Tomorrow is Chinese new year. People are preparing for tomorrow with excitement and anticipation. Everywhere you look had a festive atmosphere.
"Mom, I want to eat that.", a small chubby looking boy points toward a delicious looking strawberry cake which was being displayed in the store window and shouts with excitement towards his mother.
The boy's mother who looks to be in her 30s wore a warm smile on her face and looked at her son who was dragging her towards the cake shop, "Alright, stop dragging me. I'll buy it for you but you cannot eat more than one piece or you will have a toothache and keep crying all day tomorrow."
"Thank you mom!", the chubby boy was happy hearing his mother's words and stopped dragging her.
The road was bustling with crowds. People of different age groups with different fashion could be seen everywhere. Some were young and energetic who had just reached adulthood, coming out with their peers to have fun, they seemed curious about everything around them. While some were in their 30s but looked way older and exhausted due to the work pressure, they had dark circles around their eyes due to the lack of proper sleep for a long time.
Everyone was busy in their own world and no one paid attention to the thin and messy figure by the road side who was looking at the loving pair of mother and son. The young man looked about 16 to 17 yrs but his actual age was 21 years. He wore thin clothes despite the cold winter, it's not because he wasn't afraid of catching cold, it's because he doesn't have any warm clothes at home.
Xie Fang stared at the cake shop's door which has been closed for awhile with his dark and bottomless pairs of eye like a statue . His thin figure looked as if it would be blown away by a strong wind. "-don't you understand !", suddenly, an angry voice caught Xie Fang's attention. The voice was coming from his left side, an old man was standing there staring at him with angry face.
The old man continued, "Are you deaf? I'm telling you to move aside, can't you hear?!"
Xie Fang looked at the old man but didn't say anything. People were staring at them while passing by and whisper among themselves.
"Sorry", the old man was angry with this young but insensible child who didn't know how to acknowledge his mistake and was about to say something when he heard a hoarse voice.
Xie Fang moved to the side to give a way for the old man to pass by and bow, "I'm sorry." The old man was left speechless from the sudden apology but quickly came back to his sense and said, "Um, just look at where you are standing next time." After saying that the old man walked away. Xie Fang walked around the bustling road of E city for awhile. After he got tired, he walked toward his home.
He walked for a long time, from once lively and bright area to one where hardly any person could be seen and dark area. After walking for an hour, he finally returned to his old and moldy home.
The area where he stays right now was supposed to be destroyed and reconstructed into a gambling place for rich people. Many people who lived here before had already left this place after getting money but in the end it became an abandoned area due to some unknown reason.
The people who left never returned and this place became a house or hideout for beggars and criminals. He found this place when he got kicked out of his 3rd job and moved here since then.
Xie Fang never got to know who his parents were or why they left him and he didn't try to look for them either because life was already hard and he didn't want to add more drama and tension.
Since he was little, he was a quite child. He didn't talk to other kids when he was in orphanage and even if someone came to talk with him, he would just stare at them which made others around him feel uncomfortable. So they start to call him "abnormal boy" behind his back.
After he got older, he left the orphanage and found a part time job where he had to work hard for a little bit of money due to not having degree.
He worked hard but never stayed long in any job due to his non-socializing behaviour to customers and staff members. Today was the same, he got kicked out of his nth part time job. Tomorrow he has to get up early to look for part time job or he will have to stay hungry till he find one. Xie Fang opened the door of his "house" which looked rusty and produced irritating sound; and went inside.
There was a weird smell in the air that filled the whole house, the house was dark with no lights on but the faint moonlight coming from the window made it possible for people to see little bit but not clearly. The wall of the house looked moldy, the paint was peeling off. It didn't look like a place for a people to stay at all. The whole house was empty with no basic facilities like table or even the carpet on the floor.
Xie Fang went to his room where there was a single bed at the corner and a closet to keep his torn and old clothes. The bed make a creaking sound when Xie Fang lay on it as if it's going to break at any moment.
There was a faint moonlight as a source of light in the dark room. The time was moving slowly, silence filled the room and everything was still as if someone had clicked a pause button.
"Haa..." Xie Fang took a long and heavy breath with painful expression. He felt like thousands of ants were crawling all over his body but he knew it wasn't. This was some other abnormal "thing" that was sucking energy from his body. He felt numbness and pain all over his body, like he was going to die but he knew he won't. He knew this abnormal "thing " wanted to tourter him physically and mentally, making him feel like he is going to die before letting go with satisfaction.
He felt like a prey who knows that the hunter is right behind him but can't run away because he knows that he won't be able to run away from it, he knows that this hunter will chase him to every corner of the world. Him running away will only make the hunter more excited.
Long ago, he had tried to get rid of this "thing" but he couldn't. So, he had hoped for someone to come and save him from this misery. He had prayed to god, he had asked for help from other but the god didn't listen and other people look at him like he was some kind of lunatic. At some moment he had also thought to himself if he was really lunatic... but the pain all over his body couldn't be fake, right?
Xie Fang was curling on his old bed groaning in pain trying to suppress it when a blue ball of light appeared in front of his eyes, making the once dark and cold room bright and warm.
The blue ball of light looked at the tiny human being in front of him with heartache and said in an inaudible voice, "I finally found you..."