1 Goodbye Lynn Fang

"O M G! W T F?" cried out a high-pitched voice, causing a nearby dog to bark angrily from the high pitch hurting its delicate ears. The tall gorgeous model ignored the commotion and continued stomping down the street in her Christian Louboutin stilettos, perfectly manicured nails pressing furiously on her phone.

"Watch it lady!" screamed an elderly taxi driver at the oblivious woman who nearly caused two crashes as she stomped across four lanes of traffic with green lights.

"No no no no no no no no no!!!!!" Lynn Fang screamed at the top of her lungs, attracting a few looks but hey, this was New York City, crazy things happen every day.

She threw her Chanel bag on the dirty ground and plopped herself right on the curb in defeat.

Eighteen year old Ling Fang stared back at her from her phone screen in all of its horror: greasy short hair framed a chubby moon face full of acne and acne scars with small beady eyes made ten times worse with ugly lime green thick framed glasses. Crooked yellow teeth surrounded by thin cracked lips with a bulbous flat nose that had two hairs sticking out of the left nostril. A black Dragon Ball Z shirt that showed off her nonexistent bosom and failed to hide her flabby arms and tubby stomach although she had hunched over to hide her 5'11 (180 cm) figure.

Somehow, someone found her high school senior year picture and posted it on all of her social media accounts and popular blogs. Instagram went crazy with #fakelynnfang #fuglylynn #lynnfangsogross #burnlynnwithfire...

Lynn thought she had left behind her past life as Ling Fang, the ugly little orphan girl who was forced to live with her grandmother in Nowheresville, Iowa because her parents died in a car accident when driving home from work as clothing factory workers.

They had both pulled back to back 24 hour shifts because Christmas was coming up and the factory was trying to keep up with the demand. Exhaustion must have won out and the car smashed into the guard rail on the highway.

The American Dream crashed and burned along with her parents that Christmas Eve as the police officers knocked on the door to tell the little five year old Chinese girl who didn't even know any English that her parents were not coming back.

Somehow she managed to save enough money working three jobs to get her first plastic surgery at 18 and the rest was history. Although her grandmother was sad to let her go to try to make it in the big city, she knew she couldn't stop her from her dreams.

This fashion week show was her chance to show her grandmother that she made it, that she is going to be rich and famous and take care of her for the rest of her life.

"Who run the world? Girls! Who runs this -" Beyoncé's strong voice from her ringtone broke her reverie.

"Hello?"

"Miss Lynn Fang?" The snooty voice sounded like Zylo, personal assistant to the main fashion designer for Chanel. Her heart sunk immediately.

"Yes."

"I'm sure you know why I'm calling, it's all over Insta. Since you might need some time off to deal with this *ahem* personal issue, we've decided it's best if you drop out of the show this time. No worries, we won't pursue any compensation penalties but we will need you to return the sponsor fee."

His tone was completely different from when he first introduced himself and asked her to walk for Chanel. Of course, now she was being cut, what's the use of placating her?

"I understand, can I ask who's replacing me?"

"Well... that's none of your business to be honest. Angela from accounting and Abby from legal will get in touch with you regarding returning the money. Ta-ta!"

Beep, ding, beep, ding, ding, ding! Her phone was blowing up with texts, notifications, messages and voicemails.

She didn't even need to look to know all of her sponsors were dropping her and hate mail was flooding her inbox.

Lynn turned off her phone for the first time in years and threw it into her bag. She still had to pick up her grandmother at the airport...

——

"Ling'er!"

"Nai nai!"

Grandmother and granddaughter enclosed each other in a tight embrace. Lynn forced back her tears and tried to smile for her grandmother.

"You look so different now!" exclaimed Grandmother Fang.

"Do you not recognize me because of all the surgeries?" joked Lynn.

"Aiya! That's not what I mean, I mean you've grown up. But you're still my little Ling'er!" Grandmother Fang reached up and caressed Lynn's head.

"Am I?" whispered Lynn, knowing she's had dozens of surgeries to give her the perfect skin, eyes, nose, breasts, butt, etc.

In fact, there was not a single body part that she hadn't altered through surgery, she literally became another person head to toe when she decided to be Lynn Fang.

"Eyes do not change, voice does not change, heart definitely does not change. Yes, you are still my little treasure, my little Ling'er."

Lynn couldn't hold back her tears any longer and sobbed into her grandmother's shoulder.

All the pent-up pain and anger and sorrow came rushing out and she could not stop no matter how hard she tried.

"My little Ling'er, what happened?"

"Nothing, I just missed you too much," sobbed Lynn.

"Silly child! Grandmother is here now! Don't cry anymore or you will not be pretty for your dog walk show."

"Catwalk grandmother catwalk!" laughed Lynn.

"Catwalk sidewalk dog walk, you know grandmother only knows how to wash dishes in the restaurant kitchen, I don't even have time to watch the TV to know these things. But next door Aunt Lu and Uncle Guo at the fish market said it was a very big deal to walk! They told me they will call the neighbors to watch you on the big TV in the community center! They asked if you can say hi to them on the TV if you have time, everybody is so proud! I am so proud!"

Lynn could only smile sadly and nod her head. "Let's get you settled in the hotel first, ok?"

—-at the Four Seasons hotel—-

"I'm sorry Miss Fang but it appears your room reservation was cancelled," the lady tapped the front desk and the bellhop appeared with her suitcases. "We had to give your suite to the actual model walking the Chanel show and we are currently fully booked, we apologize for the inconvenience."

Just like that, the front desk dismissed her and waved to the next guest.

Lynn swallowed back her tears and took a couple deep breaths before she walked back to her grandmother.

"Ling'er, this place is so beautiful! I took a lot of pictures to show Auntie Lu back home!" Her grandmother excitedly waved her flip phone. "But I only took eleven pictures and it won't take any more, can you fix it?"

Lynn stared at the 20 year old flip phone and mentally hit herself for forgetting to replace her grandmother's phone. How unfilial was she?! That was the first thing she should've done for her grandmother who raised her all these years by herself.

"No need to fix, I will get you a new one! Also looks like I made a mistake! This is the wrong hotel!"

Lynn walked her grandmother back to the street and decided to go to the nearest Apple store which was in Times Square. Deep in thought, she didn't realize her grandmother had stopped on the sidewalk.

"Ling'er, you're on the big TV!"

Lynn looked up at the Times Square screen and saw a breaking entertainment news story on her being a fraud and being kicked out of fashion week.

Immediately, people around her noticed the story was referring to her and started taking pictures. Whispering...laughing at her...looking at her with disgust.

"No no no no noooooooo!" screamed Lynn as she dropped everything and tried to run away from all of those judging eyes.

"Ling'er!" screamed her grandmother as she watched Lynn run right into the busy street in front of a SUV that slammed into her and sent her flying twenty feet into the air.

Blood spattered everywhere and people's cameras kept snapping away, nobody remembering to call an ambulance.

Instead they wanted their 15 minutes of fame on social media and have pictures of Lynn Fang killing herself because she couldn't bear the shame of all her lies.

Nobody paid attention to the little Chinese grandma who tried to push her way to her only remaining living relative, her little heart Ling'er.

"Ling'er! Ling'er! Ling'er...."

There was suddenly an enormous amount of pain and then pure darkness...

"Sorry Nai Nai..."

—-

Can you help me?

/Who is it?/

It's me, Fang Ling'er.

/What? I'm Fang Ling'er!/

No...actually I don't know who I am. All these years I have been living a lie, I don't even know who the real Ling'er is any more...

/Well, I am actually Lynn Fang so I guess you're Fang Ling'er?/

No, now you are Master Fang Ling'er...I am but smoke in the air, dust on the earth...

/Wait, what? Master?!/