After a long day at school, I lesiurly walk to the city centre to find a bank. Just when I started walking for around 20 minutes and got annoyed at my poor sense of direction in the city, I spot the bank and happily walk towards it.
As soon as I go in hear a warm, petite voice "Welcome to Bank of China, dear customer how may I help you today?" Says a short but very pretty receptionist as soon as she sees me and smiles faintly.
'En, en, This Bank has good employees. No discrimation even though I'm dressed in a middle school uniform. I chose a great bank this time. Also, this receptionist is indeed very cute.' I think in my head and smile to myself.
"Hello" I greet hear politely and say "I want to make a bank account in order to move my monthly expenses given to me by the government to it. But my situation is rather special so I may need to speak with your manager about it."
The woman looks over me and is stunned for a moment but quickly regains her polite smile and tells me to go to the waiting area as she goes to fetch the manager.
I say my thanks and sit down on a couch. A few minutes later, I see the manager and he is also stunned when he sees me, but still walks over and politely asks me to go to his office.
"Hello, my surname is Zhou, you can call me Manager Zhou. So, young man, what can I help you with today?" he smiles at me as we sit down in hiss office.
I look at him and say very seriously. "It's like this Manager Zhou, 6 years ago, my parents died in a car crash and I was taken in by my Aunt and her family, however I am not on their family register and thus, I am entitled to own my own bank account".
"My father was someone of military background, so the government decided to give me 1,000RMB of monthly expenses until I turn 18. They decided to send all of this money to my Aunt's bank account since I was still a child, but now that I am 16, I can choose to take this money away from my Aunt"
The manager is slightly stunned and I can see the pity in his eyes but I ignore it like I always do since its pretty common for people to pity an orphan and I am already used to it. He then says "But why do you want to change which account the money is sent to?"
"Because I rarely ever got anything from this amount of money. Usually, it's spent on things for the rest of the family, and I never got anything from it, even though its mine" I hide my face from him because it's indeed embarrassing to get your money stolen from your family...
"I also have my mum's will that says I am entitled to 5 million RMB upon turning 16, however it is currently hidden by my aunt and her husband. I will definitely get it back soon! And so, I was sondering if you offer services regarding Wills?" I asked curiously
"Oh... So it's like this. Don't worry young man. This may be a bit of a troublesome process but it will definitely work as long as all your documents are valid. About the will...hmmm, we can work something out. we do have a lawyers department, and although they deal with big amounts of money, 5 million is not a small sum, so I will see what I can do" Said the manager sincerely.
I honestly cannot thank him enough, for all he is doing right now. For him, it may be nothing but for me, it is the first step to freedom.
I take out all the documents and watch Manager Zhou get to work. He types very quickly on his computer and then calls someone, I reckon it's someone working for the government in charge of my monthly allowance.
After everything is settled, he asks "This month's allowance is supposed to come in on Friday, but I can quicken the process if you're in need of money today if that's okay with you?"
I quickly nod and smile happily at him. "Yes! There is some books I have to buy from the library for my revision but I have no money on me. Now that I have my bank account and I'm financially independent, I can finally spend some money on myself!"
"Hahaha, aiyoo, kids these days are so enthusiastic about revision?" he asks between laughing.
"Okay, Han Xue Wei, this old man will have to wrong you. You have to wait for at least 30 minutes for your new bank card. Would you like anything to drink?"
"It's alright, I don't need anything, I will just revise for this 30 minutes. Thank you for everything Manager Zhou!" I bow in gratitude and walk back to the waiting area. I take out my English textbook and memorise my daily amount of sentences.
30 minutes later, I hear footsteps behind me and see the kind receptionist walking towards me with a smile.
"Hello, dear customer. This is your new bank card and this is your new pin code. Please remember it and do not loose it" she says as she hand me my bank card and a piece of paper.
"Thank you. Is it all right to withdraw some money right now?"
"Yes this is possible, just walk over and use this machine" She points at a machine near the exit.
I say my thanks and go to withdraw some money. I use the bank machine and take out 500RMB from my account. This should be enough for this month. I can't squander all the money I have, since it's always better to save some for emergency purposes. Just in case my aunt finds out about the transfer of money.
After I go out of the bank, I get a little hungry and decide to have some cheap supper outside, to commemorate my new life!
I walk to a small BBQ stall and order. "Boss, give me 10 BBQ chicken skewers and a large portion of rice!"
The boss looks stunned as he says, "Young man, you're so skinny, are you sure you can finish all of this?"
"Uncle, its precisely because I'm so skinny that I need to eat more meat! I know my limits. Don't worry." I smile to reassure the old man.
After I got my meal, I paid 30RMB, found an empty table, sat down and began to wolf down my food since I haven't eaten anything from lunch time. I look at the time and see that it's already 18:45 so I decide to quickly go to the city's library and buy the books that were recommended by Teacher Rong.
After walking into the library, overwhelmed by the smell of books, I gradually relax myself and slowly walk around with a basket, ready to pick out any books that have the same name as the one's on the list Teacher Ring made for me. I nearly forgot how addicting and calming the smell of books can be.
In my last life, when I had nowhere to go, I often went into this public library because it was basically a palce where I can warm up for free and pass time by reading books. After a few times however, I fell in love with this atmosphere and decided that this will be where I will spend the most of my time. From then on, every time I had nothing to do, I went to the library, took an interesting book and nestled myself in a quiet corner and read the bokks until the library's closing time at night.
Now, after remembering this nostalgic feeling from my past life, I decided to spend my time here every day after school and on weekends.
I walked down different aisles as I took different types of books and put them in my shopping cart. From books like 'New English Middle school Year 1 to 3' to books like '200 poems and Articles - Middle School edition' to 'Year 1 Math and Science workbooks Middle school edition' and more. After looking through the shelfs that contain books for students in Middle School, I walked towards the cashier and look as she scans my books.
"The total is 120RMB" she smiles as she packs the books into my bag.
I take out the money while I grit my teeth and weep silently for the loss of nearly half of what is supposed to last me for the rest of this month...
After paying this unreasonable amount I walk towards the end of the library to find a quiet corner. I decided that since I still have a lot of time until the library closes, I may as well spend this time revising my math and sciences. I walk towards the quietest corner and sit on a bean bag as I push my bangs and tie them up in order to see better. This was my favorite place in my last life and usually no one used to sit in this area.
Yeah... Usually. Now it seems like this area already has a friend... I look over to see a tall boy, sitting at the other end of the wall, leaning on his chair and writing in his book with headphones in his ears.
I look at him for a while, and judge that his appearance when he works like this is truly captivating. He may even be on par with me.
'Who am I kidding? I'm a total cutie that no one can match kekeke'
This boy however gives off a more manly aura in contrast to mine... His raven black hair with streaks of dark brown which are probably natural are not usually noticeable unless one focuses on little details like I do, his eyes as black as abyss, in which you can get lost if you look for too long, his long, proportionate nose, slightly blushing cheeks on his white, not pale but healthily white skin and his dark, long lips, together with his slender fingers that are flipping the pages of the book and his long legs, all of this gives of a charming yet overbearing and majestic feeling.
I probably stared too much and he felt it as he looked over at me questioningly. I simply shrugged and noded, going back to my revision, not caring about his response, because, yes his looks may be handsome but there are many good looking people in this world and this person is a stranger so there is no need to dwell on it any longer.
I then started my revision by using the newly bought math textbook called 'Basic formulas needed for middle school exams' and forgot all about this encounter with a handsome boy as I concentrated on solving more and more problems.
*********
What Han Xue Wei didn't realise is that after he nodded and then ignored the gaze of this mysterious boy, this boy himself, stared at him for a long while.
He looked at this skinny boy, clothed in a school uniform definitely too big for him to the point of making it look shabby, like a potato sack, yet on this skinny boy, it still looked somewhat acceptable. He observed him working through the textbook quickly and in deep concentration as one of his petite, thin and slender hands writes down the notes while the other one flips the pages of the workbook. He looked at the boy whose blue eyes seem to hold thousands of mysteries while also observing his slightly dropping, long and thick eyelashes, his beautiful nose and thin, glossy and rosy lips.
No one in this small library corner noticed this mysterious boy, staring at Han Xue Wei in deep concentration for at least an hour. He looked at him like he found the most interesting thing in the world. He observed every hand movement the child made, every frown and every time he puckered his lips as if annoyed at something. All of this was seen by the charming boy. He didn't even realise how fast time flied until he got a message and was thus forced to stop something that made him enjoy his life for the first time in a long time. He reluctantly looked down on his phone with a frown and read the message.
*Uncle Zuo : Young Master, Master and Madam are coming back from their business trip so please come back earlier to have supper together.*
Annoyed, the boy helplessly stood up, packed his things away and walked out of the library, looking at the boy that caught his attention one last time, before chuckling to himself and thinking 'I hope we will see each other again'