Granting You A Second Life

Li Xiuying looked up at the sky which seemed brighter. Whether that was because of her imagination and her new hope for life or the contrast between wide-open skies and being stuck between a fence and a hard place was neither here nor there.

She opened her rucksack and took out a protein bar and a bottle of water. She started to reminisce about how she had chanced upon the gap.

Li Xiuying had discovered this fence when she was 15 years old. She and Li Yu Yan were supposed to be having a joint birthday party, but of course, that was only in name. It was clearly just Li Yu Yan's birthday party and she was just an unwanted interloper. The party was loud and noisy and there was nowhere Li Xiuying could find peace.

Li Xiuying left her room and went to the back garden in search of a quiet secluded place. It had rained the previous evening so the chances that people would want to go out there was low.

Li Xiuying had just stepped into the garden when she suddenly heard someone shouting behind her.

Li Yu Yan: "Little sister, there you are! I've been looking everywhere for you."

She turned and saw Li Yu Yan, with her group of followers.

Li Na: "Oh its the orphan, what hole did you crawl out of?!"

Li Yu Yan gently scolded: "Li Na, be nice to Li Xiuying she's our cousin, she just lost her parents and she had nowhere else to go. No other family members were willing to look after her either, but because daddy is so kind he decided to take her in. We couldn't leave her alone in such a pitiful state." Li Yu Yan was just adding fuel to the fire.

After the other girls heard what Li Yu Yan said they started taunting Li Xiuying.

" That's so funny, no one even wanted you."

"You're such a charity case"

"You should be grateful for having such a wonderful uncle, you orphan."

"I bet God felt sorry that your parents had a child like you, so he took them away so they wouldn't have to suffer anymore."

Group of girls burst into laughter: "Hahaha."

Li Xiuying had tears rolling down her cheeks, she clenched her fists by her sides.

She tried to sound strong as she shouted: "You're wrong mommy and daddy loved me the most! They would never leave me if they had a choice."

Group of girls: "Hahaha"

Li Xiuying turned and fled from the jeering and malice. She couldn't see where she was going due to her tears blurring her vision. The other girls ran behind her laughing and throwing more insults at her. Some of the girls didn't think this was enough and started throwing food at her too.

Li Xiuying found herself stumbling into the rose bushes. She saw a small width of space between the roses and the fence. She hunched down and started crawling forward.

She was crawling away from the taunts and jeers. She was crawling away from the painful reminders that her parents were no longer with her. That she would have to navigate through the world on her own.

Li Xiuying's tears continued to fall. Her face was contorted in pain.

She eventually felt emotionally and physically spent and stopped moving. It just so happened that she ended up stopping at the point where the fence was broken. She sat in front of the gap for hours wanting to run away. She wanted to escape from it all. She didn't want to live here, she wanted to be in her own home with her mom and dad. She wanted the warmth of her family again.

In the end, she thought better of it and returned to her desolate room covered in scratches and mud.

...

Li Xiuying shook the memories of her past away.

She put her water back in her bag along with the now-empty wrapper. She used the fence to support her weight whilst she steadied her feet.

Li Xiuying took one last look at the fence. She took her hoody out of her rucksack. She turned it inside out and wiped her face with it. Then she turned it out again and put it on.

Li Xiuying looked around. In the distance, she could make out the outline of another mansion.

She started heading in the direction of the mansion. She knew that if she did so, she would inevitably come across a road that she could follow into the city.

...

Sometime later Li Xiuying was just crossing in front of the large gates of the neighboring mansion.

Li Xiuying was lost in her thoughts and wasn't paying attention to her surroundings. So she didn't notice that the gates had opened and a sleek black Cadillac limousine was making its way out.

Just when she had reached the middle of the road in front of the now open gates, the car hit her.

Although the car didn't hit her at a high speed, Li Xiuying was still knocked to the ground by the sudden impact. She fell sideways but managed to brace herself.

Li Xiuying began sitting up. She looked at her palms then down her right-hand side. She had a grazed forearm and she could feel her right t.h.i.g.h and knee were bruised.

Li Xiuying stood up tentatively assessing her ability to weight bear. She faced the car with her brows knitted together; she was about to say something when the front passenger side door opened.

She watched as a burly man walked towards her. He was at least 6 ft tall, he was dressed in a suit with some sort of logo on the b.r.e.a.s.t pocket and had an earpiece in his right ear.

Before she even realized what was happening. The man picked her up under his arm like a sack of rice. Li Xiuying was frozen in disgust and wanted to recoil from his touch.

The burly man casually walked back towards the car as if carrying a random woman from the road was an everyday occurrence. He opened the right rear car door and placed the shocked Li Xiuying on a seat. He reached for the seat belt and buckled her in. The mammoth of a human then closed the door and made his way back to his seat.

Li Xiuying heard the sound of a car door closing and snapped out of her stupor. She felt the car driving away and looked out the window to watch them leaving the mansion behind.

Li Xiuying looked around the car, five sets of eyes were staring at her.

Furthest away from her, there was an old man who looked to be in his late 70's he had white hair and his face was marred with worry. A little boy was next to him, he looked to be about 6 or 7.

The little boy was laying down on his side with his head resting on the l.a.p of one of the twins.

Next to the twin, there was a man who looked about 30 and lastly the other twin.

Li Xiuying asked coldly: "Who are yo people? Why have you abducted me?"