Chapter 3 Illusion of Being Free

Li Xiuying locked her bedroom door. Then proceeded into the bathroom.

Li Xiuying stood in front of her floor length mirror and looked at herself.She saw a 23 year old woman in pajamas's staring back at her.

Li Xiuying pulled her fingers through her short bob. A trace of sadness in her eyes. She once had luscious black locks that reached down to her waist. She recalled how her mother would brush her hair for school and before she went to bed.

Due to working around the clock she didn't have time to manage it. So Li Xiuying made the choice to cut her hair which reminded her of her mother's love.

Li Xiuying was fair to the point you could see her veins through her delicate paper like skin. She was very thin and looked like she hadn't eaten a decent meal in years.

Her face had the potential to be beautiful but it now looked haggard.

Li Xiuying's eyebrows were delicate. Her large brown eyes framed with long lashes looked weary. She had dark circles and eye bags. Her cheeks looked hollowed out. She had a small button nose and lips the colour of a dusky pink sunset, that were cracked and peeling.

Li Xiuying had never really cared about her appearance or health. She was always focusing on work.

However it would be different from now on.

Li Xiuying looked at her reflection in the mirror: "From now on I will love myself enough to make up for the lack of love from others. I only have this one body and I will cherish it."

Li Xiuying took a quick shower and walked back into her room wrapped in a fluffy white towel.

She looked at the shelf above her desk which held her beauty supplies. It was bare apart from a moisturizing cream and a lip-gloss.She took the moisturizing cream and started applying it to her body.

Li Xiuying: "I need to go shopping."

She then went and opened her wardrobe.

A winter coat, five sets of smart wear, one set of casual clothes, a hoody, three sets of pajamas, socks and underwear. She also had two pairs of smart shoes and a pair of Dr.Martens.Compared to Li Yu Yan's closet she seemed like a beggar in comparison.

Li Xiuying:"I seriously need to go shopping."

Li Xiuying didn't mind what little she had but sometimes it was nice having a few extra things you wanted instead of simply just what you needed.

She put on a basic white underwear set, followed by a pair of blue jeans and black long sleeved t-shirt.

Li Xiuying switched on her laptop to do some online shopping. She first looked up "must have beauty products."She decided that she would go shopping for clothes in-store.

Li Xiuying had put several items in her basket and was checking out. When she finally recalled that her uncle had all her bank and credit cards! She has no money!!!

Her uncle made her open various bank accounts and credit cards and then kept them for himself. He even kept her online log-ins a secret. His excuse was that she was too irresponsible to handle such large sums of money.

In the past she would always have to ask permission to use a debit card and even then her uncle would type in the card details and wouldn't let her be present.

Li Xiuying sighed: "I'm a 23 year old woman who has the lives of people in the palm of my hand yet I can't even buy face cream on my own. It's time for me to take charge of my own life."

Li Xiuying grabbed her rucksack and put in some documents, ID and her hoody. She also grabbed a few protein bars and a bottle of water from her desk.

Li Xiuying turned her phone off and put it in a desk drawer. It had been bugged by Sun Yu. She only came to know this several years later when she inadvertently overheard a conversation between her uncle and Sun Yu.

Sun Yu had bugged her phone so that all calls and messages were recorded and sent to her uncle. There was also a tracking device in her phone. Her uncle had given 10000 Yuan to Sun Yu and promised there would be more if he kept working for him.

Li Xiuying felt a sharp pain in her chest: 'Without realizing anything I had been living in a cage, it was large enough that I couldn't see the metal bars enclosing me and thought I was free. '

She shoved her laptop & charger and hard drive in her bag. Her uncle never thought to do anything to her laptop because she would share all her work with her cousin anyway.

Li Xiuying put on her Dr Martens and went to open her window. She leaned over and reached for the large black pipe on the side and slowly began descending. Li Xiuying climbed down with some difficulty. Usually climbing down the pipe would be an easy task but due to her weakened state she was struggling. Li Xiuying had been good at climbing every since she was young due to her father used to take her to climbing walls and frequently took her to the park and let her climbs trees.

Li Xiuying eventually reached the ground. She kept her back to the wall and she slowly followed it around to the garden at back of the house. She started sprinting towards the fence on the far side.