Chapter 01 - Beginning of a Tough Journey (Part 4)

The date is 14th May 2007, 3:50 pm.

It is about time for the students to head to Lecture Theatre 28 for the freshmen orientation lecture for all first-year students there. By the time Chengyu arrived inside the Lecture Theatre, it has already been crowded with first-year students.

“Compared to the canteen before...... this is far worse...!”

Ten minutes later, the principal of the Information and Communications Technology Faculty came onto the stage and the people there starts to quieten down. The principal starts to introduce herself and started introducing the courses offered by the Faculty. His course, Diploma in Multimedia & Animation, was also mentioned, in which he immediately checked his notebook computer for background information.

“Looks like my current batch is the third intake in the course's history......”

The principal of the Faculty also mentioned something important: A student is only allowed to fail any module once. A repeat fail of the same module in the course will mean immediate ejection from the entire course itself.

“That's a pretty tall order for me in this kind of condition though......”

Chengyu continued to listen to the Principal's speech while looking at more background information on his notebook computer.

After the lecture ended at around 4:45 pm, the students in the Theatre exited the hall in a long stream. But he waited for almost all to leave before keeping his things inside his bags and move out of the Lecture Theatre. On his way there, he stopped by a vending machine, and noticed that the machine is selling iced coffee in a can.

“That's quite a surprise here......”

He placed some coins in the coin slot, and selected the coffee before the long can drops out of the dispenser.

“I guess there are some people who still wants to keep themselves alert after many hours of studying, huh...”

He finished the coffee quickly before dumping the empty can in a rubbish bin at the central lift lobby in the Faculty before taking the lift up to the 7th storey of Block 31 where his class mentor's office is located. The correct procedure is that he should go to the top level of the block to speak to the staff via the telephone inside the office there, but since he has lost his speech capabilities where he needs them most for no apparent reason, this would be a problem. So he has no choice but to wait for Mr. Chua to come out of his office floor on his own and meet him personally.

And surprisingly, the mentor that wants to see him came out of the office floor within 20 minutes of waiting outside!

“Oh, Chengyu! It's you. I've been waiting for you for quite some time.”

Mr. Chua invited him to a meeting room in the office floor, and both of them went in and sat down. Chengyu noticed that Mr. Chua has carried a notepad and a pen with him.

“Chengyu, I know you now have problems expressing yourself using speech, so I prepared something for you to write down on this, because I hope you can answer some of the questions I wish to ask you. It's okay if you don't wish to answer all my questions though because some of them might involve intrusion into your personal life, so answer them with the best of your ability, okay? If there are any questions you don't want to answer, just signal me to let me know.”

Mr. Chua then placed the notepad and the pen on the table right in front of Chengyu.

“Okay, first question. What made you choose New Hope Polytechnic as your choice of school after your 'O' Levels?”

Chengyu hesitated, but thinking that the question has not probed too deeply on his past, he starts to pick up the pen and wrote down on the notepad: “To learn animation.”

Mr. Chua was not surprised initially, but what he wrote next surprised him!

“I cannot have any tolerance on people who pick on someone apparently weaker than themselves!”

While writing, Chengyu's anger seems to have intensified.

“Anyone who does this kind of lowlife-thing will be crushed to pieces with everything I have!”

“Calm down, Chengyu. It's okay.” Mr. Chua said to him to calm down his anger. “I guess he really far more anger and hatred in his heart than I have ever imagined...”

Then he tries to ask him a second question.

“So, what does this bullying issue have to do with you studying this course?”

Chengyu immediately wrote his answer on the next line available: “I am trying very hard to make people know about the harmful effects of bullying being more potent than smoking or taking drugs because it can harm people not only in his own generation, but also the next ones after it if not handled properly. I can't think of any other way than through something I can make to force people to understand this!!”

“Looks like Chengyu here is hurt pretty badly by those people who have tormented him years ago......” Mr. Chua thought about the notes that the teacher from Chengyu's former secondary school have given him.

But suddenly, Chengyu wrote a question about the incident during the student introduction session in the morning that surprised him further.

“Do you know something about my past? How come you don't show any rejection when I was not able to express myself properly this morning?!”

This clearly impressed Mr. Chua about the ability Chengyu actually had in him.

“Oh? So you noticed that I tried to speak a little about your past pain to your classmates, huh? Your observation skills are much more sharper than a normal student would have. I am really happy that you show such talent in this, you really are suited for this course, you know, since that skill of yours will be important to excel in this course.” Mr. Chua praised him, but that only served to increase Chengyu's defences and immediately wrote something on the notepad.

“I am a person born with no talent. These skills are never talents because they took years to extremely harsh training to develop and grow so that I can tell good persons from bad ones and avoid harm as much as possible. Due to the skills that I have developed all by myself, I have absolutely zero tolerance for grey areas in a person for fear of betrayal and the eventual irreparable damage that it will cause. It will be “Game Over” immediately for a person who dares to attempt this heinous act.”

Reading what Chengyu wrote made Mr. Chua feel that he really needs help after his ordeal before coming here to study.

“I think that's pretty sad for a person like you. Actually I know a little about you from your class form teacher from your previous secondary school, the school that you took your 'O' Level Examinations in. That teacher from your class was one of my former students in New Hope Polytechnic more than 10 years ago and she knows that you've been hurt seriously before and even ended up in hospital twice because of what happened in your first secondary school before transferring to her class. I was thinking: 'This boy may end up shutting himself out of the outside environment completely after all these things that happened to him, and it reflected on your behaviour in that school.' Even though I do not study deep into psychology, but I knew from all these things that you are actually a very good person deep inside who has potential to fly high in whatever you choose to do in the future. You just need the right help to do just that and also to open yourself up once again.”

Mr. Chua then went outside the meeting room to call someone on the phone and returned 5 minutes later.

“Chengyu, for your problem, I may not be in a good position to offer you advice on this, but I may recommend you to someone who just might be able to do that......” Mr. Chua gave him a green-coloured slip and a map. “You can approach the Student Services Office at Block 4 of the polytechnic where a counsellor will talk to you. Hopefully, they can help you to untie the knot that is stuck in your heart. I really hope that you can give it a try because these counsellors are more than willing to help you with your school life here when you need them.”

The green-coloured slip is actually a recommendation for counselling at the Student Services Office at Block 4. The time scheduled is on the 30th May 2007, 2:30 pm.

“According to our class timetable, I don't think you have any classes during that period, do you? So I really hope you can at least make a trip there to find out about our student care programmes that may be of help to you, okay?” Mr. Chua patted Chengyu's left shoulder. “Meanwhile, if you have any problems, please know that I am always be there to help you. I won't want to have any prejudices against people like you so you can be assured that you will never be ostracised when we're around.”

Amazingly, Mr. Chua's hand on Chengyu's shoulder did not invoke his emotional defence mechanisms at all!

With that, the first one-on-one meeting with Mr. Chua ended without any hitches.

The date is 14th May 2007, 6:10 pm.

Chengyu has finished his classes for the day, and heads for the bus stop to take his bus ride home.

During the ride, he thought about the treatment dealt on him in his former secondary school compared to the treatment in this polytechnic.

“Is it true that they are genuinely wanting to help students not only academically, but also on other aspects of the students' lives here?? If that's really the case, I still have to be careful with every word I say, or every action I take towards these people. What I've gone through 2 years ago back there, I don't have the physical or mental stamina to allow that kind of experience to make a repeat of itself all over again right in this campus...... If that happens, all my extreme training over the past 2 years or so will be completely wasted down the drain!!”

But as soon as he starts recollecting those horrible times, he starts to feel intense pain in his chest almost immediately! Clutching to his chest, he rids himself of all those memories temporarily and sits his ride home.

The date is 14th May 2007, 10:30 pm.

A very tired Chengyu lies down in his bed, thinking about the first day in the new polytechnic.

“Right now I am still fully-guarded about myself and refused to let anyone in in case of a unprecedented attack on me. Since primary school I've always been an unwilling victim of these attacks, which inevitably forced me to create my own defence mechanism against everyone in the school before. Sometimes having to hurt other peoples' hearts may be the only way I can protect my own from their attacks. Any hostility will only serve to strengthen my defences against them. Many times I wish I could bring a weapon to school just to protect myself from those bullies back in secondary school. But if not for that mysterious Zhiwei person, I would have been a dead person by now..."

“As for the support supposedly planned for me, I don't know if this may help me or break me, but since I can only talk to my parents right now and not to others my age, maybe this might serve as an opportunity to start talking to people that may be willing to trust me. However, wrong use of this trust can backfire so I have to use it very wisely and correctly or the incident with the friend I issued a 'Policy Fail' long ago may repeat itself all over again!”

Thinking about the past has caused him to drift off to sleep due to the effects of the medication he took for his headache. Hopefully tomorrow can be less sad than today and he can be able to cope with the demands of tomorrow as the journey in his Polytechnic life had just set off from the starting line......

Chapter 01 - Beginning of a Tough Journey (Part 3)

The date is 14th May 2007, 8:50 am.

Two years have passed, and 16-year-old Li Chengyu arrives at the bus stop at Clementi Road opposite New Hope Polytechnic, the next stop in his academic journey that he chose to study in. He arrives there wearing a black T-shirt and navy blue jeans coupled with a new pair of spectacles and completed with a new pair of sports shoes that fits his new shoe size. He is also carrying a fairly large bag on his back and another hand-held carrying case which contains his notebook computer that he will use for the next three years in polytechnic.

The Chengyu seen here has not changed much in appearance compared to his look in secondary school, but his heart of loneliness and anger has become far stronger since that assault incident, due to a declaration he made in his previous secondary school where the teenage gang members once studied as well before their arrest by the police...

In his third year at his previous secondary school, weeks before he was transferred out of, his Chinese Language teacher wants to confer titles to some of her best students in class, Chengyu being one of them, and was conferred the title of 'Prince of the class', but this invoked severe anger inside of him, due to the fact that he is sitting on an isolated desk away from the class in the classroom as a result of his distrust in all his classmates. When the anger reached beyond its eruption point, he declared loud and clear in front of everybody in class:

“I don't want to be a prince! Never now or in the future!! The only place that suits me now is that of a lone ranger! A warrior who fights the course of twisted reality as a true one-man army!! I will fight completely on my own, even if the entire world wages a total war of annihilation against me!!”

This caused serious dissatisfaction among the entire class, including the teacher herself, making Chengyu more isolated than ever in the class that has him sitting isolated in a classroom of groups. Ever since that assault incident, he has rejected any contact from any peers in his school, or admit anyone into his Friendship Test which has since became far more stringent since his first 'Policy Fail' issuance.

But as for Chengyu himself, he still remembers every single word of the declaration he made at that time even till this very day, right down to each and every letter of that declaration, and made it a personal responsibility to uphold this for as long as he lives, until the day someone can remove the thorn inside his heart and heals him completely.

But before that can happen, he wants to remain all alone throughout his upcoming three-year polytechnic life to avoid any unnecessary harm to his heart that has a frozen thorn stuck in it. His heart has also been frozen over time as a result of the spillover effect of the frozen thorn, and has undergone regimens of extremely harsh secret training to minimize the effects of the thorn to the rest of his body. The result of this harsh training is a 180-degree change from the kind and calm soul of the past, in which the Li Chengyu right now is much tougher, colder, extremely fierce and merciless when faced with adversary and will spare no effort to burst and battle himself through any situation with extreme anger, willpower and brutality, to the extent that the fearless Spartans in ancient Rome will shatter like brittle glass today when faced against this warrior.

“Fighting this vicious cycle of undue bullying has become my personal mission in life, as well as not allowing anyone to face the threat of bullies any more! Although this is a lone crusade, I have to give all I have to fulfil this mission!” Chengyu said to himself while his right fist tightens.

But one side effect of this serious angry determination is that anyone who tries to show kindness to him will invoke his emotional defence mechanism against them, however subtle the kindness will be. If the kindness gets too close or too much, his emotional defence can blitz immediately into hyper-drive and can destroy anyone completely which also applies to any hostility against him as well. So as for him right now, he will definitely repel anyone who show kindness as well as hostility towards him. In addition, any amount of kindness shown or hostile damage to him will automatically translate to emotional and psychological damage to himself and his heart ten times the amount shown or done to him.

Once he reached the Convention Centre in New Hope Polytechnic, he went straight in and handed in his enrolment documents to finalise his status as a student in this new school. Once that is completed, he is instructed to head for the School of Information and Communications Technology Faculty located a distance away from the Convention Centre. All this time, no one has ever talked to him in this campus, nor did he even approach anyone even once, relying entirely on himself all this time.

“Even in this new environment, I shall not ask for any help nor accept help from others when they offer it. I have to depend entirely on myself!!”

Arriving at Block 27 of the Faculty, he took the central lift up to the 5th storey of the building and reached his class orientation classroom. Sitting down on an empty seat inside the classroom, he saw many new faces, but is completely not interested in any single one of them. His biggest fear is that any interaction with anyone in the campus may start a process that will eventually activate his own emotional defence mechanism and ends up hurting or killing them.

A few minutes later, a lecturer comes into the classroom and the class starts to quieten down.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Mr. Jonas Chua. I will be your class mentor for the next three years in this polytechnic, so I hope to know everyone of you and earn your trust by the end of your term in New Hope Polytechnic.”

Mr. Chua starts to write down some basic particulars about himself on the whiteboard, while Chengyu looks on.

“So this lecturer is our class mentor...... I still have to be extremely careful of any new person that I meet, regardless of where they come from, or their character! The last thing I will want is permanent damage to my heart and permanent damage to them in the end!”

After his basic introduction, the students start to ask him about his personal life. It seems like everyone is interested in this, except for Chengyu himself who is still looking at them. The only thing that has not changed at all for Chengyu is the constant thirst for information and knowledge that might aid him to deal with anyone or anything that he might be up against.

After a short discussion, the students are asked to introduce themselves to the class one by one, in which the other students can start asking questions after each one has done their own introductions. Chengyu was scheduled to be the last one to do so while the other classmates (totalling 22 students) starts to introduce themselves. During this time, Chengyu is still thinking of a way to put his own introduction forward without hurting his own psychological injuries.

After about one and a half hours of introductions and questioning time, it is finally Chengyu's turn to stand up and do his own introduction. But when his name is called, he starts to become nervous in fear of activating his emotional defences.

“I still can't think of a proper strategy to take this one out! What should I do??”

Chengyu slowly and reluctantly stood up, but the minute he opens his mouth, nothing came out of it.

“What's wrong with me!? Why can't I even speak now!?”

His right fist was clenched tightly, but still couldn't blurt a single word out of his mouth.

“This is bad......!!”

“Chengyu? What's wrong?” Mr. Chua asked about him. “Chengyu?”

“This is very bad! I can't release any words from my mouth!” Chengyu thinks while his fists are clenched.

The students in his class starts discussing about him, but Mr. Chua tells them to quieten down.

“It looks like I may have no choice but to do the introduction for him.” Mr. Chua explained his situation to the whole class. “As you can see, Mr. Li Chengyu here has had a sad past in which causes him to have serious problems with interacting with people, thus causing the situation you see today, so please give him some time for his heart to open up slowly, okay?”

After the introductions, some ice-breaking games were played for the students to know each other better. However, Chengyu chose to sit out of every single one of those games as he feels his anti-social nature would be more of a hindrance to the progress of these activities than helping them at all.

“Sorry everyone, I really want to join in...... but I think this is not the perfect opportunity or timing to be involved in this yet......”

By the time the games ended, it is almost lunchtime. All the students start to leave the classroom, but Chengyu was called back by Mr. Chua.

“Chengyu, if it's okay with you, can you see me after the freshmen orientation in the afternoon?”

Chengyu still wasn't able to speak right now, so he couldn't answer him.

The date is 14th May 2007, 12:30 pm.

It is now lunchtime, and Chengyu went to the canteen next to Block 31 to have his lunch. However, the canteen is crowded with people from the Faculty and elsewhere, which makes finding a seat very difficult. It's not very obvious to other people but Chengyu is still feeling very lonely due to the fact that virtually no one in his former schools have any place in this Faculty or even in this campus. Even if any of them are enrolled here, almost all of them do not recognise him at all due to the non-contact nature he has adopted since transferring to the secondary school that he graduated from.

“I have to be careful about my choice of lunch, no spicy food is number one priority for this.”

While he is walking past the stalls to decide what he wants to have for lunch, he notices a shot of orange hair among the crowd.

“What the......? Who's that......!?”

He tries to ascertain the identity of the person with the orange hair, but that person had disappeared in the next instant!

“Why does that orange hair seem so familiar......? Have I seen that kind of hair before in the past......?”

Knowing that worrying about that matter does not help, he decides to continue his search for his lunch for the day.

Chapter 01 - Beginning of a Tough Journey (Part 2)

The date is 6th April 2005, 2:20 pm.

Five days have passed since then, and Chengyu is ready to go home after given the all-clear for discharge by the specialist doctor. His parents are ready to take him home so that he can rest for another week before going back to school. After all the paperwork have been completed, he went out of the ward with his parents, but as he was about to exit that level by going through the entrance to that ward, someone in a motorised wheelchair passed by him, but he didn't notice take any notice of her at all!

The one sitting on the motorised wheelchair was actually the same girl Chengyu have helped 5 days ago. But it was only after he had left the lobby that the girl turned back and looked behind her, but he had already went inside the lift to the ground floor. The girl feels kind of sad to see him missing and held on to the key-chain tightly.

However, the consequence of the assault not only caused the 15-year-old Chengyu physical injuries, but more seriously, due to the repeated verbal, psychological and physical assaults over the past three years prior to this latest assault, his conscience was completely destroyed and an additional large wound was open in his heart – a wound with a icy thorn stuck inside him.

“Those bloody morons...... the only price that'll be enough to pay is their lives, sacrificed to pay for the loss of my only guiding light in my life!!”

The next day, he started to create a plaque in English and Chinese, similar to those that people pray to their ancestors, but he designed it in a computer screen in a PC that his parent bought for him to do school work. The wordings read: 'In painful memory of the conscience of Li Chengyu. Born: 20th October 1991; Dead: 29th March 2005'. The date of his conscience's death is the day he was assaulted and sent to hospital. Because no shop will want to do such a plaque that he can offer incense to every year when the day comes. Therefore he can only do something like that to have this painful experience engraved in his memory so that the day he can anticipate the day that he can offer their lives for reviving the conscience once again.

The date is 13th April 2005, 7:30 am.

One week passed since then, and Chengyu is back in the secondary school he is studying for more than two years. The school that he is studying had absolutely no knowledge about his bone marrow donation, only knowing that he is hospitalised for physical injuries. Even the hospital also kept that secret of theirs guarded as much as possible. But it took less than half a day for him to meet the exact same situation that landed him in hospital.

“So you want another trip there, huh?”

“Not by a very long shot!”

“We'll see who gets to the graveyard first!”

However, his “best friend” was in a corner, watching from a distance, and it seems Chengyu also noticed him not doing anything about this situation.

“I knew he had something to do with this...!”

But before the seven bullies even moved a finger, a strange shock-wave blasted them off their feet and slammed them onto the ground! The next moment, an orange-haired student wearing the same uniform as he is wearing jumped down from the roof of the covered pavement nearby. This also shocked the “best friend” of Chengyu's who is still hiding at that corner, and this mysterious student who helped Chengyu landed right between Chengyu and the bullies.

“You want to send him back to hospital, you have to get past me first!”

“What can you do, huh? Stop us with those tricks of yours?”

“Looks like you guys have not tasted enough of these, haven't you?”

The mysterious student gathers a powerful ball of air inside his right fist and punched it at their direction, unleashing seven powerful air knuckles that punched every one of those bullies and slamming them on the wall facing their backs, causing the walls there to have the imprints of their bodies. He then blast opens his fist, which sends a powerful air blast through each of the air-knuckles and slammed a heavy air blow on the bullies before they fell to the ground, their heads bleeding. Chengyu was completely stunned at his abilities.

“No way!! How the heck did he do that??”

The mysterious student then takes out his walkie-talkie.

“They're all yours for the taking.”

And almost immediately, twelve policemen coming from a police bus nearby dashed in and arrested the seven youngsters, among them were the head honcho of the teenage gang as well as his three deputies and three core members.

“All of you are under arrest for the charges of aggravated assault and rioting. Come with us to the police station for investigations.” The leader of the poilce team that arrested the gang told the gang's head honcho before pushing him down and handcuffed him.

All seven of those members were taken away by the police officers onto the police bus before driving out of the school compounds, clearly illustrating the serious nature of this incident.

“No way! Seven-against-one and all of them got thrashed like ants being stamped on with your foot! How I wish I had powers like that, then they'll be the ones that'll fear for their lives since those hooligans no longer listen to reason or words anymore......!”

But suddenly, the mysterious student ran off to another place without saying another word.

“Hey, wait!”

Chengyu couldn't have the strength to try and chase after the student as he has not completely recovered from his injuries, and the “best friend” shows up right after the mysterious student has left the scene.

“Hey, Chengyu! Are you all right?”

The “best friend” tries to extend his hand to Chengyu's back but was immediately brushed off hard, and Chengyu runs off to another block as well without even looking at him, tears in his eyes as he ran with all his remaining strength.

“You passed my already stringent Friendship Test but this incident will the the one that will allow me to give you a definite 'Policy Fail' for the charge of continual betrayal of trust! From now on... my friend count will start from zero all over again and will remain so for as long as I live!”

After school, his mother came to fetch him and tells him something that will affect the path that he will take in the future.

“From next week, you'll be transferred to another school, and should be able to avoid further trouble by the remaining teenage gang members in the future, okay?”

Chengyu didn't say anything. After all, he has closed his heart completely to any acquaintances from now on.

The date is 18th April 2005, 6:50 am.

Chengyu arrives at his new school, which will require a long bus trip from his current home, even if he moves into his new home, it would be a much longer trip, so he had to wake up at 5:00 am every weekday morning to reach his new school in time. However, if that could ease the pain in his heart a little, he is ready to make that sacrifice. But in order to be completely prepared for every single school day ahead of the new school schedule, Chengyu literally packed all the learning materials used for the entire week into his bag so that he doesn't forget if there's a need for study from those materials anytime. This made his bag four times as heavy, and put a noticeable strain on his back. But he knows he has to put up with this if he needs to stay on course to be able to sit for his 'O' Level Examinations next year.

But he also knew that the day he left his old secondary school, someone left him a handwritten letter on his desk that he believe is written by the one that saved him earlier against the bullies.

Dear Li Chengyu,

I'm sorry I won't be able to stop any more of this nonsensical system of ignoring bullying as just pranks of youth, but I was still able to save you from this madness of violence, even on my last day in this sad school. The police are now questioning them on the assault on you and will press charges very soon on the four responsible for that incident that landed you in hospital as soon as the paperwork is done. However, as I will be transferring into another school at the same time as you did, you'll have to find your own way out of future incidents should any crop up after today.

However, I strongly believe you're not as powerless as you expect yourself to be. You just have not found the right methods and keys to activate those powers yet. I have more than enough reason to believe that when this power of yours is unlocked, you can do more than just stop those who attempt to do harm to you, but also find your true destiny and change your future for good. For now, try and keep living until the very day you can make a decision about your real future in this world.

When the time to change everything that will define your destiny arrives before you, we will have a chance to meet each other again. Just remember this: You actually have far more power than you yourself can imagine or wish to have. You just need to find the perfect method to properly utilise this true power that you actually have, not to hurt people but to protect people that are precious to you as well as yourself. This true power that you have have the immense potential to completely alter the way your destiny plans out for you when the time to use it actually arrives, for you to step up and create a brand new future for yourself. So before the destined time to change your future arrives, please stay alive and well and don't give up on yourself or your life just yet. If your life is over before the destined time comes, all the work that I have done will not have any meaning in helping you towards that path.

Good Luck on your journey ahead and stay strong,

Li Zhiwei

“I guess I have no choice but to keep on fighting for my life as a lone student in this new school, I really hope that I can survive until the day that I can grab hold of my own destiny and change it for the better. So until that day arrives, I will keep on fighting my own battles and take down any enemy that stands in my way! Hopefully I won't end up in a situation that I have to be forced to take anyone down just for me to move on in life before the destined day comes......”

Chengyu's life in the new school went on quite undisturbed since the teachers knew his problem to a certain extent, but other than the contacts necessary to progress on in his new school life, he essentially avoided all other contacts with anyone in school, reducing himself to a very quiet and guarded personality. And this continued until after he has completed his 'O' Level Examinations a year later. This time, he has avoided all contacts with anyone in the new school and got a decent score good enough to get into a neighbourhood junior college.

However, he has planned to find a way to stop the spread of undeserved violence by making a script for a two-dimensional video animation that portrays a very negative impression on school bullying and teenage gangsterism, which was inspired by the anime that he watches over the internet at home. The main objective for that animation is to help deter people joining such gangs in the search for recognition and spread the message that gangsterism only will pay them time in prison and destroy not only their own lives but those of others as well. He has hopes of doing something in that style so he knew the course that allows him to learn two-dimensional computer animation should be able to equip him with the skills needed for this. The only catch is that the two polytechnics that offers such courses are actually quite far away from his home. But he had already made up his mind to get those skills no matter how far away they are to reach.

“If that's what I need to get those skills to stop this vicious cycle, I have no other choice but to do it!”

Chapter 01 - Beginning of a Tough Journey (Part 1)

The date is 29th March 2005 ,10:25 am.

14-year-old Li Chengyu is currently enrolled in a secondary school near his home for the past three years. His academic results are above average. But his school life is far from ideal as compared to others. In his time here, he was constantly being insulted by a bunch of bullies who are actually gang members from a teenage gang. All their members are studying in the same school as he is. The psychological pain started when Chengyu challenged the head member of the teenage gang for the position of class monitor in Secondary Two.

As the system of selecting the class monitor is already seriously flawed by choosing the ideal candidate by popularity and not by merit, his bid of responsibility over authority is unfairly beaten by the gang head honcho for the position, but the head honcho's anger lies in the fact that he is supposed to get that position unopposed, so the insults and psychological pain is unfairly directed at him. Even his best friend at that time has just started to side with those street gangsters despite being a person that usually sides with reason. And these insults intensify by the time he gets into Secondary Three. And the damage will go beyond just verbal and psychological attacks...

“Not you morons again!!”

“So what if we're here again? One of you against the four of us, you stand no chance against all of us!”

“Even if it's four against one, I'm not backing down on my stand!”

“Then we'll make you do so...... by this!!”

Blows and kicks started raining down on him as he starts fighting back at them in an attempt to escape their clutches, blocking every punch and kick as hard as he can do, but four against one is just too many blows to deter, and he was beaten until he bled profusely and couldn't keep his consciousness up.

But the next thing he knew what was happening, he was already in a different set of clothes and in a different place this time.

“Where...... am...... I......”

Then he realized that he is now wearing the same clothes as those lying in beds beside his own.

At this time, a woman appeared near his bed.

“Chengyu! Are you okay? Did the wounds hurt??”

“Mum......?? What am I doing here??”

“You've been sent to the hospital because of those terrible things that those gangsters did to you and you're been unconscious for the past three days already. I don't know how that head of the teenage gang became your class monitor, but the police has been informed and will definitely get to the bottom of this. But for now, try to rest as much as you can.”

“Thanks......”

Then Chengyu starts to feel something missing from his hip.

“Why do I feel something missing inside my left hip......?”

“Oh, I thought the doctor didn't tell you about the donation of your bone marrow, right?”

“What do you mean......?”

“Haven't you told me before that you wish to help someone to keep living if you have a chance to donate human tissue while living? Actually the doctor has just made your wish come true.”

“Huh??”

“The bone marrow tissue you donated during the operation has just found a perfect match for a foreigner from Japan that requires an urgent bone marrow transplant due to her own bone marrow failing to function properly, and the transplant was a success which caused little rejection from your bone marrow tissue.”

“Okay, that means that the transplant was done while I was in the operating theatre undergoing treatment for my wounds?”

“That's right. Fortunately, your internal injuries were not life-threatening so the doctors managed to repair some of the broken bones that you suffered during that time, although that involves a short six-hour stay in the Intensive Care Unit and a three-and-a-half-hour operation to fix all of those bones that were broken.”

“Broken bones?? I'll never forgive those bloody morons until they pay up for what they've done to me using their bloody lives...!!”

“So why do the transplant when I am sent in for injuries??”

“That's because the parents of the foreign patient awaiting transplant wishes to save their child immediately, otherwise she would lose her life due to organ failure within 48 hours. The operation was done as soon as the operation to fix your broken bones was complete and your condition has been stabilized enough to perform the transplant.”

Chengyu was immersed in deep thought about the matter.

“Her whole family was really grateful to you for your selfless donation at that time, but they'll have to rush back to Japan within a week so they won't be able to fork out any time to see us after the successful operation.”

It was then that an announcement was broadcast.

“Dear visitors, visiting hours for the afternoon session will close in about 15 minutes, please make preparations to let the patients rest, thank you.”

“Oh, visiting hours is almost up, I'll see you tomorrow, okay? Have a good rest.”

His mother then packed her things and left his ward, leaving Chengyu alone by himself.

“Why does it all come down to this... why...?? My wish has been fulfilled in a way I least expected it to, but why do I still feel this uneasy after all this has been done......?”

The next day, Chengyu's wounds have healed considerably, so he requested the nurse there to try and climb out of his bed and take a walk around the ward. After the nurse who have checked him gave him the green light, he slowly climbs down, bringing his wallet with him and takes short steps out of his Class C ward. As he slowly walked towards the main entrance of that level where the vending machine is, he was bumped into by a small boy, who dropped an unfamiliar item after the collision. Although the impact wasn't enough to make him fall, it invoked anger inside Chengyu and he stared at him with a very angry face and his fists tightly clenched. The small boy saw his expression and immediately showed a scared look, which made him run away in the opposite direction.

A few seconds later, the small boy returned with a woman beside him who seems to be the small boy's mother, she immediately saw him and started scolding the small boy for bumping onto a patient, while apologising to Chengyu at the same time before leaving. However, Chengyu noticed the strange object and picked it up.

“What's this...?”

Chengyu inspects the item and acknowledges it to be a key-chain bearing the shape of a red-coloured ribbon.

“Such a girlish kind of key-chain shouldn't belong to that boy... Wonder if anyone have had this missing by accident...?”

While he was pondering who could have been the owner of that key-chain, someone in a wheelchair appeared, apparently moving on its own.

On that motorised wheelchair sat a young girl with black hair and a fair complexion. She is also wearing the same patient clothes as he is right now.

“Who exactly is that girl...... is she even from this level of wards at all?”

The wheelchair stopped moving two metres away from where Chengyu is, and the girl reached her right hand in his direction, speaking in a language he doesn't seem to understand. Chengyu looked at the girl, who has her hair tied up in a ponytail using a red ribbon that resembles that of the key-chain.

“My intuition tells me that she might be the owner of that thing......”

Looking at the key-chain, he starts to ask her in English:

“Is...... that...... yours......?”

The girl nodded her head and spoke something again in the same incomprehensible language.

Chengyu slowly and painstakingly walked towards her and placed the key-chain in her extended right hand.

“Keep...... it...... properly...... Don't...... lose...... it...... again......”

Chengyu left behind those words while painstakingly trying to get his message across. The girl on the other hand received the key chain and replied with a cute smile on her face. However, his heart is so damaged at this time that no friendly expression can get through to him anymore. He turned back and walked painstakingly towards his own ward.

“There goes my chance to get my coffee for now......”