Chapter 379: Answers To Justin’s Questions
Justin went to see James Harper at his home. Inside his study, James sat behind his desk while Justin sat in the chair opposite him.
James put the file on the table. "This is the information about you from when you were rescued by me. I believe there is no point in keeping things from you, as you have planned to go to them."
Justin went through the file—the information about the ten-year-old boy who survived drowning in the stormy seawater. The boy had physical injuries, signs of struggle caused by someone intentionally trying to kill him. There were signs of strangling with force on his neck, and knife cuts on his hands and legs.
One page finally had what he was looking for: the picture of the tattoo on his chest—a snake wrapped around a dagger. This was the sign of the most feared underworld family. They were known to be ruthless and feared by the entire underworld.
He heard James speak. "I didn’t know who you were when I found you. You had lost your memories as well. But then, that tattoo on your chest let me know where you came from. The doctor had said you had survived being killed, so it was not difficult to understand your life was in danger. As you had no memories, I decided to cover it all to protect you. The reason you were kept away from public eyes—you can guess now."
Justin clearly understood James’ intentions of protecting him, but he had questions.
"Not just anyone knows about this tattoo. It’s nowhere published or known to anyone other than underworld people, so how did you know about it?" Justin asked. "Weren’t you worried that if they found me, you and your family would be in danger? Is there any particular reason you decided to protect me?"
"There was someone I used to know in the past, when I was young. That person had the same tattoo on his chest," James began. "It was during my university days. I had a foreign classmate who was good with studies and was a quiet person. He always kept himself away from others and didn’t have any friends. If someone tried to approach him, he wouldn’t indulge them. Everyone found him strange but eventually ignored him. During the last semester, one night I happened to witness some people attacking him and some defending him. There were gunfires and fights. It was a scary scene, but I still dared to go to him and pulled him away from that chaos and made him run away with me."
"You can say that was the start of me knowing him. After that night, he seemed to have trusted me—or I shall say, considered me his friend. He told me about his family, and I even saw the same tattoo on his chest. He was there to complete his studies, and then he had to return to his family. Soon, the exam was over and he left, never to contact me even once. I couldn’t reach him either and simply remembered his last words: Don’t even look for me."
James sighed as he remembered those memories. "His name was Alexander Hunt, but I doubt it was his real name if he was trying to keep his existence so discreet from others. I don’t know if he is still alive..." James looked at Justin. "The more I look at your grown-up self, the more you remind me of him. You are from the same family, so there is a chance you are closely related to him."
Justin simply hummed, not pointing out exactly how he could be related to the man James knew.