To Love You Again

The warden heard the request from the observation room, he nodded to the person who was holding the blindfold.

The execution team then withdrew.

In the execution chamber, it was only Ming Zhi Yi who was left alone.

Without the presence of others, the stillness in his surrounding made him hear his own heartbeat.

There was a sound of clock ticking. And the droplets of water from the sponge was clear in this silent room.

Ming Zhi Yi stared ahead, looking at his own reflection.

The man he saw in the mirror was old, with sunken cheeks and hazy eyes.

He looked so old, weak, and helpless. He could not even recognize his own figure.

However, he don't feel remorse.

In fact, there was something about this that made Ming Zhi Yi feel different than before.

Ah....

He just noticed.

The dead people around him was gone.

His mother who was stuck to his ears was nowhere. His father who dictate his views and beliefs was not on his side. Those hunted him in the past fourteen days was nowhere in sight.

It was the first time that he was alone without the presence of the ghost of the past.

At this moment, Ming Zhi Yi doesn't know what to feel.

Should he be happy? That those voices around him finally left him? Or be angry because they all left him, facing death alone?

He doesn't know...

And he doesn't care anymore.

As he thought of that, a hand clasped his shoulder, that action, that chill, was very familiar. When he looked in the mirror, he saw his mother's reflection. But her face was blurry.

Ming Zhi Yi smiled in mocking.

'Of course, you wouldn't left me, right, Mother?'

'Your words took root in my heart. I seek vengeance for you even at the cost of my beloved.'

Her mother done the same thing as usual. She spoke something to his ear, but her words were incoherent.

Then a man with no face appeared on his side.

Ah....

'Father, you too, won't leave me. I have followed your instructions very well and live with your words. I did not disappoint you, till the end, right?'

The dead people appeared one by one, but their figures were fuzzy.

The corner of Ming Zhi Yi's lips rose.

Of course, these dead people would hunt him down until the end.

He must have imagined it when they were gone for a moment.

Their voices around him were diverse yet not clear . He could not understand what they were saying. As he tried to listen to them, a sudden wave of electricity travelled all over his body!

"Agh!" It was so sudden that Ming Zhi Yi forgot his determination to not shout.

The warden in the observation room had turned the 500 volt switch on. It was enough to make a person's body paralyzed.

Ming Zhi Yi's body spasmed. But it was not enough to kill him.

The warden saw that 500 volts was not enough to put Ming Zhi Yi down, so he instructed.

"Turn on 1,000."

Another wave of electric volt attacked Ming Zhi Yi.

Ming Zhi Yi felt his world shook. The pain doubled. He gritted his teeth as he tried to hold down his painful grunts. He looked at the mirror with malicious eyes.

There were 1000 volts traveling from every cell of his body. It was so painful that Ming Zhi Yi's vision went blurry. But he gritted his teeth and stared ahead.

The voices around him which were vague and faint was starting to get clearer and clearer.

"...go to hell..."

"...uch a failure..."

"...Loser...."

"...Useless!"

"...Death!"

"Agh!"

Another switched was turned on.

2000 volts entered his body.

Ming Zhi Yi's eyes dilated. Tears were coming at the corner of his eyes. Foam started to form in his mouth. It was so painful that he could not react for a long time.

His brain was going to be fried.

The warden was stunned.

Usually, once 2000 power volts were turned on, most people only lasted for less then seconds. But Ming Zhi Yi managed to drag for a minute.

At this time, there was a sound of a chair being turned at the corner in the observation room. Lu Yin Ze stood up and ran away from the room without a word.

Tang Yin stood up as well with a pale face. But she hesitated following Lu Yin Ze. If she, a person who have no relationship with Ming Zhi Yi, could not watch this anymore, how much more Lu Yin Ze?

Tang Yin wants to get out of this room or else she would start having nightmares with Ming Zhi Yi's painful figure in the electric chair.

"I'll...excuse myself." She struggled to say a word before leaving.

These series of action made the people in the observation room give enough time to recover. Guan Gu Ri swallowed heavily while Tang Xinyang looked away.

Linfeng held Xiong Zhi's hand tightly. "We can go out if you want."

"It's alright. I am fine." Xiong Zhi said in a difficult voice.

No one wanted to watch a person suffering and take pleasure on it. Only people with a devil in their hearts could do so.

But they remained in the room. Watching it until the end.

****

Thousands of volts coursed through Ming Zhi Yi's body.

The pain wrecked him that he could only yell. He had burned people and electrocuted some of them. When they yelled in pain, he would laugh because of how ridiculous and funny they looked before they die.

Were those people in the other room was laughing at him as well?

Ming Zhi Yi suddenly laughed and cried inwardly while being electrocuted.

His life....was so ironic!

Perhaps only in front of death, that Ming Zhi Yi was honest with himself.

He hated the world!

He was deceived and twisted by it. So he become the devil they feared.

He deceived, tortured, and killed...And he doesn't feel remorse for it.

If there's one thing he regret, was killing and throwing away the only thing that truly mattered for him.

But, Alas! Regret was at the end.

The things he had done, he could not changed it.

At the face of death, in the midst of his pain, he only thought of her.

It was truly regretful...that he wasn't able to see her in the end.

He would really die like this....?

He suddenly remembered one passage from her diary. It was after Lu Fanrong's friend, Guan Yaoyao died.

[....Death is feared by all people. I don't understand why some seek of it when parting is painful than death itself. But there's no doubt that I will face death someday too. My sons, my husband and my father too. I only hope that when that time arrives for the people I loved, I am at their side. Although parting might be sad, they won't be alone....]

Ming Zhi Yi's tears fell down. His muddled mind was turning dark as only one thought remained amidst the overwhelming pain.

His wife....died alone.

How scary she must have been? How painful she must have felt? Perhaps the pain he was experiencing right now could not amount to any of her pain.

Ming Zhi Yi's tears continue to fell down as darkness started to descend. His mind must have been muddled by the wave of pain racking him everywhere as he cried not for himself.

'....I am so sorry...I left you to die alone....'

....

In the darkness that descends, countless hands reached out trying to take a piece of him. Their anger wanted to ripped him apart. They curses at him with muddled voices, condemning him to hell.

He drifted like that for what felt like eternity. His senses were gone, only pain remained. But no matter how much pain or how long he suffered, he was never numbed from it. He was cursed and punished to be tied with this overwhelming misery.

But despite this, what left of him muttered countless 'apologies' to a certain person.

'...Forgive me...'

To whom it was for, was something that blackened soul had forgotten.

But then, after infinite time pass, a voice appeared. It was different from others of those who hunted him.

The voice was soft...mellow...and not full of hatred.

"I hear you..."

Silver white thread expanded from the dark. A hand so gentle cupped his soulless face.

The blackened soul could not feel her, nor see her entirely, but he could hear her gentle voice.

He doesn't know where he was, or what this darkness meant. It doesn't cross his mind that he must have died. But the pain made it clear for him.

'Am I in hell?'

That gentle voice answered him.

'Not yet.'

The blackened soul thought the voice was so strange but at the same time was so familiar. It was as if he had yearned for this voice for a very long time.

'...I don't understand...'

"I'll make you understand..." The pair of gentle hand hugged his entire soul. "I'll make you understand pain, sorrow, loneliness, joy, happiness, and...love. Things that you aren't able to learn before."

The voice then disappeared along with the blackened soul.