We Were Really Wrong

"W-What... what are you going to do?" "Y-You're a superhero!" Shaking from head to toe, the skinny white man and the fat one watched the scene unfold, blurting out instinctively. Qi Li paid them no mind. Reaching behind him, he tore off the doorknob with a single hand, crushed it into a mangled ball, and tossed it aside. Clang! The sound of metal hitting the floor made both of them jump. Then, seeing Qi Li turn his gaze toward them, their hearts skipped a terrified beat. Realizing their situation all too clearly, they broke into tears and frantically begged for mercy. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have said those things! Really! I swear to God, we'll never do it again!" "I made a terrible mistake! I know I was wrong! We truly repent! For God's sake, please forgive us just this once!" The two white men were named Richard and Henry, one skinny and the other fat. Evidently, both knew full well what they had done—and what was coming for them. They were vile, but they weren't stupid. Or rather, theirs was the stupidity of bigotry. Qi Li didn't acknowledge them right away. Instead, he calmly took out his phone and sent Kate a text. Yet this very silence, this cool, detached disregard, only fueled their terror, setting their teeth chattering uncontrollably. Richard scrambled to shout first. "I'll take the punishment! I'll issue a formal written apology! TV, internet, radio, newspapers... I'll cooperate with whatever you want, Bronze! And money! I'll pay you compensation, Bronze! Serious money!" Henry wasn't as wealthy, so he could only plead, "Please! I can do anything for you! Anything! If you want me to eat shit, I'll eat shit! I can even make you feel good—I'm really good at it! Just please forgive me..." Qi Li looked up and finally spoke. "Eat yourself," he told the fat white man. "Huh?" Henry froze, utterly baffled. Qi Li said flatly, "I said, eat your own flesh. Don't you guys love eating human flesh? Have a taste of yourself." Only then did Henry understand. Instinctively, he glanced down at his thick, fleshy palms. He wanted desperately to say that he had no such appetite, and besides, meat like his wouldn't appeal to anyone anyway. Yet, seeing the brook-no-argument look on Qi Li's face, he parted his lips but didn't dare say a word in defense. In that instant, the color drained from Henry's face before turning an ugly, mottled shade. Shivering, he brought one of his hands up to his mouth. Beside him, Richard curled up as tightly as he could, wishing he didn't even exist. He was intensely relieved that Qi Li hadn't singled him out. Now, he even looked at his buddy with encouraging eyes, hoping Henry would do what Bronze said so that Bronze's anger might dissipate. Unfortunately, his buddy was clearly falling short. Henry opened his mouth and stuck his chubby fingers inside, but his teeth wouldn't stop chattering. "Bite it!" Richard hissed through clenched teeth, burning with impatience and dread. Henry still couldn't do it. He was a master at bullying the weak and cowering before the strong, but he had none of that kind of ruthlessness. In the end, unable to bear it any longer, Henry went limp and collapsed to his knees, mucus and tears streaming down his face as he sobbed: "I really can't do this! Pick something else! I swear I'll eat shit! I can take a dump right now and show you!" Qi Li shook his head and said nothing more, striding toward the two men. "No, no, no, no, no..." Seeing him advance, Richard convulsed in panic and scrambled backward on his hands and knees, desperate to get as far from Qi Li as possible. Henry had already been about to pull down his pants, but at the sight of Qi Li approaching, he scrambled backward in sheer terror as well. But the room was only so big; where could they possibly run? Soon, they had nowhere left to retreat, their backs pressed firmly against the cold wall. Watching Qi Li draw nearer and nearer, Richard had no choice but to brace himself and rack his brains for anything to say: "Bronze, you're a superhero! A real superhero! So many people I know admire you! For your integrity, your kindness, your courage, and... and so much more! I was just jealous, that's why I slandered you! I'm an asshole! I'm scum! But you're not! Bronze, you're a super, super hero! You can't treat us like this!!" As soon as his voice trailed off, Henry jumped in, clutching at it like a drowning man grasping a lifeline: "With great power comes great responsibility! You said that yourself, Bronze! I even watched your movie—it was so, so, so... amazing! You definitely aren't some cold-blooded killer! At most, you're just teaching us a lesson, right?" "Yes, yes, yes! That has to be it!" Richard nodded frantically. Especially when he saw Qi Li stop in front of him first, a flash of inspiration hit Richard amid his terror. Whipping a family photo out of his wallet, he held it up to Qi Li in a hurry. "Please, Bronze, spare me! I have a four-year-old son—he's so well-behaved, so adorable, and I promised I'd buy him toys! And my wife, she loves me so much, she donates money and supplies to the church every week! I promised her we'd celebrate her birthday next month! And my parents, they're both sick, they can't live without me!" Finishing his impassioned plea, Richard offered the photo for Qi Li to see, his face full of desperate hope. Qi Li looked at the happy, smiling faces of the family in the picture. "A very happy family, isn't it?" "Yes! Yes, exactly!" Richard nodded vigorously over and over. "So—" Qi Li looked at Richard, sounding quite surprised. "Are you asking me to send your whole family on their way together, neat and tidy? How considerate of you." "Huh?" Richard didn't catch on at first. It took several seconds of stunned silence before the meaning of Qi Li's words sank in. In an instant, every last drop of color drained from his face. He shook his head frantically. "No, no, no, no! That's not what I meant! It really isn't..." Qi Li nodded in understanding. "Then that must mean you don't love your family deeply enough." Richard was already incoherent. "No! Yes! No! My heart belongs to my family. I..." Qi Li said calmly, "Never mind. Seeing is believing." With a flick of his fingers, he aimed the family photo Richard had handed him straight at Richard's chest. Then, the photo sliced through the skin, piercing inward millimeter by millimeter. Richard seemed petrified with terror, his eyes wide. At first, he forgot to even flinch. Only when the agonizing pain finally flared did he snap back to his senses, thrashing frantically. "No! No! No! Oh God! Help me! Save me!" His pitiful strength was no match for Qi Li. For the moments that followed, he could only watch helplessly as his own family photo, driven by Qi Li's gentle thrust, cut through his skin, parted his muscle, sliced through his ribs, and finally came to a halt right before his heart. Qi Li pulled the photo out, glanced at what lay within, and remarked: "Filthy."