Chapter 4

When the boy’s father saw Ethan, he was clearly startled.

“Ethan, what are you doing here?”

What was he doing here?

Ethan had said it countless times before. There was no point in saying it again.

This kid jumped rope in the morning and at night. Sometimes he started at six forty in the morning. Other times, he started at ten at night.

If it had only been at night, Ethan could have put up with it.

But waking up after six in the morning to the sound of jump rope pounding against the floor was pure torture.

Kids these days had it hard. They had too much homework, and plenty of students went to bed late. Then they had to get up early for morning classes.

But none of that gave this family the right to disturb everyone else.

If the kid went downstairs to jump rope, he could jump until the end of time and no one would care.

There was a loud crash.

Ethan swung the iron hammer straight into the center of the TV screen.

The LCD screen crackled a few times, then collapsed into shattered pieces and a mess of electronic parts.

Before the man could react, Ethan’s hammer had already come down on the coffee table.

The tabletop was glass. Ethan used too much force, and with a sharp crash, the tempered glass shattered into a pile of fragments. The cups, fruit, and everything else on the table jumped from the impact before scattering across the floor in a chaotic mess.

“This is the first time,” Ethan said.

Then he was done.

He turned and left.

The boy burst into tears, badly frightened.

The couple stood there stunned too. It took them a long while to come back to their senses.

The woman wanted to call the police, but the man remembered the calm look on Ethan’s face, and a chill crept up from the bottom of his heart.

Calling the police would only make Ethan pay some money at most.

But if Ethan decided to retaliate, that iron hammer could smash tempered glass. If it landed on someone’s head, there was no way they would survive.

“Forget it,” the man said. “From now on, Dylan can jump rope downstairs.”

“Why should we listen to Ethan?” the woman snapped, furious. “I’m not afraid of him.”

She still insisted on calling the police, but the man stopped her with a look.

“Dylan, be good. Go take a bath and get to bed early.”

Ethan returned home feeling unbelievably good.

So satisfying.

So freeing.

People with nothing to lose were not afraid of those who had something.

And people who did not care whether they lived were not afraid of anyone at all.

Ethan did not sleep.

He looked at the location his wife had sent him four hours ago and sank into thought.

He had often wondered whether there had ever been love between him and Megan.

Maybe not.

Maybe they had simply married because their conditions were suitable.

The two of them sometimes fought over money and practical matters, but neither had ever suspected the other of cheating. Ethan had once thought that was because they trusted each other.

Now he finally understood.

It was because they did not care.

If you wanted to cheat, go ahead.

It did not matter.

Only people who did not care could trust someone that completely. Even if the other person did not come home until the middle of the night, it did not matter.

His wife often went out drinking with her girlfriends. Almost every time, she asked him to pick her up afterward.

Ethan had always thought it was because of her vanity.

Megan wanted to show her friends that she had a husband who loved her, spoiled her, and obeyed her.

After struggling with it for a while, Ethan finally decided that when they divided the marital assets, he would still leave her half.

No matter how many faults she had, they had been husband and wife.

He was already dying.

Why bother fighting over every little thing?

The apartment had been bought before the marriage.

So had the car.

Ethan no longer cared about money. He only wanted to leave this world in peace, with nothing tying him down.

His father worked as a security guard in a small town and was about to turn sixty. Once he reached that age, he would probably be forced to retire. His father had spent most of his life working odd jobs and had no retirement savings. Ethan wanted to leave him enough money to live comfortably.

Half the value of the apartment should be enough to support him in retirement.

He had six months left.

Tomorrow, he would hand in his resignation.

Then he would go home and spend more time with his father.

At first, Ethan had thought there would be too many things to handle and too many people he could not bear to leave behind.

But when he thought about it carefully, it was not that complicated.

He was not some important person.

There was not much to arrange after all.

At two in the morning, his phone rang right on time.

Megan’s slurred voice came through the speaker.

“Loser, come pick me up.”

Ethan was already used to it.

He took a cab to the bar, carried his drunk and dizzy wife out, found their car in the underground parking garage, stuffed her into the back seat, rolled down the window, and drove home.

Megan could hold her liquor well, and she was a good drunk.

She did not curse, talk nonsense, or throw up.

After the cold wind blew against her face for a while, she became much more awake and started chattering about all kinds of trivial things involving her girlfriends.

Ethan focused on driving and paid no attention to his wife’s rambling.

When they got home, they both collapsed into bed and slept peacefully on their own sides.

The next morning, Ethan woke up very early.

Megan did not need the car today, so he drove to work. He did not want to squeeze into the subway.

The company had a flexible schedule for the development department. There was no fixed clock-in or clock-out time. Everything was measured by project progress.

Ethan arrived especially early today.

After parking the car, he bought breakfast and sat down at his workstation. He had only taken a couple of bites when his phone rang.

It was an unfamiliar number.

Ethan answered.

An angry voice came through the phone.

“Move your car. You’re in my parking spot.”

The office building had thirty-eight floors and sat in the heart of downtown.

Ethan’s company rented three floors, and the property management company gave them eighty free parking slots. Ethan was one of the employees with parking access.

The property management had divided the lot into assigned spaces and shared spaces.

Assigned spaces were purchased by specific people and tied to license plate numbers.

Shared spaces could be used by anyone with parking access.

Ethan remembered parking in a shared space.

Assigned spaces were marked in yellow, while shared spaces were marked in green. They were easy to tell apart.

Ethan suspected the caller had the wrong person.

“You may have made a mistake. I parked in a shared space.”

“Is your plate number MB9527?”

“Yes. What about it?”

“Then there’s no mistake. That space is mine.”

“Wait there. I’ll come down now.”

Ethan was no longer completely sure.

“Hurry up. I have things to do!” the voice on the phone snapped impatiently.

Ethan took his breakfast with him, eating as he walked. He rode the elevator downstairs and went to his car.

A man who did not look very old but had a huge belly was standing beside a black Mercedes.

Beside him stood a security guard from the property management company. The two of them were talking. The man looked impatient, while the guard kept smiling apologetically.

“Excuse me. Were you the one who called me just now?”

Ethan finished the rest of his breakfast in two bites.

A faint ache stirred in his chest.

Maybe the cancer cells had woken up too and were starting to get active.

“Cut the crap. Move your car right now. This spot is mine. And you, security guy, listen carefully. Stop letting just anyone in here, or I’ll file a complaint against you.”

The fat man looked extremely irritated.

Ethan glanced at the painted lines around the parking spot.

They were green.

That meant it was a shared space. Anyone with parking access could use it.

“When did this become a private space?” Ethan asked the security guard.

The guard was very young, probably barely an adult. He was clearly afraid of getting complained about.

“Mr. Chancer, this is a shared space. Anyone can park here. But Mr. Logan usually parks here, and since you arrived earlier today, he was hoping you could move.”

Ethan realized this parking spot was actually quite nice.

There was a large sign overhead that happened to block the sun.

No wonder the fat man had been occupying it for so long.

“A shared space has always been first come, first served, hasn’t it?”

As Ethan spoke, he casually pressed the remote key in his pocket.

The dashcam inside his car turned on.

The security guard felt miserable too.

Everyone who parked here acted like a big shot, and he did not dare offend any of them.

“How about moving your car? There are plenty of empty spots over there,” the guard said, sensing that Ethan seemed easier to talk to.

“Not interested. I think this spot is pretty good.”

Ethan did not want to make things difficult for the guard, but he also had no intention of moving his car.

He did not like the look of this fat man.

The fat man’s temper flared.

“Are you trying to start something? Do you believe I’ll smash your car?”

Ethan smiled.

“Do it. If you don’t, you’re my grandson.”

The fat man opened the trunk of his car, took out a baseball bat, and swung it through the air twice.

The bat cut through the air with a heavy whoosh.

“Apologize right now. If you don’t, I’ll end you.”

“Then hurry up and do it!”

Ethan’s calmness made the man shake with anger.

“Do you have a death wish? Do you know who my father is?”

The fat man leaned his swollen face close to Ethan’s. A few pimples on his face looked as if they were about to fall off.

“Go ask your mother who your father is,” Ethan said. “Don’t blame me. I’m only twenty-seven. I don’t have a son as old as you.”

He took out a cigarette, lit it, and took a long, satisfied drag.