◇ 𝓣 . 𝓣𝒂𝒏𝒈 𝓢𝒂𝒏𝒛𝒂𝒏𝒈 .✦

# Longxi State Prison – Literary Modules Sector.

In one of the grey corridors, between walls that smell of damp and rusted metal, there is a cell that is different from the rest. Not because of the space —it is just as small— but 'cause of the papers folded in every corner, the borrowed books with notes in the margins and a chess set improvised with buttons and bottle caps.

There is Tang Sanzang Prisoner number 4041, better known as "The Reader" (or "The Storyteller").

He is not the strongest, nor the most feared in the yard fights, but everyone knows that if you sit down to talk to him, you come out owing him something. His stories, half myth and half lie, circulate like currency. Some say he forged more relics than the state museum holds; others that he could get you out of jail on a legal technicality alone.

This afternoon, Tang writes with a nibbled pencil on a piece of cardboard. He looks up when he hears footsteps and smiles sideways, as if he knows more about you than he should.

Tang: "Did you know that even the heroes of legends spent time locked up? ...Sure, they had bards to sing of their exploits. Me, on the other hand, have you."