Chapter 4: Devil
The white sky, the white land.
Other than white, it was still white.
Li Anping walked alone on this white land.
There was only white as far as the eye can see, other than Li Anping, there was nothing.
His eyes were hollow without spirit, his face full of perplexity.
Just like this, he walked alone on this land.
Walking……
And walking……
Suddenly, a black crow flew past his head.
Squawk! Squawk!
The crow stopped near him, and bent its head, curiously staring at Li Anping who continued to walk forward, as if it was wondering why the other party kept on going.
Squawk! Squawk!
The crow landed on Li Anping’s shoulders and silently looked at him.
Li Anping was oblivious to everything. His face was still in a daze as he continued to walk forward, endlessly.
The crow suddenly opened its beak wide. Its upper and lower beak expanded at an impossible angle of 180 degrees, the corner of its beak oozing with blood, like it was about to be torn open.
The opened beak bit towards Li Anping’s head, and as he did not resist, his neck was twisted broken and his entire skull was swallowed in one gulp, the blood from the wound poured out like a fountain down his chest.
“Ahhhh!!!!” Li Anping woke up from his hospital bed.
How many times has it been?
Ever since he lost the lawsuit, he had been having this nightmare countless times. Every time he was eaten by a crow.
But today, after waking up from the nightmare, Li Anping did not worry about it, or even think about it.
That’s because……
Compared to the nightmare, reality was the true h.e.l.l.
“Grandma… is really dead.” His throat was painful from the screaming, his limbs curled together, and he looked like a pathetic worm lying on the bed.
“My only family pa.s.sed away as well.”
“Was I really wrong?”
“Why was it wrong to uphold justice? Why did my pursuit of justice end up like this?”
“Why is heaven punishing me like this?
Li Anping wanted to cry, but his tears had long dried up.
He wanted to slam his hand on the bedframe, but he could not even lift his arm.
Even when he needed to pa.s.s motion, he needed a.s.sistance from others.
Every night, he could only cry to himself.
Punishing himself in the nightmare.
“Ahhhhh!!!” Li Anping slammed his head on the bedframe, only the pain on his body can so ever slightly alleviate the despair he was feeling mentally.
Outside the word, the policeman who was sent by the court to supervise Li Anping knocked on the door, knock knock, and scolded: “Stop howling like a ghost, this is a hospital ward, don’t affect the others from resting.”
Li Anping did not respond, but he did stop screaming.
When he had exhausted all methods, when all hope had vanished, when his last remaining family had died.
Li Anping despaired.
He thought of it…
Death.
“Don’t you wish to exact revenge?”
At this moment, a voice resounded in his head.
Li Anping frantically looked around, but did not see anyone.
“Don’t bother looking around, I am in your heart. Let me ask you again, do you not wish to exact revenge?” The voice appeared again, in a tempting tone.
This time, Li Anping heard it. The voice was actually coming from inside his head, but maybe it was due his circ.u.mstance, or maybe he thought that he was hallucinating, Li Anping did not have a hint of surprise, in fact he did not even reply.
“Do you want to continue drowning in sorrow? Continue to waste your life away?” The voice, upon seeing no answer from Li Anping, had no choice but to ask again: “In punishing yourself like this, you will only let the true criminal run scot-free.
Li Anping bitterly said: “Revenge? Who do I find to take revenge? I’m just a cripple, even when it comes to eating or going to the toilet I need a.s.sistance from people. Even living life is a problem for me, who am I to talk about revenge?”
“Heheheheh……” The voice coldly sneered: “Your body is not a problem, if you want to exact revenge, I can help you.”
Li Anping’s heartbeat rose, and his chest seem to have become warmer.
“You can help me?”
“Don’t ask anymore, let me ask you, in order to heal your body, how much of a price are you willing to pay?”
Li Anping anxiously said: “I already have nothing left in the world, as long as you can heal my body, I am willing to pay any price.” He did not notice that the conversation had steered from getting revenge to healing his body.
The voice remained silent after hearing his response.
After a few minutes, when Li Anping had thought it was his hallucination, the voice meaningfully said: “What you think is precious, is useless to me; but what you deem useless in your eyes, is of utmost importance to me.”
Li Anping could not understand what he meant by that, but the voice continued.
“The policeman outside, his name is Long Tao, poor and worn out, just going through motion in life awaiting his death describes him best. Colleagues from the same batch get promoted, those that strike riches get richer, but he is still alone on the frontlines, making ends meet with his meagre salary. Past 30 years in age, and still single, the only thing he can do is to begrudge society’s injust, and his superior’s inability.”
“What does that have to do with me?” Li Anping asked confusedly, “Also, how did you know about his situation?”
“I will tell you the reason afterwards, for now, I just need you to touch his body with your right hand.”
Li Anping sounded heistant: “That’s… all?”
The voice suddenly laughed and as if a devil’s whisper: “How can it be that simple, I just want to borrow your hand to knock him out, when I’m healing you later, i cannot have interruptions.”
“……Alright, I will do as you say.”
After a while, the two stopped their interaction, and the ward returned to silence. Li Anping turned his body and slowly rolled towards the other side of the bed.
As his 4 limbs were nearly crippled, as well as having the blanket covering his body, his movement was very slow.
‘thump’ Li Anping fell from the bed and hit the floor, making a loud noise.
“What happened?” Long Tao who was outside the door rushed in upon hearing the collision.
As Li Anping had fallen on the further side of the bed, Long Tao who entered through the door could not see him at first.
Worried if anything had happened, he rushed towards the other side of the bed but the moment he could see Li Anping lying on the ground, his leg was grabbed.
“What are you…”
Anna felt anxiety in her heart.
After seeing Li Anping, she was about to leave the country for an exchange. This was the university sending their students for exchange programmes after collecting money from the students. The original plan was to go to the underwater themepark with Li Anping before going overseas. But alas, he had gotten into a car accident.
After that, when Anna returned a month later to Zhongdu, Li Anping had become a vicious criminal that everyone scolded. She was hesitant, but eventually came here late at night.
“At the very least, I have to hear his side of the story.”
Anna was unable to relate that kind, righteous Li Anping to the criminal that was described in the news.
Breathing in deeply, she approached the ward with trepidation.
“What are you doing?” Li Anping furiously questioned.
“Hehe, you don’t have to shout so loud, just directly communicate with me mentally.” The voice said in a vicious tone: “As for what I’m doing? Hahaha, from the start to end, wasn’t you the one doing everything?”
Li Anping looked at the corpse on the ground, and said in disbelief: “You killed him! How can you kill him? You told me you were only going to make him faint.”
“Hmph, what a disappointment. After all these things, you still don’t realize it? The world is constantly changing, the only thing unchanging is humanity’s stupidity. Their vile and disgusting behavior is worse than a s.h.i.thole. Do you know how this policeman views you? In his eyes, you are just garbage, a lot of your information was sold out by him to the media. In fact, he had more than once thought of torturing you.
Hehe, wait till you experience more things, you will find out that hiding behind every person lies endless sins. Successful people face accusations, rivalry and jealousy. And for failures, they will be looked down upon, suppressed and enslaved.
All of humanity is consciously or subconsciously emitting his malice towards other people. At the end, no matter who it is, he will only obtain helplessness and weariness.”
Every word that the voice said was filled with evil intent, and Li Anping felt that he was listening to some evil cult’s preaching. But he was still unable to forget the scene, as just moments ago, a life had gone out right in front of him. When his hand touched Long Tao’s leg, the other party immediately collapsed.
Waves that could not be seen by the naked eye emitted from Long Tao’s body to the prayer beads bracelet, the bracelet that should’ve been kept and confiscated by the policemen, had reappeared.
Li Anping looked at his right hand which was suddenly accessorised by the bracelet and sensed something.
“You’re inside of these beads? What sort of evil being are you? I want to destroy you, I will not allow you to harm anyone!” Li Anping pulled off the bracelet immediately.
“The beads were only a temporary residence for me, but now I have found a better vessel.” The voice smugly said: “Moreover, are you sure you want to end our collaboration? Your body is close to being healed…”
“Li Anping threw the beads out of the window: “No need, I won’t believe a word you say, you devil!!!”
“I’ve already said that I’m no longer inside the beads.” The voice continued: “It is your ignorance, kindness, and anger that awakened me, and that policeman’s death was singlehandedly caused by you, you can no longer turn back……”
“I can, as long as I no longer do anything you request.”
As the two argued, Anna walked into the ward. She started in disbelief at Li Anping and Long Tao who were on the ground, and exclaimed: “What happened?”
“Kill her, she witnessed everything, you must remove all eye witnesses, put your hand on her body, I will devour her soul” The voice tempted Li Anping.
“Dream on.”
Li Anping called out to Anna: “Anna, quickly help him up, he suddenly fell down, get the doctor to attend to him.” He still held the slightest hope that Long Tao had not died yet.
“Oh… okay” Anna finally reacted and frantically tried to help the corpse off the floor.
“Forget these.” Li Anping hurried, afraid she would be attacked as well: “He is no longer breathing, quickly get the doctors.”
“Al…alright.” Anna was confused and did not know what to do. She instinctively followed as instructed, and ran outside the room trying to find the doctor.
But the moment she stepped out, she felt like she had hit a wall and a force threw her back into the room.
“Ruo, it seems we’re right on time.”