1 Abandoned

On a cold night, laid a shivering young boy in an alley between two buildings, the boy looks to be about nine or ten years old, his appearance was masked in the dark alley causing it to be hard to see his face.

The young boy laid on a cold platform without any sort of blanket to shield himself from the cold as he shivers every now and then from the cold wind that assaulted him. The boy laid there as he recalled what happened a while ago with an aggrieved look on his face.

'Just why was I kicked out?' he thought to himself. He did not understand why he was kicked out despite pondering about it during this whole time. 'I only ate more than everyone else, it is not like it's my fault that I have a big appetite.'

In fact, this young boy was an orphan, and for as long he could remember he was living in the orphanage without knowing who his parents were.

He went out one time and found some kids having fun with their parents while their parents bought them food and snacks from food stalls. The young boy did not think much of it at first, but when he saw those kids smiling with happy faces, he felt a tinge of emotion that he had not felt before.

He wondered if he will be like those kids if he had a parent too, so after returning to the orphanage he asked the manager if he had parents or where they might be, but the manager only told him that he was found one day outside the orphanage with his parents nowhere to be seen so they took him in.

At that time, they said that he had a necklace around his neck which had profound and mysterious inscriptions on it.

In actuality, the worker who happened to find him thought the necklace around the child's neck was a priceless treasure due to those inscriptions as aristocrats are the only ones who owns such items with inscriptions engraved on them, so he tried to have it appraised only for it to be judge as a normal item without any value whatsoever.

The worker felt indignant for having to waste his time for no gains but ended up returning the necklace to the child. After careful inspection, they noticed that at the back of the pendant on the necklace the characters 'Shenyan' written so they decided to name the child— Shenyan.

The child lived in the orphanage for the next ten years, but as he grew up, he developed a peculiar trait— he ate too much. This caused the workers at the orphanage to question whether they should keep him in the orphanage or kicked him out, because at the rate that he is eating there may not be any more food for the other kids— if he kept eating the same amount of food every day then they will be out of food— as the amount he eats seems to be increasing as he grew up. At such, they decided to kick him out of the orphanage.

That child— Shenyan is the young boy who was currently lying on a cold ground without any shelter from the cold winds. As he recalled what happened earlier, he was pained at the same time sad. He did not think that he was hated that much before. He suddenly recalled the manager's words.

"Shenyan, although I don't want to do this as I watched you grow up in this orphanage, but it can't be helped. We— the orphanage survives on the donation we receive from the rulers of this place but you— the amount of food you eat is enough for two adults. And the amount of consumption seems to be increasing as you grew up. We can't afford to take care of you anymore, so I will kindly ask you to leave for the orphanage's sake." Said the manager of the orphanage.

"But it's not my fault, I didn't want to be this way either, I—" before he could finish his sentence, the manager suddenly cut in.

"Enough!! I don't care what you think, I have already acted nice enough if you don't leave then don't blame me" the manager shouted. Causing the Shenyan to flinch out of fear due to the sudden outburst from the manager of the orphanage. Shenyan hesitated for a while before speaking.

"T-Then what do I do for food, won't I starve to death?" he asked while stuttering.

"That is your problem, it has nothing to do with me!" he said and then he continued "You can hunt wild animals in the forest nearby, since you like eating so much, you won't mind eating it raw, right? Hahaha!!!" the manager laughed out loud after finishing his sentence finding his retort quite fitting.

Thinking back to what the manager had said, Shenyan pondered whether he should really go hunt for food in the nearby forest. Shenyan did not immediately go to the forest to hunt since it was dangerous. So, after leaving the orphanage he found some alley and decided to sleep there for the night and think about that tomorrow.

Despite what he had been through, Shenyan did not cry like any normal child would, other than feeling like it was unfair and pained because the manager decided to kick him out, he did not feel the need to cry.

He also understood his situation clearly, ever since he was young, he always ate more than others— he did not know why he was like this either, just that the food seems to digest faster making him want to eat more until he was satisfied, which led him to his current situation.

Shenyan laid there, intermittently shaking causing his whole body to tremble from the chilly cold wind that constantly assaulted his body.

He had been sleeping here since a couple of hours ago, and while it was very uncomfortable because of the chilly cold wind that seems to penetrate into his bones, he did not have much of a choice since he does not have anywhere else to go after being kicked out of the orphanage.

It was just that at this time, a man was passing by the alley he was sleeping in and immediately saw him lying there— the man suddenly stopped for a moment, and then he approached him after noticing that he was only just a child.

After reaching the young boy, the man bend over before asking in gentle tone.

"Little Lad, are you okay?" the man asked with concern.

"Ah" Shenyan was startled by the sudden voice that rang in his ears.

He did not know when but all of a sudden, there was a middle-aged man bending over him and suddenly speaking to him at this moment.