North American detective: From scoundrel to god among men

Chapter 40 Card God's Revenge

Eddie went to the igloo alone, unable to understand how things had turned out this way.

During the day, Eddie received an email titled: Daddy's Darling Daughter. He grabbed a tissue, his face flushed, and excitedly opened the video, until he saw his darling daughter Karen sitting on Frank's lap.

Eddie's face instantly turned liver-colored.

Immediately afterwards, he walked out of the small room, looking dazed, and found his colleagues gathered around watching a video. He went over, and the familiar scene appeared before his eyes once again:

Karen, dressed in dark gothic makeup, sat on Frank and shouted, "Oh! Yes! Yes!" Frank, beneath her, counted carefully, afraid that she might miss a single shout.

Hearing footsteps, Eddie's colleagues all turned to look at the dazed figure...

On the frozen lake, a white whistling wind howled. Eddie walked alone into a small wooden cabin on the lake, which he had built so that his family could gather around the fire and grill fish on the lake—what a heartwarming scene that would be.

Inside the cabin, there was a dug ice pit, firewood, a stove, and canned food—everything was ready. Outside, it was freezing cold, but inside, there was grilled fish and a stove. The space was just right, enough for the whole family to sit down and have a long talk…

Eddie tied a brick to his body in a tight knot so that his struggles would be futile as he sank. The cold wind howled, and his heart felt as if it had already sunk to the bottom of a frigid lake.

Suddenly he saw something unexpected—a letter sealed with red wax, the envelope decorated with a thorn ring.

(A Christian symbol, the curse of thorns in Genesis, representing redemption and hope in bearing sin and reversing the curse.)

This highly religious letter caught the attention of Eddie, a Christian. It was a short letter, and its contents were as follows:

יְהוָהלְנִשְׁבְּרֵילֵבוְאֶתדַּכְּאֵירוּחַיוֹשִׁיעַ׃ (The Lord is near to the broken-hearted, and saves the spiritually contrite).

Eddie, leave here and head to Bowling Green, Kentucky, to be in my arms.

Signed: A message to believers in the mortal world.

……

On a park bench four kilometers from the frozen lake, Titus watched silently as Eddie, heartbroken, entered the cabin and then walked out with a sigh of relief, tears welling in his eyes.

He glanced one last time in the direction of his home in the South District, then turned and walked toward the train station without looking back.

After watching Eddie's figure disappear into the horizon, Titus finally breathed a long sigh of relief. In his opinion, Eddie was an absolute freak!

He collects clown dolls, and the Fat Clown Killer has a certain special meaning in the United States; secondly, a normal father wouldn't take his daughter to that kind of party; and finally, his reaction to seeing a video titled "Daddy's Baby Daughter" was to close the door and grab a tissue.

He was undoubtedly a perverted Christian, extremely pursuing religious purity yet harboring a taboo and filthy obsession with the depravity of pure things, which was extremely contradictory.

Ultimately, Eddie did not cause any real harm to Karen from beginning to end.

A gentleman judges by actions, not intentions. Judging from what Eddie did to Karen, he was just overly controlling, which would be excessive in an ordinary family, but in the South District, it was quite normal.

For a normal person, Titus didn't have the heart to stand by and watch someone die. He watched Eddie's figure recede into the distance and silently thought:

Eddie leaving the South is good for Karen, Frank, and Lip; it's a good thing, I suppose.

After leaving the frozen lake, Titus planned to use this hard-won break (suspended with pay and without any system tasks) to spend time with his family. He went to a store, bought a book, and then headed towards the neighborhood where Karl usually played.

Soon, he found Carl in an abandoned park, where he was standing alone on an exercise platform for the elderly, swinging back and forth.

Suddenly, Karl had a flash of inspiration. He jumped down, raised the iron pedal to chin height, and then pushed it forward with force, while standing still in place!

"Who's harder, this thing or my head?" Carl wondered.

However, the thrilling head-on collision he had envisioned did not occur. A large hand blocked Karl's face and steadily caught the iron pedal.

"Are you asking for trouble, Karl!"

Titus's questioning voice rang in his ears. Karl opened his eyes and shook his head seriously:

"Let me see if my head is harder or this lump of iron is harder."

Titus asked in an annoyed tone:

"Why don't you bang your head against the ground and see who's harder?"

Upon hearing this, Karl had a sudden thought and was about to climb up to try, but Titus pulled him down. He looked at Titus in confusion.

Titus sighed heavily, remained silent for a moment, and then said:

"I'm going to tell you in the most straightforward, honest, and direct way possible: your head isn't as hard as a lump of iron, the ground, a brick, or anything except soft tofu. Do you understand?"

Carl's eyes darted around, and he nodded.

"Karl, what are you doing here all by yourself?"

Carl replied:

"I'm wondering if there's something wrong with my IQ."

"How so?"

"Liam and I took an IQ test on the computer yesterday. He passed, but the computer judged me as mentally challenged."

"Karl, listen..."

"This morning, my older classmate, Da Pang, also said I'm mentally challenged."

Titus frowned and asked:

"Wait, what did he say? Did you hit him or not?"

Carl replied, "He said I was an idiot who was raised on heroin by Fiona, so I beat him up... The three of them couldn't beat him."

"So what are you planning to do? Hide in this little park, hurt yourself, and then cry?"

Carl shook his head in surprise and said, "I'm going to see how hard this lump of iron is. If it's tough enough, I'll take it down and crack open Little Fatty's head."

Titus gasped, thinking to himself, "As expected of the God of Cards!"

"That sounds amazing! Can I join your operation?"

Karl smiled and said:

"Of course!"

"I'll be in charge of uninstalling the tools. When you come to the place, don't hit them on the head, just spank them in the butt, like an adult disciplining a child."

"Cool!"

Titus carried over a heavy fire axe, red-painted with a gray blade, weighing about 1.5 kg. Then, to Karl's astonishment, he cleanly and decisively chopped off the bottom section of the fitness equipment with a single swing, the powerful axe strike resounding loudly! With absolute force, the axe cut through iron as easily as slicing tofu, with no chance of it flying away.

"Wow, that's cool! Can I learn this?"

Titus replied:

"Okay, I'll teach you this once you pass my trial."

Karl, his face flushed, jumped up excitedly and asked:

"What trial?"

Titus smiled slightly, deftly hoisted the axe to prevent little Karl from getting hurt, and pressed his other hand on his little head. The two walked forward slowly, the light of sunrise casting long shadows of one big and one small. The orange-red sun, like something out of a fairy tale, slowly rose from the horizon.

"Let's go give that fat bastard's ass a good whack with a metal punch!"

"Okay, stick it in his ass crack!"