The date is 20th May 2007, 7:50 am.
Li Chengyu has just stepped out of his father's vehicle outside the bus stop opposite New Hope Polytechnic.
However, this day is a Sunday, and there are not supposed to be any lessons during Sundays, so what is exactly the purpose of coming to the polytechnic on a Sunday?
The question has already been answered during the Freshmen Orientation Lecture on the first day of his life here......
(Six days ago, 3:40 pm)
During the Freshmen Orientation Lecture, the principal of the Information and Communications Cluster mentioned about an activity that every student in the polytechnic has to do on the first weekend in their school lives – Raising Funds for the polytechnic's chosen charity beneficiary via a Flag Day Activity during the first Sunday of the school term.
“It seems like every new student in every class each year has to do this once...... But being a lone ranger like me, doing this could be a very hard challenge.”
The principal also informed all the students about the specific details regarding the entire activity and the dos and don’ts of this activity. A copy of the instructions was also emailed to all the
students a day later for them to read.
(Present time)
Chengyu reached the Convention Centre where his harder-than-usual journey will commence in a short moment.
Inside the hall there were many students crowding around small groups. Some of them have found new friends since starting their new lives as students of the polytechnic and are crowding around their new-found groups, while others are still finding their own groups to begin with. For Chengyu, he still wishes to be a lone ranger in whatever he does and hopes to stay that way.
“I sure hope that this can get started quickly...”
Once Chengyu has found the room that he is supposed to get the things he needs to start his journey, he steps into the room to obtain his items, which consists of a tin can with a coin slot on the top, a set of sticker sheets, as well as a government licence needed for a person to perform this activity. This government licence is to certify that a person is authorised to collect money from the public for charitable purposes on behalf of an organisation which is the polytechnic he is studying now. The tin can has the activity logo and details wrapped around it for easy identification and is sealed beforehand so that no extraction of the donations inside is made theoretically possible by unauthorised persons.
“The licence states that I am authorised to solicit donations all over the island with the exception of on public transport.”
Chengyu also thinks about how others solicit donations in the past, and how he tries his best to ignore these people without donating a single cent.
“It seems like I may be paid back in my own coin in some way or another... I don't know if I can even survive through this one in one piece, or in any kind of sane condition as I am right now......”
With the horn sounding the start of the activity, all the students are expected to leave the Convention Centre and out of the campus to start asking for donations. Chengyu also went out of the campus as instructed and starts on the journey...
Going back to the same bus stop he alighted from this morning, Chengyu checked on the bus route to the nearest MRT Station and takes the first bus that goes there. However, the perennial problem of
overcrowding presents itself as it did every day, the difference being that this time, students form up most of the crowd instead!
“This is simply nuts with this kind of crowd......!”
When the bus reaches the bus stop near Clementi Bus Interchange, he alights from the bus and goes up the escalator to reach the MRT Station to board the first MRT that comes into the station. As he sat down on the seat that is available to him, people started to put some coins into his can, and he automatically tears out a sticker from the sticker sheets to give to anyone who has donated.
“Although asking for donations on a MRT Train is not allowed, but there's no way I can stop people from donating into my can without me doing anything, because that choice of theirs is made out of their own free will...”
However, in the middle of the ride to the next station, there's someone who is walking towards the carriage he is sitting inside. She has brown hair and green eyes and wears glasses coupled with a dual-hue brown dress complete with a pair of seemingly-too-small brown boot-like shoes. Worse still, she also holds a can that is exactly the same as what he is holding!
“Competition...? Right here......?? This is not good...!”
Thinking something bad might happen if he doesn't move quickly, Chengyu immediately stood up and started moving in the same direction as her, trying to keep a distance from her as long as possible.
“Get out of here! I have to get out of this place as soon as possible!!”
When he sees a crowd, he immediately rushes into it, and hears the announcement of the train arriving at the next MRT Station soon after.
“I have to get out of this train fast! Have to get away from someone like that girl!!”
Chengyu quickly went out of the train carriage as soon as the doors open, rushed down the escalators and went through the fare gantry to escape. As soon as he got through the gantry, he slows down,
breathing very heavily in sweat.
“This is nuts...!! I don't want to face unnecessary competition so early in this journey like that!!”
He took a whole ten minutes to calm down completely before walking across the road to the cinema complex and bought a drink to hydrate himself in the hot and humid morning. After doing that, he decides to re-enter the same fare gantry and boards the train which takes another route that goes north.
“I hope that person is not in this train anymore...” Chengyu thinks as he boards the train on the central platform and sits down on a seat. But unlike the previous train ride, nobody donated into his can even though there are no competitors around.
The date is 20th May 2007, 10:15 am.
Once the train reaches the Ang Mo Kio MRT Station, he decided to alight and head to the town centre, where a massive construction site is. The construction site is for a future air-conditioned bus interchange in about 2 years' time. Chengyu looks around and sees no visible students here and heaves a sigh of relief.
“No competitors around for the time being, but I still have to be extremely alert about my surroundings in case of any problems or unwanted rivals cropping up here...... I wish that I won't be able to utilise the results of my secret extreme training here when it comes.”
For the next fifteen minutes, people start donating into his can and he does the usual thing that he is supposed to do, not knowing that another student holding the same can as him is already there trying to ask for donations. Chengyu then walks up the bridge that connects two sides of the main road together, and donations kept on coming into his can slowly until he reaches the middle of the bridge. As he looks towards the other side of the road he is shocked at what he sees.
“No way...! How come I've missed the competition that is right ahead of me without even noticing it!!”
Chengyu immediately puts down his can and takes out his fold-able binoculars to take a closer look at the person that is situated about fifteen metres away from the bridge entrance on the other side. There he finds the sole competitor that is obstructing his donation road and his calmness – a girl having Asian-type pale-beige skin with long black hair and has a red ribbon tied to the back that is visible from the front. She is wearing a white long-sleeve blouse coupled with a black long dress complete simply with a pair of red shoes that seemingly looks like beautiful high heels but with a much lower and bigger heel base. The most important thing is that she is also holding a can that is the same as he is holding right now!
Chengyu took down his binoculars and observed her from a distance for about fifteen minutes and realised something.
“It seems like that competitor is trying to ask for donations too, but without any success. Although I do get donations without even opening my mouth, but that kind of situation over there is just simply......”
At this moment, Chengyu suddenly felt a sharp pain in his own chest where his heart is located.
“What's wrong with me!? Whenever I feel sadness for myself or other people, the thorn in my heart starts to act up and pain will follow! I need to do something about this, but what can I do......! This really is one effect I would never want for my extreme training!!”
Chengyu thinks about this problem while the pain in his chest continues to get more serious. But amidst this pain, he could only think of one thing that he can do...
“I hope this can tone down the pain that I'm having... for the time being...”
Someone has donated a one-dollar coin into his can, and that became the source for the idea that he thought up. So he decided to take out a one-dollar coin from his wallet, and walked towards the black-haired girl, who turned towards him when he approached her.
“Good morning sir, please donate......”
Without any prior signal from Chengyu, he immediately placed the one-dollar coin right inside her own can! And this shocked her for a while, especially when she noticed the can that he is carrying is exactly the same one she has herself! However, Chengyu doesn't show any emotion whatsoever in front of her. This stalemate lasted for a nearly a minute until she takes out a sticker from her sticker sheet and offers it to him.
“Thank you very much!” She offers it to him with a cute smile on her face.
However, that smile of hers, coupled with the pale-beige skin and black hair, caused Chengyu flashbacks within his head: Flashbacks of a scene so familiar in his memories somewhere before.
“That expression... that look...! That's......!!”
The smiling-face scene that happened 2 years ago at the hospital where he is warded for injuries and the bone marrow transplant suddenly appears right before him. Worse still, the same expression that he sees now is exactly the same as the expression shown by that girl sitting on the motorised wheelchair at that time, right down to the face, hair colour and everything in between! Although the image taken by his mind at that time is not as clear as it is now, it inevitably caused his emotions to suffer shocks for the first time in more than 2 years, and the result is that he immediately changes to a defensive stance and emotion.
“Why is the expression that I saw just now looked so familiar......! Why does this girl look so much like that girl back then......! Who is she anyway......!!”
Chengyu quickly turned his back on her without thinking. In his mind were blurry images of a young girl very similar to what she looks like now, but he still had no idea the identity of that girl in his mind however hard he tried to recall from his trove of sad memories!
“What the heck is wrong with me!? I don't want to be reminded of my horrific past again! Never!!”
But suddenly, the girl in question right now starts talking to him.
“Sir, are you okay?”
Chengyu reluctantly turns around to face her again, and she instantly offers the sticker to him.
“It's okay to take it, mister. You've helped me to find more motivation now to garner more donations.”
Chengyu couldn't say anything about her reaction. But suddenly, a few persons started placing coins inside both their cans, and the two instinctively gave the stickers to the donors as they were instructed to do beforehand. This inevitably puts a smile on the girl's face.
“You must be a lucky person.”
Chengyu's face showed anger at what she said.
“What the heck is she saying...!? I knew more than anyone else that my own luck level is in negative territory, so how could she say words like that when she doesn't even know anything about this, or even myself as a person!?”
Trying to minimise the trouble that he can potentially cause, he starts to leave the scene without saying anything.
“Please wait!” the girl calls out to him, and he pauses for a moment almost instinctively.
“Is it okay... if I can come with you?”
This cause a shock in Chengyu's heart.
“I think... it'll be easier... if we can collect donations together...”
The shock turns to intense frustration and anger as he believes in working solo, something that he has constantly told himself to upheld since the bullying incident years ago.
“Do what you want. I'm getting out of here!” Chengyu blurted out a very rare sentence before leaving the place and heads for the MRT Station to take a train further south. The girl also decided to follow him shortly after.
The date is 20th May 2007, 10:55 am.
During the trip, Chengyu and the girl that followed him sat at two ends of the same train carriage. He looked around and noticed her sitting at the other end of the same carriage.
“So she decided to follow me huh...... I don't know what she is up to exactly, but don't ask me for help if you get lost somehow......!”
When the MRT train reaches Toa Payoh Station, he alighted out of the train, and the girl followed him. But it seems like the girl knew somehow that he tries to make himself somewhat unapproachable, so she kept a safe distance from him all this time and collected donations on her own. Chengyu also did the same thing and this lasted for almost an hour.
“I still have absolutely no idea why she has to do such a thing... Can't she just leave me alone as I am!?” Chengyu thought with an angry look shown on his face, thinking that it may contradict the belief he has upheld for so long.
But suddenly, he notices that the girl is taking out a small bottle, tries to drink something from it and realizes that not a single drop of water came out of that bottle.
“Oh no! I forgot to fill up on water before I left the campus......” the girl said to herself, in which the entire cut-scene was caught in Chengyu's eye without her knowing it.
“Speaking of water, I also feel thirsty as well. I'd better buy something to drink...”
Chengyu stood up and walked to the nearest budget store to buy a bottle of plum juice. He paid for the bottle and left the store without noticing anything about his carrier of purchases. It was when he returned to the place he collected donations, then he realised that there are two bottles of plum juice in his carrier instead!
“Oh no!! Didn't I just pick only one bottle, why are there two bottles inside!?”
Chengyu quickly rushed back to the same store and checked the display, there was only one bottle missing from the shelf – the one that he just bought. But why are there two bottles in his carrier? He looked for the price board where it shows the price of the plum juice that is only a dollar each, but he then realized there is some small printthat is unrecognisable if seen from a distance.
The small print read: 'Buy 1 get 1 free. Please claim free item from the cashier.'
“Darn! No wonder I got two bottles of plum juice for the price of one! That store seriously has to do something about the fine print though...... I only have the stomach to drink 1 bottle of that at any one time. Wouldn't the other bottle be wasted??”
Chengyu returned to the place he collected donations and saw the girl still worried about her bottle.
“I don't know where I can get clean water even though I know Singapore has a healthy source of clean water, but only the campus has ready-to-drink water that I can get...”
“I guess this person either is from overseas and got to here not long ago, or really is from a reclusive family...... Well, I guess the other bottle may have its own use after all in times like this......”
Chengyu walked to where the girl is and handed her one of the bottles of plum juice with his left hand. When the girl lifts her head up and saw the bottle, she was surprised that Chengyu was the one who offered her the drink.
“Uh..... thank you......” she humbly received the bottle with both hands, her face blushing red.
But Chengyu showed no emotion and left the place without saying anything as soon as he gives the bottle to her. When she raises her head to look at him, he is already nowhere to be found.
“Oh no! Where did he go??” The girl picked up her donation can and headed for the MRT Station again. When she went down to the MRT platform at the basement of the Bus Interchange, she saw Chengyu boarding a train that has arrived and followed into the same train without thinking. But it was only then that she realized that she is boarding another carriage on the same train that is heading north again.
“It seems like he is trying very hard to avoid me at all costs......”
Thinking that, she stayed in that carriage and waited for Chengyu to stand up and alight and followed suit, following a short distance from where he is but is careful not to let him notice her. But what she did not know is that Chengyu, having gone through extreme training to have much heightened alertness to things around him in the event of adverse situations, actually knew that she is moving nearby.
“I have an idea that I am not being able to shrug off that person as easily as I would think, there is no possibility that she is not around here somewhere...... But by the looks of it, since she is not doing anything that might cause any adverse situation for me at the moment, I think I should pay slightly more attention to what she does or will do if anything happens, especially due to the change in the environment here that could happen anytime, starting from now......!”
Chengyu decided to keep watching for any untoward situations from her or anything in the surroundings by looking around once in a few minutes after he has passed through the fare gate. A few moments after he has passed through, the girl also passed through the same fare gate that he has passed through before.
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