Marion led Debra to the innermost room on the left. When the door opened, he quickly stepped in front of her to block the dust from the doorframe.


    It took a while before she could see what was inside.


    The ce was cramped, covering no more than ten square meters. Three sets of bunk beds stood on the sides, their frames already rusted. In the middle was a simple frame holding a copper basin. There was nothing else.


    Marion had understated it when he called the room shabby.


    "There''s nothing much to see here. It''s dirty. Let''s go," he said, pulling at her arm.


    But Debra was intrigued. "Which was your bed?"


    "This one." Marion pointed to the bottom bunk in the far corner.


    "So, this is the room you, Robert, and Drake share?"


    "Yeah."


    "What about the other three beds?"


    "We were thest batch, so it''s just the three of us."


    "You worked as Shawn''s bodyguards?"


    "Yeah."


    Debra walked over to the bed Marion had used. It was still neat, though the room


    was heavy with the smell of old, stagnant air.


    There was only a small exhaust fan, not even an electric fan.


    In the summer, the room was stifling; in the winter, it was like a fridge.


    In spring and fall, it was only worse. The humid, sticky air would make anyone desperate to leave.


    But Marion lived there for over ten years.


    "Compared to life in the slums, this ce is heaven," Marion said, reading her mind. "That''s all in the past now. Aren''t we doing well now?"


    He took her hand and kissed her forehead. "Let''s go. You''ll feel ufortable staying here too long."


    Pet


    Dropping her head, she muttered, "You know, sometimes I wonder, everything could start over, maybe you wouldn''t have to go through all this. Maybe we''d all be happy."


    Marion tightened his grip on her hand. "Don''t think too much."


    Debra didn''t know for sure, but in that dream, everyone seemed to be happy. It was a world without regrets or pain.


    If those gems could really work wonders, it might not be a bad thing.


    Marion paused, turning to stroke her hair. "If everything were reset, then what We''ve been through would be meaningless. You and I wouldn''t be the same as we are today.


    Debra froze, and he continued, "There''s no such thing as perfection in this world. A world full of


    happiness doesn''t exist. The pain we is why


    go through is real, which pain we


    happiness is so precious. If there was only happiness, it wouldn''t be happiness."


    "You''re right. I was being foolish," she said, realization dawning on her.


    Her thoughts had just been infinitely close to Jeffery''s.