Chapter 147 - The Birth of a Trio

Neo's line is what finally made Ying Ying's serious aura break, she could not hold back the little chuckle that escaped her. Something about the combination of neutral and dramatic was very comedic to her. They had always been like that since they were younger, the banter may have been a coping mechanism but it was almost second nature now.

When they had first met, the three of them were abandoned children roaming the streets. She had been there for a lot longer period of time before she met them. They were not related but walked around with their hand in each other grasps. It didn't take much of a genius to see that they were very dependent on each other, probably finding themselves as their only support in the situation. 

They were two cute little children, at most six years old innocent little babies. She never understood how people could be so cruel to leave children like that, their own flesh and blood to their own resources. The least they could do was drop them off at an orphanage instead of the streets where they would have to face all the elements. They weren't so young that they did not remember their parents or the scene where they were tossed aside. At least for her, her memory was distorted and did not have to relive the horrible memories of what brought her there. 

Her best guess was that her mind had blocked those memories off to protect her. For the absolute life of her she could not remember her life before the streets. Every time she tried to remember there was this black haze and her head started pounding. When she had the chance to go to the doctor later on her life, she had some tests done. Her body was completely healthy but they diagnosed the mental block as a psychological issue. Something she would have to take therapy for and work on slowly, she never followed up with that treatment. To her, knowing the past wasn't as important as surviving nor would she have the time to attend such. 

Adding on to the question of how would she fund them?? There was no solid amount of money in her hands till several years later. At that point, she could not leave any weaknesses for people to attack her on. Letting someone know that she suffered a small psychological issue would be easily utilized against her, to demean her of her title as if she was not worthy to keep it. 

That aside, when she had met those two they were scrambling for food. Staring at her with two beady eyes begging for food. She only had three buns in her hand that she had managed to steal for her meal. With those two looking at her like that, the food went down a little tougher than normal. It wasn't as if she did not meet people like them often, she never gave them a second look when she did. If she were to be nice, then how would she eat? To be kind when you have nothing is foolishness. 

However, there was something about these two that tugged at her heart strings. She blamed it on their innocent and pure eyes looking at her with such desperation. They did not even ask for the food but stared at her in silence which made the situation more awkward. If they had asked her she could have rejected, without asking her how was she to just reject them?

The staring had gone on for a total of eight minutes before she caved. Rolling two of her buns their way she did not look at them but there was a short silence before someone scrambled to grab it. After that the only sound echoing in the alley was them snarfing down the bun as they ate. It was not a large bun either but for someone who had starved for days it was as big as a large pizza and tasted as good as a Michelin star steak. 

She still paid them no attention and considered her sacrifice her good deed for the day. When she had finished her bun she had gotten up to leave to another location. It was getting later into the evening and she had to find a new spot to sleep safely that night. On the streets there were a couple of cardinal rules and some of the nicer a.d.u.l.ts had been kind enough to warn her in the beginning. One of the most important ones was to always change your location at night, if she were to stay in one place people would be able to find her easier. Those 'people' being bad men or women who had only the intentions of hurting them and nothing else. 

Especially since she was a little girl with no one to protect her, she was the easiest target. Who would notice if someone on the streets went missing? No one so they were the perfect victims and she did not want to become a statistic. So it became her habit of changing her location every night, sometimes she found another one easily and sometimes she had to search for a couple of hours to find a suitable place. She did reuse locations but sporadically so there was no routine to track. 

Dusting her hands off she started walking away and towards a different direction. Yet, when she took two steps forward, she heard a followup of four moving behind her. A suspicious feeling grew in her heart but she decided to ignore it and move forward. It did not take long for her to notice that the two little kids were following behind her. When she turned back to look at them they were standing there holding hands and looking up at her with dependence. 

She didn't want to be too mean but tried to educate them. 

"Look just cause I gave you food doesn't mean you should follow me. Didn't anyone teach you to not follow strangers? Even if they offer you something? Now leave me alone, don't follow me!"

Her tone was neutral but stern, she wanted to drive the point in. They showed zero signs of understanding but she knew they heard her. Nodding her head she started walking way again but the sound of them following her continued again. This time, the steps behind her were quieter yet still present. How quiet could children be anyways? What they thought was quiet was still a loud pounding to others since they did not have control of their bodies just yet. 

"I said LEAVE ME ALONE." Her voice raised several degrees in volume and she remembered the headache she felt looking at them. Taking on two kids were not easy and she had no d.e.s.i.r.e to become someone's guide then. Or 'take them under her wing' as the saying goes. 

The two kids flinched but still kept following her no matter how many times she told them to stop. After the fourth try she gave up on trying to make them understand verbally, her guess was that they did not speak English. She even tried using physical signs and gestures to say "no" and "stop" but nothing worked. If nothing worked then she just stuck to ignoring them, she would see if they keep following her tonight. 

Her confidence in that plan was strong and slowly weaned away every hour they were still behind her. There was a gross underestimation of what these kids could b.a.r.e and how determined they were to not leave her. Even as they stumbled a bit or felt pain in their legs they still followed her silently. Not a word of complaint left their mouths and that made her have a better impression of them. She never liked a lot of noise and if they were two whiny children she would have forcefully cut them away faster. Two well behaved children were always more liked than ones who gave trouble. 

Especially with the dark and dingy places they were walking through, normal kids would have been scared or at least make some noises of disgust. These children were so silent that she even suspected they were mute at some point. She felt like a mother bird with two little chicks behind her as they walked and three hours into the whole ordeal she came to terms with their presence. Taking them in was still out of the question but she could help them out for tonight and try talking to them tomorrow morning. 

No one could have predicted what was going to happen later that night that would bound them together forever....