Night Journey

Chapter 104 The Other Side of the Story

Dai Lin stood at the top of the stairs, lingering there for a long time.

"why?"

Dai Lin couldn't understand why he was a superhuman, an employee of the City Guard Bureau, and a big shot in the eyes of the citizens.

He is no longer the skinny child he used to be!
Even though her home was just a stone's throw away, Dai Lin hesitated and stood still, not daring to take a step forward.

"damn it!"

Dai Lin cursed under his breath, steeled himself, and forced himself to climb the steps.

Reaching the corner of the stairs, Dai Lin remembered this place, and images from the past flashed before her eyes.

The tall man grabbed the boy by the hair, dragged him down the stairs, and threw him down, leaving him bruised and battered. The man laughed and locked the door.

Dai Lin lowered his head, his face ashen.

He continued climbing the steps, and more memories surfaced before his eyes, passing by like phantoms.

Dailin has so many memories here, but they are all sad things, with very little happiness to speak of.

"what……"

The stairs weren't very high; as a child, he could run up and down them several times in one go. But now, Dai Lin felt like he was climbing a dangerous mountain, and he was panting heavily.

When Dalin arrived at that familiar door, he was exhausted, but the thought of his upcoming revenge gave him boundless strength.

Push the door open.

Behind the door was darkness, and Dailin could barely make out the blurry outlines. Surprisingly, the room was decorated exactly as it had been on the day he was sold.

It was as if time in the room had frozen at that moment ever since Dai Lin left, never to move forward even a fraction of an inch.

Dust floated in the air; the owner hadn't done any housework in a long time. Dailin could smell a putrid odor, as if a corpse was slowly rotting.

Following the route he remembered, Dai Lin proceeded cautiously. Behind a familiar door, he heard faint breathing sounds.

click -

The jarring sound of the door opening failed to attract the owner's attention; she remained lying in bed, lost in her dreams.

Dailin stared at the woman's face.

Compared to the image of her in my memory, she is now much thinner, with wrinkles around her eyes and strands of white hair.

She was sick, and had been sick for a long time. Her face was pale, her eyes were deeply sunken, and her body seemed to have died before her life, carrying a faint stench of decay.

If I had arrived a few days later, what I would have seen would likely have been the rotting corpse of a woman.

Dai Lin showed no pity whatsoever, only a cold laugh, believing it to be karma.

"who is it?"

The woman noticed Dai Lin, struggled to open her eyes, and looked at the blurry black figure beside the bed.

Dai Lin's heart skipped a beat for a moment, but then he calmed down and said...

"haven't seen you for a long time?"

What will she say next? What expression will she make?

Dai Lin didn't care or pay attention. A sentence kept repeating in his mind, a sentence that had been hidden in his heart for many years, a sentence that he was constantly considering the wording and tone of.

“I am Dalyn, your child. I know you don’t love me, but you are my mother. I will always love you until the day you abandon me.”

It was a very ordinary and brief sentence, without any reproach or sentimentality, or any unnecessary elaboration. It was so straightforward that it contained all of Dai Lin's emotions accumulated over this long period of time.

The woman slightly raised her head, her eyes opening a narrow slit. In the dim light, she could only see a blurry shadow.

"Dalin!"

She said Dai Lin's name in surprise, her tone firm and without the slightest hesitation.

Dai Lin was stunned, and all the words he wanted to say stuck in his throat.

He didn't understand how the woman recognized him. So many years had passed, and his appearance had changed so much, leaving him with several scars.

But even in the dim shadows, the woman recognized him at a glance, as if she knew that at this moment, he was the only one who could be by her side.

The woman struggled to reach her hand out from under the covers, trying to grasp Dai Lin's hand. She was so ill that her arm was so thin it looked like nothing but bones, and she couldn't muster any strength. She just slumped over the edge of the bed.

"Dalin, it really is you..."

The woman's voice was indistinct, and Dai Lin couldn't tell whether she was awake, talking in her sleep, or somewhere in between.

A genuine smile appeared on her thin face, making even her sickly appearance seem less pronounced. But then, the woman's face trembled slightly, tears welled up in her eyes, and she began to cry helplessly.

Dai Lin tensed up, looking at the woman helplessly, unsure of what to do.

"sorry Sorry……"

The woman's voice was low and hoarse as she repeatedly apologized.

"I'm sorry, Dalin, I'm so sorry."

Dai Lin remained silent, his back ramrod straight, his gaze fixed on the woman without blinking.

"I'm really... sorry for all of this."

The woman turned to the side and tried to hold Dailin's hand, but she still couldn't reach it. She was sobbing so hard that she could hardly breathe.

"When you were born, I had only recently become an adult. I didn't know how to be a mother, let alone how to raise you and live with you..."

Without Dai Lin asking, the woman began to repent, her tears falling onto the bedding, spreading out in damp patches.

“I’ve thought about leaving you, just like my mother left me, but when I see you standing alone on the street, I think of myself when I was a child, and how I felt back then.”

I know, I know everything. You hate me, you despise me. Why do you have a mother like me? But... but I don't know what to do. I really don't know..." The woman's voice gradually became blurred, her words incoherent, as if she were talking in her sleep.

"I hate myself, I hate myself for being this kind of person, and for being this kind of mother, but I can't understand why life has become like this... Who should I blame?"
Blame the mother who abandoned me, blame your birth, blame the world?

Her breath grew weaker, and she was using up all her remaining strength to speak.

"I don't know... I'm just very scared, scared of everything, even scared of you."

I'm terrified of you, Dalin.

It felt like a lead plate was pressing on Dai Lin's chest, and he couldn't breathe.

“I’m afraid to talk to you, and even more afraid of your eyes, the way you look at me.”

The woman's eyes widened, her eye sockets were pitch black, like two dark holes.

"Life has already given me too much despair. If you also look at me with hatred and loathe me..."

Suddenly, she blamed herself and said, "Oh, I can't blame you. That's just the kind of person I am. It's not so wrong for my own child to dislike me."

"But when I think about these things, I still feel very sad, extremely sad."

The woman rolled over and lay flat on the bed, staring at the moldy ceiling.

A deathly silence descended, leaving only the sound of their breathing.

Dai Lin's mind was a mess. He opened his mouth several times to say the words he had prepared for many years, but he couldn't say anything. He couldn't even muster up the hatred in his heart.

He felt utterly powerless.

"This is a city-state without hope."

Suddenly, the woman broke the silence and murmured.

"The people living here are just waiting to die. They are aware of this, but they are powerless to do anything about it. So they can only seek pleasure all day long before death comes."

The woman turned her head to look at Dai Lin's face, which was a blurry, dark mass.

"We drink, sing, dance, and writhe in bed together... I can accept this euthanasia-like self-numbing, but I don't want you to do that."

I love you, Dalyn, and I want to do something for you.

Love?
Hearing the woman utter that word, Dai Lin felt only sarcasm, and a surge of anger rose within him, causing him to clench his fists.

“I still remember the day my mother abandoned me. She didn’t even turn her head back, nor did she bother to tell a lie and tell me she would come back. She just left.”

To this day, I still remember how I felt that day... I know how terrible I felt, and I don't want you to feel the same way, much less treat me that way.

My life is hopeless, but you are different, Dalin, I must do something for you…

The woman's tone was firm, even somewhat forceful.

“I worked my butt off to earn money, to save up enough for a ticket to leave this place, even if it's just for you to leave. Luckily, I did it, that's wonderful.”

Dai Lin was stunned, wondering if she had misheard. She wanted to shout and curse her, saying that she was still lying even on her deathbed.

But Dai Lin didn't say it aloud. Even without any evidence, he knew that what the woman said was true.

Everything is true.

"That was a strange day, the day you were reborn, and the day I lost you."

You didn't cry then, you just stared at me without saying a word, your gaze almost cutting my throat, but I felt a surge of joy instead.

Yes, the more you hate me, the less likely you are to return to this hopeless city-state… That's wonderful.”

The woman's voice gradually faded until finally, only faint breathing could be heard.

Saying these words drained her of her remaining strength, and she drifted off to sleep.

Dai Lin remained seated, head bowed, like a pensive statue.

Strangely, the narrow room seemed to possess some kind of magic, infinitely stretching the scale of time, making every minute and every second feel so long, with no end in sight.

Countless thoughts exploded and died in Dai Lin's mind, like a grand fireworks display, with a cacophony of sounds screaming incessantly.

"She's lying!"

"Maybe it's true, maybe she really loves you."

"But why does she never show it?"

"Even if she revealed it, so what? Living in such circumstances, would you believe it?"

The sounds were screaming and roaring, almost bursting Dailin's head.

"Dailin".

Suddenly, a familiar voice rang out, cutting off the chaotic noise.

A gentle, warm hand rested lightly on Dai Lin's shoulder. Out of the corner of his eye, Anya appeared behind him, her figure silhouetted against the light.

Didn't I tell you to wait for me outside?

Dailin uttered his second sentence upon arriving here, pale and powerless.

Anya shook her head, bent down, and hugged Dailin from behind.

"Few people can control their own destiny, let alone decide what kind of person they become..."

she whispered.

"There's no way, there's no way; it's impossible, it's impossible."

"this is life."

(End of this chapter)