Prison King

Prison King is a web novel by Tang Bihu, serialized on 17K.com starting September 27, 2010, about 1.22 million characters long, and now complete. The story begins in the East City District Police Station of Qingxi City: Bai Xiangyun pauses for a moment in front of the station, then walks into the building, and from then on the course of his life is completely rewritten. The work turns its lens on a prison enclosed by wire netting, watchtowers, and searchlights, focusing on a group of serious criminals forgotten by society—large prison uniforms, small food trays, beneath high walls, fraud and oppression, conspiracy and iron blood, loyalty and fists intertwine into a self-contained system of survival rules. In such an environment, Bai Xiangyun starts as a "newcomer" escorted into prison, facing the tests and schemes of cell bosses, veteran inmates, and various factions, and step by step establishes a foothold through clashes with all kinds of people. The title comes from "in prison I am king," and it tells the story of a man reestablishing his position within high walls through brains and toughness; after release, the contests in the underworld and the business world, old grudges and new situations advancing layer by layer, all unfold from there. The whole book is tightly paced with many characters, the language plain and direct, and it is one of the more representative long works in the urban genre on 17K.com around 2010.