Chapter 2

"Hm? Why isn't Luoluo baby saying anything? Did I scare you?"

The handsome young man's voice was low and magnetic, lovely to hear, like the murmur between lovers. But the smile on his face was vicious beyond measure.

Like a big cat that had just caught its prey.

Pleased with itself, doing as it pleased, intending to torment someone to death, his eyes openly brimming with delight and malice.

—Just as adorable as he had been when they were kids.

Only, back then, this big cat had always tugged Luo Mingshan along by the hand to torment their enemies together.

Now, Luo Mingshan himself had become his enemy.

Luo Mingshan struggled to open his eyes. Under the lights, his clear pupils looked like shattered stars, or as if they were swimming with tears. His lashes trembled lightly. His lips were bloodless and stained with blood, while his cheeks had flushed bright red from lack of air.

Zhao Xing slowly tightened his grip.

The young man's face grew redder and redder, but his breathing weaker and weaker. His head tipped back, and his clear eyes unwittingly filled with pleading and pain, unaware that this appearance of his only provoked a stronger urge to humiliate him.

Even the few men watching began to breathe heavily.

But everyone knew—they couldn't let this go on. He would really die.

This beautiful young man looked so fragile, like a dragonfly's translucent wings. One light squeeze, and he would shatter.

Zhang Sheng, who had first confronted the young man, snapped out of it too. He stepped forward, intending to stop Zhao Xing.

But before he could speak, Zhao Xing let go and spared the boy.

Like someone who had nearly drowned, the young man gulped down air. His face was red as fire, his chest heaving violently. In pain and terror, his whole body shook, yet he made no sound at all.

It was as though he had fallen alone into a quiet, despairing atmosphere utterly at odds with everyone around him.

But the scene was brutally shattered the next instant.

Without the slightest tenderness, Zhao Xing grabbed him and threw him into the room.

Then he casually pulled down a towel hanging inside and wiped his hands clean, dragged his suitcase back over, and looked at Zhang Sheng, who was blocking the door. "I have some old business to settle with him. Please come back another time."

He was even quite polite, but the ruthless, efficient way he had beaten someone just now, along with the violence still lingering between his brows, made it clear he was not someone to be trifled with.

"Ding—"

"Zhao Xing, fifteen points deducted. Remaining balance: 115 Repentance Points."

One hundred and fifteen Repentance Points!

A round of gasps rose around them.

That was ridiculously loaded! No wonder he was so arrogant!

Zhao Xing's gaze slowly swept over Zhang Sheng's lackeys.

He said nothing, but Zhang Sheng instinctively felt that he was merely calculating how many Repentance Points it would cost to beat the lot of them.

Zhang Sheng wisely took a step back.

Zhao Xing gave him a nod, then shut the door with a bang.

"Brother Zhang? We're just letting him go? He snatched sister-in-law right out from under us!"

"Are you stupid?" Another man smacked the back of his head and lowered his voice. "That guy clearly knows how to fight, not to mention he has that many Repentance Points..."

God, how could someone have over a hundred Repentance Points the moment he arrived?! He had saved up for so long and only had 9.3. One fight, and he might get tossed into the Repentance Room.

"Just wait. He may not be an enemy," Zhang Sheng said darkly, narrowing his eyes.

"Right, right, right, big brother's right. That guy obviously has a grudge against sister-in-law. Maybe once he's done tormenting him, sister-in-law will come begging us for protection. Heh heh..."

Ignoring the buzzing flies outside, Zhao Xing tossed aside the towel, pulled over a chair, and sat down to look at Luo Mingshan.

Zhao Xing had not held back much when he struck earlier. He had not beaten him to death, but he had been venting his anger.

Now that he had vented, he had calmed down somewhat as well.

"Do you remember me?" Zhao Xing lowered his head, took a cigarette from his pocket, and lit it.

To safeguard smokers' mental health, everyone was allowed to bring three cigarettes.

Zhao Xing had planned to ration them, but he had not expected to be so irritated as soon as he arrived that he wanted to smoke them all.

"Brother A-Xing..." Luo Mingshan lowered his eyes and called softly.

Brother A-Xing. Brother A-Xing.

Zhao Xing gave a derisive laugh.

Back then, Zhao Xing had been the unofficial king of the children of offenders in half the prison. Nearly every kid followed him around, calling him Brother Zhao, Brother Zhao.

Only Luo Mingshan called him "Brother A-Xing." Little Luoluo had been small and pale, like a dumpling made of dough, with a soft little voice. Each "Brother A-Xing" made Zhao Xing feel all warm inside; like an idiot, he doted on him as though he were his own little brother.

But what happened afterward?

Zhao Xing closed his eyes amid the curling smoke. Voices rang out one after another in his mind.

"Be good, Luoluo. Don't be afraid. Tell Auntie—who pushed you?"

"Brother A-Xing."

...

"Zhao Xing, why did you push someone down the stairs? More than a hundred steps! If that child hadn't been so lucky, he'd be dead already! You nearly killed someone, do you understand?"

"I didn't! It wasn't me. I didn't push him!"

"Smack!"

Along with the slap came his mother's disappointed voice:

"Hopeless! Luo Mingshan was only five. Would he lie? Zhao Xing, why don't you even have the courage to admit your mistake?"

...

"I am an Earth human. I am a higher life-form. I should possess a soul as brilliant as sunlight. I should remember Earth's mission. I should not harm my fellow humans. I repent."

Twelve years ago.

Luo Mingshan was five. Zhao Xing was seven.

His mother had behaved well, had one year shaved off her sentence, and was due for early release.

The day before she was to leave, Luo Mingshan tumbled down the stairs. Blood poured from him; he broke bones in several places and nearly did not survive the rescue. When he woke, he identified Zhao Xing in front of everyone as the person who had pushed him.

Because of the incident, Zhao Xing's mother received an additional year to her sentence for dereliction of guardianship and allowing her child to commit attempted murder.

That year, she did not have to join the other prisoners' activities. She only had to teach her child to "turn back from the wrong path."

Zhao Xing remembered it all.

In the special "Children's Education Room," his mother leaned against the wall, holding an electrified ruler and crying.

Her voice was hopeless and anguished.

"...It's all my fault. I never should have given birth to you. They all say children born in prison will grow up to be the scum of society and return to prison. Looks like they were right."

"...They were right."

Zhao Xing tugged at the corner of his mouth.

Like now. He and Luo Mingshan had indeed returned to prison.

"Luoluo." Zhao Xing crushed out his cigarette and turned to him. "Did I really push you down back then?"

Luo Mingshan shuddered, his voice nearly breaking. "Brother A-Xing..."

"Don't fucking call me that. It makes me sick," Zhao Xing cut him off.

Luo Mingshan's lips moved. With difficulty, he called him, "Brother Zhao."

Zhao Xing stared directly into his eyes and asked again, "Did I push you down?"

The world fell quiet.

There were no windows here, no wind.

Only the two men's breaths, one after the other, filled the air.

Apart from that, everything was still.

"...Brother Zhao, I'm sorry."

The stillness broke abruptly.

Luo Mingshan's face went paper-white. Tears slid down his cheeks one after another and fell to the floor as he said softly:

"Liang... Liang Xiaopang said you were leaving. That once you left, no one would protect me anymore. If... if I didn't do what he said, he would kill me..."

Liang Xiaopang had been an eight-year-old kid—fat, strong, stupid, and mean—but he had never once beaten Zhao Xing in a fight.

Zhao Xing ground the cigarette butt to pieces in his palm. The scorching pain barely kept him from losing control.

Zhao Xing spoke one last time. "So, did I push you down?"

"No." Luo Mingshan lowered his head and stated the belated truth word by word. "Brother A-Xing didn't push me. I deliberately rolled down the stairs myself."

"Bang!"

His reason snapped again.

Zhao Xing got to his feet and kicked the metal table over, sending it crashing down with a thunderous roar.

Rage flooding him, Zhao Xing seized Luo Mingshan by the collar, yanked him over, and slammed his head against the wall.

...So I hadn't pushed him.

Zhao Xing almost wanted to laugh.

A year of "education."

Three hundred and sixty-five days of "repentance."

Countless "Mom, I was wrong."

Endless "problem-child behavioral correction therapy."

Eventually, even Zhao Xing himself could no longer tell whether he had pushed anyone or not.

Had I really pushed him? Had I forgotten after I did it?

After all, Mom said I was a bad kid.

Seven-year-old Zhao Xing thought about those questions until it felt as if his head would split open.

But now Luo Mingshan was saying—

"Brother A-Xing didn't push me."

...

What a fucking joke.

"Beep!"

Zhou Ming swiped his card and entered the dorm. The moment he opened the door, he froze.

Dorm 1502 was already a complete wreck. Tables and chairs lay toppled everywhere, while decorations and daily necessities had been swept onto the floor in a mess.

And Zhao Xing, who had kicked him to his knees not long ago, was viciously gripping someone's sleek, shining long hair and smashing that person's head against the wall.

Scarlet blood ran through Zhao Xing's fingers. The attacker looked toward the doorway, his eyes overflowing with such violence that it made one's blood run cold.

Zhou Ming's heart stopped for a second. Then he slammed the door shut faster than he ever had in his life and fled the scene.

Holy shit.

How could he be so unlucky as to share a dorm with that fiend?!

That violent maniac had started bullying his new roommate the moment he arrived. Would Zhou Ming be the next one beaten into a bloody pulp?!

Zhou Ming was practically in tears.

At a complete loss, he panicked and grabbed a passerby to ask, "Hey, man, do you know how to switch dorms?"

After Zhou Ming left, Zhao Xing did not keep beating Luo Mingshan.

First, he had not slept for more than twenty hours straight. He was a little sleepy, and he was also a little tired from beating Luo Mingshan.

Second, the Repentance Points he had spent on Luo Mingshan today had gone over budget.

The dorm's surveillance faithfully recorded him smashing Luo Mingshan's head, and the AI deducted another twenty Repentance Points from Zhao Xing.

What a loss. He should have beaten him in the bathroom.

Once Zhao Xing stopped, Luo Mingshan passed out.

He slid limply down the wall to the floor, unconscious. His satin-black hair draped over him, setting off his bloodied, pale face with a desperate, decadent beauty.

Almost anyone who saw such a sight would lose themselves for a moment and be filled with pity.

Only Zhao Xing found him annoying because he was blocking the way.

Frowning, Zhao Xing kicked him into the corner, opened his suitcase, and went to wash up in the bathroom.

After a quick wash, Zhao Xing was sleepy and exhausted. Yawning, he headed for his bed.

His was Bed Four. The bedding had been made, but it did not look particularly clean and smelled faintly of mildew.

In sharp contrast was Bed Three directly across from his. Its bedding looked clean and fluffy, as though it had just been aired out in Sun Square.

Zhao Xing went over for a look. Sure enough, the nameplate read Luo Mingshan.

Zhao Xing brazenly took over his bed and fell into a deep sleep amid the clean scent of soap.

Zhao Xing was awakened by noise.

In his haze, he seemed to hear Luo Mingshan arguing quietly with someone.

"...Zhang Sheng, please leave. This isn't your dorm."

"I traded Repentance Points with that Zhou kid in your dorm for his room. You can't make me leave... Wait, that Zhao guy beat you up again? Look at that busted head... Zhao Xing's really a piece of shit. How could he be so cruel? Come on, let Brother Zhang rub it better..."

"Get lost! Don't touch me!" Luo Mingshan suppressed his fear, but his voice trembled at the end.

"Fuck your mother. That Zhao guy beats you like that and you don't make a sound, but I touch you once and you fucking grab glass and act like some chaste martyr?!"

"What... what are you, that you think you can compare with Brother A-Xing?" Luo Mingshan said through clenched teeth.

"Fuck! Do I have to take you by force today?!"

With an angry roar came a string of crashing tables and chairs, followed by the sound of bodies colliding and glass shards hitting the floor.

It was far too loud.

Zhao Xing could not pretend to sleep any longer. If he kept sleeping, he wouldn't be falling asleep—he'd be falling into a coffin.

"What are you making such a racket for?"

Zhao Xing sat up in bed, his voice rough and lazy with sleep.

He looked at the two men who were fighting. His gaze was mild, yet it somehow made Zhang Sheng pause.

Luo Mingshan seized the chance to pull his wrist free from Zhang Sheng's tight grasp and ran in panic to Zhao Xing's bedside.

He looked flustered. The light in his clear eyes trembled, like a startled fawn seeking shelter.

"Brother A-Xing... Brother Zhao," he called hesitantly.

Zhao Xing nearly laughed out loud. "You want me to help you?"

Luo Mingshan said nothing, but his lashes quivered, and his feet seemed rooted beside Zhao Xing's bed.

A few strands of long hair clung messily to his porcelain-white cheeks, making him look all the more pitiful.

Zhao Xing reached out. His fingertips brushed over the blood-seeping bandage on Luo Mingshan's head, then traced down from the bruise on his forehead.

Against Luo Mingshan's soft, smooth skin, Zhao Xing's lightly callused fingers were rough. Those callused fingers pressed repeatedly against the wound, neither too hard nor too gently, making him tremble despite himself.

Zhao Xing gave a low laugh.

"Baby, how can you be this naïve? I beat you into this state, and you still haven't learned your lesson. Do you really think I'll protect you like I did when we were kids?"

Author's Note:

The gong is bad by nature and has done wrong things. I won't whitewash him.

But he will pay the price for them. (Definitely.)