Mister Li, the Heart Bandit

Panda Novel

Ji Weixi was dreaming.

It was a long dream.

She dreamt of a woman who had good looks and bookish mannerisms, but she never looked at Ji Weixi, not even sparing herself a gaze.

Soon, she saw a man.

He was handsome, but his face would turn ruthless whenever he was angry, resembling a murder.

No. He was indeed a murderer.

The man would beat her whenever he got angry. Desperate, she would run to her mother for help, only for the woman to look upon her coldly and heartlessly say, “It’ll be nice if you died!”

Hence, she would flee to Yu Qishan whenever she was abused.

Every time, Yu Qishan would yell at the man. “Chen Bin, she is my granddaughter. I’ll have you beg for death if you beat her again!”

The man named Chen Bin would shrug nonchalantly. “Fine by me. We’ll see then if my suffering is more important than revealing the scandal of your daughter’s messy private life!”

“You…!”

Yu Qishan would be left infuriated by the thug every time.

***

Soon, her dream shifted and she saw a boy.

It was the first time she met him.

He was just three years older, but there was a stoicism to him unlike boys his age.

He did not want to smile or talk, and would respond no matter what she might say.

It was until she learned from the adults that he was Li Shaoling.

“Hello. Are you Li Shaoling?” She asked, snuggling up to him as she blinked.

He only cast a brief glance at her before turning away, neither acknowledging or denying.

“Hmmm, I’ll call you Brother Ling from now on!” She said, and stuffed the cloth doll in her hands into his. “Here. I’ll let you play with it, so I’ll be your little sister from now on.”

Li Shaoling promptly shoved the doll back into her hands and coldly said, “Don’t need it.”

She pouted, stamped her feet and left.

Be that as it may, she would always find him sitting alone in a corner when she visited with her grandfather. He seemed to fuse right into the light, cold and aloof.

Always assuming that he was very lonely, she would put on a thick face and try to play with him, sharing her favorite toys.

He never responded.

Until one day, several boys pranked her, and she went home to Yu Qishan all filthy.

However, when she led Yu Qishan to the boys, they found Li Shaoling being surrounded and beaten by the same boys.

And yet, Li Shaoling never cared how many people were hitting him. He held one boy firmly in his hand and did not let go, sending punch after punch at the boy’s face and beating him an inch with his life.

That was the first time she saw the fierceness in his eyes.

Bleeding from his nose and swelling over his eyes, he then walked up to her and said, “No one will bully you from now on.”

Eventually, they were separated when the Yu family and the Li family realized that the children were close.

A driver would send her to and back from school every day just to keep her just a little farther from Li Shaoling.

They were apart for an entire year, and it was that one year when she became acquainted with another boy.

The boy had a face of melancholy, and was growing white hair despite his tender age.

He felt like an alien, and wouldn’t speak to anyone.

Later, when the other children called him a monster, she would beat them up to protect him.

He finally greeted her on his own at the sight of her liveliness and innocence. “Hey, I’m Su Yang. What is your name?”

“I’m Yu Chuqing!”

“Can I call you Qing?”

“Sure!”

The Su family was a friend of the Yu family. When they learned about the children’s bonding, the head of the Su family and Yu Qishan decided to betroth them.

Having listened to them behind the door, Su Yang sneakily asked her, “Qing, they are saying that you’ll be my wife when you grow older. Do you want that?”

She nodded without hesitation, and did not think too much about it since she didn’t understand the word ‘wife’. “Okay! I do!”

She just didn’t know that her ‘I do’ had left Su Yang waiting for life.

***

The dream shifted again to a fire.

She was peeking out of a closet she was hiding behind. She found her mother dead, and her father beating Li Shaoling’s mother until her head bled, with both of them eventually crushed beneath the flames.

Though she was just nine, she knew that her father had killed someone, and that it was an unforgivable crime.

She knew then, too, that she was destined to not be with Li Shaoling.

He would hate her because her father killed his mother.

However, when she saw that her father was about to kill Li Shaoling as well, she promptly slithered out and pushed Li Shaoling firmly out, towards the blue skies. “Run, Brother Ling!”

Perhaps that might at least be recompense?

“B*tch!”

Chen Bin slapped her viciously, sending her down the floor.

Then, she had to withstand more slaps from him raining down at her.

Soon, she felt her cheeks numb and that she was bleeding from her nose, ears and mouth while hearing a dull hum.

She fainted.

When she woke up, she found that she was rescued by firefighters.

She blankly turned to find first responders carrying one burnt corpse after another past her.

One of the firefighters quickly put his hand over her eyes. “Don’t look, child.”

Still, she knew that the corpses were her parents and Li Shaoling’s mother.

She sneaked off when the firefighters weren’t paying attention.

“Brother Ling!”

She ran as hard as she could. Flustered, she shouted Li Shaoling’s name as she tried to search for any signs of him.

Nobody responded, but that was when she found a gradually blinding light and she was knocked down by a car.

***

Them, the scene fast-forwarded to her life after changing her name entirely, until she found Li Shaoling…

“Ji Weixi! Ji Weixi!”

Someone seemed to be calling her name, right beside her ear.

She opened her eyes slowly. Her vision was still a little dark and her head hurting, and she looked blankly at everything.

Her eyes tightened, and she turned her eyes to find Li Shaoling watching her worriedly.

Ji Weixi stared at him for seconds until her memories poured forth as if the floodgates had opened. She promptly screamed, and fumbled to hide in a corner, clutching her head and panting as she stared at him in panic.

Understanding that she was startled, Li Shaoling approached her and tenderly said, “It’s alright, it’s me. You don’t have to be afraid.”

“Aaaaaah!”

Ji Weixi closed her eyes and screamed; her tears flowed without stopping.

She heaved, trying to catch her breath. “What should we do… oh, what should we do…”

Li Shaoling frowned. “Why?”

Ji Weixi kept shrinking back from his face, her body shaking so hard that even her teeth were chattering as if she had seen some frightening monster.

Li Shaoling could hardly understand what she was saying when she suddenly started bawling. “What should we do… My father killed your mother… What should we do…”