Li Lei's Big Escape

A short story

This short story was first published on a now defunct website, and was included in the short story collection ‘The Naked Wedding’. It is inspired by a real-life incident when mental patients were abandoned in a bus station in Guangdong, China.

Fan Hong, the aspiring singer, is crouching on the ground eating out of an upturned dustbin. Wang Liheng, the former vagrant, is grabbing snacks from the hands of bewildered commuters. Huang Ni, the grieving mother, was last seen sleeping on the bathroom floor.

Li Lei sits on the bench in her turquoise gown enjoying the breeze in her hair. In her years at Kangning Hospital, she has seen every type of madness: depression, dementia, the madness of a man who threw a jar of acid at a woman for not returning his love, the madness of those who run down the street naked. Even with the budget as stretched as it is, she shakes her head at the incompetence that led to their abandonment at the station.

Fang Yan sits beside her.

“Where’d you get that money?” Li Lei asks, looking at the small change in his hand.

“People gave it to me.”

“Begging?” Li Lei was the youngest patient when she entered the hospital. Now in her late 30s, she is the one who shows newcomers how to keep rubber floors clean and wash and fold incontinence-soaked bed sheets.

Fang Yan looks at her with a giggle then turns away as she asks, “Are you saving up to escape?” Though none are in possession of their ID cards, and bus tickets and civilian clothing are not given away for free, Changping Station is a uniquely opportune place from which to flee.