Inside Imperial Military Hospital, while the nurses and doctors proceed to their daily tasks, a child’s voice sounds in one of the many rooms. Jianan told about how life was for them and the kind of abuse their father did to him before getting to how he got the scar on his back.
“Father was mad because Jie talked back to him. He grabbed the kitchen knife and I saw his eyes. He looked like a scary monster and I knew he wanted to kill her.”
He clench his little fists as if to help him not relive the feelings of that day.
“I didn’t want to Jie get hurt anymore. I wanted to protect her, so I did what I had to do.”
Jianan’s words ceased, and tears slid down his cheeks one after another. However, he always made sure to wipe them away.
“I thought I was going to die… but I was happy.”
He looks up at Yue Ling and does his best to make a smile, but his eyes hold nothing but sadness.
“I was happy that I was finally able to protect Jie before I died. I thought it was better for me to die so she didn’t have to protect me anymore… and I could finally be with my mother again.”
He was always the one being protected because he was the youngest. However, for once, he wanted to be the one to protect them and no longer be a nuisance to them.
Yue Ling listened without interrupting him once. Her expression was calm on the surface, making it difficult for one to read her mind.
However, if one were to take a closer look, one could see the amount of sympathy in her bluish-green eyes.
For such a small child-like Jianan, her heart was in a mess for him. The world around him should have been filled with happiness, but darkness was all he saw.
When she heard him say he was happy to die, she felt like someone had stabbed her heart over and over again.
No child should think that death is better than being alive.
Especially when she heard he was stabbed in the back for protecting his older sister.
“Miss Angel?”
Jianan’s voice suddenly brought Yue Ling out of her daze. She slowly looked at the boy and seeing the worry in his eyes, her heart sank further into her stomach.
Like time had slowed down, she could only see Jianan. Her expression remained its same calmness, but the sympathy in her eyes did not hide.
“Jianan.”
She is able to utter his name but with a slightly coarse d voice. She leans towards him and wraps her arm around his tiny body.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
All she could say was sorry and tightened her arms around the boy. Her eyes gradually closed, and her tears slid in ache for his suffering.
“I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner. I’m sorry no one stepped up to help you, Liu Ye, and Liu Jingyi. I’m sorry you all had to endure the pain.”
Jianan doesn’t push her away but lets her hug him. He was too stunned even to move and in shock to hear her cry.
“Miss Angel, I’m really okay. I really am… I…”
He thought he was finally okay. He didn’t understand why she would cry for a child like him, but hearing her words, his lips trembled, and he subconsciously puts his hands on her back.
This is the first time someone other than his siblings cried for him.
A tear trickled his cheek, and the sound of wailing and suffering echoed throughout the room.
“Why? Why us? What did we do wrong?”
His tears ran down his cheeks like a never-ending waterfall, and gutwrenching sobs tore through his chest.
“He is our father, isn’t he? Why did he hurt us?”
He held the back of her sweater with tightly clenched fists like the wall he had put up had shattered and poured his heart out.
“Are we not his children? Why couldn’t he love us? We didn’t do anything wrong.”
As the two embraced one another and sob in each other’s arms, neither was aware of the person outside.
Doctor Dong stands with his hand on the doorknob but doesn’t push the door open. His eyes were red and in tears as he had heard the entire story. To be precise, Jianan’s story.
How can a father be so evil?
He wanted to march inside and give Jianan a big hug. He wanted to tell the boy that everything would be alright and that there were people who would love him and his siblings even if their father didn’t.
However, he knew he couldn’t go inside the room.
He didn’t want to disrupt this moment for them.
The sobbing subdued inside the room as the afternoon sun began to set. However, Yue Ling continued to hug Jianan’s tiny body.
She thought about her unborn child and all the children who are going through the same pain as the Liu siblings.
If there is a miracle and she becomes a mother again, she will never let her child experience such feelings.
Of course, this is only her wishful thinking. She already knows that she cannot have children again. However, it doesn’t hurt to hope.
Her arms gradually let go of the small body, and she looks down at Jianan. Seeing his puffy red eyes, she softens to the core.
“Jianan, remember what I’m going to say.”
She held his cheek and gently caressed his skin with her thumb.
“If you ever feel like crying, cry. If you are hurt, then tell me. No one here will turn a blind eye. Know that you are safe now. You and your siblings didn’t do anything wrong. Forget the past and live a new life. Show that man that even without him, you can be happy.”
Jianan’s lower lip trembles, and he wants to cry, but he fights back the urges to cry. He nods his head and answers.
“I will remember. I promise. I will grow up to be a protector.”
He wants to grow up and help others. He wants to become a man like Lu Tian and Qi Li. He knows that they appear cold and threatening, but they have a good heart.
Because of this, he wasn’t afraid of them as much.
He will also engrave Yue Ling’s graciousness in his heart. Like what she did for him, he will lend a hand to those who had to walk the same life as him and his siblings.
*knock knock
Just as the sad air in the room disperses, a knock sounds from the door. Both individuals turn to the sound and see Doctor Dong.
“Sorry for interrupting. The examination hasn’t finished.”
The elderly man spoke with eyes red from crying. He suppresses his emotions and smiles at Jianan.
“Don’t worry. You can trust me. No one will hurt you.”
Yue Ling stares at the friend of her grandfather. Judging from his eyes, she knew he heard Jianan’s story.
Putting her trust in him, she stood up from the exam bed. She looks at Jianan before leaving the room.
“I’ll be back. I need to make a phone call.”
As she was about to walk out the door, she exchanged a look with Doctor Dong. The two people were quick to understand without any words.
Yue Ling steps out into the hallway. She walks a few feet away from the room and stops in front of a window.
She thought back to Jianan’s injury and couldn’t help but think about Liu Ye and Liu Jingyi.
Did the two older siblings have injuries on them too? Should she have taken them for a checkup too?
She gazes out to the world outside of the hospital, and her mind wandered into the distance of the sky.
Her eyes slowly blink, and she retrieves her phone from the pocket of her denim. She presses a number and places the phone next to her ear.
The call only rang once before a voice sounded from the other line.
[ “Yes, boss?”]
“Location?”
[ “I kept my eyes on him. He purchased a lot of alcohol and got drunk, but it was exactly as I had suspected. He’s now on his way to Red Moon.”]
The voice on the other line answered without any falter.
Yue Ling’s bluish-green eyes remained on the sky outside. The thought of Jianan’s scar flashed in her mind along with Doctor Dong’s words.
The wound has left a permanent scar, but it was a wound even a grown man would not have been able to withstand.
Her eyes gradually close, and the child’s voice enters her mind.
‘ … but I was happy. I was happy that I was finally able to protect Jie before I died.’
She clenches her hand at the side and opens her eyes. However, her bluish-green eyes that usually held warmth were dimmed and dangerous.
Imagining all the suffering the Liu siblings had to endure, she couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Liu Peng alive. She wants him to pay the price for hurting these children.
However…
“Don’t collect his fate yet.”
As much as she wanted to put a bullet in Liu Peng’s head for what he did, she is not the person to decide his fate.
The atmosphere grew silent without a source of sound before her voice sounded again.
“Shatter it into pieces.”
On the other side of Imperial, a man riding a motorcycle could be seen amongst the traffic. He presses a button to end the call and increases his speed.
Behind the tinted face shield of his helmet was the reflection of a taxicab but one could see a glistening light in his hidden eyes.
“Shatter his fate, ey?”
He shifted the handles of his motorcycle again but this time, revving up the engine. His glossy black Ninja 14r reaches the back of the taxicab, but he makes sure to maintain a reasonable distance away.
His eyes lock on the person sitting in the backseat, and underneath the black helmet, his mouth curves into a mischievous and dangerous smirk.
“That I can do with pleasure.”
