Chapter 53: The Deadpool That Can Be Trained

Mu Xin's voice was not loud, but every word was clear.

The homeless man turned around slowly. He glanced at the gun in Jessica's hand, then looked at Mu Xin, and the silence lasted for a long time.

"You..." The corners of his mouth twitched slightly. "Are unreasonable."

"I am reasonable." Mu Xin's mouth curved upward slightly, pulling into a faint smile. "I just don't follow your logic."

"Fine." The homeless man pulled his hands out of his pockets, empty, and spread them at his sides. "I'll talk with you."

Mu Xin smiled, extended a hand, and made a gesture of invitation. The homeless man walked toward him, his steps slower than before.

Mu Xin opened the car door and gestured for the homeless man to sit in the back.

The homeless man hesitated for a moment, then bent down and climbed inside, pressing his body against the other door to avoid letting the odor on him stain the seat as much as possible.

Jessica sat in the driver's seat and started the car.

The car drove out of the parking lot and turned onto a quiet side road.

Mu Xin didn't say where to go, and Jessica didn't ask; she just drove aimlessly.

"My name is Mu Xin." Mu Xin broke the silence.

"I didn't ask."

"I know, but I want to tell you." Mu Xin leaned back against the seat and turned his face to look at the homeless man. "What is your name?"

The homeless man looked out the window, silent for a long time.

The trees along the road swept past one by one, and the setting sun cast dappled light and shadows on his face through the gaps in the branches and leaves.

"John." He finally spoke. "John Mitchell."

"Real name?"

"Take a guess."

Mu Xin smiled and didn't respond.

The car was quiet for a while, with only the low roar of the engine and the rustling sound of tires rolling over the road.

"Are you an engineer?" Mu Xin changed the subject.

"I didn't say I was an engineer."

"That kid told me you were a civil engineer before he left just now."

"That was later." The homeless man's voice was very flat.

"After I retired from the military, I went to college and studied civil engineering. After graduating, I worked at a construction company in Columbus for seven years."

"Seven years. And then?"

"Then I spent six years drifting here, and then it was all gone."

Mu Xin didn't press him. He knew that behind this "and then it was all gone," there must be a past that one didn't want to mention.

But he needed to know if this person was worth his time to pull up, and whether it was worth the risk to bring him to his construction site.

"Jessica, pull over." Mu Xin said.

Jessica pulled the car to the side of the road. It was a country road with large cornfields on both sides, and the roofs of a few farmhouses could be seen in the distance.

The setting sun dyed the whole sky orange-red, and it was so quiet that only the chirping of insects remained.

Mu Xin turned around and looked at the homeless man.

"John, I'll call you John. You don't have to tell me your real name; I don't care. But I need to know one thing."

"What is it?"

"Why are you on the streets? It's not just a temporary bout of bad luck—it's been six whole years."

"A person with professional training, a college degree, and seven years of work experience shouldn't be wandering the streets for six years."

"Unless something happened that completely shattered him."

The homeless man looked into Mu Xin's eyes. There was no pity or curiosity in those eyes, only a calm scrutiny.

"Are you sure you want to hear it?" The homeless man's voice was very low.

"I'm sure."

The homeless man was silent for a long time, so long that the sky outside the window turned from orange-red to gray-blue.

"I was a soldier, Army Special Forces, Green Berets. I was deployed to Afghanistan three times and to Iraq once. I received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart."

Jessica's fingers trembled slightly on the steering wheel. Green Berets, US Army Special Forces—those were the top warriors in this country.

"After I retired from the military, I went home and studied civil engineering at Ohio State University, graduating in the top ten percent of my class."

"I joined a company in Columbus to do bridge design, and in seven years, I went from a junior engineer to a project manager."

He paused, his voice becoming even lower. "Then I met her."

"Her name is Catherine. I met her at an alumni gathering. She was an alumna of Ohio State University, studied marketing, and worked at a PR firm."

"We were together for four years and married for two. Those were the best years of my life." The corners of his mouth curved upward slightly, but the smile lasted less than a second before disappearing.

"Later, I took on a big project and stayed out of town for nearly a year. During that year, I could only go home once or twice a month."

"Every time I went back, she was... not quite right."

"I thought it was because she was too tired from work, and I thought it was because we were apart too much and she was in a bad mood."

"I just thought that when the project was over, I would spend some quality time with her. On the day the project ended, I went home two days early."

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then exhaled slowly, as if swallowing something very difficult to swallow.

"I pushed open the bedroom door, and she and a man were lying in bed."

The car was so quiet that the breathing of the three people could be heard. Jessica's hands were gripping the steering wheel tightly, her knuckles white.

"Who was that man?" Mu Xin asked.

"Her boss, a partner at that PR firm, in his fifties, had a wife and kids, drove a Porsche, wore a Rolex, and had a very sweet tongue."

"What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything." The homeless man's voice suddenly became very light. "My first reaction at the time wasn't to rush up and beat him, but to turn around and walk away."

"I closed the door, went downstairs, drove the car, and drove until dawn. I only had one thought in my mind: I couldn't resort to violence."

"If I had, my life would have been over. Once I had a criminal record, I would never be able to see her again. Not Catherine, but her."

"Who?"

"My daughter." The homeless man's voice finally showed a crack. "She was less than three years old that year."

"When I was away, I would video call her every day. She would call me Daddy, saying in that soft, sweet voice, 'Daddy, I miss you.'"

He turned his head away abruptly, looking out the window.

Mu Xin didn't look at his face. He knew that in such moments, no one wanted to be seen by others.

"I forgave her." The homeless man's voice was muffled, as if he were talking to himself.

"Do you know what's the most ridiculous part? I actually forgave her."

"She said she was wrong, she said she was just confused for a moment, and she said the person she loved most was still me."

"I believed it. I fucking believed it."

"And then?" Mu Xin pursed his lips. This kind of story was a bit too cliché, but since the atmosphere was right, he had to let the other person finish.

"Then she spent a year emptying me out." The homeless man's voice returned to calm.

"In the name of joint family expenses, she transferred nearly $300,000 from our joint account."

"That was all my savings, including my military resettlement pay."

"Using my signature, she took out a second mortgage on the house we bought after we were married, borrowed $200,000, and transferred it all to an account I didn't know about."

"She made me sign a document for a family trust fund, saying it was for my daughter's education fund."

"I signed it, and later I found out that it was a stock transfer agreement, transferring the control of all assets under my name to her."

"By the time I realized it, I had nothing left." His voice became flatter and flatter.

"The house was gone, the savings were gone, the stocks were gone, even the vintage car my father left me was gone."

"She filed for divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences."

"The judge granted her sole custody of my daughter. I had to pay $2,400 in child support every month, and my visitation rights were limited to two weekends a month."

"Why? She didn't even have a job. How did she get custody?" Jessica finally couldn't hold back, her voice filled with suppressed anger.

"Because she is the mother. Because the judge believed that living with the mother is most beneficial for a young child's growth."

"Because I didn't have a steady job at the time, because I had just been laid off. During the time after I discovered her affair, I couldn't focus on work at all. The project had big problems, and the company fired me."

"Between a father with no job and a mother with a house, savings, and a stable source of income, who would the judge award the child to?"

He let out a laugh, full of bitterness. "And she hired the best divorce lawyer in Columbus. I couldn't even afford a lawyer."

"I appealed twice and lost both times. After the second loss, the court ordered that I must pay the overdue child support within 30 days, or I would be detained."

"I only had a few hundred dollars on me at the time, not even enough for legal fees. I called her and begged her to let me see my daughter."

"She said, 'Pay the child support first.' I said I didn't have the money. She said, 'Then don't even think about seeing her.'"

"I went to her house, stood across the street, just wanting to see my daughter from afar, and she called the police."

"The police came and said I was suspected of stalking and harassment. If I appeared near her house again, they would arrest me."

He laughed again. This time, there was no bitterness in the laugh, only emptiness.

"Since then, I haven't seen my daughter again. That was years ago."

"I don't remember what she looks like anymore. The photos of her on my phone were gone after my phone was stolen. I don't even have a single photo of her."

The car was quiet for a long time. Jessica's eyes were red, but she bit her lip and didn't make a sound.

Mu Xin sat in the back row, his hands crossed on his knees. His expression was calm, but his brain was racing.