The Amnesiac
The temperature was low, and a small wind whistled, seemingly leaking in from somewhere, even though this was a dead-end, a cul-de-sac surrounded by towering walls on all sides.
Next to a few enormous garbage bins, something pale and lifeless was sprawled out. After a while, it began to move. Only then did this desolate alleyway seem a bit more vibrant, given that this was a living creature.
He got up, his hands tightly clenching, seemingly shivering. Nobody knew how long he had been lying here, including himself. This damned overcast weather had the robust man’s face turning purple from the cold. He looked around, then down at himself. Only then did he realize he was naked — completely bare. His steps were shaky as he tried to walk, as if his legs had forgotten how to walk, and he could only tentatively step forward.
Behind him were two gigantic plastic garbage bins, taller than a person, filled to the brim with trash. The litter had spilled all over the place, probably due to a lack of regular cleaning.
“Where am I?” “Who am I?” “What happened before this?” He asked himself repeatedly, but he was unable to answer any of the questions!
Suddenly, a wave of pain washed over his head. He held his head in his hands, shaking continuously, as if the more he tried to recall, the more unbearable the pain became.
After a long time, he gradually released his hands.
The nauseating odor began tormenting his sense of smell. It seemed to be a mix of rotten eggs and canned herring, or even worse. When a person is unconscious, they wouldn’t care about what they smelled. But at this moment, being able to smell the stench, he should feel fortunate because it proved that he was alive.
Being alive is more important than anything else.
He trudged out of the knee-high pile of dirty, discarded paper, his body smeared with sour, rotten, foul-smelling water. The filthy water trickled down his hanging arms and dripped onto the ground from his fingertips.
The alley was shallow, barely eight or nine meters in total. The two garbage bins were placed at the deepest part. He limped towards the exit, specks of light shone down from the top of the high walls, casting a glow on his hunched back.
He was confused, because not only could he not recall his past, even the act of walking felt like a newly acquired skill.
“Did someone drug me? Was I beaten up severely? Was I unconscious for so long that I can’t even walk properly?” he muttered to himself.
He was almost at the mouth of the alley, the stench still lingering. He didn’t lift his head and accidentally bumped into a few pedestrians at the junction.
“Damn it!” the person who got hit yelled.
This was a T-junction, and three people were passing by. The skinniest guy amongst them had been splashed with dirty water from the naked man’s head, which infuriated him.
“Ah, I’m sorry!” The naked man hurriedly apologized.
“Are you a fucking idiot? Look at this idiot! Are you an exhibitionist?” the skinny man scorned with contempt.
He was the shortest and skinniest one among the group of three, with shifty eyes and lips devoid of any color. He didn’t look old, probably just around twenty, but his body was like a deflated ball, shriveled up, with crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes that didn’t match his age. His hair, dyed golden, was devoid of any shine and appeared as disheveled as withered grass.
“I’m sorry, I really apologize,” the naked man continued to apologize. The light in the alley was so dim that one could not tell dawn from dusk, his only thought at the moment was to leave this place as soon as possible.
“Damn it,” the Blond Weasel muttered, glancing down at the stain on his chest. He shook off the dirt from his clothes. Then, while verbally confronting the naked man with, “How do you want to settle this?” his gaze subtly communicated a message to his portly companion.
The man, quite plump with greasy long hair, stood about 180 cm tall. He was so hefty around the waist that it looked as though he had two truck tires wrapped around it.
“Do you have any idea how much his suit costs?” Despite his fair complexion, the fat man was fierce, speaking with the rudeness of a wild boar.
“I’m really sorry, I didn’t do it on purpose,” the naked man continued to explain. For the naked man, the fat man stood to the left of the alley exit, while the Blond Weasel and a tall man were to the right.
He lowered his head, trying to pass by the fat man’s side, as there was still a gap he could squeeze through despite the man’s size.
The naked man turned sideways, his back to the fat man, his body almost pressed against the wall, his thick chest hair rubbing off a lot of dust on the wall. But his broad back inevitably bumped into the fat man.
“You filthy thing! Damn you! How dare you dirty my clothes!” The fat man was furious, his entire arm wrapped around the naked man’s chest, pushing him back to the center of the alley.
“I’ve already apologized, can you let me go?” The man asked in a pleading tone. He seemed not to care about his dignity, he just wanted to get out safely, and then figure out what had happened before he passed out.
“Big bro, I don’t mind, but are you still mad?” The fat man asked the Blond Weasel.
“Absolutely！"
“Did you hear that? Our big bro is still angry!” The fat man glared at the naked man in front of him with a vicious look.
The nakedman’s face was full of misery, but it had nothing to do with fear. He just felt he was downright unlucky!
“I’m talking to you, didn’t you hear?!” The fat man roared, his eyes filled with disdain as if he had never been disciplined in his life.
As he spoke, the fat man reached out to choke the man’s neck.
The nakedman took a small step back, causing the fat man to grab at thin air.
“Oh, you dare to dodge?” The murderous intent in the fat man’s eyes grew stronger.
Though the naked man seemed to have just learned how to walk after waking up, he could feel that he was a good fighter, as the fat man’s attempt to grab him felt like slow motion from a movie. He began to size up the fat man with his eyes—he hadn’t bothered to really look at anyone before because his only focus had been on leaving this place. But now the situation was clearly different; he would probably have to fight with these strangers, so he couldn’t help but scan their strength with his gaze.
This reversal of scrutiny made the fat man uncomfortable.—It was natural for a predator to size up its prey, but if the prey turned around and sized up the predator, it would be considered a defiance of the natural order.
“Big bro!” The fat man glanced at Blond Weasel, in a tone that was waiting for orders.
“If he starts calling me daddy, you can stop.” Blond Weaselsaid with a smirk. The fat man also burst into wild laughter.
“Did you hear that? If you don’t want to get beaten, you can start calling me daddy now.” The fat man said.
“If someone really has to call the other ‘daddy’,”
“What’s it gonna be? Hehehe.”
“It would be more fitting for you to call me daddy.” The naked man said calmly.
He stared at the fat man with a gaze sharp as a knife, a gaze the fat man had never encountered in his life, otherwise he wouldn’t have averted his eyes in a flight-like manner for a half second, only to raise them back up under the drive of his ego.
“What are you waiting for!” Blond Weasel yelled.
The fat man was gearing up for a fight.
But the naked man slowly retreated two steps into the alley.
