UE Ch17: Past

The city had just experienced a bout of acid rain.

White steam, slightly warm, rose from the sewers.

A broken street advertisement screen in the Yunmeng District was playing vulgar ads.

Due to years of neglect, faint electric arcs flickered at the corners of the screen, dimming on and off.

The once-pretty face of the escort girl on the screen now appeared eerie and terrifying.

A foot stepped onto a manhole cover where steam was rising, producing a metallic clang, creating a faint, insignificant noise in the lonely deep night.

The sound was just enough to wake a stray dog napping on the roadside.

Hai Ning, like a robot programmed with instructions, ran forward tirelessly.

Somehow, the dagger he had been carrying had gone missing, but he didn’t care.

He knew he was too late.

He knew it.

But aside from running forward, there seemed to be nothing more he could do.

When he was about a kilometer from home, Hai Ning slowly came to a stop.

Without needing to get closer, he could already see the raging flames lighting up half the sky from the direction of his house.

The fire seemed to snake its way toward him, burning into his lungs, making a faint crackling sound deep in his chest.

Perhaps due to the effects of the drugs, Hai Ning found it difficult to think, his mind forming only cold, hard short sentences:

There’s a fire.

Mom can’t get out.

His little brother is just a baby, so he can’t get out either.

Reasonable.

…Mom.

Little brother.

He thought methodically, using his remaining hand to support himself against the wall as he walked forward.

He thought, maybe it wasn’t his home that was on fire.

With his head down, following the direction illuminated by the flames, he watched his own feet, step by step, getting closer and closer.

He passed by streets so familiar to him, artificial trees lining the sidewalks, and shuttered shops.

All the way, Hai Ning never once lifted his head.

But he knew, he was going home.

Now, he was going home.

Where is home?

His body accepted the truth before his heart did.

The violent palpitations caused by the drugs, mixed with the heart-wrenching anger, coursed through him.

It was as if he was already in the midst of the fire, his bones and blood being boiled dry, sizzling and crackling.

He thought of Charlemagne, of that face he had never clearly seen, shaking with hatred, his head spinning in waves, and the world before his eyes turning into a screen leaking with electrical static.

What he didn’t know was that the effects of the drugs were wearing off.

In just a dozen minutes or so, without another injection or timely medical aid, he would die in this deep alley from sheer exhaustion.

“…Ah.”

As Hai Ning unknowingly rushed toward his death, a sudden surprised voice called out from beside him.

Hai Ning’s shoulder twitched.

Though his senses were intermittent, he hadn’t realized someone had gotten so close to him.

He lifted his eyes and, through a world as glitchy as a malfunctioning screen, saw a man.

The man was alone, dressed in black, not very tall, around 1.74 or 1.75 meters, just about a fist and a half taller than Ning Zhuo, who had hit puberty early.

As Hai Ning turned his head, the man finally saw Hai Ning’s battered appearance clearly, visibly startled.

“…Kid?” The man hesitated over his choice of words, “Are you okay?”

Hai Ning heard his own voice, cold and barely enunciated: “Get lost.”

The man didn’t leave, nor was he scared away, merely continued to curiously observe him.

Under the dirty, reddish streetlamp, Hai Ning noticed the man’s peculiar appearance.

He wasn’t ugly, but he couldn’t be called handsome either. His features were all passable and delicate, but when put together, they were utterly plain and unremarkable. His hair was the most ordinary short, clean-cut style, and his face was clean, without any distinctive features to remember.

Hai Ning almost felt like he’d forget what the man looked like as soon as he blinked.

While Hai Ning was lost in thought, the man made the first move.

He reached out, casually tugging at Hai Ning’s clothes. “Where’s your arm gone?”

Since childhood, Hai Ning had never been comfortable with overly intimate physical contact. He dodged slightly but nearly stumbled and fell.

He didn’t answer and simply walked around the man, pale and dazed, continuing forward.

The man in black, however, seemed oblivious to the rejection. He walked backward, keeping pace with Hai Ning. “Where are you going?”

With what little consciousness he had left, Hai Ning responded, “Going to kill someone.”

The man in black was surprised. “Wow, that’s pretty fierce.”

He glanced at Hai Ning’s missing arm, clearly disapproving. “How do you plan to kill someone like this?”

Hai Ning’s tone was calm. “None of your business. If I had anything usable, I’d chop you up too.”

The man froze.

He opened his mouth, letting out a thoughtful sigh: “Oh my.”

But he still didn’t leave.

Not only did he not leave, but he intentionally used his body to block Hai Ning’s way.

Hai Ning’s heart was beating faster and faster, almost as if it were going to burst out of his chest, thumping loudly against his ribcage.

He needed to get home.

He felt like his time was running out.

And yet, here was this inexplicable person blocking his way, refusing to let him pass.

Agitation gnawed at him like a hundred claws, but the ground beneath his feet slowly became softer, as if he were stepping into a deadly swamp.

Hai Ning resisted the sinking of his body and mind, his voice hoarse as he asked, “What do you want?”

The man spread his arms, half blocking his chest, trying to reason with him: “You can’t go any further. If I let you go, you’ll die.”

He stated it as a fact: “You’re on drugs, right? I can tell by how your energy is fading.”

Hai Ning hated the way he spoke.

That kind of hesitant yet gentle tone—like Dad’s.

Just that single resemblance crushed his nerves completely, causing him to collapse.

Hai Ning’s body swayed, and he fell forward.

It was only then that he realized his body was completely drained.

He was so exhausted that he couldn’t even move a finger.

Luckily, the man’s arm had always been in front of his chest.

The man didn’t need much effort to pick him up and carry him away from the fire.

Hai Ning desperately wanted to move, but he had no strength left, and even his vocal cords had given up.

He stared longingly at the distant flames, hoping to see a glimpse of his mother’s clothing, or his little brother’s swaddling, carried into the sky by the towering blaze.

Just one last look.

“Stop looking,” the man seemed to read his thoughts. “You don’t have that much time. You won’t make it there, and you can’t kill the person you hate. You need to stay alive first.”

The man was strange. Even though no one responded to him, he continued to ramble on, developing a long monologue on his own:

“Living is the best. There’s hope in staying alive.”

“I’m living pretty well on my own right now. Well… I guess I only became alone recently. But I’m still doing fine. Yeah.”

“Do you want to know what I do for a living?”

“Uh… Just think of me as a janitor in Silverhammer City. Doesn’t really make a difference anyway.”

“I don’t know where to take you, but I’m not a bad person… Well, that’s not entirely true. Anyway, I won’t sell you off or get involved in drugs or gambling or anything. Let me tell you my plan. I’ll take you to a friend of mine, make sure you stay alive, and then we’ll figure out how to get you a new arm… Tch, I don’t like prosthetics. But whatever. When you wake up, you can decide. If you don’t want one, then fine, if you do, I’ll get you one.”

…So noisy.

The man rambled on and on, never showing a hint of fatigue.

He took a breath and added, “You’re probably wondering why I’m saving you, right? Why indeed…”

Momentarily stumped by his own whims, he scratched his head and fell silent for a while: “Because someone told me not to be alone.”

His words were clumsy, making Hai Ning feel increasingly groggy. His eyelids grew sore, dragging him deeper into an ever darker void.

The man’s voice became distant and indistinct.

“My surname is Fu, I’m called Fu…”

Hai Ning didn’t quite catch this part but clearly heard the next sentence: “What’s your name? Never mind, I’ll ask when you wake up.”

At that time, Hai Ning had no chance to answer, nor did he know what to say.

But now, Ning Zhuo knows the answer clearly.

He grabbed Mr. “Rosen’s” damp hair, pulling him away from the coffee table and dragging him out of the room, all the way into the quiet hallway of the bar.

The already shattered “Dionysus World” helmet slipped off “Rosen’s” head.

Seeing “Rosen” being dragged out alive by Ning Zhuo, the “cleaners” who had been crouching in the private rooms on both sides, monitoring the situation, were all stunned.

If Ning Zhuo had obediently handed over the key, had a drink, and left, they wouldn’t have had to confront him directly.

If Ning Zhuo had connected the “Iron Lady” incident with last night’s “White Shield” case, made wild speculations, and tried to extort them, they would have figured out a way to ensure that Ning Zhuo never made it back to “Haina” due to some “accident.”

…But the current situation, where Ning Zhuo was suddenly beating up Rosen, wasn’t in any of their contingency plans.

Ning Zhuo had completely thrown them off.

“Tell your boss that his dog is misbehaving. I’ll help him discipline it.”

Ning Zhuo’s green eyes gleamed coldly like a wolf’s, his voice still soft, just like when he was a child: “Look at me… Look at me. I am Ning Zhuo. Say it—’Mr. Ning Zhuo, thank you for your discipline.'”

“Rosen” was bleeding profusely from his head, his ears ringing, and in the overwhelming dizziness, only two words remained in his mind:

Mad dog!

---

Author’s Note:

[Silver Hammer Daily]

Character Interview: The Unbreakable White Shield, the Guardian of a City—An Interview with White Shield Chief Dan Charlemagne

[Excerpt]

Interviewer: As soon as you took office, you eradicated the “Anti-A” organization, which everyone despised, bringing relief to ordinary citizens. But it’s said that there are still a few remnants on the run. Do you worry about your personal safety?

Dan Charlemagne: No.

Interviewer: What makes you so certain?

Dan Charlemagne: Because the power of justice cannot be desecrated. And I believe that my subordinates who died in the line of duty, along with their families, are silently blessing me from above.

Interviewer: Could you tell us more about that?

Dan Charlemagne: It’s a tragic story. When I was working in the Yunmeng District, the “Anti-A” organization kidnapped the son of one of my ordinary officers, simply because that officer trusted me. After his child was kidnapped, he contacted me. In their desperation, during the ransom exchange, they brutally murdered both him and his son. As if that wasn’t enough, they even crazily sneaked back into the district and burned his wife and infant child to death. All of this, just because they couldn’t buy me off earlier and had to take revenge on those weaker than them. (chokes up)

Dan Charlemagne: Please allow me ten seconds of silence, in memory of my precious subordinate, Hai Cheng’an.

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