Sui Sui looked down at his tiny hands and reached out to the woman in front of him. Everything around him was a blur. Perhaps because he was now in the body of a baby, all his senses were not yet developed, His vision swam, and his hearing was faint; he could only make out a few disjointed words from the woman's trembling lips.
"It's okay Sui Sui, Mama is sorry" Her voice trembled like a dream dissolving in the morning light. "Hummm" She then hummed a tune, as if lulling him to sleep.It seemed to have worked, because slowly he started drifting into sleep.
Amidst the haze, fragments of memory began to return to him, piece by piece; like someone narrating a story he had once forgotten.
He remembered now.
His name was Sui Sui. He had no surname because he was an orphan. In his past life, if one had to describe his existence in a single word, it would undoubtedly be: "Tragic."
From childhood to adulthood, misfortune followed him like a curse. He had been adopted and returned to the orphanage a total of four times.
The first time, he was only five years old. He was adopted by a young couple who had problems getting pregnant, however, not even a month after his adoption, the couple who took him in divorced after the husband was caught cheating. Naturally, this child neither connected by blood or bond, was sent back to the orphanage.
The second time was when he was seven years old. This time, he was adopted by a wealthy household. For the first few months, Sui Sui lived the life of a young master. However, less than a year later, the family was arrested for tax evasion and eventually filed for bankruptcy. Unable to support him, they too returned him to the orphanage.
The third time, he was ten years old. That family lasted almost three years, but in an unfortunate event, the father got into a car accident and lost his legs, unable to cope with this, he eventually descended into gambling and alcoholism, unable to take it any longer, the mother ran away. In that home, Sui Sui had nearly starved to death. Thankfully, a neighbor noticed and reported the situation, and he was sent back to the orphanage once more.
The final time, he was taken in by an elderly couple. They were kind and treated him like their own grandson. Sui Sui thought that he had finally found his own family, but time was very cruel, he only stayed with them for two years. Due to their old age both passed away within a few months of each other.
After that, Sui Sui stopped hoping for a family.
He had come to believe that he brought misfortune wherever he went. So to avoid dragging others into this cursed-like fate, he chose to live alone.
However despite this, Sui Sui remained optimistic. For the next five years, he worked really hard, he refused to believe that the heavens would be more cruel than what they've already done.
Sui Sui studied and did two part time job a week, just to fund his studies. But although he has met a few people, they remained nothing more than acquaintances to him.
That year, Sui Sui had just turned twenty-two. He graduated from a community college, and had begun applying for jobs, and was slowly carving out a stable life for himself.
But fate, as always, had other plans.
A sudden fire broke out in his apartment building and he was left trapped inside. Smoke filled the room and the flames licked at his skin. In those final moments, Before Sui Sui's consciousness began to blur, He cursed the heavens.
Why?
What had he done wrong to deserve a life filled only with suffering?
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