last column is "Reason for Admission".

"Write down the previous information yourself, and leave the final reason for admission blank!"

I listened to unfriendly voices, picked up a pen, and frantically wrote "On July 22, 2005, Jiang Lin, male, 27 years old,..." under the table. After I finished writing, a police officer beside me took out a piece of paper (which should be my "detention certificate") and handed it to the police officer inside the window. After the two of them signed some words with each other, they completed the "handover of procedures" for me to enter prison.

Later, a police officer beside me told me to stand here and wait, not to move around, then turned around and opened the heavy iron door with another police officer and walked out.

Panic and unease have always filled my mind, and I feel like I'm dreaming, entering a completely unfamiliar and oppressive, empty space where everything is so unreal. The sound of the police officers making phone calls inside the window seems to come from afar, sometimes transmitted to their own ears, very unclear, just like the immortals in the sky reciting spells in the clouds in a movie, unreal and ethereal.

"Where is this? What's waiting for me next? What's behind the locked iron door in front?" Without worrying about fear, hunger, or thinking about myself, my mind is filled with unknowns and anxieties. There is also a word that occasionally flashes - "freedom", but it needs to be preceded by another word, "losing freedom".

Yes, from this moment on, I have lost my freedom. But now I only understand the surface meaning of "losing freedom", what it really means and what it feels like. I can't think about it, have no heart to think about it, and don't have time for me to think about it.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

With the sound of unlocking, the tightly locked iron door in front of me opened from outside. A tall police officer wearing police uniform but still yawning walked in.

"It's Jiang Lin, come here"

I obediently walked to his side.

"Open your arms!"

Just like the scene of searching for prisoners in a movie, he began to search my clothes from top to bottom, inside out, very carefully, not even letting go of my pants.

"Do you have cigarettes? Do you have flames?"

"No"

All the cigarettes, lighters, mobile phones, wallets, and other items I carried with me were handed over to the police here before entering this entrance hole. Therefore, besides the clothes and shoes I am wearing, I only have a pair of glasses left.

After a quick full body search, the police asked me to follow him towards the open iron door ahead. Passing through this iron gate requires two steps up, and only after the gate was closed did I see myself entering a large courtyard. Although it was midnight, the entire courtyard was illuminated by the surrounding lights like during the day. The courtyard was paved with blue bricks, which were somewhat uneven but very clean.

On the north side of the yard is a row of houses made of blue bricks, with a large entrance hall in the middle, lights on, and shadows flickering inside. The main hall divides this row of houses into two parts, east and west, with many small iron gates evenly distributed in the middle of each part. A large courtyard, high walls, and barbed wire around the walls. There is a watchtower at the southeast, northwest, and four corners of the wall. There is someone in the booth, although they can't see very clearly, they can still be vaguely seen. The person in the booth is a armed police officer holding a steel gun!

The feeling of oppression has decreased to some extent, but an inexplicable sense of intimidation has surged into my heart. The night air lacked the feeling of heat, and a hint of coolness blew over me, making my mind, which had always been filled with panic and unease, clear.

A tall courtyard wall covered in barbed wire, armed police officers with live ammunition, a courtyard at night like daylight, and a row of houses lined with small iron gates. Everything tells the truth that one has become the subject of supervision, and it is difficult to get out of those two big iron gates!

I... I'm in prison!