"What time is it?"
A soft nasal voice echoed in a small apartment. The apartment was shabby looking, with a musty smell in it. The paint on the walls was chipping off.
In the living room, there was not much furniture kept, just a sofa and a coffee table. A bundle wrapped in a quilt moved about on the sofa as a pale hand reached out from it to the mobile kept on the table.
Su Qiqi squinted her eyes to look at the glaring screen light in the dark, as soon as she saw the time, she jumped in shock and sat up straight on the sofa.
"It's already 9 p- Ouch! My neck!"
She rubbed the back of her neck, as she thought,
'I need to get a new bed soon.'
The bed she had was badly mutated by the termites, even the carpenter couldn't save it.
Su Qiqi quickly got up and walked to the bathroom to freshen up. Walking up to the bathroom sink she looked at herself in the mirror, smiled showing all her teeth and threw herself a wink.
"Hey, gorgeous."
Su Qiqi had short hair, her complexion was pale and she looked skinny due to not eating proper meals.
As she had just woken up she had messy hair, but that didn't stop her from being narcissistic.
Su Qiqi turned on the tap and as the water came out of it, she braced herself to wash her face.
"Cold! Cold! Cold!"
She ran outside to look for a towel to quickly wipe her face as if that would wipe the cold off.
'In such cold weather, I can't even afford hot water. When will these days of being poor end?'
While she was wiping her face, her stomach growled. She rubbed her stomach and walked towards the kitchen, as she mumbled to herself
"I haven't eaten anything since morning. Let's see what's there to eat."
She opened the first drawer,
"Hmm?"
It was empty.
She went to the second drawer but the second one was empty too, and so was the third one.
She kept opening all the drawers in the kitchen, one after another but all of them were empty, and some even had cobwebs forming inside them.
"No way! Did I forget to restock again?!"
She then checked the fridge and as expected it was empty as well.
"There are not even any leftovers in the fridge!"
Her stomach growled again. She patted her stomach and said in a consoling manner
"Just wait a little longer, I am going to feed you soon."
She picked up her phone again to check her account balance and the screen showed: [your account xxx0077 has an available balance of 1125.50]
"I will be getting a paycheck for the editorial work I did soon, I have to survive 10 more days on this money. So now I can only opt for the cheapest option, looks like I will have to go to the grocery store."
She picked up some cash from the drawers, changed out of her slippers and walked out of the apartment.
After walking down 6 floors, she left the apartment building.
Huffing and puffing, she turned back to look at the delipidated building and vowed,
"I'll surely live in a better place one day… at least the apartment building will have an elevator for sure."
As she walked further down the street she saw that the street was completely dark,
"Why is the street so dark? It looks so creepy."
She quickened her steps, and reached down the street, at the turn there was the grocery store.
She went inside and greeted the middle-aged lady standing at the counter.
"Hello, Mrs. Wu."
Mrs. Wu was a middle-aged woman who was the owner of the store, she lived in the same building as her.
"Oh Qiqi you are here, look around there are new snacks this time in store."
Su Qiqi smiled and nodded her head to Mrs. Wu.
She took the basket but didn't look around the store, she directly came to the section which sold cup noodles. She chose the cheapest cup noodles priced at 6 yuan and picked 10 packs of them at once.
'This should be enough till my salary arrives.'
Su Qiqi was about to go to the billing counter when she heard a girl's cute voice call out to her mother.
"Mom, I want that chocolate."
"Sweetie, didn't your dad get chocolates for you when he returned from his trip?"
"But I like this chocolate."
"Well, then we will buy this after you have finished the chocolates your dad brought.
"Why? I don't like those. I like this one."
"If your dad heard you, he would feel sad. So we will first finish the ones Dad brought okay?"
The mother and daughter went ahead looking for other things to buy. While Su Qiqi stood there in a trance, looking at their receding backs. She felt a bitter feeling rise in her heart, but she suppressed it,
'What is there to feel envious about? Isn't it just chocolate, I will buy it after my salary arrives.'
She took the basket filled with cup noodles to the billing counter.
Mrs. Wu looked at the basket with only cup noodles and then at Su Qiqi her eyes filled with pity.
"Hey Qiqi, why do you have to buy so many packets of cup noodles? You should learn how to cook then you wouldn't have to eat cup noodles all the time."
'I don't even have enough money to buy groceries. What will I use for cooking?'
Su Qiqi knew Mrs. Wu meant well so she politely replied,
"I am busy with my job these days, maybe I'll learn it afterward."
"Your total is 50 yuan."
"Mrs. Wu?"
Mrs. Wu smiled and said, "It's a little discount for my regular customer."
"Thanks, Mrs. Wu"
Su Qiqi paid the bill, took the bag filled with cup noodles and left the store.
'Looks like even Mrs. Wu knows that I am short on money.'
Mrs. Wu looked at her lonely back, shook her head and sighed,
"What a poor child."
The lady standing behind Su Qiqi for billing heard their conversation and couldn't help herself from asking,
"Mrs. Wu, why do you say so? Does that girl only eats cup noodles?"
"It's not only that, this child had a pitiful life. She is an orphan, who grew up in an orphanage. She has always lived alone since she moved here."
"Ah! That's sad."
"She is a kind child, I hope that she will not have to live like this for long."
Su Qiqi who had walked far did not hear what they were talking about. On the dim and deserted street, the street lamp was constantly blinking, giving an eerie feeling. It was so silent, that the rustling of dry leaves and clear footsteps could be heard.
Su Qiqi suddenly turned her head to look behind her.
'Hmm? Am I imagining things?'
she felt someone was following her but there was no one behind.
As soon as she turned her head back, a small creature jumped out and latched onto her neck, before she could even understand what was going on, she felt the ground beneath her vanish. She kept falling into an endless void.
Feeling the nothingness beneath her, she was scared out of her wits. She tried to pull off the thing latched onto her, as she shouted,
"Whaa-what's going on??"
"Stupid human, stop messing around, otherwise we might end up hopping in the wrong world."
A majestic male voice sounded just before a bright white light flashed in front of her eyes and she lost consciousness.