Chapter 2

Chapter 2

That evening, the neighbors across the hall started a new round of drama.

This time, they tried something different: they propped their door wide open and dragged the child into the hallway to beat him.

“You want to be a beggar? You want to go around begging for food? I’ll beat the life out of you, you worthless brat!”

The child’s wailing was deafening.

I felt a jolt of surprise-mostly because I was wondering if they’d found out about the two buns I gave him this morning.

But as I listened, I realized the couple was actually directing their insults at the young woman living on the floor above me.

She was the one who owned the Western restaurant. I’d run into her earlier today; she seemed like quite a sweet, bubbly person.

The man’s language was incredibly foul.

“If you’re so old and desperate for a kid, why don’t you pop one out yourself? What’s the point of feeding someone else’s child every damn day?”

“Bringing back different men every other day… who knows what kind of diseases you have?!”

He continued to strike the child as he spoke. “I told you not to eat things from strangers! If you catch something, I’m throwing you out to the dogs!”

The boy sobbed, “I won’t do it again, I won’t!”

I yanked my door open and saw the husband and wife working in tandem again.

The man was doing the hitting, while the woman was filming the whole thing on her phone.

They looked a bit surprised when I opened the door, but they didn’t seem to take me seriously.

They went right back to slapping the child. “I told you to have some backbone…”

“I’m livestreaming right now,” I said. “Are you guys trying to go viral or something?”

The man froze.

“My mic is picking up this whole performance of yours. My fans are asking if my place is haunted. What’s the matter? You want to come inside and keep going? Why don’t you say hello to my viewers?”

The man started swearing at me. “Shut that damn stream off!”

As he spoke, he actually tried to charge into my apartment.

I took a defensive step back.

To my surprise, the little boy rushed forward and grabbed his father’s leg.

“Daddy, I’m sorry! I won’t pick through the trash for food anymore! Please, please stop fighting with people!”

The woman caught sight of my door lock and realized it had a built-in camera. She started pulling on her husband’s arm.

“Forget it, let’s just go.”

The man was still fuming. He turned around and slapped his son first.

“This is all your fault, you useless brat! Scavenging for trash every day! You’ve completely humiliated me!”

Then he turned and slapped his wife before leading the two of them back inside, cursing all the way.

I couldn’t help but think that the kid had just saved his parents.

If that man had dared to step foot in my home in the middle of the night, I would have beaten him half to death, and I wouldn’t have even been held liable.