Rain Crow and White Jack (2)

Rain Crow froze slightly.

He raised his eyes toward the raging sea of fire. A woman tied to a chair wailed at him in agony as flames scorched every inch of her skin.

She struggled, making the chair sway unsteadily. The flames blackened its white-painted frame.

She was unmistakably his wife, Xia Wenna.

Yet Rain Crow kept his distance from her, though his gaze wavered slightly. He was not foolish enough to believe that the person before him was truly his wife.

What shocked him was... this scene showed that someone named White Jack knew his true identity inside and out. Otherwise, why would he take on the appearance of his wife?

The blaze continued to rage, gradually spreading into every corner of the warehouse, climbing over old equipment and peeling pillars.

As Rain Crow pondered with a grave expression, Xia Wenna's face, immersed in the flames, suddenly warped.

It became the face of his daughter, Xia Zili.

"Dad, why haven't you come to save me yet? Are you really going to watch me burn to death?" Xia Zili wrinkled her nose and pleaded resentfully. Her face was charred black and red in places.

But just as she finished speaking, her tone suddenly changed. Her features shifted into Ke Mingqing's, and he spoke in a listless voice:

"You really are heartless, Dad... Are you just going to watch your wife, daughter, and son burn to death?"

He spoke slowly. Half his face had been burned into a grotesque mass of flesh and bone, while the other half remained intact.

The fire grew fiercer and fiercer. Rain Crow lowered his head and took a deep breath. The moment Ke Mingqing's face appeared amid the flames, he finally ceased to remain unmoved.

A flock of crows erupted from behind him with shrill cries, sweeping toward the inferno amid a curtain of rain. Before long, the crows had extinguished the fire in the warehouse.

Rain Crow stepped across the charred floor, walking toward the chair one step at a time.

Then he suddenly raised his hand, clutched Ke Mingqing by the throat, and lifted him high from the chair.

Rain Crow stared straight into Ke Mingqing's eyes, his gaze like a beast ready to devour its prey. He demanded, nearly word by word:

"Tell me... why do you know about them?"

"Who knows... All I know is that you would rather watch your own son get burned alive than come save me." As Ke Mingqing spoke, he raised his right hand, burned down to nothing but bone, and waved it at him.

He asked softly, "Can you still call yourself a father like this?"

"Tell me!" Rain Crow growled. "Why do you know about them?!"

A violent gleam flashed through the eyes beneath his helmet. His hoarse, low voice echoed through the warehouse, carrying uncontrollable fury as it flooded Ke Mingqing's ears like a tide.

Yet Ke Mingqing remained silent. He merely raised his eyes. One eyeball bulged from the charred half of his face as he stared fixedly at Rain Crow.

Rain Crow fell silent.

He lowered his face, narrowed his eyes slightly, and stared into Ke Mingqing's eyes.

The youth's expression was calm—calm to the point of being strange—and his eyes held mocking ridicule.

After a while, Rain Crow suddenly loosened his right hand and lowered Ke Mingqing from the air, letting him fall. Then, without warning, he threw a heavy punch.

"Pfft—!"

The wrist blade split Ke Mingqing's neck, carving a bloody gash across it. Rain Crow's fist slammed viciously into the intact half of Ke Mingqing's face.

The blow caved in his face, accompanied by the sound of shattering bone.

Ke Mingqing tilted his head and spat out blood blankly. After a long moment, he stiffly turned back. "My god... Brother Crow, do you usually beat your kids like this at home?"

Without changing expression, he quietly watched Rain Crow with that bulging, bloodshot eye.

"Although it feels great, my idol image of you is about to shatter. Could you please not be so vio—" Before he could finish, Rain Crow threw another powerful punch, sending his thin body flying more than ten meters away.

"Bang—!"

In an instant, Ke Mingqing's body embedded itself in the warehouse wall, kicking up a cloud of dust.

After a while, Ke Mingqing's body slowly peeled out of the crater and slid down the cracked wall.

At last, he slumped onto the ground, his head and arms hanging limply.

"Get up. We're not done..."

Rain Crow muttered hoarsely and grimly to himself as he walked toward Ke Mingqing step by step.

The warehouse was deathly silent, and his footsteps rang out clearly.

The crows in the sky beat their wings with rustling flutters, crying out restlessly.

When he drew near, the dying Ke Mingqing suddenly raised his head and said through coughs:

"Don't you have a rule against killing people? Why are you hitting so hard... Please, I almost became the first criminal to die by your hand just now. Though that would be fine too. That way, you'd remember me for the rest of your li—"

Before he could finish, Rain Crow hurled another heavy punch at his nauseating, mutilated face. This time, however, his fist struck empty air and smashed into the wall, leaving a crater.

Cracks spread outward from the center of the wall.

Rain Crow breathed heavily and slowly raised his head.

White Jack's body had already dissolved into wisps of smoke. Yet its low, teasing voice still echoed through the air:

"Very good, very good. I'll remember the choice you made this time, Mr. Rain Crow... Just because I'm a criminal, you not only refused to save me, but beat and kicked me as well...

"Do you remember when I told you that the person I kidnapped was one of your admirers?"

"But actually, the poor fool I chose was a damned drug dealer. That's right... There are absurd things like that in this world. A drug dealer actually admired a superhero, when he should have hated you to the bone."

White Jack let out a soft sigh.

"Of course, that is where your hypocrisy lies... But tell me, if I kidnap your son next time, will you still make the same choice? Can you still guarantee that you'll be so 'right' and 'selfless'?"

At that, Rain Crow's eyes narrowed slightly beneath his helmet.

White Jack paused for a moment, lowering its voice. "Oh, let me think. You have two sons—one studying at a university out of town, the other attending high school locally. So which one should I choose?"

It suddenly laughed. "Why not pick the younger child... After all, when I became him, your reaction was enormous. That isn't something you can fake."

"You should be glad. Your fury was what helped me pick my target, what let me know which member of your family you care about most.

"And now, a preview. This time, I didn't broadcast it live. You should thank me for not revealing your identity to the outside world... But next time, I will not only kidnap your son, I will also reveal our game to the entire world.

"I'll ruin your reputation and make the whole world remember your hypocritical face."

As those faint words faded, White Jack's voice vanished completely.

It's raining.

The vast sound of rain engulfed the world in an instant. Raindrops as large as beans slapped against the broken windows. Rain Crow remained alone in the abandoned warehouse, silent for a long time.

More than twenty years had passed since Ke Mingwei first put on the mask.

Since his debut, he had strictly kept his life as a hero separate from his family, never allowing the two to overlap. He had fought countless criminals and made countless enemies, but no one had ever known his true identity.

Much less implicated his family.

This was the first time in his life that he had encountered such a situation.

"White Jack..."

He lowered his head and softly murmured the name.

A moment later, Rain Crow's figure suddenly transformed into a screeching tide of crows and poured out of the warehouse, vanishing without a trace before long.