Side story from Yuan Su's perspective: The lost girl
01.
September in Whitebank Town was filled with drizzling rain.
In the repair shop, I bent over an old motherboard. As the rosin and solder melted, they gave off pungent white smoke that stung my eyes.
"Done?" The fat owner walked in with a cigarette between his fingers and tossed a crumpled twenty onto the table, his gaze sweeping over my grease-covered hands. "Yuan Su, I've got to say, you're damn good at this. If that deadbeat father of yours hadn't taken up gambling, you'd already be at a top high school in the city, getting ready for guaranteed college admission, wouldn't you?"
I said nothing, just slipped the twenty into my pocket without expression.
"Take care."
Having gotten no reaction, the fat owner muttered, "What a lousy attitude," and stepped outside.
I watched the gray curtain of rain beyond the door. Even breathing felt heavy.
When had things become like this? I couldn't remember.
Every morning, I opened my eyes to debts I could never pay off, creditors blocking the doorway and cursing my parents, and an endless pile of scrap to repair.
I was so tired.
Beyond the exhaustion seeping out of my bones, I felt nothing at all.
I swept my tools together, pulled on my school uniform jacket with its half-broken zipper, and walked into the rain.
Unless something unexpected happened, someone would be "waiting" for me at home again today.
02.
I swear, I never meant to get involved with her at first.
When I pushed open our battered wooden door, the courtyard was a wreck, just as expected. Scarface and a few thugs were sitting on my broken-down chairs. Shattered teacups littered the ground.
I leaned against the doorframe and watched their rampage coldly, my