Chapter 1: A Girl Named Ai Lie

"What am I going to do with my life?"

Those words were echoing in Ai Lie's mind, everyday, everynight. Ai Lie, 18 y.o. girl, who is almost graduated from senior high school, is haunted by bills her family has made. Her family is poor, but they have a very huge loan, to a certain state bank and some illegal moneylenders, and what makes it worse is non of her family members has a job, unexceptionally herself. A group of losers, a laughstock for the whole big family.

Her father, was a businessman who went bankrupt after one wrong decision that made her whole family fell into an endless circle of loan, and he became jobless after that. Her mother, is only a housewife who knows nothing about how to make money, but very good at spending it. Her only brother, is a jobless 30's man who loves to play games and gamblings, and her mother's favorite child who should get everything he wants or he will throw a tantrum. He is an egotistical immature man.

Everytime her family started to running out of money, her parents will lend a huge amount of money from the illegal loansharks for daily needs. Her parents are digging their own graves. While her big family, of course, non of them are willing to help. They will start to humiliate her family if her family dare enough to ask for their help. In fact, who in this world will spend their money for 'nothing'? The only hope for this bunch of losers is just the youngest daughter, Ai Lie. But what can she do to end the curse of her family loan? She hasn't even graduated from the high school yet!

"Now, what should I REALLY do?" Ai Lie's discussing with herself. What is the best strategy for her to end her family loan? The time is running out, the deadline for the payment is next month, she needs to pay, or else she and her family will be ended up homeless.

"Marriage?"

Ai Lie has a short and small body, though her skin is perfectly white, and her hair is long and straight just like the typical of beautiful teenager, her face isn't that pretty. There will be no rich boys or rich men who atracted to her by her average appearance. She is also an awkward weirdo that very suck at making friends, so marriage is practically impossible for her.

"Robbery?"

That is also impossible. She isn't strong at all, her body is extremely petite. If she does that, she will end up in a jail.

"Work in a big company?"

That is actually make sense... But, in reality, her salary won't be enough to pay all of the loan just in one month of work. Her family debt is 75.000$, while the highest salary she can get for undergraduated high school level is just 100-300$ per month. So... That's also impossible.

"Mom, do you have money? if yes, gimme some.", Suddenly her brother speaking loudly in front of her bedroom.

"What are you going to buy?", her mother replied.

"Beers. How much do you have left?"

"Only 50$ left in my wallet..."

"Give me a half."

"Okay. Bring them all with you, buy me some.", her mother hands over all of the money from her wallet to her brother's hand.

'SLAM!', Her brother has left the house.

"It's always like this... When will they realize it? ...that we are in a grave danger? Why can't they just keep all of the money we have left? " Ai Lie's murmuring to herself.

They say the youngest child is the most pampered child. In fact, Ai isn't really close with her parents, unexceptionally her brother. She rarely had a conversation with her own family. Her parents too, their relationship is bitter, always fight everytime they face each other. While her brother and herself never spoke to her a single word, unless he needs something from her.

In her house, she is almost treated like a servant, she has to cook and does all of the house chores, while her mother spends almost a day watching TV, or shopping with her friends. Her father is rarely at home, no one knows what he is doing. Her brother spends most of his time at his room, playing game, or doing online gamblings. Sometimes he is out to buy fancy foods when he is hungry, or beers when he is thirsty. He is a picky eater anyway, so he only consumes meats which are expensives.

She is always alone. She spends her time for studying, reading books, or doing her other hobby such as drawing. From the outside, she is looking fine, calm, and quiet, but actually she is very unhappy and depressed. She was always good at hiding negative emotions, but everyone has their own limit, so does she.

'I can't do this anymore, I have to leave, far away from this house. I'm giving up. Why do I have to clean up the mess that I didn't make? It's not my responsibilty in the first place! If they don't even worry about it, so why should I?', In the depths of the despair, she decided something that change her whole life.

One day, she prepared herself in her bedroom, readily to leave from her house. She didn't pack her things, or even create a goodbye letter. She only brought her wallet, and a small fruit knife, and put them in her usual black school bag. She wore a white T-shirt, and a knee-length flare skirt, her favorite outfit that she had since junior high school. She used her last money to buy a ticket and rode a bus. Her destination was to a small hill, near the city border, called The Stone Hill. This place is a deserted hill, it's very quiet, no people living in that area.

After arriving to a halte, she walked until she reached the hill, then she started to climb to the top. Just like its name, the path that she walk is sure rocky and unsteady, and with the trees and bushes, makes it harder to walk. She uses every strength that she has on her feet to walk, restlessly. When she reaches the top of the hill, she finally stop. She is admiring the view from up there, and starting to enjoy the moment. The cool air that she inhales, the green grass that she stepped on, the heat of the sun on the top of the sky warmth her skin, the chirping of the birds, and the voices of the trees above her head blown by the wind. Ah... Everything is beautiful.

"This place will do." She said, as she took out the fruit knife in her bag.

"God, I have been praying to You for my whole life. I have never losing my faith on You, but I've already done for. It's a dead end. My family's habit won't change, no matter how hard I try. All of the money I have left, or I have gained, is always used for nothing but hedonism. I'm tired. I'm so sorry that I'm so weak. All I wanted was to save them, to change the situation, to make them happy. But in the end, it was all in vain. I'm sorry, please forgive me for my sins. And I'm sorry for dirtying this beautiful scenery You've created with my dirty blood. Please forgive me."

Her right hand is holding a knife, ready to silt her own neck. But because of fear, she is trembling badly. She's trying to hold it with both of her hands. The edge of the knife is getting closer to her neck. She can feel how sharp this knife is, and she couldn't imagine the unbearable pain after this before finally she's losing her 'consciousness'.

"C'MON YOU COWARD!! DO IT!! YOU HAVE GONE THIS FAR!!", She cried.

"What are you doing, my dear?"

Suddenly, an unknown voice coming from nowhere to be found. She was shocked until she dropped her knife. She turns around, looking everywhere, but there's no one except her in that place.

"W-WHO!? WHERE ARE YOU??"

"I'm down here."

It was a snake. A talking black cobra with shiny crimson red eyes.

"A- A- A TALKING SNAKE!? A GHOST!"

'This must be halucination!', she is terrified of the fact that the snake can speak as fluently as humans.

"Don't be afraid, my dear. Tell me your problems, and I will try help you."

"A-a-a...", She tries to calm herself since the snake doesn't seem to be harmful.

"A-are you sure you can help me?"

"It depends on your problem. Now, tell me your story."

She talked to that snake. She told the snake everything, about her family's bad behavior, about her loan, about how unfortunate her life is. She is in a great desperartion until she talked too much.

"So all you need is money to pay the all of your family's debt, yes?"

"Yes... and I... Actually I want to pay ALL of the debt, not only in bank, but also to some illegal moneylenders. But in total, I will need 75.000$! That is more impossible for me to pay..", Her voice is trembling.

"Very well then, my master can help you. I will deliver you to him."

"Him...?"

"Yes! But still, there's a price to pay for this. No one will help you for free, that's the rule. You will have to set an agreement with him. "

"Ah... Of course..."

She couldn't believe what this snake said. 'No one will help you for free', in fact, there is nothing free in this world, just like what her big family said to her family for million times. But she has already gone this far, so she wants to know more about the agreement.

"What is the agreement, Mr. Snake?"

"It's an easy thing to do, my dear. The agreement is you have to..."

"... Sell your soul to my master." The snake replied, its voice became more serious.