Thick smoke billowed everywhere, and the merciless flames devoured everything in their path.
The entire residential building had turned into a sea of fire, and firefighters were dashing desperately through the inferno to search for survivors.
"Help... Help us, please save us..." Cries for help from both men and women intertwined echoed from the thirteenth floor.
When two firefighters followed the sounds and found them, they saw a man and a woman in disheveled and dirty clothes. Their faces were blackened by thick smoke, and they were covering their noses and mouths with towels. In the man's arms, a boy of about ten years old was already unconscious.
"Comrade, comrade, cough, cough, cough... I beg you to save my son, please save him, cough, cough..." The woman hurriedly asked for help when she saw the rescuers, but choked on the thick smoke and quickly covered her mouth and nose with the towel again.
The firefighters equipped all three with protective gear and asked anxiously and thoroughly, "Are there any other family members at home? Is it just the three of you?"
"Yes, yes, yes, everyone in our family is right here. Hurry and take us out, my son is not going to make it." The man, who was tightly shielding the little boy, urged them frantically.
The woman also frantically grabbed the sleeve of a firefighter, "Please hurry and take us out..."
A firefighter shouted into the apartment twice, "Is anyone else here? Is anyone here?"
There was no answer. He scanned the living room once, and then each firefighter carried one person on his back and left quickly.
Meanwhile, in a corner not far away, an extremely thin girl lay on the ground with her eyes half-open, her hand still frozen in a reaching gesture.
She was calling for help, but her throat had inhaled too much thick smoke to make a sound.
With a hazy consciousness, she heard her parents tell the rescuers that there were only three people in the family. She heard her parents abandon her in this blazing inferno.
Tears slipped from the corners of her eyes, only to be quickly evaporated by the intense heat. The fire burned her flesh, bringing the pain of a tearing soul.
On her eighteenth birthday, the day before her college entrance examination, she died in a corner where no one cared.
...
Chi Wan opened her eyes abruptly, gasping for breath and taking in huge gulps of air. Her expression was filled with extreme pain, and it took a long time for her to gradually calm down.
She lay unmoving for a very, very long time before she could distinguish dream from reality.
Her delicate little face was covered in fine sweat, and her clothes were soaked with sticky sweat, feeling very uncomfortable. She touched the watch placed beside her pillow: 2:30 AM. This time, she had slept for less than three hours.
Having perished in that fire, she had been reborn and returned to two years ago...
She had returned to the seventh day after she was brought back to this family.
Fu Ping had desperately wanted to give birth to a son, but instead she got Chi Wan, and for the four years after that, her belly showed no movement at all. After trying all sorts of folk remedies and praying to deities everywhere, she finally absurdly concluded that Chi Wan's existence was bringing her bad luck, preventing her from having a son.
In the end, she sent little four-year-old Chi Wan to be adopted by an aunt in the countryside. Chi Wan, who was already old enough to remember things, only believed that her mom and dad would soon bring her back home, but the wait lasted twelve years.
Full of joy and walking on eggshells, she had come to the family she had yearned for over many years, believing that from then on she would have parents' pampering and harmony between sister and younger brother.
"Hmph!" A sneer filled with mockery slipped through her thin lips.
The burning pain from the raging fire clung to her like bone-gnawing maggots, continuously tormenting her and making it impossible for her to sleep peacefully again.
She sat up and got out of bed.
The room was stuffy and piled high with miscellaneous items. In her past life, she had been foolish and cared about nothing, believing that as long as the family was together, it didn't matter where she lived.
Chi Wan looked around this storage room; on the contrary, the bed seemed superfluous, just like her position in this family.
She pushed open the window, sat quietly on the edge of the bed, opened her exercise books, and bent over to write furiously.
Only by constantly solving math problems could she calm her anxious and uneasy heart.
In her past life, she had been timid and lacking in confidence. Coming suddenly from a small mountain village to a big city, no one gave her time to adapt, nor did she have anyone to teach her how to be confident and self-reliant. She walked on eggshells, trying to please her parents, elders, classmates, teachers—everyone.
She studied day and night without rest, rising from the bottom of her class to eventually rank first in the grade.
She studied with all her might, solely to make them glance at her a little more, to like her a little more.
Yet what she got was endless suffering: framed by others while her best friend looked on coldly, classmates kicking her when she was down, and... her parents' second abandonment.
Chi Wan's fair, translucent face looked even paler under the light of the lamp. A strange, eerie smile curved the corners of her mouth slightly as her hand kept moving across the paper.
"Since you've given me a rebirth, then everything will go according to my mood..."
Her low laughter sounded spine-chilling, dark and cold.
At 5:30 in the morning, the sky grew completely bright.
After spending almost another sleepless night, she neatly arranged and stacked her books and exercise books, pressing down even the slightly curled corners.
Chi Wan looked at the name written on the book, gently stroking it with her finger.
It was laughable to say: her father's surname was Song, her mother's surname was Fu, yet her surname was Chi. Even after bringing her back to the Song family, they had never re-registered her household registry or changed her surname.
When she was sent away, she didn't even have a proper name—she was a person who did not exist in society.
Chi Wan chuckled self-deprecatingly.
"Chi Wan, oh Chi Wan, why are you always so fond of self-deception?"
Chi Wan sat on the edge of the bed, looking out the window. The sun gradually rose, its rays piercing into the small storage room, where dust motes danced in the light and shadow.
The sound of harmonious and cheerful breakfasting in the living room drifted into her ears. No one remembered her, or more accurately, no one cared whether she lived or died.
It wasn't until the living room gradually quieted down and the sound of the door closing echoed that Chi Wan slowly stood up, pushed open her bedroom door, and walked out.
She glanced at the empty dining table, and with a blank expression, she picked up her schoolbag and headed straight out.
...
Turning right onto Fuzhou Road led to a neighborhood of old residential buildings with a complex maze of alleys, brimming with lively, everyday atmosphere.
Chi Wan leaned against a stack of firewood, slowly and deliberately chewing a steamed bun in her hand while watching the teenagers surrounded in a tight circle deep within the dead-end alley.
"Jiang Zhi, I finally caught you when you were alone!" Li Nan spat out a glob of phlegm, his tone full of arrogance and triumph.
Surrounded by four or five delinquent boys dressed in bizarre outfits, the tall and upright figure in black stood out like a crane among chickens, uniquely striking.
Even with only half his face visible, it was enough to stun people: a perfect jawline and a fair, clean profile.
Jiang Zhi narrowed his eyes slightly, his expression full of rebellious disdain, and scoffed, "You don't really think that just because I'm alone, you can beat me?"
Before the other party could speak, he taunted again, curling his finger, "Come on, you little, good-for-nothing, punks..."
Public anger flared up, and the usually desolate and quiet alley was instantly filled with cursing and the sound of flesh colliding with fists.
Chi Wan finished her last small bite, leisurely balled up the white plastic bag, wrapped it in a tissue, and stuffed it into her pocket.
Then, she reached out, picked out a suitably long and handy piece of firewood from the pile beside her, and walked toward the inner alley holding it.