Chapter 152: Afterwards
What happened afterwards?
When Yu Linna left the Huo family, her future was uncertain, her path unclear, simply following the direction others gave her, the destination unknown.
She didn’t expect life to get any better.
The rumors of her being a jinx, originating from her time with the Huo family, followed her, leading to unfavorable treatment in her subsequent foster homes. Families treated her like a hot potato, eager to pass her on. She rarely stayed in one place for more than a month.
“Sigh…”
Seven-year-old Yu Linna sighed. She had grown a year older, a bit taller, but her life had only become more difficult. She had just been kicked out of her latest foster home for sneaking food from the kitchen, caught red-handed. Now, she had to find another place to stay, or she would be homeless.
But first, she had to eat…
She hadn’t had a full meal in days, surviving on scraps. She missed her time with Wu Siyu, when she at least had three meals a day. She wished she could grow up quickly, so she could work and earn money, so she wouldn’t have to go hungry.
When desperate, she would scavenge for leftovers in restaurant bins, picking out anything remotely edible, drying it in the sun, then eating it. Though unsanitary, it was better than starving. Though it resulted in a week of stomach cramps, she didn’t regret it.
She drifted from one place to another, searching for a temporary home.
New cities, new schools, new chapters in her life, each one as bleak as the last. Her expectations lowered, from wanting a bed to sleep in, to hoping for three meals a day, to wishing she could stay in one place for three months, to simply wanting someone to take her in, even if it was just for a single meal.
Too young to work, she could only rely on the kindness of strangers, moving from one foster family to another.
As her life became more difficult, she found herself in trouble more often…
“Your name is Yu Linna? You have such striking blonde hair. Are your parents foreigners?”
“What? You don’t know? So, you’re a child without parents.”
“What? Why are you glaring at me? I’m just stating the obvious. You are a child without parents. Blegh.”
“Hey! Why are you hitting me?! You little brat! …Wait! Put down the brick! No! Don’t!”
Being mocked for being an orphan always triggered a furious rage within her, an uncontrollable outburst, a common reaction for children in her situation.
Children were sensitive about their parents, even if they weren’t present in their lives. When insulted, they instinctively defended their family, perhaps also because they didn’t want to be labeled as parentless.
So, the little girl often found herself in trouble at school, fighting, causing a ruckus, behaving like a boy, even picking up a brick and hitting her tormentors without hesitation, terrifying the other children, who couldn’t believe she was a girl too.
She was expelled, kicked out of foster homes, moving on to the next city.
Yu Linna’s childhood was a blur of different cities, most of it spent wandering through southern China.
Just before her eleventh birthday, she was taken in by a woman named Tong Lili. Out of obligation, perhaps even pity, the woman became her legal guardian, signing the necessary documents. Yu Linna thought she had finally found a stable home, but…
“Here, Little Yu, this is your room. Here’s some money for living expenses. I’ll give you more later. I have to go now.”
Tong Lili brought her to a rundown apartment in a poor neighborhood of Guangnan City, paid the deposit, and left the eleven-year-old girl in a small, dilapidated room, the door broken, the bed smelling of mildew, clearly unoccupied for a while. Unfazed, Tong Lili left her with a few thousand yuan and her suitcase, disappearing from her life.
Unlike other foster families, Tong Lili hadn’t taken her home, instead finding her a place to live, perhaps due to Yu Linna’s refusal to live with another family. She had provided some money, then left, going far away, never contacting her again. Yu Linna didn’t know where she went, only that she had supposedly gone into business somewhere.
Initially, Yu Linna was happy to have so much money, enjoying a brief period of comfort, at least having enough to eat, the poor living conditions not bothering her.
But the money eventually ran out, and after paying the rent and eating her last cup of instant noodles, she realized she didn’t have much left. She was living on borrowed time.
“Little Yu, don’t be late with the rent next month, or I’ll kick you out!”
The landlady’s shrill voice echoed from outside the door, having just collected the overdue rent.
Yu Linna looked at the few remaining bills on the table, her last bit of money, enough to last only a month.
What was she going to do?
She was in trouble.
At twelve, though she had refused to live with another foster family, her life had only become more difficult. Years of wandering, living under someone else’s roof, never feeling like she belonged… she was tired of it. She wanted stability.
So, she refused the next foster family, choosing to live alone.
Tong Lili, reluctantly, became her legal guardian, signing the papers, motivated solely by the money offered. She wouldn’t have taken on the responsibility otherwise.
After Tong Lili left, Yu Linna lived alone for two months, her money dwindling.
“Grumble…”
Her stomach growled, her body weak, her legs unsteady. She hadn’t had a proper meal in days, surviving on salt water and instant noodles.
“Sigh…”
She longed for someone to care for her, the loneliness overwhelming. Years of hardship, of never experiencing a good life… she regretted her decision to leave Wu Siyu’s home, her foolish hope of being adopted leading to her current predicament.
She truly regretted it.
Sitting on the bed, hugging her knees, staring at the stars outside her window, she felt a sense of despair. She was so young, yet her future was bleak, her life uncertain.
Other children her age were at school, carefree, acting spoiled with their parents, comforted when they were sad, fed when they were hungry. She had nothing.
“Tomorrow will be better…” she told herself, forcing a smile through her hardship, clinging to the hope that things would improve, that fate would eventually be kind to her. But as she struggled to survive, even going hungry, she finally accepted that the world was against her.
Her optimism was just a coping mechanism.
No one could help her; she could only rely on herself.
Finally, at twelve, Yu Linna started looking for a job. If she didn’t earn money, she would starve.
Few businesses were willing to hire a twelve-year-old. She pleaded with shop owners, her desperation evident, until finally, the owner of a stationery shop, taking pity on her, offered her a month-long job as a cashier. It was a hard-won opportunity.
From then on, she worked tirelessly, taking on any job she could find, her resilience growing, even sacrificing her dignity, begging and pleading for work. She worked so much that her health suffered, her body weakened by malnutrition, her growth stunted.
And every month, during her period, the pain was excruciating, worse than most girls, exacerbated by her irregular sleep schedule and poor diet. But she had to work; she had no choice. She just hoped those days would pass quickly.
Her health problems, the result of years of neglecting her body, persisted even years later, the hypoglycemia, the debilitating period cramps, a constant reminder of her struggles.
As she often said, “I’m doing this for survival. Just gotta endure.”
She attended First Municipal High School, her physique still small, her clothes the same ones she had worn since she was twelve. She planned to work after graduating, not wanting to continue her studies, eager to enter the workforce.
One day, while cleaning the blackboard, struggling to reach the top, she noticed a girl with glasses standing at the classroom door, watching her.
The girl’s gaze was strange, like she was looking at someone she hadn’t seen in a long time, her expression filled with a mixture of longing and guilt.
“Hello, are you looking for someone?” Yu Linna asked.
The girl paused, then looked at her again, her expression falling, her eyes filled with a deep loneliness.
“No, it’s nothing. I… I mistook you for someone else…”
With that, she turned and walked away, her shoulders slumped.
Strange, Yu Linna thought.
Later, her classmates told her the girl’s last name was Huo. The name sounded familiar, but Yu Linna couldn’t place it, shrugging it off.
Until the day they met again…
