Challenge: The Fool with the Surname Okayamine

Interlude Chapter 132: Ming's Past

pain...

Ouch...

Ming lay in the black mud, muttering to himself, trying to move his body and get up, but his body was beyond his control, lying on the ground as the black mud devoured his body and even his soul.

At this moment, his eyes were empty and lifeless, and he kept repeating, "It hurts...please...please don't hit me anymore..." His body was trembling, like a child being beaten.

...The deepest vulnerability in Ming's consciousness was revealed by the black mud.

"Damn it! Why would you talk about something like you with that bitch! And you, you bitch too!"

The man, his face contorted with rage from losing money, raised a stool high in his hand and slammed it down on Ming, who was standing protectively in front of his mother.

"Fuck your mother! Did I raise you just so you could take the beatings for this bitch?!"

At that time, Ming's body was covered in bruises and welts. His underdeveloped and thin body looked particularly helpless under the violence of men.

The man waved the stool around while cursing in the most vicious language.

Time seemed to stand still; no one knew exactly how much time had passed. Finally, the man stopped his furious beating.

Ming, on the other hand, was curled up, covered in wounds, like a flower ravaged by a storm.

He struggled to move his body, using his last bit of strength to snuggle tightly into his mother's arms. At this moment, Ming's consciousness had become extremely blurred, and the world before his eyes was sometimes clear and sometimes indistinct.

“This is my past life… I don’t know what my mother did wrong.”

When that man went out drinking every day and came home late at night, my mother never complained. She worked hard to earn money, but she was beaten for no reason. I didn't know why. At that time, I only knew that it was wrong... That one thing was enough.

Three years later, the new neighbors next door discovered the domestic violence by my father and reported it to the police. Only then were we freed from the harm of this "devil"...

But... the world's persecution of me did not end. My mother still had to go to work to earn money to support me, and as a result, she was often plagued by illness. But when I asked her about it, she would just turn around and smile warmly at me.

"Ahem... Xiaoming, focus on your studies and don't worry about your mother. I'm still perfectly healthy. But you, I found you the best junior high school in the province. Have you been studying hard? Have you made any friends?"

When faced with this kind of question from my mother, I usually choose to avoid it or change the subject...

Because of my dark skin, unattractive appearance, the fact that I don't have a father, and terrible academic performance, I was ostracized and discriminated against at school.

My classmates always pointed at me and mocked me mercilessly, saying:

"Look at that dark and ugly guy, he doesn't even have a father!" Not only that, they often make jokes about my shortcomings, which makes me feel extremely embarrassed and inferior.

What's worse, these people not only mocked me verbally, but also ostracized me through their actions. During class activities, no one wanted to be in a group with me.

During PE class when we formed groups, everyone avoided me like the plague. Even during breaks, I sat alone in a corner, ignored by everyone.

However, that wasn't the worst part. A few particularly awful classmates started bullying me.

They would deliberately throw my books on the ground and stomp on them; or when the teacher wasn't looking, they would secretly put glue on my chair, making me look ridiculous.

Sometimes on my way home from school, they would stop me, push me, and even hit me. Faced with this, I felt both scared and helpless…

The pain has long since numbed me; as long as I'm not slapped in the face so my mother will notice, I won't feel anything.

Sometimes, there are always some girls who inexplicably and deliberately gravitate towards me.

They blinked their big, bright eyes and said in a coquettish voice things like, "Oh, I like you so much," or "I think you're so charming," which gave me goosebumps.

However, I knew perfectly well what was going on! I knew that if I got even a little closer to these girls, the consequences would be unimaginable.

First of all, the school will definitely be in an uproar in a few days, with all sorts of new rumors about me spreading instantly.

Secondly, what's even more terrifying is yet to come! Because of the spread of these rumors, some students from other classes might take a dislike to me and then find various opportunities to verbally abuse me for no reason.

I'm terrified, I'm scared... Nobody needs me... Nobody will come near me...

I tried to change. When they called me an idiot, I would try my best to improve my grades and even get into the top 300 in the whole school. However, the only response I got was "pretentious".

I tried to change my slovenly appearance, but they still looked down on me.

I also confided in my mother about the injuries I had sustained in fights, and then she took me to my uncle's martial arts school, where he would occasionally treat us to a meal or two, so that I could learn some self-defense techniques.

In this way, I felt that I would no longer be bullied, and when I fought back after being beaten, they became afraid of me and dared not approach me.

Later, a classmate named Guo Yang approached me and offered to come to my house and be my friend. I chose to believe him.

However, his response was to post my home's location on his WeChat Moments. The classmates who bullied me then graffiti-cursed my house in front of my door, and my mother was also implicated.

When I was disheartened by everything in the world, the only thing that could comfort me was the old cell phone my uncle gave me; perhaps it was a deep-seated longing for a sliver of solace...

Or perhaps some inexplicable force compelled me to pick up this phone and begin to carefully explore its hidden secrets.

As time went by, I gradually became obsessed with one of the most wonderful areas—anime and manga culture.

The imaginative and creative visuals, the rich and colorful characters, and the gripping storylines all captivated me.

I long to be believed like the protagonists in anime, but the incredibly cruel reality tells me that prejudice in people's hearts is like a mountain, impossible to move no matter how hard I try...

"This is what I think: if I could find a friend who treats me with complete honesty, but that kind of thing probably only happens in anime stories. Someone as ugly as me could never be that kind of kind male protagonist..."

Dreams are fleeting and beautiful, but unfortunately, such dreams never happen to me; that's what Liu Ming always thought back then.

Gradually, he stopped paying attention to other people's opinions, shut himself off, and even forgot his past desires and thoughts about "dreams".

"The sunlight... is probably too bright for me..."

Just when I finally got into high school and thought I could finally escape the torment...

Fate, however, always seems to enjoy playing tricks on people. At this important turning point in my life, my incredibly strong mother, who had always silently supported me, ultimately succumbed to her illness and passed away.

That day, the sky seemed to be shrouded in gloom, and the whole world became dark and gloomy.

Ming stood up and stood there quietly, his thoughts surging like a tidal wave.

His gaze was empty and lost, as if he had lost all perception of the world. Just then, an invisible force quietly descended, the darkness and malice from the depths of his heart.

This malice, like viscous black mud, slowly gathered from all directions.

They first eroded Ming's feet little by little, then gradually spread upwards, covering his calves, thighs... until they completely engulfed him.

Ming felt suffocated and terrified as he was enveloped in the black mud, but strangely, he did not struggle or resist. Perhaps it was because at this moment, he had completely given up resisting, allowing this endless malice to devour him.

"I once heard someone say that kindness and compassion only arise after one has everything they already want, and that such thoughts are like pi, endless. A person's life begins with tragedy, but tragedy has no end..."

As the black mud tightened its hold, the image of the chestnut-haired girl who had unconditionally supported him flashed through his mind, and Ming smiled calmly.

"But I won't be falling now! I'll only stop when I see her again, the one who always treated me like a 'hero,' and she restores my faith! I'll only stop when I see her smile again..."

Perhaps... the spirits see Shido as their salvation, but in Megumi's heart, salvation will always be only Sawa, something he can never replace!