Sir! Don't close the net!

“The thing people can’t understand the most is themselves,” Chris Dougher said, turning his head toward the turbulent yet crystal-clear Teresa Road.

"is it?"

Li Yili turned around, picked up a blade of grass, and poked it through the cage at Rebecca's nose. Since she had already been poked for most of the day, Rebecca was too lazy to bite it as frantically as before, as that would only result in a mouthful of grass.

"There is no one more loving than me in this world."

"Hmph—" Rebecca snorted coldly.

Li Yili helplessly threw the weeds on the ground, stood up, put her left hand on her waist and her right hand on the iron cage, "If most people in this world will go to hell, then this place is no different from hell. So you are right, I am not dead yet, but I am already living in hell."

“That’s why we need a path to redemption,” Chris Dorf said earnestly but helplessly.

“It’s really surprising that a river that has been excavated can become a path to redemption,” Li Yili said with a sneer as she leaned on the iron cage. “Ignoring that their repentance is just to avoid going to hell, they… are not devout, and are even unwilling to cross this path of redemption themselves.”

Chris Dorf shook his head, straightening his back, which had been bent from carrying penitents across the Path of Teresa for years.

“They need a helping hand. They have already repented. They had already completed the Path of Theresa before they came here. That is enough.”

Li Yili frowned, her fingers gripping the iron cage tightening little by little. Rebecca sensed Li Yili's emotions through the chains.

Her tail suddenly drooped down, and just when Rebecca thought Li Yili was going to yell, Li Yili suddenly shrugged and her expression became extremely casual.

"That may be true, but unfortunately, your work has come to an end."

Rebecca was stunned and looked at Li Yili with disbelief.

This guy resorts to underhanded tactics when he can't win an argument!

"You want to kick me out of Teresa Prison?" Chrisdorf asked helplessly, but there was no resentment in his eyes, only calmness.

“Why would I do something like this on purpose?” Li Yili raised her finger and waved it at Chrisdorf. “It’s just a simple sentiment. In the future, fewer and fewer people may want to repent, and eventually this path of redemption will become a simple… river.”

Li Yili paused for a moment, then raised her hand and slapped the iron cage.

"And this guy's too—"

"Hey! If you say that word, I'll kill you!" Rebecca shouted angrily at Li Yili, her face flushed red.

Chris Dorf didn't speak, he just stood there with his stick, staring at Theresa's Road.

As Li Yili said, fewer and fewer believers sought salvation through the path of Teresa. At most, there would be two a day, but it became very common for no one to come seeking salvation for two or three days.

You should know that at its peak, there would be as many as a dozen people coming a day.

Why did it turn out like this?

Chris Dorf knew better than anyone that most people who came to Teresa’s Road were not seeking salvation, but simply… smuggling goods from the outside world into Teresa’s prison. Now that there was a more convenient route, who would choose to go through such a long detour, be scared half to death by the prisoners here, and then have his goods, carried by a fifty-something-year-old man who couldn’t transport much at a time, get the goods into the prison?

Without a doubt, he was eliminated by the dark side of Teresa's prison, and his job was reduced to carrying those who truly came to repent and seek redemption to the end of the Teresa's Road.

The living conditions of the high-ranking prisoners have also improved unimaginably. The provision of three meals a day means that the prisoners no longer have to worry about food, nor do they have to submit to the ancient religious traditions of Theresa Prison. However, various frictions still exist among the prisoners, and the signs of forming cliques are becoming more and more obvious. Even the increase in prison guard patrols cannot stop this situation. There are simply too many things that Theresa Prison cannot see.

But Li Yili's reforms of Teresa Prison did not end there. As if money came from thin air, she waved her hand and said she would build a solitary confinement cell that would strike fear into the hearts of all prisoners.

It was indeed a groundbreakingly avant-garde design that left people speechless. Without using a single brick or tile, all the materials were high-hardness convex lens glass. Thin steel cables, like threads in a loving mother's hand, weaved and connected between the ring-shaped prison buildings, creating tracks in the air above the prison buildings. The convex lenses were pieced together to form completely transparent square cells. On the top, Li Yili even thoughtfully smashed a bunch of mirrors to create a unique ceiling that looked like a kaleidoscope.

These avant-garde, square-shaped solitary confinement cells have pulleys at the four corners of their ceilings for moving between steel cable tracks.

Criminals who commit offenses are locked in this avant-garde solitary confinement cell and then hoisted directly above Teresa Prison until they are half-starved to death before being lowered down. However, according to prisoners who have left the solitary confinement cell, the abnormal mental pollution brought about by that cell is more terrifying than the hunger. Those prisoners also repented in order to avoid being locked in the solitary confinement cell.

Of course, there were prisoners who resisted and broke out of solitary confinement, but there was only one result: they were directly regarded as having escaped from prison, and then they were ruthlessly beaten to death by the prison guards and became part of the garbage dump.

After killing a bunch and scaring another bunch into a frenzy, not many prisoners dared to openly fight anymore. Even the unruly Rebecca gradually became unable to resist Li Yili's feeding, and she no longer needed the iron cage. Although she still resisted being walked during the day, she could be taken out at night when there were few people around.

The unusual Teresa Prison, under Li Yili's management, gradually developed into a proper prison.

Throughout this process, August's attitude left everyone puzzled. Apart from sternly refusing to send prisoners to cultivate the wasteland outside the prison, August approved all of Li Yili's requests without a single word of disapproval, no matter how many connections or how much wealth they required. Moreover, he never managed to obtain what he wanted within three hours of receiving it that day. His methods shocked many prisoners. Was there anything this warden couldn't do?

Many prisoners were also grumbling that Teresa Prison had changed hands, and that the new warden, Li Yili, was now exploiting August's value to the prison.

That was Li Yili's sixth month at Theresa Prison, where psychiatrist Jeff worked.

Chapter Thirty-One: He's not crazy, he's just adapting to local customs.

After a five-minute eye contact, Li Yili patted Jeff's shoulder with her right hand and rested her forehead on her left.

"Dr. Jeff, although I had long expected this day to come, I didn't expect it to come so soon."

Before Jeff could speak, Li Yili turned around and waved to Sher, who was standing at the door.

"Shel, Dr. Jeff is my friend. Get him a better cell."

Sher nodded subconsciously, but immediately shook his head vigorously, his expression embarrassed.

He rubbed his hands together. "Mr. Li Yili, this is the new psychiatrist, who is in charge of examining the mental condition of prisoners."

“Hey…the inmates at our Teresa Prison are in super good mental condition, okay?” Li Yili raised her hand and waved.

“Actually, in the last two months, quite a few inmates at Theresa Prison have shown signs of mental abnormality,” Jeff, who knew Li Yili’s personality very well, yawned and swayed as he sat on his desk with his hands in his pockets. “We’ve never seen anything like this before.”

"Dr. Jeff, if you had spent even two days in Theresa Prison six months ago, you would have discovered..."

Li Yili raised her finger, but before she could finish speaking, Jeff interrupted her with a yawn.

"You'll find that all the prisoners here are mentally abnormal? Doesn't that mean they're all normal? But don't worry about it, I'm not here to criticize your work. Rather, I hope you'll keep up the good work so I can apply for more psychiatric medications."

Jeff pulled out his right hand, raised his index and middle fingers, and bent them towards Li Yili.

“Mr. Li Yili, I think we can pull off another big heist.”

Sher glanced at Jeff, then at Li Yili, and his lips twitched slightly.

Apply for more psychotropic drugs, and pull off a big heist...

All of this together looks like an attempt to resell medication for mental illness. He had just thought that Li Yili arranging a cell for Jeff was just a joke between friends, but now it seems that if Jeff really is reselling medication for mental illness, then it wouldn't be surprising if Dr. Jeff were to go to jail at any time.

“Cough cough—this kind of thing…” Li Yili coughed heavily a few times, then shook her head slightly and looked at Xie Er.

Sher immediately understood what Li Yili meant, and with a subtle expression, he left the office, closing the door behind him as he went.

The office fell silent once again. Li Yili crossed her arms and remained silent. Jeff carefully picked through the few cigarettes left in the cigarette box, finally choosing one with a slightly curled end due to poor workmanship. He then took out a matchbox from his pocket.

With a snap, the cigarette was engulfed by the flames, and the tobacco inside ignited.

Jeff flicked a match, exhaled a smoke ring, and gave Li Yili a deadpan look.

"Mr. Richard, do you know what kind of patients doctors hate the most?"

"People who have no money."

"..."

“That’s the second worst,” Jeff said, tapping his cigarette on the table as some ash fell. His eyes sharpened. “Doctors hate people who don’t listen to their advice and do things their own way.”

"Oh, that's really annoying."

"I'm talking to you, you son of a bitch!" Jeff raised his voice. "Do you remember what I told you before?"

“Advice? Ah~ Don’t go crazy in your own world, I remember,” Li Yili pinched the stray hairs on her forehead.

"What's the use of remembering! Just do it! Ha... Never mind, the dead can't be brought back to life, I was just too dedicated," Jeff sighed deeply, a cigarette dangling from his lips.

“Hey—I’m not dead yet,” Li Yili’s lips twitched. “I’m just going with the flow.”

"Have you gotten used to it yet?"

Li Yili was silent for a moment before turning her head away. "What do you think?"

"Your dark circles have turned into smoky eye makeup," Jeff complained as he opened a drawer, picked through some pills, and tossed them to Li Yili. "Take these pills tonight."

Li Yili shook the bag in her hand and nodded.

Let's feed them all to Rebecca later.

“I’ve answered Dr. Jeff’s question, now it’s your turn to answer mine,” Li Yili stuffed the bag into her pocket, raising an eyebrow slightly. “You, did you escape into Theresa Prison? Could it be that your drug trafficking business has really been discovered?”

Jeff's lips twitched, he exhaled a smoke ring, and raised his head in a pretentious manner, "I just don't want to live a life of conformity."

"Whoa—"

"Okay, I was doing just fine in Millennium, but I don't know which bastard instigated it, those guys from the Cult of Steam and Steel suddenly started making a big fuss about bills, and they were quite willing to take out those hidden products as benefits, and they even created this thing called stocks. Now most of the industries in the wasteland are stuck in these stocks, and all the funds in those companies have been exchanged."

"As long as the Cult of Steam and Steel has that idea, the entire wasteland will be paralyzed."

"And what's even more damning is that the Cult of Steam and Steel has no sense of honor and actually intervened! What kind of bank would throw money at its own customers like that! Okay, at least other banks do it secretly, but the Cult of Steam and Steel is doing it openly!"

Jeff was like a tap that had been turned on, gushing out bitter water.

"Hmm, that's unbelievable! They can even tamper with receipts," Li Yili said, resting her chin on her hand, her face full of surprise. "Speaking of which, is the Cult of Steam and Steel trying to become a conglomerate?"

“It’s not that we want to, the Cult of Steam and Steel is practically a conglomerate,” Jeff exhaled a puff of smoke, his face full of helplessness. “Moreover, it’s a conglomerate that controls an entire country. Even the royal families of the wasteland can only listen to the Cult of Steam and Steel, even if they want to establish their own kingdoms…”

Jeff rolled his eyes.

"Don't be surprised, it's basic stuff."

“Ha… I roughly understand the situation, so what does this have to do with your escape to Teresa Prison?” Li Yili raised an eyebrow slightly.

“Well… it’s your boss, Dela Pal, who’s recovered from his out-of-control state, right?” Jeff scratched the back of his head. “I was thinking I should be able to come up with a project and get investment from the Cult of Steam and Steel…”

“You bastard…” Li Yili’s lips twitched.

“I thought… at worst I’d be laughed at by others, with no one investing,” Jeff said stiffly as he looked at Li Yili. “But then the Church of Steam and Steel poured a huge sum of money into it. Because they gave so much, they accidentally signed a long-term research contract. If I don’t produce results, I might be dead. After all… they’re not a church anymore, they’re a conglomerate…”

"So you chose Theresa Prison as your research site. Theresa Prison is a complex place with many factions, and the Cult of Steam and Steel doesn't want your research to be exposed, so they won't rush you... Alright."

Li Yili tilted her head to the side.

"Give me half the money."

"Damn it! Go ahead and rob me!"

"Why don't you pack up and go home today?"

Chapter Thirty-Two: I'll Ask the King in Yellow Later

Ultimately, at Li Yili's friendly request, Jeff generously relinquished three-quarters of the investment he had received from the Cult of Steam and Steel, and promised to split any subsequent investments 50/50.

"You're a devil," Jeff said weakly, slumped over the table, and gave Li Yili the middle finger.

“Only the devil can save your life from Foundation X now,” Li Yili said, flipping through the research report Jeff brought. “You can also choose to transform yourself into a Kamen Rider.”

"What is all this nonsense..." Jeff stood up, rested his chin on his hand, and sighed deeply. "I've paid up, so you have to do your job. Don't take advantage of an honest person."

“Don’t worry, I’m actually quite interested in this,” Li Yili’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Do you… know about Instas?”

“Ah~ well, although the Galar Horn was trying to hide something, Instas is, after all, the largest seaport in the world. The fact that the entire seaport was flooded is not something that can be concealed. So the Galar Horn simply announced it, well, the truth,” Jeff whistled, his hands behind his head, “The terrible King in Yellow descended upon Instas and fought a terrible battle with the ruler who sleeps on the surface of the Sea of ​​the Dead.”