"Phoenix" Xu Jinfeng

Chapter 1 – The letter


August 20, 2006 - The morning sun shone onto Xu’s face as she turned to the clock, sighing, deciding that she would sleep for a little more, and drooling onto her pillow. It was yet another typical Saturday morning for Xu, taking care of her father who was down with ‘Black Lung Disease’, a common disease for coal-miners, and cooking breakfast for her younger siblings. Her Mother, who used to be a housewife, now had to work because of her Father’s disease, and the only ones who could take care of Xu’s siblings were her brother (who was involved in gang activities and killed by a rival gang) and herself. Xu loved sports, especially touch-rugby, which she would go for training every Friday night. She had to balance her life well – one wrong step could bring disastrous effects. Well, at least that was what she thought.

Cooking for her siblings was a pretty easy task for her. The only thing she hated was that she was unable to do her homework on time, pushing them to the very last-minute, putting her siblings and Father at top priority. She wasn’t like the other kids in her class, who would go to school with cool gadgets, shiny shoes, and cellphones. In fact, she didn’t even have one of those. She tried to apply for a job at the local provision shop, but she was rejected every time because the legal age to work was 15. The fortunate thing, however, was that she worked extremely hard and stayed attentive in school, which would naturally bring good results in examinations – and something she hadn’t expected.

Evening approached, and families of birds would be heard chirping on a tree where they set their nests. Xu’s mother came back from work, the time which the postman would also come by (Xu’s village was the last village in the district, so the postman would naturally come at evening. Her mother’s face filled with excitement as she walked into the house, holding an envelope in her hand. The logo on the left corner of the envelope was something Xu had seen her whole life – Her high school logo. She never really cared because everytime her school sent her a letter, it would be either an invitation to the school’s scholarship award ceremony, or a reminder for her to pay her school fees. But this time, it was different. The letters that she would normally receive would either come at June or December. But it was August, and she couldn’t think of anything that the school would send her a letter for. As she was busy with homework, Xu requested that her mother opened the letter for her, and to tell her what it is. Her illiterate mother opened the letter, and stared blankly at it. The only letters she could read were those that were frequently sent to her house. Xu stared blankly at her mother, with thousands of thoughts appearing in her mind, as her mother said in Native Taiwanese Hokkien, “What’s this? Don’t know what it’s saying”. Xu ran for the letter, with thoughts like ‘Am I expelled?’, ‘Am I suspended?’ and ‘Don’t tell me they want me to pay the fees another time!’ She took the letter from her mother, before reading it. It said:

臺北市立第一女子高級中學
臺北市中正區 10045 重慶南路一段 165 號，TEL：02-2382-0484

親愛的許金鳳同學，

本校的校長以及理事會決定讓您到美國洛杉托為本校研究有關工程系的產品，以及到美國測探市場。如果研究成功，理事會願意支付移民到美國的所有開銷。陪伴您到美國居住的同學將會是 A 班的林友琳同學，以及 B 班的黃秀慧同學。若移民不成，理事會也願意支付您在那一年的所有開銷。希望您能盡快給本校的理事會和校長一個答復。謝謝。

祝，
李麗娟
臺北市立第一女子高級中學校長

Translation:

Taipei Municipal First Girls' Senior High School
No.165, Sec. 1, ChongqingS. Rd., Zhongzheng District, TaipeiCity 10045, Taiwan (R.O.C.) .
TEL：02-2382-0484

Dear student Xu Jinfeng,
The school’s principal and board of governors have decided to send you to the United States of America, Los Santos, for research of several products that are linked with Engineering, and also evaluation of the market in the United States. If the research succeeds, the Board of Governors is willing to pay all expenses that are required for immigration (of course, if you want to). Students following you on the 1-year trip will be Lin Youlin from Class A, and Huang Xiuhui from Class B. If your immigration process is not successful, or if you choose not to take up American citizenship, the Board of Governors will still be willing to pay for all expenses that you have spent in the States. We hope that you can give us a reply soon. Thank you.

Best regards,
Li Lijuan
Principal
Taipei Municipal First Girls' Senior High School

Xu fell onto the wooden bench outside her house, with her mouth wide opened in astonishment.

TO BE CONTINUED....

Chapter 2 – ‘Welcome to Los Santos, country bumpkin.’

Xu did her final checks on her luggage, making sure that she hadn’t brought anything useless, and at the same time making sure that she had everything that was essential with her. She was nervous, breaking out in cold sweat at times, crying, and even having nightmares. For a thirteen year-old girl who had never left her family except for going to school, she was unable to handle the ‘stress’, causing her to have occasional mental breakdowns. Her younger brother, who was eleven, promised to take care of their Father. Xu was worried that her younger brother wouldn’t be able to cope, regretting that she had gone through the immigration process. It was too late; the only way to cancel the process was to either phone the agency or to send a letter of request to them, and if she does so, the Board of Governors would be extremely disappointed. She tried not to think about – she was unsure if she was excited or scared. Besides, she had never been out of Taiwan, let alone taking a plane.

The plane landed at Los Santos International Airport, and Xu gulped as the plane’s wheel touched the runway. It was a pretty hard landing, and Xu was scared. She was scared that she will never see her family again. Of course, it was a silly idea since the plane already landed. But for a country bumpkin like Xu, she will never let her hair down in a city filled with strangers. The three girls were accompanied by a lao-shi (teacher), which they all call ‘Feng’. ‘Feng’ was a great teacher, and he was also Xu’s module lecturer. The four hanged around the airport for a few moments, before Feng answered a call and brought the other three girls out.

A van was waiting for the group outside the airport. It looked suspicious from the outside for the paranoid country bumpkin, Xu. In the end, however, Xu still hopped onto the van, carrying her heavy luggage with her onto it. As the van made its way to the hotel they were going to be residing at, there was an awkward silence. No one had anything to say to anyone else. The other two girls had their earphones in their ears, and Xu was the only one not playing with a gadget. Even Feng, the teacher, was playing with his PSP.

The van screeched to a stop, like they always do in movies before a kidnapping occurred. Sure, Xu was a country bumpkin, but she watched movies too. She gasped for air as she looked out the slightly tinted window: it was nothing but an accident in front of the van. The van simply changed lanes, and after a few minutes, they arrived at the Rodeo Motel. It was quiet as hell, no one seemed to live there, but it was much safer than Jefferson Motel, where all the street punks hung out at. The still air seemed to pull Xu’s soul away from her body. She was breaking out in cold sweat, shivering, and everything to indicate her fear was appearing. Nonetheless, she had her luggage in her hotel room, falling into the soft and bouncy bed as she tried to sleep – she couldn’t. The bed was too soft for her, a girl who has slept on cold hard concrete since the day she was able to walk. Even the floor at the hotel, which was covered in carpet, was too soft for Xu to sleep on. She was like a caveman, discovering fire, the fire being the bed, the air-conditioning, the humongous glass windows and the soft brown curtains – everything which she had rarely seen in her entire life. And from there, a journey started. A journey towards better knowledge, wider perspective of the world around her (As the saying goes, ‘the world doesn’t revolve around you’) and of course, a journey towards meeting new friends…strangers, to be exact..which would, unfortunately, lead to regrettable events.

TO BE CONTINUED!

Reserved too for next chapter

OverReserved so you can't reserve anymore lol.

Hahahaha I'll just write on the same post then!

Noooo.

Chapter 2 posted.

Epic writing skills.keep it up!

To bad your dead now :$