Chapter 424: Nothing At All

Hangzhou City, prison no. X.

Barbed wires lined the top of the tall walls and the street there was very quiet and undisturbed.

It was late in the afternoon and the sky was not looking too pleasant. The sun was not visible in the sky above; only the grey clouds could be seen.

A small iron door beside the main iron gates opened up and two prison officers walked out. Following behind them was a thin middle-aged man whose hair had turned white. Wrinkles filled his face, which seemed to contain all the sorrows within the world.

He had a simple looking canvas bag slung over his shoulder; something that appeared bought a few years ago, a pair of sneakers, grey coloured pants and shirt.

The prison officers spoke a few words to the man, patted his shoulder, turned around and moved back inside. They then closed the small iron door.

Fifty metres across the street, beneath a tree…

Tian Lie was crouching there with a cigarette in his hand, coldly regarding everything that was unfolding in front of the prison gate.

The man took a few steps forward and turned his head back to look at the main gates of the prison. Then, he turned to look at the empty street… … … he exhaled deeply and the expectant light within his eyes slowly faded away. Finally, he stepped toward one end of the street.

A few hundred metres away was a bus stop.

Tian Lie stamped off the cigarette fire and quietly moved in behind the man with a cold expression.

The people in the bus station noticed the middle-aged man’s arrival. Seeing the canvas bag that he was carrying and his migrant worker like appearance, they thought of something and subconsciously moved aside for him.

Throughout all that, Tian Lie simply stood a few metres away, smoking indifferently.

When the bus arrived, the middle-aged man boarded the bus and Tian Lie snuffed his cigarette before following him up the bus.

The peak hours had yet to come and there were not too many people within the bus. Tian Lie held onto a handrail and his body swayed back and forth in harmony with the rest of the passengers as the bus travelled bumpily. However, his pair of eyes was coldly eyeing the middle-aged man.

At one point, a man with furtive eyes deliberately staggered close to the middle-aged man’s body when the bus hit a bump. Tian Lie merely narrowed his eyes and did nothing.

The man with furtive eyes quickly got off the bus.

Tian Lie sighed to himself.

…

Maintaining a distance of tens of metres, Tian Lie silently followed the middle-aged man as he walked through the alley near the high school’s back door. The middle-aged man appeared excited and his pace quickened somewhat. When he reached the high school’s back door, he saw the rusty but partially opened iron door. He then lowered his head and made his way inside.

The middle-aged man stood before the hut behind the school. Seeing the locked door, the light in his eyes was instantly extinguished. He circled the hut frantically before leaning in on the window to look inside. He looked for a long time.

Tian Lie had his arms crossed as he stood outside the school’s back door. He then pulled out another cigarette and began smoking it.

Each breath he took was done with great force!

Ten minutes later, the middle-aged man stepped out of the school’s back door with a lost look on his face. Due to his dispirited state, he did not notice Tian Lie, who was coldly eyeing him from beside the door.

Seeing the middle-aged man stagger aimlessly through the alley, Tian Lie tossed away his cigarette and stepped forward to follow the man once more.

As the sky turned dark, the number of people in the street gradually increased. The middle-aged man wandered aimlessly through the street as Tian Lie calmly tailed him, neither too fast nor too slow.

Finally, the middle-aged man stopped beside a food stall. Tian Lie watched as the smoke from the stalls cooking oil wafted over to the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man then walked over and sat down before one of the stall’s empty table.

He ordered two dishes, one meat and one vegetable. He also ordered two bottles of beer, white beer.

Tian Lie stood across the street before the door to a barbershop. He sat himself down on the stairs and moved to pull out another cigarette only to find that he had finished them all.

Time ticked by slowly and the middle-aged man poured and drank by himself. Despite only taking a few bites of the dishes, he had finished up nearly one bottle of beer.

His face began turning red and his actions slowed.

After a while, the man suddenly clutched his head and began sobbing.

Tian Lie, who was across the street, clenched his fists.

Half an hour later, the man finished the other bottle of beer as well. He stood up unsteadily and was stopped by a man. This man wore a sociable face and short sleeved clothes, which revealed a tattoo on his arm. He had come to ask the middle-aged man to pay for the meal.

Naturally, after searching his pockets, the middle-aged man found that he did not have a single penny on him.

Tian Lie did not appear surprised – back in the bus, when the man with furtive eyes fell close to the middle-aged man, Tian Lie had known.

A drama soon unfolded itself.

The smile on the shop assistant’s face quickly disappeared.

The drunken middle-aged man shouted that he had lost his wallet.

Two fellows from the shop came over to surround him. One of them, the one responsible for barbequing had a displeased expression and he shouted, “Dine and dashing in this senior’s shop!”

They began shoving each other. Although the drunken man was very furious, he did not react in an extreme manner.

The two shop assistants tried to search for money and forcefully opened up the middle-aged man’s canvas bag, overturning its contents. When a pile of envelopes fell out…

The drunken man suddenly erupted in rage, just like a wounded beast!

He cried out mournfully and jumped up, his thin body slammed into the one who was turning his bag upside down. His slam caused the man to fall, knocking over a table in the process.

The shoving devolved into a tussle!

Those few shop assistants were clearly not some kind hearted Samaritans. That was especially true of the man with the tattoo, who sent a bottle of beer swinging toward the drunken middle-aged man’s head. The middle-aged man fell to the ground and the several other fellows surrounded him to kick him. The one who was knocked over by the middle-aged man earlier appeared to be putting more effort, as though to avenge his loss of face earlier.

Blood quickly trickled down the middle-aged man’s face and nose. His forehead had been wounded.

Tian Lie continued standing across the street with indifference. When he saw another shop assistant raise another bottle of beer, he frowned. Only then did he make his move.

When the bottle descended, a muscular hand appeared, gripping the hand swinging down the bottle.

The shop assistant, who had a highly displeased expression, raised his head and became stunned by what he saw. A bald man with a mighty stature, muscular and powerful, greeted him.

“You…”

Tian Lie raised his eyebrows and pushed the shop assistant away with ease before saying in a hushed tone, “I know this man. I’ll help pay for his meal.”

Without waiting for them to shout anything, Tian Lie reached out with his hand. There were several red coloured bills in his hand.

The few people who were about to speak up, fell silent for a few seconds.

“You think you can get away just like that after messing up my business?” One of them, who appeared like the boss, rubbed his chin and looked at Tian Lie.

“The meal should not be more than a hundred. There is more than enough here to cover the rest,” Tian Lie said calmly.

Perhaps it was due to the deterring force behind Tian Lie’s stature and calm voice, but the boss fell into a state of silence.

He surveyed their surroundings and forced himself to say, “Take him away. I’ll give you this face!”

Tian Lie placed the money on the table. Then, he used one hand to pick up the drunken middle-aged man while his other hand picked up the canvas bag.

He turned to look at the envelopes on the ground and he furrowed his brows. Then, he reached out with his hand to sweep the envelopes into the canvas bag.

…

The drunken middle-aged man was carried into a pub.

He sat before the table, seemingly lost in thought. When Tian Lie placed the canvas bag before him, his eyes lit up and he rushed to embrace the bag. He quickly riffled through the contents of the bag. When he saw the envelopes, he then held the bag tightly.

Pa!

Two bottles of beer were placed on the table.

Tian Lie moved to sit down opposite the middle-aged man.

Using his teeth, he opened a bottle and offered it to the middle-aged man, who hesitated for a moment before accepting it.

Tian Lie then bit open another bottle.

He raised it up, his neck up along with it as he gulped down one-third of the bottle’s content. The pungent beer appeared to have no effect on him as he coldly watched the middle-aged man, his eyes filled with a calm iciness!

“Can you still drink?”

The middle-aged man did not answer. Instead, he picked up the bottle and mirrored Tian Lie’s actions only to end up coughing violently.

It was obvious that he was drunk. He did not have a clear state of mind either.

Tian Lie leaned his body forward slightly and stared straight into the middle-aged man’s eyes.

“Don’t you like drinking beer? You’ve always loved drinking beer.”

The middle-aged man’s eyes were unfocused and he simply looked at the bottle of beer placed before him.

Tian Lie sighed and moved to tug his collar. This action revealed the outline of his muscular body and a trace of killing intent seeped into his eyes.

“You’ve been imprisoned for a long time. Your performance in prison was quite good. But, your wife is gone and your home is gone… … naturally, you have no money either. Although you’ve behaved well all these years when you were in prison, even getting a shorter sentence and released early… … you still have nothing at all, am I right?”

Hearing the word ‘nothing at all’, the middle-aged man, who had a numb look on his face, jerked his head up and growled, “No! I am not left with nothing at all! I, I, I… I still have a son! I still have a son!”

A morbid crimson colour seemingly appeared within Tian Lie’s eyes, which were practically about to erupt flames.

“A son? No, you have no son anymore.”

“I have! I have!” The middle-aged man raised up his canvas bag in a semi-deranged manner and pulled out the envelopes.

“These are the letters my son wrote for me! My son! I have a son! My son’s name is Da Gang!”

Tian Lie leaned back, his figure retreating into the shadow cast by the corner of the room.

“You have no son, not anymore.” Tian Lie’s voice was cold. “Someone like you should have nothing at all. That is the greatest form of justice!”

The middle-aged man’s body flinched! He curled his body up and he mumbled to himself.

“I… I have a son… I have… have…”

He began sobbing and curled himself up into a ball.

…