Hang'an City's X Prison.
The tall walls were still topped with barbed wire, and the street was quiet.
It was a gloomy afternoon with no sun in the sky, just hazy clouds.
Next to the iron gate, a small iron door opened, and two prison guards in uniforms stepped out. Walking behind them was a thin middle-aged man, his hair already turning gray, his face weathered, as if it had witnessed all the hardships of life.
A simple canvas bag, a style from many years ago, a pair of sneakers, gray pants, and a gray jacket.
The prison guards exchanged a few words with the man, patted his shoulder, then turned around and headed back inside, closing the small iron door.
Across the street, about fifty meters away, under a big tree.
Tian Lie squatted there, holding a cigarette with a cold look in his eyes, watching everything happening at the prison gate.
The man took a few steps, looked back at the prison gate, and then at the empty streets on both sides... He let out a long sigh, and the glimmer of hope in his eyes gradually faded away. Finally, he started walking along the roadside.
A few hundred meters away, there was a bus stop.
Tian Lie stubbed out his cigarette, following silently behind the man, his expression indifferent.
At the bus stop, there were people who, upon seeing the man's arrival and noticing the canvas bag on his shoulder and his attire reminiscent of a laborer, seemed to realize something and instinctively made way for him.
Throughout the process, Tian Lie stood a few meters away, smoking with an indifferent demeanor.
The bus arrived, and the man boarded along with the crowd. Tian Lie stamped out his cigarette and followed suit.
It wasn't the peak commuting hour, and there didn't seem to be too many people on the bus. Tian Lie held onto the handrail and swayed with the motion of the bus like everyone else. However, his eyes remained coldly fixed on the man.
During the ride, there was even a shady-looking man who, when pretending to brake, intentionally leaned against the man. Tian Lie merely squinted his eyes, watching coldly from the sidelines.
The shady man soon got off the bus.
Tian Lie sighed inwardly.
...
In the alley behind the high school, Tian Lie walked silently behind the man, maintaining a distance of more than ten meters. The man seemed somewhat excited, quickening his pace. He reached the back gate of the school, gazing at the half-open, rusty iron gates. With his head lowered, the man walked inside.
Inside the dimly lit shack at the back gate of the school, the man looked at the lock on the door. The glint in his eyes seemed to vanish all at once. He anxiously circled the entrance, then leaned against the door, peering through the crack and the windows for a long time.
Tian Lie stood outside the school's back gate, with his arms crossed, and took out another cigarette from the pack.
He smoked it vigorously!
After about fifteen minutes, the man, disoriented, walked out of the school's back gate. Due to his low spirits, he didn't notice Tian Lie standing by the iron gate, coldly observing him.
Watching the man stumble down the alley toward the street, Tian Lie flicked away the cigarette butt and once again followed suit.
By the time night fell, the streets had gradually become more crowded. The man wandered aimlessly on the street, while Tian Lie calmly trailed behind him, unhurried.
Finally, near a roadside food stall emitting the aroma of cooking oil, Tian Lie saw the man suddenly come to a halt.
He walked over and took a seat at an empty table at the food stall.
He ordered only two dishes, one meat and one vegetable, but asked for two bottles of white wine.
Tian Lie stood across the street, in front of a barber shop's entrance, sitting on the steps, and took out his cigarette pack, only to realize that he had already smoked the last one.
As time passed, the man poured himself drinks, barely touched the food, but quickly emptied one bottle of wine.
His face started to turn red, and his movements and gaze slowed down.
After a while, the man suddenly began to sob, clutching his head.
Tian Lie, on the other side of the road, clenched his fist.
Half an hour later, the last bottle of wine was also emptied. He staggered to his feet, and naturally, a clerk with a streetwise demeanor, wearing short sleeves and sporting tattoos on his arms, intercepted him for payment.
Even more naturally, the man searched his pockets and rummaged through his bag but couldn't find a single coin.
Tian Lie wasn't the least bit surprised—when that shady character had leaned against the man on the bus, Tian Lie had understood.
Soon after, a scene unfolded:
The originally smiling shop assistant quickly lost their smile.
The drunken man loudly claimed that his wallet had been stolen.
Two employees from the shop surrounded him. One of them, a man responsible for grilling food on the stove, with a tough-looking face, yelled that they had a "freeloader eating on their turf."
It started with shoving and pushing, and although the drunken man was angry, he hadn't reacted too aggressively.
However, when the two employees forcefully opened the man's canvas bag to search for money, turning its contents upside down, even tearing open a thick stack of letters...
The drunken man suddenly erupted like an injured wild beast!
He let out a wail, jumped up suddenly, and rushed toward the person who was rummaging through his bag on the ground. In an instant, he knocked the person down and even toppled a table.
Shoving and pushing turned into a brawl!
Those few employees from the shop were clearly not to be trifled with, especially the one with tattoos. He wedged a beer bottle onto the head of the drunken man. The man fell to the ground, and several others joined in to surround him, punching and kicking him. The one whom he had knocked down earlier seemed to have a particular grudge and was especially ruthless!
The man's face quickly became bloodied, with a bleeding nose and a cut on his forehead.
Tian Lie had been watching coldly from across the street. When he saw one of the employees pick up a bottle again, he furrowed his brow and finally took a step forward.
As the bottle was about to come crashing down, a strong hand grabbed the arm.
The beefy employee looked up, gazing coldly at the tall, muscular man with a shaved head in front of him.
"You?" he said.
Tian Lie raised an eyebrow, casually pushed the man aside, and whispered, "I know this guy; I'll cover his bill."
Without waiting for any further protest, Tian Lie reached into his pocket, holding several red banknotes.
The others who had been trying to say something fell silent for a few seconds.
"What about the disruption to my business?" one of them, presumably the boss, asked, chin tilted, as he looked at Tian Lie.
"Before the commotion, it was just a little over a hundred bucks, the rest should cover the compensation, right?" Tian Lie's tone was calm and collected.
Perhaps it was Tian Lie's physique, combined with his indifferent yet steady demeanor, that was intimidating enough. The boss fell silent.
He glanced around and then reluctantly said, "Fine. I'll show you some respect. Take him away!"
Tian Lie placed the money on the table, one hand pulling up the intoxicated man from the ground, and the other hand retrieving the canvas bag.
He noticed the envelopes on the ground and seemed to furrow his brow for a moment before scooping them up and stuffing them into the canvas bag.
...
The intoxicated man was dragged to a small tavern.
He sat at a table, looking as if he had lost his soul. When Tian Lie tossed the canvas bag in front of him, he seemed to brighten up for a moment, clutching the bag desperately. After seeing the envelopes inside, he held onto them tightly, placing the canvas bag on his lap.
Thud!
Two bottles of liquor were placed on the table.
Tian Lie sat across from the man.
He used his teeth to open the bottle cap and handed one to the man, who hesitated for a moment before accepting it.
Tian Lie bit open another bottle.
He tilted his head back and drank a third of it in one go, as if the fiery liquor had no effect on him whatsoever. Tian Lie looked coldly at the man, his gaze still icy and calm.
"Can you still drink?" he asked.
The man didn't answer, but he picked up the bottle and took two gulps, only to start coughing violently.
It was clear that he was already heavily intoxicated, his mind not clear.
Tian Lie leaned forward slightly, staring intensely into the man's eyes.
"You used to love drinking, didn't you? You've always loved drinking."
The man's eyes were unfocused, staring blankly at the bottle in front of him.
Tian Lie let out a sigh, then tugged at his own collar, revealing the outline of his muscular chest. His gaze gradually became menacing.
"You were sentenced to over a decade. You behaved quite well in prison, but you lost your wife, your home... and naturally, you lost your money. Over these years, you've been in prison, although you performed well and got your sentence reduced, you're out now with nothing, right?"
The man's initially numb expression only changed when he heard the words "with nothing." He suddenly raised his head and let out a low growl, "No! I'm not left with nothing! I, I, I... I still have a son! I still have a son!"
A sickly shade of red appeared on Tian Lie's face, and sparks seemed to flicker in his eyes.
"Son? No, you don't have a son anymore."
"I do! I do!" The man seemed to have gone mad as he grabbed his canvas bag and pulled out several letters from inside.
"These are letters my son wrote to me!!! My son! I have a son!! My son's name is Da Gang!!"
Tian Lie, on the other hand, recoiled, allowing his figure to shrink into the shadows in the corner of the room.
"You don't have a son anymore. You no longer have a son," Tian Lie's voice was ice-cold. "Someone like you should have nothing; that's the greatest justice in this world!"
The man seemed to shudder, cowering in his chair, huddled into a ball. He muttered softly to himself.
"I... I have a son... I have one... I have..."
He began to cry, sobbing uncontrollably.