Prison to Pinnacle: Ex-wife's Eternal Lament

Then, with the ease of a seasoned surgeon, Edward delved into his own body and meticulously extracted his internal organs.

Casually, he strolled to the entrance of his hut, twisted the blood-red rooster's comb attached to the gut hose, and a gushing stream of water burst from it instantly.

With precision, he cleansed each organ—stomach, lungs, liver, heart—under the cascading spring water.

A torrent of black liquid, as dark as the water that had filled the bucket before, drained from his organs.

"If I don't' go to hell for those patients, who would?" Edward whispered to the wind. "That's the price I pay for treating them."

Once the cleansing was complete, he gently returned his organs to their rightful place.

With a skilled hand, he dusted some medicinal powder onto the wound, and within moments, his flesh was as good as new, unblemished by a single scar.

"With Nicholas added to the list today, I've selflessly healed eighty-one patients. It's time for me to leave this forest and return to the world," he mused.

"Time has flown; it's been two or three years here, and I wonder how my wife has been managing back home. It's time to return."

"The past is like a puff of smoke. If I hadn't taken the fall for my wife, I wouldn't have embarked on this miraculous journey," he reflected.

Three years prior, to aid his troubled wife, he had unhesitatingly shouldered her blame.

Once behind bars, he quickly realized the hellish reality of prison life.

Daily bullying and beatings were par for the course.

On one occasion, he was pummeled so mercilessly that blood gushed from his head, and he teetered on the brink of death.

By some stroke of luck, the blood trickled onto the sixth finger of his left hand—a peculiarity he was born with.

Suddenly, the digit vanished, floating into the air and transforming into an ancient tome visible only to him—the Divine Doctor's Manual.

With but a glance, the manual opened on its own and flipped through its pages rapidly before him.

 Mysterious words from its pages swiftly infiltrated his mind, and his wounds healed miraculously. Even a small fleshy growth on a guard's ear nearby disappeared.

News of this miracle reached the prison warden, who immediately sought Edward's aid for his ailing mother.

Suffering from a decade of uremia, she had been clinging to life through dialysis, nearing the end.

Yet, with just a glance from Edward, she was cured.

From that moment on, Edward became the warden's honored guest, often treating the warden's wealthy and influential friends.

This inadvertently introduced Edward to many high-ranking officials and celebrities.

Eventually, to better study the Divine Doctor's Manual, Edward requested a secluded place to practice and enhance his medical skills, a request the warden gladly granted.

Thus, Edward spent most of the past years living in the Forest of Death.

Now, with the three years completed and eighty-one patients healed as required by the manual, he had learned its majority, and it was time to return home.

Edward stepped out of his hut, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, and grabbed a gasoline can by the entrance. He opened it and tossed it into his hut.

"Though it's hard to part with, I won't be living here anymore ," he muttered as he walked away.

A dozen feet out, he casually flicked the cigarette over his shoulder, and it flew straight into his hut. With a thunderous boom, the hut was instantly engulfed in flames.

At that moment, the animals of the forest, as if receiving Edward's farewell signal, rushed in the direction of the hut.

Beasts and birds of the forest, as if by agreement, stood on either side, forming a trail and bidding Edward farewell.

Soon, Rory the Roarer and Leo Serpent arrived.

Rory let out a deafening roar, and Serpent made a strange chirping sound.

Both expressed an indescribable sadness at Edward's departure.

"I'm going home; you should all be happy for me. Thank you for your company these past years, making the painful days fly by," Edward said. "But don't be sad; I'll visit when I can. And stand ready, for I may need you in the future."

At that moment, a monkey-faced roc flew overhead, and Edward waved at it. The bird immediately landed at Edward's feet, awaiting his command.

"Well, all good things must come to an end. I must return home now, with Golden Wings to take me there," Edward said, leaping onto the back of the roc named Golden Wings.

"See you guys! I promise we'll meet soon!"

Golden Wings spread its vast wings and swiftly soared into the sky, flying over clouds, oceans, and mountains, arriving above the city where he once lived in no time.

"Alright, Golden Wings, land on a tree nearby. Be careful not to be seen by others," Edward instructed.

Golden Wings let out a melodious cry, signaling it had received the command.

It quickly landed on a massive branch of a dense oak tree.

Edward jumped off, rolled to the ground, and said to Golden Wings,

"Return to the pure land of the Death Forest. The human world is full of trade and more dangerous for you here."

Golden Wings emitted a long, melodious cry as it flew back into the sky and disappeared from sight.

As Edward set foot on the familiar land, he immediately thought of his parents and wife.

"I wonder how they've been. They'll be thrilled to see me back," he thought, pulling out his long-unused phone to call his wife, but it went unanswered.

After several attempts, with no response, he tried his parents' numbers, also to no avail.

"What's going on? Did I remember their numbers wrong after being in the forest for years? Or could it be that something has happened to them? That's unlikely," he thought.

"Forget it, I'll go to Sarah's company first."

Quickly, Edward leaped into the air, jumping onto the oak tree where Golden Wings had landed.

This time, he jumped higher, walking on the treetops as he swiftly traversed the distance.

Suddenly, a child on the ground caught a glimpse of Edward walking above and was astonished.

"Superman. There's a Superman," he exclaimed, trying to capture a photo of Edward, but Edward had already vanished.