Chapter 98: Vengeance Knows No Time

2022-05-20

What does it feel like to survive a close brush with death? For the rich kid, it was as if every star in his sky suddenly came alive.

Lin Dafa’s knife came to a stop right at the rich kid’s neck—but didn’t go any further.

Lin Dafa looked satisfied. “So you finally remember now. My girl’s name is Lin Rong. Because of you her whole life was ruined. But I’m a man of principle. Debts should be repaid, blood with blood. Now that you remember, I won’t kill you.”

With that, Lin Dafa squatted down. At the same time, he yanked the rich kid’s pants down.

So what’s it like when hope flips right over to despair?

For the rich kid, it was as if his whole world went dark. He didn’t even try to struggle. He was numb, broken, lost.

As he watched Lin Dafa’s silhouette head out the door, the rich kid might have wondered—why hadn’t he just bitten back at the very beginning?

But he didn’t want to die. Struggling, he managed to pull his phone from his pocket, which crashed onto the floor.

With the last of his strength, he dialed 120. While he waited, despair took him.

He’d lost too much blood—he wouldn’t last long. In those last moments, no one knew what crossed the rich kid’s mind. Did he see those girls whose lives he destroyed? Did he see a baby born beneath a cold bridge, a woman disfigured by flames, a young wife jumping to her death?

Or did he see his own face, twisted in misery, reflected back in the gleam of his blood?

The slow trickle of blood, the steady dripping sound—it all echoed with the wails of the wronged women whose lives he ruined.

No one knew if Lin Dafa had always planned for the rich kid to die in torment, or if he truly meant to spare his life. He later claimed innocence, and maybe he was telling the truth. Perhaps only Lin Dafa really knew.

Lin Dafa never tried to run. He even left the knife at home.

“Goodbye, girl.” Before leaving, Lin Dafa spoke quietly to Lin Rong. “I know I’m useless. Never understood what goes on in your heart. From now on, live your own life. I left money under the bed. Don’t do anything stupid. This is the last time we’ll meet, isn’t it?”

For some reason, tears streamed down Lin Rong’s face.

She’d never cried before. Not when her mother died. Not when she got sick.

Only now.

She looked at her father—the man she’d resented and despised. And she wept.

Wherever he went, Lin Dafa always seemed like the quiet, honest type. When he got bullied, he’d just smile. When targeted, he’d smile again. Lin Dafa knew he’d been given a life sentence. But that meant, someday, maybe after twenty or thirty years, he’d have a chance to see his daughter again.

Lin Dafa was put away for murder, but looking at him, no one would’ve believed he could kill.

There was a young guy in his cell, doing time for assault. He asked Lin Dafa how he’d ended up there.

So Lin Dafa told his story.

“So, your daughter must be pretty, right? Otherwise she wouldn’t catch someone’s eye.” The young thug grinned.

Lin Dafa beamed. “Of course. Takes after her mother, not me.”

“Well, when I get out, I’ll be sure to pay her a visit!” The punk laughed.

No one paid it any mind—everyone knew he was just running his mouth.

But Lin Dafa’s face darkened. He slapped the kid on the spot. “If you dare touch my daughter, I’ll kill you.”

Getting slapped by a scrawny, forty-something man only fired up the young thug. He nearly launched into a brawl right then and there, but the others held him back. Cursing, he shouted, “Lin Rong, huh? I’ll remember that! Just you wait, you hear me?”

Just a minor flare-up—nobody thought much of it.

Soon, over a year passed. The young thug’s release day was coming.

That night, he was in high spirits. After more than a year inside, he could barely remember what fresh air was like. He hummed a tune while brushing his teeth, feeling as lively as a lark.

With a clatter, someone set a rinsing cup down next to him.

Turning his head, he found Lin Dafa standing nearby, smile still in place. “Uncle Lin, I’m out tomorrow. Make sure you keep up the good work—maybe you’ll get out sooner, too.”

Lin Dafa didn’t answer.

Seeing he wasn’t getting any reply, the thug shrugged and turned away after rinsing his mouth.

Suddenly, a hand landed on his shoulder.

He’d barely turned when his world went black, collapsing onto the spotless floor.

With the one eye he had left, he looked up at Lin Dafa. Then he closed it for good.

In less than twenty seconds, the kid was dead.

When they caught Lin Dafa, he was calmly brushing his teeth—proud owner of a dazzling, white smile. A man who liked keeping clean.

No one could guess why Lin Dafa killed him. They hadn’t fought lately; actually, they’d always exchanged a few polite words. But that day, Lin Dafa snapped—he didn’t hesitate at all. Suddenly, people remembered why Lin Dafa was here to begin with.

Only Lin Dafa knew why he killed again.

Lin Dafa said quietly, “He said he wanted to play with my daughter. I couldn’t protect her. I wasn’t like with that rich kid—I couldn’t let him live. The only way to be sure was to kill him.”

Someone asked if the young thug had really said those words.

“He did—but that was a year ago!” someone cried.

After that, nobody ever dared bring up Lin Rong again.

Turns out, some memories never fade.

This time, Lin Dafa would die inside. This time, there was no way he’d see his daughter again.

When someone’s whole heart is set on one goal, sometimes they find a resolve they didn’t know they had.

He thought about escaping, but the prison was locked down tight—digging a tunnel wasn’t even an option.

Just when Lin Dafa was at his wits’ end, he remembered something from two months ago—a prisoner with acute gastritis had been sent to an outside hospital.

Over half a month, Lin Dafa sharpened one end of his toothbrush to a dangerous point.

One evening, he used it to sever the tendons in his own left hand.

He howled in pain.

The doctor suggested transferring him to a bigger hospital for proper treatment, or there’d be permanent damage. That might sound funny—he was meant to be executed in just two weeks, so why worry about a lifelong handicap? But they had to follow protocol.

The hospital was a lot less secure.

No one expected Lin Dafa to tie bedsheets into a rope and escape from the seventh floor.

The next night, just after his second surgery, he made his move.

To be precise, he climbed down from the seventh floor to the sixth, then slipped out of the hospital.

By the time his guard woke up, Lin Dafa had vanished.

That night, light rain fell. He managed to tie up the makeshift rope using just one hand, and barely made a sound as he slipped out the window into the darkness. One wrong step and he’d have been a splatter on the pavement, but he got away without a scratch. And for the next three years, he disappeared like a ghost.

Lin Dafa—a man who rarely spoke, but never forgot a grudge.

A person’s greatest strength is also their biggest flaw—and their weakest point.

“Find Lin Rong.” I spoke quietly. “If Lin Dafa is caught, only Lin Rong can get him to talk. And it looks like he’ll be found within a day or two.”

Team Leader Shao nodded, his tone serious. “Understood, I’ll take care of it.”