Five Years Later

Five years later

The heavy metal door slowly creaked open as a lone figure stepped out of the building, carrying a large grey bag with not much inside.

Xu Anyi squinted her eyes from seeing the sunlight, and she lifted her hand up to cover her eyes as she took another step forward, the door shutting behind her with a bang.

She flinched slightly, looking back to find the door locked already. Well, she should be happy right. . .

Xu Anyi wore the typical grey shirt and pants, which hung awkwardly over her frail and skinny body. Her hair was oily as she messily tied it up in a low bun, and her eyes had lost their sparkle, the dark bags underneath them revealing how tired she was.

But even so, five years could not completely wipe away the natural confidence and beauty ingrained in her bones, and on her exhausted face and slender body, a very faint shadow of the old Xu Anyi could just slightly be seen if you looked carefully.

Xu Anyi did not look back at the building she stayed in for five years at all as she walked ahead, reaching the edge of an empty street.

What was she supposed to do now?

Xu Anyi stood there at the edge of the curbside for several minutes, staring blankly ahead until she suddenly heard the sound of a vehicle.

She looked to the left and saw as a bus turned the corner and drove towards her. She quickly stretched her hand out, and the bus stopped right in front of her.

"Get on," the driver said, frowning slightly when he saw what she was wearing.

Xu Anyi climbed onto the bus and found that it was almost filled with people, most of which were elders that seemed to have come from the countryside, which the prison was right at the edge of.

She was about to walk in when the driver quickly stopped her, "You have to pay."

Xu Anyi turned around and noticed the sign, so she quickly rummaged through her bag until she found the 20 dollar bill the officer had given her before she left.

"This is all I have," she said, her voice deep and hoarse.

The driver snatched the 20 dollar bill from her and put it into the box, and then pulled out a ten dollar and five dollar bill and handed it back to her.

"Thank you," Xu Anyi muttered softly as she took the money and began squeezing her way to the back of the bus. When the people saw what she was wearing, their expressions would change as they tried to move away from her.

Xu Anyi found an empty seat near the middle of the bus, but as she neared it, the old woman sitting in the seat next to it placed her bag onto the seat and turned to look out the window, closing her eyes.

Xu Anyi paused, looking at the woman and then at the seat.

If it had been her before, she would have definitely tried to talk some sense into the woman, but now, Xu Anyi merely continued to edge to the back of the bus, where there was a row of empty seats at the very back.

She placed her bag down and sat at the very edge near the window as the bus began moving again.

Like that, Xu Anyi sat there for almost two hours, unsure of where to go. . . or where she could go. The bus didn't stop until they finally entered the city, where people began occasionally getting off.

Slowly, the view began to become familiar as they drove through City A, the place Xu Anyi grew up in. However, nothing was the same for her now.

She looked out the window as buildings began to come into view, and she saw a few signs that read "hiring". She would need to get a job. . . She had nothing now.

She looked ahead and saw another large red banner with the word "hiring" on it in large block letters, and in a spur of the moment, she jumped up and said in the loudest voice she had used in a while, "Stop!"

The bus came to an abrupt stop and everyone turned back to look at her with annoyance, and she quickly grabbed her bag as she moved to the front of the bus.

"Sorry, can I get off here?"

The driver looked at her impatiently as he opened the door, "Hurry."

Xu Anyi stumbled off the bus and the door closed behind her right away, the bus driving off without even waiting an extra second.

Xu Anyi watched the bus disappear down the road and a feeling of fear overcame her once again as she was left alone in the open world.

She took a deep breath and walked over to the sign she had saw, but when she stopped in front of the building and saw the name of the place, she froze.