It was why years later, in the distant future when Jun had co up to his father confessing his past life, death and rebirth, that Jinhai had believed him. Not only because he was his son and knew very well Jun wouldn't ever joke around about a subject of this magnitude.
But sowhere deep in Jinhai's heart, he knew so inexplicable phenonon existing in the world that was beyond a human's understanding. So occurrences impossible to explain. So experiences impossible to demystify - one of which he was stepping into this very mont.
He didn't know where he stood. It was dark and eerie all around him. It was bright sunshine outside - until he caught his father from stumbling and gripped his arm. He caught his eyes flickering with an emotion he knew was rooted deep in his father's heart all along.
Fatigue.
Liu Hai was tired. Jinhai knew that. Over the years, he had watched his pain spiral over right before him countless tis. The past and the present blurring for Hai. The past chaining him from living a happy life. The blood on his hands that always made him feel so nauseous.
Blood of that man who stood before Jinhai at this very mont - or at least it was a silhouette he thought. A black, shadowy silhouette that seed to command this treacherous abyss.
Jinhai walked over, nothing clicking, nothing chiming in that space. Empty, void and soundless, it was as if silence was enough of a weapon to kill a man there.
"You are …" the silhouette said, his white teeth showing through as his lips curved.
Jinhai lowered his gaze - at his father's feet chained in shackles.
"You are . My poor brother could never forget about . So he created another Jinhai. Another na to imprison him."
Jinhai stared back at that shadow. "Liu Hai isn't imprisoned anywhere."
"He is…Don't you see him?" He laughed heartily. "He thought he would move on once I leave, but death is not freedom."
"Indeed. Death is not freedom - for you though."
The curve of that shadow's lips dimd.
Jinhai chuckled, and as he stood a re inches away from that ghost of the past, he leaned over. Amusent glittered in his black eyes and an almost manic smile lifted his lips.
"Look down."
The shadow tilted his head and looked down.
"Where do you see yourself free, Uncle?"
The silhouette found his ankles wrapped with dark and heavy manacles. They gripped around his skin so tightly as if its teeth sunk into it, and the only color that colored in this otherwise colorless abyss was that of red. Blood red.
"It was you who was bound all along. You cannot escape from here because this is where you belong. Alone, vulnerable, afraid, hungry…"
Jinhai's voice then took the deep icy plunge, "like how you had left my Dad a long ti ago."
The silhouette didn't smile anymore, but Jinhai did. The ring of a sinister chuckle that rang low enough to uproot all the fibers of one's being.
"You should count yourself lucky that you are here. You were given an easy death to be honest. Instantaneous even. Do you know what I do to my enemies? You really don't wanna know, Uncle."
Jinhai's head tilted to the side. "This is what your afterlife looks like - if you may even call it a life. So my dear, dear Uncle…" he raised his hand, his fingertips grazing past the cold shadow's face, "It's ti to bid farewell. My father has stayed here with you for long enough now."
"No…" he whispered. "Hai is my brother."
"Liu Hai is my father. My mother's husband. His place is where there is sunshine and laughter."
The smile then vanished from Jinhai's lips, a frigid chill blanketing his eyes.
"My father is free now. So very disrespectfully - Fuck off."
Jinhai walked to where Hai was - tired, fatigued and barely able to hold himself. The shackles around him had loosened their grip over him. Jinhai bent and simply yanked it hard enough to shatter them with a single pull. The fracture sent deafening reverberations across the empty, soundless abyss. So sharp and piercing that the silhouette's hands reached to shut his ears off, an excruciating agony tearing him apart from within.
"Hai…Hai cannot leave !!! He is my brother! He is my dearest brother! He is bound to stay here for the rest of his life! He loves …That's why he nad you after ! You are !!!"
Jinhai turned to look one last ti. "I am not you."
He then smiled. "I am better than you. There is only one Liu Jinhai in this world and that is ."
He grabbed Hai's arm and began to walk away. The distance between Hai and the silhouette kept widening and widening. The cries and roars of that silhouette continued to drown into whispers first and then complete silence - until all that Hai felt was the brightest ray of light until now suddenly blinding him to no return.
As his blurred world ca back to focus, he saw Jinhai kneeling before him. His son, Liu Jinhai. His salvation, Liu Jinhai.
The na…that finally didn't look red to him.
"Jin…hai…"
"Yes, Dad."
Hai looked down. There were no shackles, no restraints bound to his feet anymore. His ankles didn't hurt anymore.
He looked back up, trembling and shivering. Despite his own vow to never shed even a single tear before his family - for the first ti in his life, Liu Hai broke down. The dam of his withheld anguish ruptured with such a boisterous roar that every last emotion he had kept buried deep into the trenches of his heart ca rushing out wide in the open.
His teary face buried into his palms when he felt a soft embrace envelop him from behind.
"You didn't fail, Hai."
Hai raised his head to where Chunhua watched him with tears shimring in her own eyes.
"I am proud of you, Hai," she whispered amidst her own quivering voice. "My husband is a strong man."
"Chunhua…I made you wait for too long…"
"No, idiot. I am just happy that you are here with us," she trembled, unable to stop her tears from gushing forth.
"Yup Dad is here with us and Dad is super strong!!!" Ca Jing's zesty voice all charged up.
He jumped to hug Hai but a seventeen year old's tackle almost knocked the air out of his chest. It didn't matter to Jing since the grin never left his lips.
"Wooo, Dad is crying finally. We should celebrate!"
"Yeah, we should," Jinhai said, staring at Hai. "We should celebrate."
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