It was a saturday. Li Heng woke up stiff, his head heavier than it should have been after a night's sleep. His limbs were still numb, yet lighter than before.
(Maybe one basketball match would've done it.) He shook the thought away and prepared for the day ahead.
As he approached the door, his mother was standing in the kitchen cleaning vegetables. His father was looking at his phone for the latest news as the television was broadcasting a news report
Reporter 1: "…Now we move on to local news where a major North Korean repatriation train in Shen Yang was derailed around 6am this morning. Authorities are currently recapturing these illegal entrants and citizens are advised to report any suspected illegal entrants to the nearest Ministry of State Security office."
Li An: "This doesn't feel real…[Terrorist organization near Myanmar…with…maids?]" He muttered to himself while reading carefully at the news article
Just then, Li Heng walked into the living room and greeted his parents
Li An: "Good morning son. I saw this thing called a…maid? What is this?"
Li Heng: "Maid?...It's like a job-Like the palace maids. How do you know those words?"
His father showed him the news and Li Heng smiled a bit
Li Heng: "Must be fake, maids can't fight like that and they exists in manga"
Wu Shao Ning: "Maybe fake for you, I heard from the other housewives that there was an increased police patrols recently. You better be careful on your way to college" She said while placing the dishes onto the dish racks
Li Heng: "I will. I'm heading out to the library now"
Both parents: "Alright, goodbye son!"
The morning streets were the same as usual, more honking, people going about their daily lives and more police officers and cars patrolling the streets which didn't go unnoticed by Li Heng
Li Heng walked even more quietly and tried to avoid the same usual routes to the warehouse. Along the way, he pass by a community garden where an event is being held, an unofficial public demonstration of missing children incidents event. The demonstrators were holding detailed signs and photos about their children, facing a board of missing children posters while a truck of police officers were on guard duty on the walkways and streets
Li Heng briefly passed by and saw the posters
(This is ridiculous and feels fake…) He thought to himself before walking another 20 minutes to the warehouse
The first thing he noticed was a barricade surrounding the warehouse. He expected this but he didn't expect for the China Zhong Construction Corp to be demolishing the warehouse
He looked at the site before seeing a foreman and several workers near a truck. He approached them slowly and they immediately reacted to it
Foreman: "Can I help you, kid?" He asked
Li Heng: "This warehouse, are you demolishing it?"
Foreman: "Well…" He looked towards his company icon "Yes, yes we are"
Li Heng: "Then do you guys see anything abnormal is there? Like...Blood or something?"
Worker 1: "Kid, the only thing in there are some barrels and a syringe. We checked it ourselves"
Foreman: "You lost something in there, kid?"
Li Heng: "No…Nothing. Thank you" He said as he walked away the warehouse.
However just as he started walking away, he saw a beggar laying on the ground just around the corner of a shoplot. He approached him and the beggar got up slowly
Beggar: "You got a problem, kid?" He said with a distrustful tone
Li Heng: "Yeah…A few days ago, my friend went into that warehouse and…never got out. Can you tell me what you see a few days ago?"
The beggar said nothing and lifted his fingers to the number 5
Li Heng: "...50?"
Beggar: "500!"
Li Heng immediately began turning away while the beggar desperately shouted '350!', '300!' and eventually '250!!!'. Li Heng stopped and gave him 250RMB
Beggar: "Fine, I assume your friend is a tall, handsome kid?-" He paused and Li Heng nods
Beggar: "That kid is…How can I say-Weird. He came onto the warehouse and started talking to himself for two minutes before entering the warehouse"
Li Heng: "And?"
Beggar: "Then I went to collect more water bottles from the bins and slept at the bus stop. When I returned, the warehouse was already being barricaded and several expensive looking guys were guarding the warehouse"
Li Heng: "…Right, thank you"
As Li Heng started to get up, the beggar suddenly got up too
Beggar: "Be careful, kid. Those guys looked serious"
Li Heng nods and starts heading home.However after a while a car suddenly stopped in front of the beggar with two guys coming out and took him away. Li Heng looked behind him and saw…nothing
(…Why did I got chills?) He thought to himself before continue walking