The cigarette ash fell to the ground, accidentally sprinkling a few on his suit collar, which stood out like a sore thumb.
In this old street full of migrant workers and impoverished families, suddenly appeared a young man with good looks and dressed in a suit. He quickly attracted everyone’s attention.
Among the crowd was a young woman wearing a red short skirt. She had golden shoulder-length hair and carried an imitation LV bag while walking gracefully in twelve-centimeter high heels.
A pair of not-so-fair hands rested on his arm as she spoke in an affected voice that made people nauseous.
“Hey handsome! Do you have a girlfriend? How about me?”
She kept throwing flirtatious glances at him while Chris looked at her disdainfully from the corner of his eye, blowing thick white smoke into her face.
This bad and cold look made the woman even more infatuated. She swallowed hard as she watched him with admiration.
Just as he was about to tell her to “get lost,” her soft hand suddenly hooked onto his other arm.
“Mister, do you think I look pretty in this dress?”
The girl’s voice was soft and sweet.
As soon as she finished speaking, Chris turned his gaze towards her and fixed it on her slender figure draped in pink doll dress that complemented her fair baby face perfectly. Her long hair cascaded down past her shoulders while she wore small white shoes that gave off youthful vibes all around; every inch of skin seemed filled with collagen protein.
Chris raised an eyebrow involuntarily before instinctively putting out the cigarette he had been smoking earlier by crushing it underfoot before taking hold of Krystal’s delicate wrist, tenderly saying, “Let me take you home.”
Before Krystal could say anything else or react properly yet, they left without looking back once, leaving behind the red-dressed woman fuming with anger over being ignored so easily by such an eligible bachelor.
Walking together through alleys reeking of various odors; two individuals from completely different worlds – one tall wearing black attire & one short donning pink – merged together for once creating something beautiful amidst chaos.
Krystal walked slowly due to having shorter legs. When Chris noticed she struggled keeping up sometimes, he felt pity for her and slowed down.
No matter how long the road is, there will be an end to it.
As they approached the alleyway, Chris’s expression relaxed a bit. He hesitated whether or not to let go of her hand and say goodbye when Krystal spoke up first.
A faint smile appeared on her fair face as she pointed to the dilapidated building nearby:
“That’s my home.”
Chris looked over at it. It was an old-style building that was two or three stories high and had been around for quite some time.
The exterior walls were peeling, with clusters of wildflowers growing in the gaps along with green moss. The rusty iron railing hung several loose-fitting floral dresses that had faded from being washed.
Despite its small size, this dilapidated building housed seven or eight households and looked extremely crowded. The soundproofing was also poor; you could hear your neighbors coughing in the hallway while sitting at home clearly.
Chris’s deep-set eyes reflected a hint of disbelief because this kind of house was even worse than his family’s impoverished household back home. In his memory, their own house only became like this just over ten years ago.
“My dad used to work for the railway bureau when he was young, and this house was assigned by his unit,” Krystal said.
“But then he died, so they wanted to take back this dangerous building.”
“But my mom didn’t agree because it held all her memories with my dad throughout their lives together.”
“Eventually it turned into a slum area.”
Listening to her words in silence for quite some time, Chris uttered a story that evoked more sympathy. “I didn’t have a family. My parents passed away when I was little.”
He became an hooligan before going into boxing at sixteen.
Because he had good talent in boxing skills which caught Kelvin’s attention who sent him directly into military service where he stayed for eight years.
After retiring from service life, he followed Kelvin directly into company management starting as bodyguard until becoming secretary general.
His life has undergone earth-shattering changes since then; sometimes he thinks if he hadn’t met Kelvin underground that night, he would either be in prison or hell right now.
Therefore, Kelvin is not only his boss but also his savior whom Chris will follow wholeheartedly throughout his life.
Krystal thought she had enough misery but never expected someone else existed who suffered more than herself.
As she thought about the expensive clothes he had just bought her, she stopped in her tracks and suddenly tiptoed to embrace him.
That heart-racing feeling came back again!
Chris kept telling himself in his mind that he should push her away, but as he raised his arm, it seemed like there was no strength left in it.
He couldn’t bring himself to hurt her.
The warm embrace of the young maid gave him an unprecedented sense of care. “Mister, you’re a good person and will definitely have a good life ahead.”
After saying this, she let go of him and hesitated for a moment. Her clear eyes were fixed on his eyebrows and eyes as she continued earnestly:
“The reason I wanted you to leave earlier is because that woman isn’t a good person.”
“I know her. She’s not an honest person; she even kidnapped someone else’s money before.”
Chris was stunned for a second upon hearing this.
“I don’t care,” he said with an underlying meaning that he didn’t care about someone who wasn’t relevant. Naive Krystal thought otherwise – thinking that Chris didn’t care whether or not the woman was good or bad.
A sour taste arose in her heart which made her feel uneasy.
She took two slow steps out before suddenly turning around and making a bold decision by raising her voice towards him:
“Sir, I’m twenty-one years old this year and haven’t been in love yet nor do I know what love feels like.”
“I also have cancer; I’m going to die soon so it’s really hard for me to accept it all.”
“Can you be my boyfriend? Don’t worry; I won’t bother you for long. If you meet another girl later on after my death who is better than me, then even from heaven above I will bless both of you.”
Krystal herself felt like what she said was almost moral blackmailing but did not harbor any hope that Chris would agree with what she asked since. After all, her family is poor; She looks average at best; She spent half-year imprisoned before and now dying soon… Even compared with the previous woman mentioned earlier (who at least has health), Krystal can’t compare.
For Krystal even tomorrow seems like something unattainable.