Chapter 321 - 119 Father_4
Ah Shun stood at the doorway and, together with Butcher Zhang, lit a torch to peer inside. The prison was eerily dark; all the torches had been extinguished, and visibility was poor. Afraid that Jiang Li might not see the steps on the ground and stumble, Ah Shun was about to remind her to be careful when he saw that Jiang Li didn’t even take the torch and walked down on her own.
Ah Shun: "..."
As a child, Xue Huaiyuan forbade him and Xue Zhao from entering the prison. But every time, Xue Zhao would take him along sneakily; the jailer knew they were the children of Xue Huaiyuan, and understanding that kids are playful and wouldn’t do any harm, he’d turn a blind eye. Jiang Li was not unfamiliar with the prison. Among those imprisoned, there were indeed those who had committed heinous crimes out of sheer wickedness, while others were driven by desperate circumstances to break the law. But they had one thing in common: they were all branded with sin.
Every time Xue Huaiyuan came, he would be dressed in his official uniform that had been washed until it turned white. He had rescued Butcher Zhang who had been wrongly imprisoned and had also brought true criminals who had been evading the law to justice.
Jiang Li had never imagined she would one day see a shadow of her father among those wearing prison garb.
She was grateful that the torches inside the prison were extinguished, and the torches held by Butcher Zhang and Ah Shun were not bright enough for anyone to see the blur over her eyes. She took each step slowly; it looked as if she was being careful not to fall, but only Jiang Li knew that her hands were trembling ever so slightly.
She was afraid.
She feared seeing her father in such a state, the father who had been her and Xue Zhao’s sky from childhood, their towering tree, an upright figure – curled up, losing clarity and memory in the darkness.
Ah Shun’s torch illuminated the faces of the prisoners cell by cell, and cries of injustice suddenly rose one after another. It was unknown how many wrongful cases Feng Yutang had handled, but once a stranger appeared, the cries for justice in the prison would rise in unison. Yet many others merely lifted their eyes indifferently for a glance, as if they had lost all zest for the future – these were people tortured to the point of no longer believing in hope.