Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu-Chapter 1175: Underground (2)

The air inside the basement was thick with smoke, sweat and the loud cheers of men and women who were pouring every bit of their money into a gamble. Shui had followed him because she knew Cai and Ru Yi’s broken relationship bothered him. So she has followed him on a whim, still unsure of what she wanted to do.

And now she watched as Lin stepped into the ring surrounded by concrete walls and a crowd that smelled of cheap beer and danger. She had never seen him like this - no crisply ironed shirt, no calm poise he usually held and no smile that hid what he was thinking.

His black t-shirt clung to his body and his knuckles were wrapped tight with white tape, the veins in his forearms bulging visibly.

The announcer called his name in a muffled shout, "Hou Lin in the ring!"

Shui sensed recognition in some people’s eyes as if Lin wasn’t a complete stranger to this setting and neither was it his first time coming here. Judging by their expressions, Lin’s mention carried a different kind of weight that hung in the air.

His opponent was bigger, all muscles and carrying a predator’s grin.

"Didn’t think you would crawl back here, Lin," the man taunted as they met in the center.

Lin didn’t reply.

"You are not gonna make a fool of me this time," he sneered.

Then the bell rang and the man lunged first, fast and wild. Shui’s eyes widened as Lin’s body shifted quite effortlessly. He barely moved, letting the punches slice the air where he had just been standing.

The crowd roared when Lin’s first counter landed, a sharp jab that cracked against his opponent’s ribs. Shui flinched, realizing that Lin’s hits weren’t just strong but they were controlled in a quite eerie sense. Every movement measured, like his personality.

The man stood back on his feet and swung another fist, heavier this time. Lin caught it mid-motion, twisted his body, and drove his fist into the man’s gut with enough force to send him stumbling back into the ropes.

"Aaahhhhh!!!"

Shui saw the betting grow even more furious that favored Lin’s victory. She looked back at him standing in the centre of the ring.

This was not the quiet Lin who made coffee and sandwiches in the café, who flicked Cai’s forehead whenever he messed up an order and whose only dream was to see his customers happy.

A cold sense of violence had seeped into him. She could see him shaking but not because the landing hits excited him but it was as if he wasn’t fighting his opponent but himself. His punches were screaming of the pain that his voice couldn’t.

The guilt. The judgment. The endless shadow of being "the ex-convict."

The shadow which had now gripped his brother and his future in its clutches.

His opponent spat blood, then charged again with a wild yell. Lin took two hits, one to the shoulder, one grazing his jaw, but he didn’t falter. His expression didn’t move a muscle as if he wasn’t even feeling the pain. Then his fists struck the man with a left hook and a last blow that dropped the man flat to the mat.

The crowd exploded into cheers and whistles. Money changed hands.

Lin didn’t celebrate. He just stood there, chest heaving and his gaze staring at the man with his fists trembling slightly. When the referee raised his arm, he didn’t even look up.

"And that’s our winner!"

The crowd erupted into another frenzy of excited roars. There were two more opponents that Lin fought with. Though he won both matches, the amount of injuries on his body had increased by the third match. One vicious strike had hit him on the temple but despite that, he had maintained his balance and returned to victory.

Taking off his gloves, he turned away and stepped out of the ring. He walked his way toward the back exit and into a temporary changing room. He was there, wiping his face with a towel, blood on his lip. His expression hung somewhere between exhaustion and emptiness.

"You should clean your injuries first."

He froze. The towel dropped from his hand and he looked up. At first, he blinked once, then twice. He wondered if the bruise to his temple was making him hallucinate people that shouldn’t be there.

"Miss. Han?"

Shui had moved from her seat before she realized it, slipping through the crowd until she followed him through the narrow corridor leading to the back exit. She contemplated for a moment and looked around. In one of the drawers, she found a first-aid box and sat beside him on the bench.

"You are not okay at all."

He looked at her, startled, eyes widening for just a moment. "You followed me."

"You disappeared after what happened today. I am sorry. I know you wanted to be left alone, but I just..."

Your expression looked strange back there...

Lin paused, trying to read her unsaid sentence. "You thought I would hurt myself?"

Shui broke a small piece of cotton and looked at him. "Did you not hurt yourself?"

Lin couldn’t exactly respond to that so he said instead, "You shouldn’t have been here. This is not a place..."

"This is not a place for who? For people like Cai and me?"

"This is not about Cai."

"Of course it is. You were bothered about it that day when you first met Ru Yi and you are bothered about it now. But you cannot do anything about it, so you come here to punch out your helplessness."

Lin stared at the floor, unable to meet her eyes. A light smile then formed on his lips. "I apologize for showing a very distasteful side."

"Distasteful? Actually, I quite enjoyed watching your matches."

Stirred, he looked up, surprised.

"I don’t know how to explain it. You are always so calm and undeterred. You being here feels so opposite to your personality, yet you exchanged deadly punches anyway. It was nice to see you fight. You fight really well."