After midnight

Chapter 186 Zhang Yang's Memories

Zhang Yang curled up with his head in his hands, and his fists like hammers kept hitting him. He closed his eyes and clenched his teeth, ignoring his cowardly mother's crazy crying.

After the usual beating and kicking, his father kicked open the door and went inside to sleep. Hearing the familiar snoring, Zhang Yang got up from the cold floor. He opened the door and pretended to walk out.

"Where are you going?" his mother asked, kneeling on the ground.

Zhang Yang was very reluctant to look at me, he walked out of the house without looking back.

"Look, the psychopath is here again."

There was always a group of naughty boys playing in the dark park at night. When they saw Zhang Yang coming, they walked away a few steps.

Zhang Yang sat on the platform of the flower bed, rubbing the bruises on his body bit by bit. These boys were all children living nearby. When he was young, they always bullied him. But now that he has grown up, no one can bully him. So when they saw him coming, they vacated this excellent position as if they were avoiding the plague.

After rubbing his body, Zhang Yang squinted his eyes and watched them playing football not far away.

"Who is that person?" Zhang Yang saw someone looking at him stealthily. He didn't recognize him from the look on his face. So this person must be the little guy who came to play around here for the first time. Because everyone living around here has heard of his name.

"He's a psychopath. I heard from the adults that he's sick. Don't worry about him. Let's have fun."

"Oh, that's the same guy as mine. The adults also said that guy is sick. His name is Ange, and he lives in the East District. Have you heard of him?"

"No, let's play football." Soon, they ran away.

Zhang Yang looked at it for a while and felt bored, so he started to wander around. When he had wandered enough at midnight, he went home. He knocked on the door once and it opened. It was as if his mother had been guarding the door since he left.

"Where have you been? You can't leave me again. Xiaoyang, you can't do this to me." Every time he returned home, his mother repeated similar words over and over again.

"I didn't go anywhere." Zhang Yang said when he saw the same bruises on the corners of his mother's eyes and mouth.

"That's good. Xiaoyang, I made noodles, come and have some."

The noodles were placed on the coffee table in the living room, a little clumpy. Zhang Yang picked up a few and ate them.

Perhaps because she saw that Zhang Yang was willing to eat, his mother said, "Xiao Yang, your father didn't mean it."

Zhang Yang knocked his chopsticks on the coffee table with a clatter. "You've said this every time, for ten years, since I can remember!"

"Xiaoyang, you don't understand, you are still young." His mother looked at him with tears in her eyes.

"I'm thirteen years old now. I know what I should and shouldn't know. He feels that you betrayed him because you two incompetent people gave birth to someone like me who can control lightning." Seeing his mother like this, Zhang Yang became even angrier. "He can't kill me, so he drinks and beats people up all day long. He not only beats me but also you. Mom, I'm telling you, it's not that I can't kill him."

"That's enough! How did you know that?"

"How did you know that? Ever since I was a kid, those people out there, those bastards have been telling me, right?"

"Xiaoyang, don't listen to what others say. You are mom and dad's biological child. Really, mom has always been proud of you."

"Pride? Am I mentally ill? Am I not insane and hysterical? Okay, then do you believe that I am the 'Guardian'? Am I the one chosen by God, destined to bear glory and pride?"

"Xiaoyang, stop imagining this..."

Still no one believed him. Zhang Yang stood up and blocked the light above his head. He looked down at his mother. "If that man is not my biological father, I will definitely kill him. He tortured you for so long, why didn't you kill him? If you can't leave him, you will stink in the mud ditch for the rest of your life, but I'm different. One day I will leave you, far away."

After venting his anger, Zhang Yang hid in his hut. He thought that it was late at night and he would fall asleep quickly, but all he could think about was the name Ange. It was a name that he had only heard once and was judged to be of the same kind as him.

Is he crazy? Maybe. Sometimes, even he himself couldn't tell whether he had delusions or not. After all, the 'Son of God' existed before he was born and has always existed. And now, he couldn't sleep because of a stranger's name. He actually expected that he was the same kind as him, the same kind... Zhang Yang sneered and turned over to stare at the wall.

Zhang Yang started to wander towards the East District. After several days, he never ran into the so-called An Ge. Maybe this name was just made up by the boy to fit in with the group. After having this thought, Zhang Yang felt that he was really stupid.

Zhang Yang ran away quickly.

"An Ge."

Two meters after walking past an intersection, this name came from behind Zhang Yang, and Zhang Yang turned around suddenly.

A boy, about the same age as him. But unlike his skinny body, he was tall and straight, and one could tell from his profile that he was a handsome man. Ange left, and Zhang Yang chased after him. When Zhang Yang regained consciousness and noticed the tall Chinese toon tree planted beside him, he had already been following Ange for a while.

He stopped, not knowing what he was doing.

But he didn't expect that when he stopped, Ange also stopped and turned to face him. Ange smiled kindly at him. "Hello, my name is Ange. I have never seen you before. What's your name? Why are you following me?"

Zhang Yang looked at him, turned around and ran away without saying a word.

After Zhang Yang fled in disgrace, he still couldn't help but secretly look at Ange. Sometimes Ange couldn't find him because he would look at her from a distance, but most of the time, he would stand on a street corner, waiting to run into Ange. When Ange saw him, she would always smile at him, as if to say, hey, do you remember? We've met before.

Time passed quickly. Zhang Yang met Ange many times in the summer when he was thirteen years old, but he never said a word to Ange. Until one day, he appeared under the Chinese toon tree on the corner of the street again. He saw Ange walking towards him, and then he walked past her with a cold face and without looking away.

"...Ange?" Zhang Yang called out, seemingly unable to believe it.

Ange immediately stopped and turned around hesitantly. He looked at Zhang Yang with a vague look, as if he was trying to confirm whether the person who called him just now was him or someone else.

The familiar look disappeared, and Zhang Yang stood there in a daze. He stared blankly at Ange as she turned and walked away, leaving him with a back figure that he could never reach.

That day, Zhang Yang returned home at around eight o'clock in the evening. He stood at the door of his house but did not take out the key to open the door because he heard the heart-wrenching cries and scolding inside.

It happened again, and again. Zhang Yang's heart was completely exhausted.

If his father was just venting his anger and felt guilty, now he was like a demon, in a nightmare. As long as he was not satisfied, he would beat his wife and son more and more frequently and more and more fiercely. Zhang Yang understood that his father was no longer obsessed with the past facts or the truth that had always existed. He was just addicted to domestic violence.

Ah! A shrill scream sounded, and Zhang Yang quickly opened the door.

His mother knocked her head against the wall, turning the white wall red.

Zhang Yang rushed forward without thinking.

He pulled his father over and pushed him to the ground. He imitated his father and beat him hard on the face, arms, stomach and thighs. He thought that his father's genes were indeed flowing in his blood.

"I'm your father, how dare you hit me?" His father got angry and bit back at him.

Zhang Yang fought even harder, like a madman who had lost all his reason, and his uncontrollable anger pushed him into the abyss. When sweat dripped from his forehead and he stood up panting, his father, with blood flowing from the corner of his mouth, lay on the ground and groaned.

"You son of a bitch." His father couldn't even lift a finger, yet he still had time to scold him.

"And you, bitch." His father spat, spitting blood-stained saliva onto the yellowish white floor.

"Xiaoyang..." His mother looked at him with tears in her eyes.

Zhang Yang didn't look at him or her, he just waved his hands and walked out the door again. When the door of his house was closed with a bang, his father's insults still came from behind the door. Let them go, Zhang Yang walked out without looking back. His world had already collapsed.

Zhang Yang really wanted to escape this time, he walked and walked, tirelessly. He walked towards the west gate of Jiudu, from there, he could walk to any place in the world.

It was late at night, and there was no one on the street. The sky was pitch black, without a moon or a star. He thought he had really made up his mind this time, but when he saw Simon from afar, he turned back. He ran home so quickly, and then saw a scene that he would never forget in his life.

His father was lying on his back with a fruit knife stuck in his chest. Scarlet blood flowed from his chest and formed a sticky paste on the floor. His mother was kneeling beside him with a dazed look on her face, and blood stained her skirt. She seemed to have been hysterical, and when she saw the door open, she looked at Zhang Yang calmly with cold eyes.

"Mom." Zhang Yang was frightened and called her while shaking.

His mother seemed to have finally recognized her own son. She shouted happily: "Xiaoyang, look, I killed him."

"Mom, don't scare me." Zhang Yang knelt beside her, tears falling. He was so scared that he didn't dare to look at the person lying on the ground.

"Silly child, why are you crying? You are liberated. You are free. Xiaoyang, why don't you take my last name Zhang from now on? You are my sun. Let's open our arms and embrace the sun together."

"Okay, okay. My last name is Zhang. My last name is Zhang."

His mother nodded, then pushed him away, pulled out the fruit knife and buried it in her body.

With a puff, blood gushed out. Zhang Yang was stunned, sobbing violently, and he almost fell over. Zhang Yang cried loudly, and kept crying, from the dark night to dawn. Finally, he was exhausted, holding the wall and walked away step by step. He did not look back, did not dare to look back, and would not look back again. His sky collapsed, the earth sank, everything collapsed and cracked, and it was irreversible.

A few days later, a man found him at the garbage dump. "My name is Song Hongtian. I've been looking for you. Would you like to come with me?"