SINGAPORE, 18 YEARS LATER

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Emma Stardust only glanced at the orphanage in front for a moment before getting inside the car that would take her to her new home. For almost a dozen years, she lived in that building as a child of the state but had no pleasant memories there.

Ms. Mabel, the matron, had always called Emma a little monster, but Emma couldn't remember when was the first time that bitter middle-aged woman began to look at her with fear and disgust.

Ms. Mabel had attempted several times to move Emma to another facility, however, Ms. Mabel's requests were always rejected because the people in the Child Welfare Agency didn't accept the reasons she put forward such as: naughtiness, mental illness, wanted to harm the other children, etc.

Emma was used to shutting herself from others; she didn't care if she had no one to call a friend. Right now, she just wanted to get out of the system as soon as possible and become an adult who could decide the direction of her own life.

Emma wasn't a native Singaporean. According to documents she had found, she was born in France and was registered in the child protection system there. However, since the French government had taken more children than they could handle, some registered children were transferred to other developed countries that were willing to take them under their wings.

Singapore and Japan were the two countries that willingly opened their doors to unwanted children from mainland Europe, according to the UNCPP Treaty.

Although these two countries were among the top 20 economies in the world, both were experiencing a population crisis due to low birth rates. Most of their citizens were elderly and the previous generation of adults delivered very few babies. Therefore, as the economists had analyzed, Japan and Singapore had been having challenges in finding a productive workforce over the past few years.

In order to mitigate this dilemma, they began accepting unwanted children with the hope of them becoming their citizens. Hopefully, this would alleviate the population crisis in their countries. Singapore, however, didn't take prospective new citizens easily. Since they adopted a meritocracy system, they set a strict screening system, so that only quality seeds could enter their country.

Emma was one of those quality seeds. When she was younger, her IQ Test showed that her level of intelligence was above Einstein's. She also showed characteristics similar to Einstein when he was at her age.

Emma's mind flew to the distant past when she was still in the orphanage in France, eleven years ago. She was five years old when Singapore's assessment team came to visit her in France.

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Emma had never spoken a word during the assessment and in the orphanage, so everyone thought she was a mute. However, when the examiners stood and crossed her name, preparing to leave, she uttered one sentence.

"Cocaine, not heroin," said little Emma in a lazy tone. She sat still by the window as her lazy eyes swept past the rose garden outside. Her best dress fluttered by the passing wind.

"Eh?" The two examiners and the orphanage matron looked at each other. The male examiner asked, "Isn't she a mute?"

The fat woman appeared to be in shock before shrugging. "She never talked before. But everyone said she was very intelligent, so we proposed a transfer request to the Singaporean government."

"Did I hear her right? She said 'heroin' correct?" asked the female officer to her colleague.

The man scratched his head. "Mmm... I think so?"

He opened his cellphone and checked the internet. As it turned out, the little girl had corrected what he had uttered when he first read her full name, Emma Stardust. He remembered now.

At the beginning of their meeting, after he had sat in front of Emma and examined the documents regarding her, he commented that 'Stardust' was a nickname the DEA(US Drugs Enforcement Agency) used for heroin. But he was wrong. Stardust was the nickname for cocaine, not heroin. He locked his phone as he stared at Emma intrigued by her words.

He said, "Wow, did this child simply happen to know this fact, or she just read a lot? But wasn't she only five years old?"

The man walked to Emma and crouched before her. "Little girl, you can actually talk, but the matron said that you have never said a word until now. Why is that?"

The little girl shrugged and answered indifferently in perfect English. "Everything has been fine so far."

"Oh..." The man was amazed by Emma's answer. He was fascinated by this indifferent child. From the results of the IQ Test they had done earlier, her IQ reached 155. They had hesitated to accept Emma initially due to her not being able to speak, but now, that was no longer an issue. Apparently, all this time, she kept quiet because she didn't feel the need to talk.

What a unique child! Her intelligence was also evident. She certainly would be valuable to Singapore. They finally decided to take her.

Thus, eleven years ago, Emma set foot in this country and became one of the many children adopted by the Singaporean government. She was raised in a good facility. She, like the other children, also got a decent life and education.

Unfortunately, one month after the little girl arrived, something happened that made Ms. Mabel, the orphanage matron, become afraid of Emma and hate her. The girl's life became lonesome because she wasn't allowed to be friends with the other children.

For eleven years, Emma resolved to grow up well, so she could get out of the orphanage and live independently. She wanted to get a job as soon as possible and save money to return to France and look for her parents.

She kept her determination throughout the years and her wish came true, earlier than she expected, when the government launched a new program for the elderly who were living alone. This program aimed to help the elderly without families, so they could have company, feel motivated to continue living, and prevent or reduce the cases of Alzheimer's disease.

The government provided an opportunity for poor young people who couldn't afford to rent their own house to live with an elderly person in a two-bedroom apartment provided by the government.

This was beneficial for both parties. The young people would get subsidized housing, the elderly would have company, and they only needed to pay for utilities.

Emma had tried her luck and applied for admission. The cover letter she had written proved to be so convincing that a board member allowed her to leave the orphanage even though she wasn't 17 years old! She could now start living her life with one of the elderly in the program.

"I'll work hard and live independently soon. Once I have enough money, I'll go to France and look for my parents," she muttered to herself.

Now, the day she had been waiting for finally arrived. With only a backpack strapped on her shoulders, Emma left the orphanage, entered the car, and headed toward her new life. She would live with a 70-year-old lady whom she called Grandma Lin. They had met twice and grew to like each other.

For Emma, living anywhere was fine, so long as she didn't have to see Ms. Mabel's ugly contemptuous face.

She couldn't wait to leave this place!