Thus Howard responded to him with a cold and ruthless conclusion: “Those who enter the punishment chamber must be mentally prepared to leave horizontally.”
“Does that include you?” Uriel asked unwillingly.
“Of course it does.”
The two, who didn’t know each other’s faces or even their identities or ages, fell silent for a long time in the darkness.
Finally, they started talking to each other.
Of course, it was Uriel who spoke first.
“What’s your name?”
“Howard.”
Howard calmly asked for the other’s name in return.
“What’s your name then?”
“Uriel.”
In such a place without a single sound or light, the mind would be particularly active, unable to resist thinking more and reminiscing about the past.
Facing the past, whether it’s regret, guilt, or self-blame, will eventually turn into inner demons.
And eventually backfire on oneself.
So Uriel’s way of relief is to communicate with people.
Unfortunately, the only choice here is this person-Howard!
Since Howard came in, this person called Uriel has been talking nonsense, but it has to be said…
This last sentence finally hit Howard’s heart.
“In the darkness, people can’t help but think more and reminisce about the past.”
Howard sat cross-legged in place, starting to recall his short and bitter early life.
The shattering of happiness, his father’s death, his mother’s blood…
The villagers’ insults and beatings, ending with his first love failing and his foster father’s deliberate use.
Along the way, he had done countless bad things, stained with much blood.
He never found a place to settle down.
Although this village was where he grew up, losing his family and house, could it still be called “home”?
His father named him Howard, hoping he would be as enduring as pine and cypress, with strong willpower.
But where is his will?
Howard thought to himself: He had let his father down.
While Howard was lost in thought, Uriel slowly began to tell his own story.
“If we are destined to die here, it’s also a kind of fate. Are you interested in hearing my story?”
Howard hesitated for a moment before saying:
“Not interested.”
“Tsk tsk…”
He really was a heartless person.
But the next moment, the man added arrogantly: “It’s your own story you’re going to tell, not mine.”
Uriel: “…”
Forget it, there’s no point arguing with a piece of emotionless wood.
“Actually, my story is very boring and cliché…”
Uriel’s father was an undercover policeman who infiltrated Vrisa to investigate a major case, but unfortunately, he was killed by those people, and his body was never found.
He was the only son in the family, inheriting his father’s wishes from a young age, aspiring to become a policeman when he grew up.
A great and selfless hero like his father!
“What happened next?”
Howard suddenly remembered his dad.
His dad had once said that his dream was also to become a policeman.
However, he didn’t allow Howard to become a policeman when he grew up because this profession was full of danger.
He hoped Howard could live a simple and ordinary life.
“This time you asked me yourself, so it’s not me being noisy, right?”
Howard: “…”
He really was petty!
In the darkness, Uriel’s eyes sparkled, and he continued to tell his story.
“Afterwards, I successfully entered the police academy, with the sole intention of investigating my father’s death…”
While investigating the case, he went undercover into the enemy’s lair.
There, he met a kind and naive blind girl.
The girl saved his life in his most desperate moment.
To repay this kindness, Uriel vowed to cure her blindness.
“She had a beautiful name, Julia.”
Gradually, he was drawn to the innocence and optimism of Julia, but his undercover identity had been suspected.
In order to test him, they actually captured Julia.
“For the greater good, I could only watch as she was tortured by those animals. They gouged out her eyes and broke her arms…”
“Julia was afraid of implicating me, so she refused to reveal my true identity. In the end, she chose to commit suicide by hitting the wall.”
At this point in the story, Howard remembered his only concern.
Nora.
He felt the despair and regret emanating from Uriel.
If one day Nora died in front of him like this, and he was powerless, Howard might choose to commit suicide to accompany her.
“The most cliché stories are often the most touching. Your story is indeed worth listening to.”
Julia’s death further fueled Uriel’s determination to eradicate the bandits and seek revenge for her.
He succeeded; that case made national headlines and captured the notorious leader, Julia, who had been on the run for over thirty years.
“Although Julia’s revenge has been avenged, my heart still feels like it’s missing something.”
“You fell in love with her?”
“Love or indebtedness, both perhaps. She was only nineteen… but died tragically because of my inadvertent intrusion into her life.”
His mother was right; he wasn’t suitable to be a policeman.
But his father’s whereabouts had always been an obsession for Mr. David. He refused to believe his father was dead until he saw the body.
“During the investigation, I also found a trace of my father. He didn’t die; he was injured and fell into the river at that time, and then he disappeared.”
Into the river?
Howard’s eyes flickered.
He remembered his mother saying that she found his father by the river when she went to fetch water.
“What… what’s your father’s name?”
Howard clenched his fists. If he guessed correctly, perhaps this person who annoyed him was his brother.
He was Howard’s only relative in this world.
Relative…
The meaning behind these two words made Howard’s eyes turn red.
After living alone for over a decade, on the brink of death, he unexpectedly discovered that he still had a relative in this world.
Why did heaven play such tricks on him?
After a while, Howard finally heard an answer that made his heart skip a beat.
“Justin David, my father’s name is Justin David.”
Boom-