Yang Yi, in his prison garb, followed eight guards through a door, where they each verified their identity and signed in before passing through the second door.
This was a small world completely isolated by barbed wire, a prison within the prison.
There were thirty solitary cells, but only twelve were occupied by inmates. These twelve inmates were overseen by eight guards—an alarmingly high ratio compared to the one guard per hundred inmates outside.
Among these guards, six held positions of considerable advantage, armed with rifles and shotguns loaded with live ammunition. They were authorized to shoot at any time they deemed it necessary, without asking for permission or issuing a warning.
Yang Yi's duty was to clean this very small prison block, and in addition, he was the only person allowed to clean up the dining utensils used by both the guards and the prisoners after meals.
