Chapter 85: Old Lin’s Sky Has Fallen
Chapter 85: Chapter 85: Old Lin’s Sky Has Fallen
He hung up the phone.
Liu Song returned to his office.
Just as he pushed open the door and walked in, he saw Lin Dazhi sitting in a chair.
Seeing Liu Song enter, he quickly asked, "Teacher Liu, is Lin Yi back yet?"
"Mr. Lin, please, have a seat."
At his words, Lin Dazhi nodded and sat back down.
His expression was grim, however, and his eyes held a trace of anger.
Liu Song glanced at him and said, "Mr. Lin, Lin Yi won’t be coming back for the time being."
"What? Not coming back? That little bastard!"
"Teacher Liu, did he skip school? Is he out messing around when he should be studying? When I get my hands on him, I’ll break his legs—"
Before Lin Dazhi could finish his seething threat,
Liu Song cut him off directly.
"Mr. Lin, I think you’ve misunderstood. Lin Yi is not skipping school."
"The Martial Arts exam is less than two months away. The school announced a while ago that students participating in the exam can choose to either attend classes or focus on their training!"
"Lin Yi is currently at the Martial Arts Hall preparing, so it’s normal for him not to be at school..."
Liu Song’s words left Lin Dazhi dumbfounded.
He stared at Liu Song in utter disbelief. "Teacher Liu, what did you just say? He’s... taking the Martial Arts exam?"
Regarding Lin Dazhi’s reaction,
Liu Song wasn’t surprised at all.
He knew a little about Lin Yi’s family situation.
He had no favorable impression of the father standing before him.
But as a teacher, he couldn’t let his personal feelings interfere.
He nodded and said earnestly, "That’s right, Mr. Lin. Regarding your son, Lin Yi... I’ve actually been wanting to have a serious talk with you for a long time."
"I just never had the chance. I called you several times, but you were always busy, unwilling to even spare a few minutes to talk."
"During his first and second years of high school, Lin Yi’s Martial Arts results were admittedly not ideal."
"You could even say his talent was mediocre, with nothing special about him."
"But many students are late bloomers, and Lin Yi is one of them."
"In the second semester of his third year, not long after school started, his talent finally began to emerge."
"Around that time, I remember calling you no fewer than five times, right?"
After Liu Song finished speaking,
Lin Dazhi furrowed his brow, trying to recall.
In the end, he couldn’t remember a thing and shook his head in embarrassment.
"Of course you can’t remember. You’ve never paid any attention to Lin Yi’s performance."
"Do you remember the time I came all the way to your workplace to find you, wanting to discuss Lin Yi? You refused me then, too..."
"I don’t know what would make a father treat his own son like this."
"All I want to tell you now is that Lin Yi is living up to his potential. He has a great future ahead of him in Martial Arts!"
When Liu Song was done,
Lin Dazhi was completely stunned.
With Liu Song’s prompting, the lost memories slowly started to return.
Liu Song really had called him several times, wanting to talk about Lin Yi.
But he had never given Liu Song a chance, hanging up on him directly.
And that other time, Liu Song had gone to his workplace to find him.
Lin Dazhi hadn’t even given him the time of day...
Back then, it was as if he were possessed, utterly convinced that Lin Yi’s future was already set in stone.
Spending money on him would be a waste.
And so, he had pinned all his hopes on Lin Yu.
If only he had stopped back then, to seriously listen to what Liu Song had to say.
Perhaps things wouldn’t have ended up like this.
"Teacher Liu, is... is what you’re saying really true?"
Lin Dazhi looked at Liu Song, his face a mask of shock and disbelief.
Liu Song nodded with a smile. "Mr. Lin, if you don’t mind me saying something blunt, have you had a single proper conversation with Lin Yi since you remarried?"
"Or rather, have you ever asked him what path he wants to take in the future?"
Lin Dazhi fell silent.
Those questions were like daggers, stabbing viciously into his heart.
It seemed... ever since he married Liu Hongmei,
his concern for Lin Yi had gradually faded.
When he learned that Lin Yi’s Martial Arts talent wasn’t that outstanding in his first and second years,
he had slowly started to give up on him...
Liu Song gave Lin Dazhi a deep look, then picked up the teaching materials from his desk.
"Mr. Lin, I have a class to teach, so I can’t stay with you any longer."
With that, Liu Song left the office.
At that moment, Lin Dazhi
left the school as if he’d lost his soul.
...
「Night had fallen.」
The entire city had fallen into a deep slumber.
Aside from the dim glow of the streetlights,
it was difficult to spot even a single car.
There were hardly any pedestrians on the streets, only a few homeless people curled up sleeping in corners.
Tonight, not even the Scavengers could be seen.
A homeless man hiding in a corner was jolted awake by a full bladder.
He groggily opened his eyes and stood up from the ground.
Swaying, he got ready to relieve himself.
Just as he found his spot, got into position, and was about to pull out his ’gun,’
a figure suddenly ran out from the alley, panting heavily.
Seeing the dark figure, the homeless man’s heart trembled.
Even though people like him had long since stopped caring about life or death,
death being a form of release for them,
when death was actually staring them in the face, a primal fear would still rise from the depths of their hearts.
In the dim light, he could vaguely make out that it was a Dog Demon that had not yet fully transformed...
Just when he thought the Dog Demon was coming for him,
WHOOSH—
it zipped past the homeless man in a flash.
It was as if it hadn’t seen him at all.
After a moment, the homeless man patted his chest. ’Did I really just escape death?’
Just as he was about to get back to business,
he realized his bladder... had already been emptied.
"Damn it!"
He looked down at his wet pants and couldn’t help but curse.
He then walked out of the alley, wanting to see where that Dog Demon had run off to.
But instead...
The Dog Demon had been stopped by a person wearing a clown mask.
The person wore a black trench coat.
They held a long blade in their hand, and though their face was hidden,
the homeless man could feel their gaze, full of contempt and disdain for the Dog Demon.
Facing the clown, the Dog Demon trembled uncontrollably.
It stumbled backward, step after faltering step.
This scene sent a growing shock through the homeless man’s heart.
He had been wandering the streets for some years now and had seen too many instances of demonic beasts hunting humans.
Over a dozen people he had wandered with had become late-night snacks for those beasts.
A few others had been brutally murdered by vicious criminals.
But today, a demonic beast was being forced back again and again by a human.
Its trembling body showed just how terrified it was.
This made the homeless man all the more curious.
’Just who is that person in the clown mask?’