Deceitful Game

Chapter 267 This is my deepest fear

The sun wasn't very bright in the morning.

The gloomy sky hung low, and a storm was brewing.

Young Chen Bingwen stands at the courthouse entrance.

His soft, jet-black hair was round and thick, like a watermelon rind. The boy wore a blue shirt and looked quite serious. The steps in front of the courthouse were crowded with reporters and onlookers, and banners fluttered in the wind.

It was a banner made of a very thin, red cloth that was so translucent it let the light through.

"Heroes are innocent," "Justice never dies," "Severely punish cruel officials"...

The reporters' flashes went off rapidly.

Some people stood tall and looked directly at the camera, some waved banners angrily, and some talked incessantly to reporters about how they had cycled all the way from a town more than ten kilometers away...

Chen Bingwen only felt that they were making noise.

He felt as if everything before him had been separated by a barrier, and the sounds around him seemed distant. He felt as if he wasn't standing on the ground, but rather floating in the sky... His heart was filled with such tranquility.

Or rather, his mind was blank, and he couldn't imagine anything.

He looked down at his small hands.

He knew what was going to happen.

It's like when someone has a nightmare, they have a vague premonition.

But he was powerless to stop it.

boom!

The next moment, the door opened.

Chen Bingwen's father came out.

He wore an old-fashioned judge's robe, as black as a military uniform, and his eyes were sunken. A few gray hairs could already be seen on his head.

But his steps were steady, and his expression was calm... just as calm and composed as when he pronounced sentences in court.

The reporters swarmed forward like vultures smelling blood, their flashes going off like a storm.

"Judge Chen! Do you have anything to say about the verdict?"

Do you think you should be found guilty?

"The person who acted bravely is still in prison. Don't you feel guilty?"

The bailiffs tried to stop the reporters, but the reporters pushed forward frantically.

Chen Bingwen was swallowed up by the crowd, unable to move forward or leave.

He saw his father stop and face the cameras and microphones.

But Chen Bingwen saw... no sadness or anger on his father's face.

He merely frowned slightly, his expression complex.

The middle-aged man spoke, his voice hoarse yet firm: "The law is the law! I made my judgment based on facts and evidence; I did not violate my conscience."

"Conscience?"

A sharp voice from a middle-aged woman rang out from the crowd: "Is your conscience to put a hero in jail?"

Immediately afterward, before Chen Bingwen's father could defend himself, more and more noise arose.

The sounds were all mixed together and couldn't be heard at all.

There were men and women. There were young people and old people.

There's Mandarin, and there are dialects... all sorts of dialects.

People from all walks of life, with their simple anger, are carrying out simple justice.

"The law is the law!"

Without hesitation, he loudly declared, "The law is not a tool for venting anger! That's exactly what the law stipulates!"

His voice was quickly drowned out by the angry crowd.

At this moment, Chen Bingwen's revered father seemed to have become a powerless, evil, and soon-to-be-defeated villain.

In that instant, Chen Bingwen saw his father's gaze seem to sweep over him.

That was a gaze he could never forget in his entire life.

Even when attacked like this, there was no anger or resentment in his eyes... only weariness.

An indescribable weariness.

The next moment, the screen shattered.

Chen Bingwen found himself standing in his living room.

The father, wearing a brown sweater, sat on the sofa, writing something.

My father's handwriting was neat and strong, and every stroke was written with utmost care.

Chen Bingwen leaned closer and saw one of the passages:

…I have never regretted becoming a judge, Huihui. Even today, I still believe my judgments are fair. A simple sense of justice is commendable, but it must be within reasonable limits. Retaliation based on mutual retribution is not feasible; violence must be met with legal recourse.

"What I regret is that I was too naive. The law can't protect anyone, including me. The law can only punish evil... It's just a piece of paper, and a piece of paper that's outdated!"

"What can truly protect people is the human heart. But the human heart is fickle. This has been true since ancient Greece, and it remains true today. I think it will be true in the future as well." The man put down his pen, carefully folded the letter, and placed it in an envelope.

Then he stood up, walked over to Xiao Chen Bingwen, and patted his head.

"For your mom."

"dad……"

Chen Bingwen's voice was tinged with sobs.

He didn't know what his father was going to do, but he inexplicably wanted to cry.

The father sighed, his breath carrying a slight smell of smoke.

"If anyone asks you in the future how your father died," he said, "just tell him..."

"He was stoned to death."

"dad……

"That's it," his father interrupted him, his voice leaving no room for argument, just as it had in court, "Don't try to exonerate me, don't defend me. You just study hard, get into a good university, and become someone smarter than me."

"You'll understand what mistakes your father made later, and you'll also understand that your father did nothing wrong."

After saying that, he stood up, picked up his coat, and walked towards the door.

"dad!"

Chen Bingwen chased after him, stood at the door, and shouted in a sharp, piercing voice, "Where are you going!"

His father turned to look at him, a smile spreading across his unshaven face.

"Let's go for a walk," he said, "to clear our heads."

The door closed.

That was the last time I saw my father.

The voice of the young man, Chen Bingwen, rang out.

Mingpo turned around and saw the young man Chen Bingwen standing next to her.

"Is there anything else?"

Chen Bingwen spoke softly, "I still want to see."

"There should be more."

Mingpo replied.

The image shattered once again as he looked at Xiao Chen Bingwen.

This time, Chen Bingwen found himself standing in front of a pile of ruins.

The sky was a hazy yellow, and the air was filled with a pungent, acrid smell of burning. Thick black smoke rose in the distance, while nearby lay a collapsed GG sign and overturned cars.

Chen Bingwen has grown up.

He was no longer that elementary school student, but a young man wearing a hazmat suit.

He stood beside the ruins, praying silently.

This is the place where my father was once killed by being hit with bricks; it used to be a courthouse before the war.

"Who are you·……"

A voice came from behind him: "Judge Chen's child?"

Chen Bingwen turned around.

A man in his fifties stood in front of him.

He wasn't wearing company clothes or a military uniform. Instead, he was wearing faded work clothes and leaning on a cane. His right leg was broken, likely from an artillery shell. He had radiation-induced tumors that resembled scars.

"Who are you·…"

Chen Bingwen hesitated.

"You don't know me," the middle-aged man smiled, "but I know your father. Ten years ago, in his court, I was sentenced to five years." Chen Bingwen's eyes darkened slightly.

"I don't hate him."

The man seemed to sense his nervousness and waved his hand: "Back then, I was young and impetuous, and I thought he was a muddle-headed official who couldn't distinguish right from wrong. Later, after spending a few years in prison and reading some books, I finally understood what he meant by those words."

He took a small, folded piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Chen Bingwen.

"This is a sentence your father said in court years ago. I've carried it with me all these years... I've come here every year, and finally I've run into you." Chen Bingwen unfolded the piece of paper.

There is only one line of text above:

"The dignity of the law lies not in how many evil people it punishes, but in how many good people it protects."

"Your father was a good man," the man said. "Good people sometimes don't have good endings, but that doesn't mean being a good person is wrong." He looked at Chen Bingwen expectantly: "Are you... a good person now?"

Chen Bingwen remained silent.

"Yes..."

Chen Bingwen spoke softly to Mingpo, "This is my deepest fear."