Huh?
It was raining so hard...
Just as hard as it had that day.
The hazy yellow streetlights grew dimmer and dimmer, but the memories deep in my mind grew clearer and clearer.
My name was Xu Yi.
Xu as in "perhaps," Yi as in "having nothing."
Just like my name, my life seemed to have more perhapses, more randomness, than other people's.
I often wondered whether my life would have turned out differently if, when I was six, I hadn't cried and made a fuss about going to the amusement park.
Then Mom wouldn't have taken time off especially for it, Dad wouldn't have rented a car especially for it, and that day... we wouldn't have gotten into a car accident.
I watched Dad's head droop limply to one side in the driver's seat, watched Mom gasp for breath in the passenger seat as blood kept pouring from her torn throat, impossible to stop even with her hands pressed over it.
Rain fell, the car smoked, passersby screamed...
I lost consciousness. When I woke again, I was somewhere else.
The rain had stopped. I curled up at the head of the bed, trembling. When I remembered what had happened, I burst into sobs.
That day, at six years old, I realized... I had become an orphan.
After being sent to the Orphanage, I grew quiet.
The children here were orphans like me, but they were different from me, too. They could smile.
I didn't fit in. I was always alone.
But I had something I liked, too. I liked eating candy.
The Orphanage handed out candy, but only once a week, and only one or two pieces each time.
Maybe they were worried that eating too much would give children cavities, but I didn't care.
On candy day, I