Chapter 1 - Birthday

"Banjaxed" is used to describe something that's not working or is broken

Broken, ruined, shattered; confounded.

Chapter 1 - Birthday

"Jiayi, is today your birthday?"

At her deskmate's unexpected question, Lin Jiayi nodded shyly. It was surprising that someone from school would remember her birthday when she made no attempt to remind anyone, much less receive any wishing.

"Will your family bring you to eat nice food?"

A little wary of the sudden questions, Lin Jiayi shook her head. "My dad will be cooking dinner today."

"Ah? Well, it's not bad."

Living in the countryside that was far from the city, there were not many restaurants, much less fancy ones. Most families prefer cooking on their own with their self-planted vegetables and self-cared animals. It was only for special occasions that they would dine at restaurants for their environment and service, but even then their heart would bleed at how expensive it was.

When the last bell rang, Lin Jiayi hurriedly packed her books unlike how she would usually have waited until half of her classmates left first to avoid colliding with anyone.

Lin Jiayi's desk mate seems to be in a tough inner debate, her hands holding onto something. When Lin Jiayi was about to leave, she finally called out in a hurry. "Jiayi! This is my present for you!"

The gift was not wrapped at all, so Lin Jiayi immediately saw what her gift was. It was a red string bracelet with a single seven-coloured bead.

When Lin Jiayi only stared and not accepting it, her desk mate quickly explained. "I brought it from the temple. It's said to protect the wearer from danger."

"That's thoughtful. Thank you." It was a simple gift, but the thought behind it was sincere.

Lin Jiayi left the school wearing her new gift and her smile never disappeared from her round cheeks. Her short, straight bob bounced along with her backpack as she ran out of the school and towards the school bus.

One of the classmates finally spoke up to Lin Jiayi's desk mate after the said person left long after. "Xuexi, why did you give her that? Isn't that what you are supposed to give to your ill grandpa?"

"I didn't prepare her present beforehand. As for my grandpa, I can go back and buy another one for him."

"Another one? Isn't it tough to get the head monk to enlighten that bead for you?" Their village has a small temple with only five monks staying there. But their prestige spread to nearby villages and cities for how accurate they were, so their village never lacked visitors.

"We had been classmates for many years and we never gave her any present before. Did you finally pity her?" A classmate seated behind Xuexi asked.

Xuexi sighed. "How could I not? From morning till now, no one wished her any birthday greeting. Even I don't dare to wish her. The bead is nothing expensive and if it can make her a little happy, why not?"

Xuexi's friend clicked her tongue. "Only you dared to sit so close to her when no one dared to get close to her even a meter away."

"Because I'm one of the few people in the class that do not have a phone."

"Even if you don't have a phone, that does not reduce much danger. Did you not remember that she had killed her own mother just from touching a machine?"

In Shengzhang village, there were less than one thousand people and the majority were above fifty years old. The school currently only have fifty-seven students and offers eleven years of education, until high school. After that, if they want to further their studies, they could only go to the city. There was only one school among a few nearby villages, and the villagers almost knew everyone and were friendly with each other.

But Lin Jiayi was one of the top ten most well-known people in their village despite being only sixteen years old no impressive background. She was not famous for her naughtiness or her intelligence, but for her destruction.

Since birth, any machine she touched for more than thirty seconds always broke down one way or another.

Luckily, their village does not have as much technology as the city, so the damage Lin Jiayi could do was not big. But her unfortunate affinity with technology had taken a person's life, her own mother.

Since that incident, the villagers were wary towards this strange child and would unconsciously avoid her, and the children would follow their example.

"I remember, but did you not remember our parents said not to hurt Lin Jiayi?" Xuexi reminded and the conversation about Lin Jiayi finally stopped.

Unfortunately, the school bus could not drop Lin Jiayi at the front of her house, so she still had to walk for twenty minutes to reach home. As there was still an hour before dinner time, there were villagers walking back home from work. The moment they saw her, they would shift their gaze away as if she would invite them to talk if they made eye contact, and quickly walked away to increase their distance.

Lin Jiayi understood their avoidance and even accepted it, but that does not mean it does not hurt.

Stepping into the family compound, she could smell food coming from her house. She silently entered her house and tracked down the source of the smell.

"...Dad, do you need any help?" Lin Jiayi asked as she watched her father busy in the kitchen. From the looks of it, her father had skipped work to keep his word to cook her birthday dinner.

"You will be a bother instead of help!"

The tension in Lin Jiayi lowered after hearing her father's mild tone. As a child, she was used to having her father despise her for killing her mother during childbirth. The young Jiayi does not understand pregnancy and childbirth, and her grandparents tried their best not to mention it.

But in their small village, gossip was inevitable, and Lin Jiayi learned more about her mother's death from eavesdropping on them.

Her mother did not die after giving birth to her but from machine failure. It was a freak accident that no one wanted to happen, and the nurse that hold the newborn Lin Jiayi happened to accidentally lean the baby to a side until her flesh touched one of the machines.

It leads to a chain reaction.

Of course, no one believes that a human could break down a machine with just skin contact until Lin Jiayi proved them wrong by breaking down a few more as she grows older.

Gossips were not hundred percent true as it could be distorted or exaggerated. However, it was the truth that the machine Lin Jiayi touched broke down and killed her mother. And her father hated her for taking away the woman he loves.

Lin Jiayi was still Lin Ge Shuai's daughter and he was obligated to take care of her. During these sixteen years, his attitude was the same, where his mood would be the decider on how he would treat his daughter.

He never physically abused his daughter, but his words were harsh.

Thinking that her father was willing to celebrate her sixteen birthday, Lin Jiayi left the cooking to her father, as he was indeed right that she might cause more trouble than not. With her disastrous hand, she was not allowed to try cooking, which indirectly had her skip learning how to prepare the ingredients.

Back in her room after checking the small farming area behind their house, she used a wooden back scratcher stick to turn on the lights. Her family's finance was not so bad, so there was a bathroom installed inside their house. As for whether the water would be hot or cold, it would depend on the weather, for they could not effort to buy a new water heater that broke down years ago.

In her father's words, it was a waste of money. Bathing in cold water would not kill anyone!

After she enjoyed her luckily warm bath from the good weather, dinner was ready. Seeing only two bowls of white rice on the small table, Lin Jiayi looked around before asking carefully, "Dad, is Aunt not joining us?"

"She called earlier that she will be hanging out with her friend for a bit. She will eat cake with us later, so eat our dinner first."

Lin Jiayi found it weird, as her aunt told her yesterday that she would join them for dinner to celebrate her birthday. But it was quickly placed aside when her father placed a chicken drumstick in her bowl.

Blinking at the delicious-looking drumstick, she waited for her father to remember his mistake and take it back, but there was no movement at all.

Lin Jiayi had to open her mouth again. "Dad, don't you like drumsticks?" Lin Ge Shuai worked as a security guard in a publishing company with a salary that could not effort daily meat consumption. Whenever he could effort to buy chicken, the drumsticks would always end up in his stomach.

"Today is your birthday, so you get to eat it. I can eat it anytime I want. Drink the soup first to warm your stomach."

Normally, this amount of conversation usually ends up with Lin Ge Shuai scolding her for being stupid or talking too much. Today was really a special day.

"Okay." She scooped the soup and eagerly tasted it, her eyes never strayed from the drumstick. She could count on one hand how many drumsticks she had eaten before.

The happy Lin Jiayi that believe things were finally going well with her father, did not notice Lin Ge Shuai's eyes never left the bowl of soup in her hand. Only after she emptied it did he move his gaze. "Drink more. There's still plenty in the pot."