I bought a prison in the United States.

On November 12th, dawn always comes late in Tulsa.

Night faded away from the direction of the Arkansas River, leaving a thin mist clinging to the bare maple branches on both sides of the street.

The Tulsa World's delivery trucks left the printing plant at four in the morning, the deep roar of their engines waking the still-sleeping city.

Bundles of neatly arranged newspapers were tossed at the end of driveways in every household, beside the locked iron gates of convenience stores, or on newspaper racks at gas stations.

The kraft paper bindings, damp with morning dew, were gradually softening from the moisture.

The full-width headline of the front-page feature article was boldly printed in heavy black font:

Prison: Rewriting the Fate of Prisoners with a Point System

The top third of the page features a large photo of a hurdle, with a slogan below:

"At the entrance of the McLean County Correctional Center, twenty inmates lined up in two rows, smiling calmly at the camera."

The camera angle, slightly tilted upwards, makes the cold stamping machinery in the background appear even more majestic and imposing.

Just after six o'clock in the morning, Wilson Gas Station, located at the southernmost tip of McLean County, welcomed its first customers of the day.

A lineman parked his pickup truck steadily next to the fuel pump, and as usual, casually picked up a copy of Le Monde from the newspaper rack, flipped to the front page, and spread it on the steering wheel.

The fuel pump's meter clicked and the numbers kept changing, but he was so engrossed in watching it that he didn't notice at all.

"Hey, Frank."

He rolled down his window and called out to his colleague who was refueling at the gas pump next door, his tone filled with disbelief and wonder:

"Look at this news! A Chinese man came to McLean County and took over a prison."

"Inmates can accumulate points by working, which serve as a form of hidden reward in exchange for better treatment."

He pointed at the words on the newspaper and scoffed:

"Look at this sentence: no matter if you were a wealthy businessman or a county judge before, once you enter prison, everyone is equal and has to work in exchange for parole."

"Good heavens! These officials usually sit on the platform banging their gavels to judge others, and now someone actually dares to put them under the same rules as murderers! It's outrageous!"

My colleague, holding the oil nozzle, leaned over with a dismissive look and said:

"What nonsense! How could someone like a judge possibly go to jail? This is just journalists making things up to grab attention."

"That's right, only a reporter would dare to write such crazy things."

The cableman smiled as he folded the newspaper and casually stuffed it into the glove box.

As the pickup truck drove away, a wisp of pale blue smoke billowed from its exhaust pipe and dissipated into the cool morning mist.

Even if it's just to grab attention, the content of this newspaper has already aroused people's interest.

……

In downtown Tulsa, the newspaper racks in the lobby of the Mayo Hotel were mostly emptied early in the morning.

When Lucia, the receptionist, was checking out a guest, she noticed that the guest was carrying a copy of Le Monde under his arm. The picture of an orange prison uniform and the eye-catching headline made it easy to read at a glance.

"This issue of the newspaper is selling like hotcakes!"

While the customers were signing their papers, Lucia chatted with her colleagues:

"Since 6 o'clock, the newspaper rack has been restocked three times, and each time it was snatched up within half an hour."

"Prison news? The same old stuff: prison breaks, fights, riots?"

A colleague asked casually.

"No, it's not."

Lucia shook her head:

"This article praises private prisons, saying that prisoners can accumulate points to exchange for accommodation, and there's even a young man who stole a TV and became a mechanic there."

"I think the content is quite novel; I've never seen prison reports written like this before."

After signing the form, the customer rolled up the newspaper, stuffed it into the side pocket of his suitcase, and turned to walk out of the revolving door.

Lucia watched the other person leave, then quietly pulled out a copy she had prepared in advance and hid behind the counter to read the feature article.

She hadn't read more than a few paragraphs when a businessman in a suit knocked on the glass counter. She hurriedly stuffed the newspaper into the drawer and focused on her work.

……

In the legislator's restaurant next to the state capitol building in Oklahoma City.

In front of Boone, the deputy director of the state corrections department, lay an identical copy of Le Monde.

He had eaten half of the omelet on his plate, which had long since gone cold, and the cheese had solidified into a hard lump, but he had no appetite and remained motionless.

"Spending their own money to independently develop a monitoring system and fully enclosed electronic door locks?"

He read the entire feature article, his gaze lingering on this particular line for a long time before finally picking up a napkin to wipe his mouth.

Boone usually reads the newspaper hastily, skimming the headlines in five minutes before heading straight to the sports section, but today he stared at the same page for nearly twenty minutes.

After all, Le Monde hasn't reported on correctional centers for a long time, and even when it has, it's been negative.

But today's events are truly unprecedented; their correctional department was actually praised?

His assistant brought over two cups of coffee and immediately noticed his unusual behavior:

"Chief, is it that you don't like the breakfast?"

No, it's not.

Boone pushed the newspaper towards his assistant, looking somewhat surprised and amused, and said:

"Take a good look at this report."

"When we signed the pilot agreement a month ago, I thought this Chinese warden was just changing the prison's management system and trying something new."

He took off his glasses and carefully wiped the lenses with the hem of his shirt, then said in a deep voice:

"Unexpectedly, in just one month, he turned this prison into a small technology research and development center."

"Last month when the funds were allocated, Morehouse was still grumbling, worried that he would squander the 500,000 dollars of public funds."

"In retrospect, not a penny of that money was wasted; it was all invested in equipment upgrades and security enhancements."

The assistant picked up the newspaper and quickly skimmed through it. He couldn't help but raise an eyebrow when he read the passage about a prisoner subduing an escaped rioter with his bare hands.

"This prisoner named Jerome actually took down a murderer with his bare hands and saved the warden from giving a lecture?"

"Because of this, the warden upgraded his cell?"

"That's right, this happened before he came to the correctional office last month, proving that what was written in the newspapers wasn't entirely an exaggeration."

Boone put his glasses back on, forked a piece of cold omelet, and chewed on it.

"Now he's even making that prisoner his personal bodyguard, accompanying him on his daily escort missions."

"This isn't in accordance with the rules, isn't he worried about the prisoner escaping?" The assistant frowned.

"Since he dared to delegate so much authority, he must have been certain that the other party wouldn't run away."

Gloria's report also included a story about a former corporate executive who was put in solitary confinement for three days for refusing to comply with work assignments.

After eating plain steamed buns and drinking cold water for several days, the man couldn't take it anymore and voluntarily applied to return to the factory.

The report stated:

"In this prison, no one can get preferential treatment based on their status before entering the prison. Your points are everything you have here."

"Warden Ringo Chen said: The outside world looks at your past, but here we only look at your present."

Boone pondered for a moment, then said:

"If this points system can be implemented and promoted throughout the state, we will apply for federal funding next year. Oklahoma will become a model for prison reform in the United States."

"Make the arrangements. I'm going to visit McLean Prison in person next month."

"No need for an official announcement, I just want to see the most authentic, unstaged photos."

……

At the same time, in the periodicals reading room of the University of Tulsa Library.

Three sociology graduate students sat around a long table, taking turns disassembling and reading the newspaper.

The girl with the ponytail was filled with emotion after reading the story of juvenile prisoner Randy's transformation:

"This guy named Randy can even learn a skill after going to prison. If only all prisoners could turn over a new leaf like him."

She looked up at her two classmates and said sarcastically:

"My brother dropped out of high school and worked at a gas station for four years. Now he doesn't know how to use any machines except the cash register."

"These days, prison skills training is actually more reliable than the outside world? That's utterly absurd."

The boy opposite him flipped to the section in the report about the rectification notice and read it aloud:

Last week, the prison received three rectification notices from different departments regarding fire exits, freezer temperatures, and electrical safety.

He put down the newspaper and sneered:

"What a coincidence!"

"My mother worked in the county government for more than ten years. On the same day, three departments issued rectification notices with consecutive numbers, which is not in accordance with the procedure at all."

"It's obvious that this warden must have offended some big shot in the county; someone is deliberately targeting him."