Pathetic in Broken Shards

"Did you start the fire?"

Huan Wei paused. He hadn't expected to be asked directly like this. Huan Chao was looking at him as if he already knew the answer. At that moment, the young man realized that he couldn't hide anything from his father. Why did this man see everything so clearly every time he looked at him? Why couldn't he make this man believe what he could make anyone else believe? "No, I didn't."

Huan Chao looked at him in disappointment. "You are still incapable of taking responsibility for what you have done. You go and do bad things but you can't take responsibility. I thought you finally had the courage to take on big things, but I see you are nothing more than a cowardly child."

Huan Wei's brows furrowed. "You don't know what I dare to do."

"But I know what you don't dare." Huan Chao approached him. He was a little taller than his son. They looked into each other's eyes. "Is this house what you trust? When you step out of here, you don't say anything brave."

"I don't have to show you my bravery. I know you're not interested in this anyway, so don't play caring father with me. We both know you're just afraid that if they kill me, you'll have to work yourself."

Huan Chao looked at him with expressionless eyes. "Look at you. You've convinced yourself that I need you to feel like you can be useful in this life. You are a child with problems inside, Wei. You're just making excuses to escape your own despair."

Huan Wei said nothing. "Aren't you ashamed of the wretch you see when you look in the mirror?" his father asked. The young man clenched his fists, but he made no move. He kept silent.

"Wei... You should be grateful to me. Your worthless life is still in your hands because of me."

"Then you shouldn't have saved it." Huan Wei put his hands on his chest and pushed him away. "If that's how you feel and you don't need me, then why did you save me? If you had told the truth, I would have gone to death row and you would have been saved."

Huan Chao approached him again. "You made a fool of me," he said as he grabbed the young man by the collar. "You almost made me believe I was senile, but you stole my drinks."

"Yes, I stole it. What are you going to do? Beat me up? What a big deal! Like that's something you've never done. Are you going to break my arm or my leg? That's not something you've never done either."

"No, no," Huan Chao did not hit him. Instead, he tugged his son into the bathroom. After throwing him in, he closed and locked the door. Huan Wei got up from the floor and tried to open the door but couldn't.

"Let me out of here, asshole, I hate you! I can't wait for the day you die!"

He was banging on the door and shouting at the same time, but the door wouldn't open. Huan Chao spoke calmly from the other side.

"Today, instead of beating you, I'm leaving you in the room with that useless loser in the mirror. Look at him and see how pathetic you are."

Then he left. Huan Wei kept banging on the door and shouting, but no one answered. "Open the door! You drunken piece of shit! You think you're human!? Are you so superior!? If anyone is lower than me, it's you!"

Huan Wei threw the first object he could get his hands on at the mirror, shattering it into shards. The broken shards spilled onto the floor. He repeatedly stepped on them with his foot, breaking them into smaller shards. "Open the damn door!" He kicked the door with his bleeding feet, but when he failed, he angrily knocked over the empty bathtub and started kicking it.

With each blow his left hand began to hurt more and more. In his anger he hadn't paid attention to it. The demon mark was changing. The horns were growing, taking up more and more space in the palm of his hand. He thought the pain in his hand was from his punches on the door.

Was his father better than him? They lived together in this house, beautiful on the outside, a shithole on the inside. Huan Chao was nothing less than him. On the contrary, he had more. Huan Wei couldn't do it because he didn't have the opportunity. His father had the opportunity but chose not to do it. Who was more pathetic? The one who tried to conquer his fate or the one who threw it away and didn't care about anything? Huan Wei pounded on the door so hard that his hands were covered in blood. Yet he continued to punch furiously. Lacking the strength to break down the door also made him angry. He shouted and attacked the door for almost an hour until he calmed down, but the door did not open, nor did Huan Chao answer him. All his efforts were in vain. The bathroom floor was covered in his blood.

He went to a corner and squatted on the floor. He sat down and leaned his back against the corner. The window in the bathroom wasn't big enough for him to fit through. That's why he was trapped here. His eyes shifted to the broken shards of mirror. He saw dozens of different reflections. Each one more desperate than the other. The truly pathetic situation caused his eyes to tear up for a moment, but he didn't cry. He wiped his tears with his bloody hand. He stayed where he was and said nothing.

What hurt him the most was that Huan Chao was right. Huan Wei was really pathetic. Perhaps he would have no more success in this life than today's court case. Already his death seemed imminent. Huan Kong would surely send people after him. Even if he didn't, Huan Quon would now want to destroy him. What was all this effort for? Just to get a stage in the first realm?

He raised his hand and punched himself hard in the stomach. He didn't care about the pain in his hand or his stomach. He punched himself over and over again. Just having an ordinary body would solve everything. He wouldn't have any of these problems, but he couldn't move forward because his damned soul had consumed everything. If he had his path, he would have killed Huan Chao. The hatred that was building up inside him was growing. He stood up again and went to the broken mirror shards. He picked up one of them. Perhaps a single cut to his own throat would end it all. He would never have to suffer this treatment again. He wouldn't have to live this cursed life.

But no... Why would he die? Maybe it wasn't easy going, but he wasn't going to throw away all his hard work. He had worked so hard to take that first step. He had made plans. He had risked his life. He had succeeded. He had even attempted things he had never attempted before. If he was going to die one day, it would not be because of Huan Chao. So he sat on the floor and took out one of the healing pills and swallowed it. Even though he knew meditation would not work, he sat cross-legged and waited. Huan Chao would let him out in the morning anyway. He just had to wait. Sometimes, though, he couldn't help opening his eyes and looking at the wretch in the broken mirror fragments.

--

Huan Wei didn't sleep until morning. Thanks to the pill, his hands and feet were healed. His wounds were closed as if they had never been opened. He still had the broken shard of mirror he had taken with the intention of stabbing himself with it. He opened his eyes as the sunlight fell on his face through the small window. The time was coming. He was approaching the time when his father would wake up. He took the mirror shard in his hand. When he stood up, he had made his decision.

He waited until the door opened. It was a very long wait. It was noon before Huan Chao woke up. The man had apparently had a good night's sleep, not caring about his son, whom he had locked in the bathroom. When the door opened, Huan Wei waited in silence. He was squeezing the shard of mirror in his hand.

"That's enough rest for you." The moment Huan Chao opened the door, Huan Wei attacked. He stabbed the mirror shard into the man's stomach. He didn't want to reach for his face and give him a chance to react. He had had enough of this man. He didn't want him in his life. Huan Chao did not react.

The mirror shard tore his clothes, but it didn't penetrate his skin and broke. Huan Chao only received a small scratch. He had a look of pity on his face. "Are you going to kill me with a shard of glass, Wei?"

Huan Wei attacked again, but again he got no further than a scratch. The mirror shard had cut his hand. He threw it to the ground and looked angrily at the man's face. Huan Chao had already entered the second stage of Body Tempering, the Stonebody stage. His flesh was harder. His stamina and strength were higher. The fact that he had chosen punching as his martial art had a lot to do with it. Naturally, a shard of glass in the hands of someone who had not yet chosen the path could do nothing to him. Even with a real weapon, his chances were not very good.

Huan Chao grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him towards the kitchen. Huan Wei staggered but did not fall to the floor. He quickly turned to his father. There was a clear will to kill in his eyes. "How ironic that a man who no longer cares about his past is saved by his past."

"If you want to see what I don't care about, look in the mirror you broke. Then you will see." Huan Chao ignored him and sat down at the table. He had lined up the liquor bottles again. "Now go and get the money. Unless you're still afraid to leave the house."

Huan Wei gritted his teeth. He had to keep what happened inside the house from showing to the people outside. Otherwise the low profile he had built up all this time would be erased. He had to put up with this man for a while longer. At least with his house, his enemies couldn't come at him too much. If he started staying outside, it wouldn't be long before he was dead. He had to be patient until he got stronger. He opened the door and left the house, closing it hard. Huan Chao was still drinking.