Xia Country, Zhongdu City.
In the late nights of December’s cold winter, the freezing wind endlessly swept through the streets, seemingly taking with it the last remaining warmth of mankind.
“Clang!”, the fast food restaurant’s steel door was shut tight by Li Anping.
The girl beside him rubbed her hands together, puffing out a breath of warm air, and said: “This weather is too cold, let’s hurry to the bus station.”
The teenage girl’s name is Anna. She is a university student along with Li Anping who had just shut the steel doors, both of them work part-time at the fast food restaurant.
Although dressed simply, the youthful essence of a teenage girl coupled with her elegant face, especially with a pair a long slim legs, made her very appealing.
Li Anping tugged at the steel door, after making sure that it was shut properly, shaked his head: “Sorry, I have something to attend to today, I’ll have to walk another path.”
“Oh…” Anna lightly sighed: “In that case, I’ll leave first?”
Seeing Li Anping’s delicate face, her tone was of slight disappointment, but Li Anping did not notice as he murmured to himself: “Alright, be careful when going home alone at this hour, if there’s anything feel free to call me. I’ll leave first…”
After saying that, Li Anping walked off without turning his head, only lightly waving his hand. Anna stared at his shadow from behind, her face unknowingly turning slightly red, with a hint of hesitation on her face.
Seeing that Li Anping had walked far, his figure about to merge with the darkness of the night, she sucked in a deep breath, mustered her courage and shouted: “Hey, Li Anping, wait!!!”
“What?” Li Anping turned his head back, a look of confusion as he looked in Anna’s direction. He felt that the girl was acting weird the entire day, almost as if she had something on her mind, and was not focusing when working either.
“I…”
“You…”
Seeing that Li Anping had looked back, Anna’s breath became slightly flustered and her mouth opened without a word coming out of it. All the things that she had prepared to say vanished as her mind turned blank, unable to recall anything.
Li Anping found this situation more and more peculiar. He walked towards Anna, while patting her forehead, frowned and said: “Why is your face so red, the weather is freezing, did you catch a cold?”
As if she was about to suffocate.
Feeling Li Anping’s hand on her forehead, Anna’s face instantly became red as a tomato and she felt herself close to fainting. However, this time she managed to slowly mutter what she had wanted to say earlier.
“A new underwater theme park is opening this weekend, would you be able to accompany me?”
“Oh, sure.” Feeling that her body temperature was normal, thus not having a cold, Li Anping felt at ease: “You do not have a cold, but the weather these few days is harsh so remember to wear more clothes and keep yourself warm. I’ll see you again this weekend, bye.”
Anna’s head was still throbbing, and by the time she calmed down, Li Anping was long gone. What remained was the faint echo of the girl’s cheering in the streets.
“Yeah!”
Li Anping who had walked far away naturally did not hear the girl’s cheering, he looked around the street muttering: “I remember it was here, could he have left early today?”
These few days, when passing by the streets near the fast food restaurant, Li Anping could always see an old man accompanied by a child selling goods on the street.
Zhongdu was getting colder these days, and because he saw on the internet that there were homeless people freezing to death on the streets today, he began to worry for the old man.
Suddenly, Li Anping looked around and finally saw where the old man was. He strolled to the stall, and asked with a smile: “The weather is so cold, you have not packed up yet?”
The old man’s face was wrinkled, his hands had no gloves to protect him and was freezing like a beetroot. Seeing a customer, he enthusiastically said: “Not yet, see what you like and take it, its $2 per piece.”
Sitting in front of the old man was a four to five year old boy, the child was wrapped tight, having falled asleep with a look of fatigue on his face.
Seeing their plight, Li Anping’s face dimmed and did not say a word. Instead he looked at the goods on the ground, a few worn out second hand books, some depreciated earrings, bracelets and toys.
Truthfully speaking, there was probably no one in the entire Zhongdu who would offer to buy these things. However, Li Anping looked with curiosity, as if he was very interested in these. After a round of hagging, he bought everything with a hundred dollars. Before leaving, the old man said to Li Anping: “Young lad, you are a good person, I know you are buying these broken things out of pity for us, but my conscience cannot live with this.”
Li Anping retorted: “What are you saying elder, I find these things quite interesting, and I plan to sell them at school.”
The old man shaked his head, stopped arguing and put a chain of prayer beads into Li Anping’s hands. “I do not have anything good on me, these beads had been enchanted by a venerable monk, I’ll gift them to you. I hope that Buddha will protect you, as the kind person you are.”
After a round of give and take, Li Anping could not refuse the old man’s kind gesture, so he wore the beads on his right wrist in front of the elderly. He helped the old man pack up his store, and with a bracelet on his right wrist and a bag of goods on his left arm, he walked towards the nearby train station.
Li Anping’s family was not affluent, as an orphan, although he was adopted from young, ever since he started school he had always been taking care of himself. Today, the hundred dollars he spent was actually the income he earned from a long day of work, and this may result in him eating plain rice and vegetables for the next few days in the school canteen.
This did not leave any regret in him, as there is always darkness lurking in the corner of the world, but there is light, justice and fairness as the same time, and this is what most people in the world pursued. The human heart had all sorts of greatness, and it is the most important thing in a person.
The Li Anping at this time really thought so in his heart, and so did his actions.
But what he did not notice, was that while his mind was filled with such thoughts, the prayer beads on his right arm emitted a strange light.
When Li Anping got back to his district, it was already past midnight. This district was very far from the city area, the houses were very old and advertisement notices were everywhere. The few salons near his house still emitted a suggestive red glow.
Zhongdu’s vibrant environment did not leave a trace here. In this district most of the inhabitant who were capable had already left, those that are still here were either foreign laborers desperate for the cheap rent or the elderly who could not bear to leave.
Compared to the high rise buildings in the city, the conditions here could be said to be very poor.
But this is Li Anping’s home. When he was young, he was adopted and raised here by his grandma. Up until college where he stayed at the hostel, he had always stayed together with his grandma. But she was getting old, and Li Anping was worried about leaving her alone at home, so he would often return twice a week to see and take care of her.
The entire district, with little maintenance over the years, both due to inhabitants who could not be bothered and the departure of businesses, had street lamps which were mostly spoilt. In the darkness, the human eye can only see a blur shadow.
But as Li Anping’s footsteps remained quick, as he was so familiar with the place that he could move around blindfolded. No matter how poor the conditions were, this was still the place he grew up in, everything here is part of his childhood memories.
At this time, muffled screaming could be heard from the bushes at the side.
“Who?” Li Anping asked facing the direction of the sound. There was no response. Li Anping could barely see due to the darkness of the surrounding, and as there was silence from the bushes his ears could only catch the sound of the cold wind blowing. It was almost as if what he heard earlier was an illusion. Just as Li Anping frowned, wondering if he had overworked himself recently, another screaming sound was heard.
“Save me!!!”
This time, he could tell it was a woman’s shouting for help. Li Anping rushed towards her without thinking. The woman’s shouting was halted halfway by someone. Li Anping could only make out the direction of the sound and go towards that direction. Few steps later, the sight of a man and woman sprawling on the ground appeared before him.
The man’s back was facing Li Anping, and was on top of the woman. One hand was covering her mouth while the other was exploring her body, as if he wanted to remove her clothing one by one. He did not sense that Li Anping had already walked right behind him.
The woman’s face could not be seen clearly, but he could barely hear crying that was muffled by a man’s hand. It was rape. Seeing this, Li Anping grew furious as he rushed up and pushed the man away, and started to hurl punches. The man did not notice Li Anping behind him so when he was ambushed he got stunned, only flailing his arms in the air to block the punches.
Despite this, he did not forget to scold: “Stop, stop hitting me! F*ck, stop it or I’ll make sure you die!!” The man was obviously weak physically, his limbs were weak and although he was strong enough to bully girls, against Li Anping who had to constantly scuffle with ruffians in the commoner’s district, he was no opponent.
Bam!
Li Anping’s fist flew towards the man’s face, and another leg sweep flipped him onto the ground. Hearing the man’s words, Li Anping got even more infuriated, and almost could not resist giving the man another round of beating.
“Of course I’m beating you, I saw you raping her with my own two eyes, get ready to go to jail.”
The man stopped up from the ground, seeing Li Anping, he was utterly angered. “Where the **** did this guy come from? Do you know who I am? It just takes me one word to kill your entire family.”
“Bastard, you better watch out! I’ll make sure you beg me like a dog when I screw with you!!”
“Hmph.” Li Anping looked at the man with contempt, and another kick flew out, sending the man sprawling on the ground, after seeing that the guy was lying there like a corpse, he walked towards the woman.
“Miss, are you alright?”
The woman who was getting raped could only cry out sorrowly.
Seeing that her clothes were in tatters, but her underwear and such were still intact, it was obvious the man had not gotten his way yet. He sighed in relief and asked: “I’ll send you to the hospital? To check if there’s any injury on you.”
Seeing that the woman was still not responding, Li Anping sighed and helped her up. She did not resist, and allowed him to aid her in standing up. Although the lights were dim, at such a close range, Li Anping could already see her features, a standard beauty. It was no wonder that she was a target.
Dragging the woman along, Li Anping was about the leave with her when the man on the ground limped his way towards the outside and provoked: “You watch out!!!”
Seeing that Li Anping was going to chase him, he timidly ran away even more quickly.
“This guy!!!” Li Anping was about to chase him but suddenly he had a thought and asked the girl: “Do you know him?”
“Yeah.” Unexpectedly, she replied.
Li Anping was overjoyed and proceeded to ask: “My name is Li Anping, Tian Cheng University’s student, you are?”
“Wei Shi Shi.” Her voice was soft, like a frightened deer.
During the conversation, they had already walked out to the streets, and the guy who had escaped was nowhere to be seen. Just as he bent down to pick up a plastic bottle that had been discarded earlier, a wave of bright light and loud sirens came from behind them.
When he turned back, he could see a white race car rushing towards him.
Li Anping only managed to push Wei Shi Shi to the side before his world went dark, losing his consciousness.
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