Chapter 1: The Beginning

"There is no such thing as coincidence in this world.”

Full moon hung on the sky as it glowed eerily; matching the moon was the winter breeze that was piercing cold.

On the deserted and quite street, sounds of heels can be heard, its sound especially loud on the desolate street.

A woman walked the eerie place without care.  She has long black hair tied on a high ponytail and dressed in a business casual. She looked young that some people had often confused her to being a high school student however despite this she had a young professional aura and seriousness contrasting to how young she looked outside.

Without fear and with steady pace, Mei Lie, the woman walked while she mumbled the words she was reading from her small note from the class she just finished.

For normal females, to walk alone during the night on a very deserted and quite street can be really uncomfortable. However to Mei Lie nights like this was as normal as her daily routine. Being a working student, she usually works during the day but study during the night which leads her to go home late every night. 

Mei Lie had been an orphan at an early age. Being orphan from age 5 she had experienced transferring from one house of a relative to another. It was only when she was finally adopted by a distant elderly aunt on her father side when she was 8 years old that she was able to live on a stable environment.

Since her aunt was old, they were financially challenged however she was happier to be with her Aunt Bai than living with her other relatives. So to help with the family, from early age she had already started to work small jobs that she can get. The experiences that she had was the driving force for her to work hard so she can repay the love and care that her Aunt Bai gave her.

Her Aunt Bai was a public officer but she had once told Mei Lie how she wanted to be a lawyer but was unable to continue because of circumstances. Despite being young Mei Lie already dreamed of being a lawyer to continue her Aunt Bai’s dream. Unfortunately, before she was able to repay or do anything for her aunt, she already died because of sickness when she was 15 years old.

From then on, Mei Lie decided to live alone. Fortunately her aunt owns the small house they lived in and there were some savings left for her. So despite all the heartache and hardship Mei Lie continued to work and study to pursue her dream of becoming a lawyer.

Now she was 2nd year Law student. She works as a part time secretary/researcher for a small firm in town during the day and continue to study during the night.

Her life experience had tempered her to be independent and also have strong will with undying perseverance to pursue her goals. It is also these experiences that she seeks stability in her life, planning every step with goals that she wanted to achieve. That’s why Mei Lie’s friends usually tell her that she has a boring life since she has a monotonous routine.

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And Just like her normal routine, after class she went home immediately declining her friends invitation to go out and have fun.  

It was just another night, Mei Lie believed. Like the previous nights, she will go home to small apartment where she will then enjoy a warm bath to relieve her tired body before going to sleep on her comfortable bed.

It was supposed to be just like the nights that Mei Lie believed to be. However today was destined to be different. It is a turning point in her life that she will always remember.  Every time she will remember this time, there will be many “what if” scenarios. Just like what if she went with her friends to go out after class than going straight home or what if she had not been so courageous as to follow the sound that led to that fateful event?  Nevertheless, Regardless of all the ‘what ifs’ scenario, it was something that already happened and can’t be changed.

Mei Lie was absorbed with reading when she flinched as she heard a tragic cry that made her involuntarily shiver. Mei Lie stood dazedly for a while before she hurriedly walked towards the place where she heard the voice.

The voice was soft but carried a tragic tone to it. It was without a doubt a cry for help. Mei Lie knew that it was a voice of a female. In the back of her mind, Mei Lie was certain that someone might have been in an accident and needed help. As she hurriedly walked towards a narrow alley she already took her phone from her bag ready to call help if needed.

She stopped in front of the alley; the blurry light of the moon was enough to illuminate a body of a woman lying on the ground. Even though the light was dim it was enough for her to see that the woman dressed in white was soaked with blood which was pooling around her body.

As a student, she was exposed on daily news and things happening to the society so it was not new to her to hear or know about crimes and bloody cases. In fact, she was really familiar with them since she was studying to be a lawyer and there were times that they did case digest about homicide. But studying, seeing reports and news was definitely different when she herself experienced it. 

So for Mei Lie to see a body in a pool of blood was too shocking that for her to momentarily freeze was expected, however Mei Lie was not that soft so she only froze for a while before she started to dial the emergency number.

As Mei Lie was waiting for someone to answer she was side-tracked when a small but audible sound came from the woman. Originally she thought that the woman was already dead, but fortunately she was still alive.

“Hello. This is 911 what is your emergency? ”

The answer from the phone was enough to make her feel relieved. “I think someone was assaulted.” She hurriedly answered as she anxiously and uncertainly went near the body. This was the very first time Mei Lie encountered a situation like this so she did not know what to do. “I don’t know what to do but there is lot of blood.”

“Is he or she conscious and is he or she breathing?”

“She seemed to be breathing but I’m not sure if she is conscious.” Mei Lie answered anxiously. Since she went near the body, Mei Lie was distinctly aware of the sticky liquid she step on was the blood coming from the body. She uncomfortably thought that the person might die or already dead because of excessive blood loss.

The body was position where the woman was lying down so Mei Lie can’t seem to see how she looked. She crouched down to hold her shoulder to check if she will respond when the woman suddenly caught her wrist.

The sudden pulling motion and the shock was enough to make Mei Lie scream so loud that the operator she was talking to even heard it before it was cut off because the phone fell down on the ground with impact destroying it.

Everything happened so suddenly that Mei Lie just remembered she saw a glimpse of the woman’s face before she was struck by pain and lost consciousness.

“…..Sorry”

Somewhere in her hazy consciousness before everything turned black, Mei Lie heard the last words she heard from the woman.