Chapter 106: The Entire Past
Huo Chen was silent for a moment.
“If you want someone to confide in—if you truly want to speak—I am willing to listen. But if you feel this matter is too painful, I hope it is never mentioned again.”
Was it painful?
Those matters were indeed very painful for Lin Huaizhi. At that time, he was only in his teens, yet he felt he had already reached the end of his life, as if he were at death’s door.
If it were anyone else, he would have remained silent.
But the one asking was Huo Chen.
If he wanted to go on with Huo Chen, he had to face this painful past; they had to be honest with each other.
Of course, the most important thing was that he wanted to speak.
To tell Huo Chen.
Lin Huaizhi steadied himself and said slowly, “Actually, those marketing accounts didn’t lie. I indeed stabbed Zhang Qiang with a knife.”
Zhang Qiang… Huo Chen thought this must be Lin Huaizhi’s nominal father.
“Do you remember a long time ago, because of the matter between me and Chu Xiaoran, some things were leaked online? They said my mother was mentally disabled and my father was a murderer?”
The combination of the words “mentally disabled” and “murderer” directly pierced Huo Chen’s heart.
Lin Huaizhi looked glamorous now and was a very outstanding person, but no one knew what he had gone through to get here. He had no family background, no parents, and relied only on himself.
And his past…
Was clearly full of thorns and pain.
“Mm,” Huo Chen hummed, but his throat was terribly dry.
“I was born in a very remote small mountain village. My father was an old gambler who spent all day at the card tables. He was quite old and hadn’t managed to get a wife. Later, a family in the neighboring village wanted to sell their daughter.”
“That was my mother. A woman who was born ‘silly’ because the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck, depriving her of oxygen at birth.”
“The old gambler bought her.”
“Later, there was me.”
Talking about this again, Lin Huaizhi still couldn’t hide his bitterness. No matter how one grew in age or experience, people often could never escape the influence of their original family.
“The old gambler loved to gamble and had a bad temper. Every time he lost, he would vent his anger on my mother. When I was one or two years old, I started receiving his beatings too.”
“That day in Jinzhai Village, didn’t you see all those dark red dot-like scars on me? Those were all burned into me by his cigarette butts.”
Huo Chen remembered seeing that scene that night, and his heart ached even more. He even felt a sense of hatred toward Lin Huaizhi’s nominal father.
Using cigarette butts on a one or two-year-old child.
What kind of beast could do such a thing that lacked all conscience?
Even if Lin Huaizhi stabbed him, that beast deserved it!
“After that, there wasn’t much new. He hit my mother just the same. As I grew older, I began to resist. Later, he lost money gambling again and had been drinking. When he came back, he beat my mother.”
“He beat her to death.”
“By the time I came home from school, my mother was already barely breathing, but he still wouldn’t stop. I fought with him and he hit me over the head with a brick.”
Lin Huaizhi’s voice began to tremble.
He was wrapped in a quilt, but his consciousness seemed to have returned to that afternoon many years ago—that twilight hour when the sunset was magnificent.
He had fallen to the ground, blood gurgling from his head.
That man held the brick that had knocked him down and struck the silly woman’s head over and over. The silly woman’s hand was stretched toward him, her eyes looking at him, her mouth calling out.
“Xiao Bao, it hurts…”
“Xiao Bao…”
“Xiao Bao, run…”
Listening to those cries of “Xiao Bao,” his face was a mess of tears and snot. He begged that man—begged him to let his mother go. But the God of Death was high and mighty, without a single shred of mercy.
The silly woman died under the brick.
She died with her eyes open.
The moment she drew her last breath, he heard his own shrill scream. The man was still striking that already caved-in head. He didn’t know how he stood up, but by the time he realized it, the kitchen knife had already stabbed into the man’s stomach.
The blood that landed on his hands wasn’t scalding.
But Lin Huaizhi felt it was scorching, burning all the way from his hands, face, and body into his heart.
Later, neighbors heard the commotion and came over, screaming at the tragic scene and calling the police.
He was only sixteen.
Based on the testimony of the villagers, students, and teachers, it was determined that Zhang Qiang had committed intentional homicide and was sentenced to ten years. He was judged to have acted in legitimate self-defense and was not guilty of a crime.
After that, Lin Huaizhi had no home.
Or rather, he had never had a home. He just lived in a house called a “home,” but the house was cold, without a shred of familial warmth.
Lin Huaizhi said he only had a middle school education, but he actually attended high school.
He just didn’t graduate.
He skipped grades and was already in his third year of high school at sixteen. Unfortunately, he couldn’t wait to take the college entrance exam. He had wanted to go to university and take the silly woman away from there, but his life came to a grinding halt.
He left that small mountain village.
He came to Long City.
From then on, Zhang Yaozu was not Zhang Yaozu, but only Lin Huaizhi.
If you wish to know the meaning of parting, the Huai River flows to the east.
He was the Huai River water that wanted to flow east; he was Lin Huaizhi.
Having finished saying all this, Lin Huaizhi’s voice was trembling beyond belief, filled with suppressed sobs.
He rarely shed tears.
Because he knew tears wouldn’t buy sympathy; they would only increase an executioner’s desire to inflict violence. But he truly could not remain calm.
Especially when thinking of the silly woman’s eyes before she died.
And that call of “Xiao Bao.”
Huo Chen truly didn’t know how to comfort Lin Huaizhi. He was far away abroad, across a distance of over a hundred thousand kilometers; he had no way to be with Lin Huaizhi.
To hug him.
And what Lin Huaizhi wanted now was not verbal comfort, but just a hug.
“Don’t cry,” the man said, immediately booking a flight. “I’m coming back right now.”
Huo Chen never hung up the phone.
Lin Huaizhi didn’t cry, but he was indeed very tired—both in body and heart.
At five in the morning, listening to Huo Chen’s steady breathing coming from the phone, Lin Huaizhi’s sleepiness gradually rose, and his consciousness fell once more into the embrace of the God of Dreams.
After nearly fifteen hours of flight time, Huo Chen rushed back to Long City. It was already late at night the next day.
By this time, the “rhythm” online was even greater.
Zhang Qiang had even come forward to accept media interviews, saying that Lin Huaizhi wasn’t originally named Lin Huaizhi, but Zhang Yaozu, and that he had stabbed him with a kitchen knife.
The man, not even 1.6 meters tall, appeared on screen with messy hair and a dirty face. His clothes were old and ragged; one could see at a glance that he had suffered a lot.
He shed crocodile tears, trying to present the image of a loving father to the public.
“Yaozu, you’re of the Lin family blood. Even if you stabbed your father, I don’t blame you. It’s just that I’m old now—I just want to be close to you and see you get married.”
“As long as you have a home, I’d be willing even if I died!”
Watching the video online, Lin Huaizhi only felt it was laughable. These past few days, he always felt someone was spying on him. That feeling was too familiar—so familiar that he immediately thought of Zhang Qiang.
So he called the prison.
Sure enough, Zhang Qiang had been released a few days ago.
He knew Zhang Qiang would come looking for him, but he didn’t expect that after so many years in prison, Zhang Qiang would suddenly learn the power of public opinion.
Staring at the man in the video, Lin Huaizhi grinned, revealing a set of pearly white teeth.
“Zhang Qiang, let’s play this slowly.”
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