"Stop joking," Xiaoyuan stammered, her face flushing with embarrassment and perhaps a touch of fear. She averted her gaze, unable to meet Xiu's intense stare. "I… I can't just…"
Hearing her immediate dismissal, seeing her discomfort, Xiu felt a flicker of something – Disappointment? Resignation? He'd thought, hoped, that witnessing her situation, understanding her trapped circumstances, would make her receptive to his offer. But perhaps he'd misjudged. He stopped pressing, the intensity draining from his posture. He shook his head slightly, more to himself than to her, and murmured, "I see. I thought… I thought someone in your situation would want a way out. An escape from… that environment." He sighed softly. "My mistake, it seems…"
Without another word, he turned, heading towards the door, clearly intending to leave.
His quiet words, however, landed like a physical blow on Xiaoyuan. 'Leave… escape…' The concepts resonated deep within her, striking a chord she'd long tried to suppress. Seeing his retreating back, seeing her one, slim, bizarre chance at change walking away, a surge of desperate impulsivity overcame her habitual fear.
"Hey! Wait!" She cried out, her voice stronger than before. "What are you talking about? Who…?"
She ran impulsively from behind the counter, reaching the door just as Xiu opened it, instinctively putting a hand out to stop him.
Xiu paused, looking down at the thin hand pressed against the glass door, then up at Xiaoyuan's face, now filled with a desperate, confused urgency. The words he'd been about to say caught in his throat. He saw the raw hope warring with ingrained fear in her eyes. He let out another low sigh, this one tinged with something akin to pity.
"Look," He said, his voice softening slightly. "Since you don't want my help, my 'project,' there's no point wasting more of my time here." He hesitated, then added, almost as an afterthought, "But… I still owe you for the shelter last night. If… if those relatives of yours are causing trouble… maybe I can go talk to them? Intimidate them a bit? Consider it repayment for the favor."
"Why?" Xiaoyuan asked, genuinely bewildered now. "Why would you offer that? Why do you even care about my situation?"
Xiu almost smiled at her confusion. He shrugged slightly, a hint of his earlier detached irony returning. "I don't want to know the details, honestly," He admitted frankly. "I just… dislike owing favors. It complicates things."
His blunt, almost transactional explanation seemed to paradoxically ease Xiaoyuan's remaining fear. This strange, intense young man wasn't acting out of some hidden, sinister motive; he was just… odd. Socially awkward, perhaps? His pragmatic, almost callous reasoning felt strangely… understandable, in a bizarre way. The tension in her shoulders eased miraculously.
"Let's… let's talk inside," She said, stepping back from the door, gesturing him back into the store. She leaned against the wall near the counter, suddenly needing the support, and began to speak, her voice low, hesitant at first, then gaining strength as the words tumbled out. "Once… once upon a time, there was a little girl…"
Xiu turned back, walking into the store again. He didn't sit, just stood opposite her, leaning against a shelving unit, acting as a silent listener as Xiaoyuan poured out her story.
He listened without interruption, his expression neutral, but inwardly, a cold disgust grew as he heard the details. Xiaoyuan's idyllic childhood, shattered by the sudden, suspicious 'accident' that claimed her parents. The investigating official's veiled warnings, hinting at powerful forces involved, urging her to take the compensation money and forget seeking justice. The sudden, inexplicable abandonment by previously close relatives. And then, the arrival of her 'uncle' – her father's estranged, greedy younger brother – armed with questionable legal documents, seizing control of her guardianship, signing away her rights to the compensation, and effectively stealing her inheritance, leaving her trapped in his household as little more than an unpaid servant. It had been over two years since that day— two years of enduring neglect and abuse.
When she finished, her voice trembling slightly, Xiu finally spoke, glancing around the brightly lit convenience store. "And this job? Working the night shift here? For eight hundred Poké Dollars a month?" It was barely enough to survive on, let alone save.
Xiaoyuan nodded mutely. "He… my uncle… arranged it."
"Hmph." Xiu let out a short, sharp sound of contempt. He didn't dwell on the paltry wage, instead shifting the focus. "So, what's your plan now? Just endure this until you turn eighteen? Hope you can legally reclaim what's rightfully yours then?"
Xiaoyuan didn't answer, but her silence was affirmation enough.
Xiu smiled again, but this time it was cold, devoid of humor. "You think it's that simple? Even I can see their game, why can't you? Think about it. If they truly intended for you to reach adulthood and potentially challenge them, wouldn't they treat you better? Provide decent living conditions, maybe even show some fake kindness? Win your trust, make you complacent, hope you forget the past? Wouldn't that be smarter?"
He leaned forward slightly, his voice dropping, becoming sharp. "But they don't, do they? They berate you, abuse you, work you to the bone. Why, Xiaoyuan? Have you ever really thought about why they treat you like this?"
Xiaoyuan stared at him, the implications of his words slowly dawning, chilling her to the core. She hadn't thought about it like that before, just endured day by day.
Seeing her dawning comprehension, Xiu pressed his point, ruthlessly stripping away her naive hope. "They're breaking you," He stated flatly. "Or maybe even killing you, slowly. Killing your spirit, your will to fight back. Taming you, like an animal. Think about the person you were two years ago. Now look at yourself. Do you honestly think you have the strength, the resources, the will left to fight them when you finally turn eighteen? Or do you think, by then, you'll be too broken, too afraid, too exhausted to even try?"
The brutal honesty struck home. Xiaoyuan felt a wave of dizziness, the floor seeming to tilt beneath her. The truth, laid bare, was terrifying. A cold sweat broke out on her back.
After a moment of stunned silence, she looked up at Xiu, a new question replacing her earlier fear. "How… how do you know all this? About them? About… me? Who are you?"
"Me?" Xiu shrugged nonchalantly. "Just a wandering nobody. Passing through. How I know things… doesn't matter. What matters is, I have no reason to harm you."
"Then… then why offer to help me?" she persisted, still struggling to understand his motives.
"I told you," Xiu replied patiently. "I need a helper. An assistant for… a project I'm undertaking. Someone trustworthy, capable, and discreet. Someone who understands hardship, someone with nothing left to lose, someone who needs a change. You fit the profile perfectly." He paused, letting the implication hang. "Join me, Xiaoyuan, and I can help you escape this," He gestured vaguely towards the life she'd described. "That's the immediate benefit. In return for your help, your loyalty… when the time is right, when we are strong enough, I promise you: I will help you take back everything that was stolen from you."
His words hung in the air. Xiaoyuan stared at him, processing the offer, the promise, the risk— doubt warred with a desperate, burgeoning hope. He could see the internal struggle playing out on her face.
Xiu decided to add one final piece, a shared connection. "I'm an orphan too," He said quietly, his voice losing its earlier edge, becoming softer, more vulnerable. "Never knew my parents. Don't even know what they looked like." He hesitated, then continued, "My time in the orphanage… it wasn't so different from your life here now. Except… I ran away and escaped, nearly died in the process," He admitted, a flicker of old fear crossing his face. "But I have never, not for one second, regretted choosing freedom, choosing to fight for a different life."
That shared experience, that raw honesty, seemed to break through Xiaoyuan's final defenses. The fear didn't vanish, but the hope flared brighter, eclipsing it.
"Okay," she whispered, her voice trembling slightly but firm. "What… what do I need to do?"
Hearing her acceptance, Xiu glanced up at the wall clock. It was still very early morning. "First," He said, his tone becoming practical again, "you need to make a clean break with your current life. Only then can you truly embrace a new one."
Before Xiaoyuan could fully grasp the meaning, Xiu was already moving towards the door. "Come on. Lock up the store. We're going back to your 'home'. Grab anything truly important to you – sentimental items, any documents you might have. We'll figure out the rest later."
His words, his sudden decisiveness, seemed to possess a strange, compelling power. Xiaoyuan found herself moving almost automatically, locking the convenience store, following Xiu back through the quiet pre-dawn streets towards her uncle's house. By the time they reached the front door, key trembling in her hand, she felt like she was moving in a dream.
"Quietly now," Xiu whispered, slipping inside the still-dark house behind her.
Like ghosts, they moved through the silent rooms. Xiaoyuan, acting on instinct, went straight to her cramped storage room and retrieved the worn photo album – the only item she truly treasured. Nothing else mattered. They slipped back out of the house undetected.
Standing outside on the street again, the sky beginning to lighten in the east, Xiaoyuan felt breathless, her heart pounding, face flushed with a strange mixture of exhilaration and terror. She had actually done it. She had walked out.
Xiu, by contrast, appeared completely unchanged, as calm and collected as if they'd just stepped out for a morning stroll. He looked at Xiaoyuan, clutching the photo album tightly, saw the turmoil in her eyes, and offered a small, reassuring nod.
"Let's go," He said simply. "I promise you, Xiaoyuan. I will give you a different future."