Heaven's Judgment Path

Attending a class reunion nearly cost me my life, and brought me face to face with the legendary ten tortures.

The reunion was organized in advance by Du Jiang, my college classmate and roommate. In recent years, he’d been riding high, founding a company and making a fortune. He paid for everyone’s food and drinks, and even promised to gift each attendee the latest Apple 8 phone.

Back in our design class, Du Jiang was the least conspicuous among us. Born in the countryside, ordinary in appearance, timid and often bullied, he suffered a car accident in our senior year that left him with a crippled leg. After that, Du Jiang became despondent, smoking and drinking, wallowing in self-destruction. Our classmates even gave him the nickname “Du the Cripple.”

Who would have guessed that in just a few years, Du Jiang would soar to become the owner of a thriving company, his assets worth hundreds of millions. The poor kid everyone looked down on had leapt through the dragon gate. In contrast, I, once the teacher’s favorite, am now just an average mechanical designer. In the end, it’s true what they say: we plan, but fate decides.

At first, the atmosphere at the reunion was pleasant. Despite the years apart, the bonds between classmates remained. The men drank and boasted, the women whispered and laughed. Du Jiang handed out bulging red envelopes to everyone present.

Then Du Jiang began to tell us about his soon-to-open island hotel. The hotel was a seafood restaurant converted from an abandoned ship, perched beside the Yellow Sea, rich in resources, a