One-Eyed Monster

Qi Liu was the sixth son of a groom in Governor Rostov’s Mansion. According to his old father, who was also a groom, he had two elder brothers and three sisters. However, Qi Liu had never seen any of them. His father, reeking of alcohol and his voice always slurred, would often tell him stories when drunk; how his two elder brothers tragically died on the battlefield, how one of his sisters perished helplessly in the bitter cold of a Deep Winter Season, and how the other two became maids in the homes of the upper class.

"I always wanted to change your fates," his old father would often say, his voice thick with unshed tears and the smell of cheap wine. He would heave sighs, heavy and sorrowful, like old wine held too long in the mouth, unable to be swallowed.

But fate is predestined, and we can’t change that, Qi Liu would think, most of the time staying silent, absorbing his father’s drunken musings.

Those days were like the Deep Winter Season, freezing to the bone and devoid of any warmth from the sun. If one wasn’t careful while walking, one might slip on the ice-hardened paths and break an arm or a leg.

"I always wanted to change your fates," his father would slur. "The King’s conscription order... it seemed like a ray of hope. Your second and third brothers, driven by my whip, put on the helmets of the Kayne Empire’s Guardian Army. Honor, pride, hope... that was all I felt at that moment. I thought I had finally changed my children’s destiny! They would gallop across battlefields, win glory for the Empire, and never again have to shovel stinking horse dung like their old man..." His father’s drunken ramblings were always long, but Qi Liu would listen patiently. No matter how many times he had heard these repeated stories, he would still listen to every word.

His father’s lamentations accompanied Qi Liu year after year. From his father’s tearful, drunken recounts, he learned that his two elder brothers, lacking proper Fighter training, could only serve as cannon fodder on the battlefield, charging at the very front. Because they were poor, they wore the standard leather armor issued by the Empire, devoid of any alchemical coatings or Spellcraft protections. His brothers didn’t even possess their own weapons; they could only use the common spears provided by the Empire. In the brutal Guardian War, his two elder brothers, like most who perished in that conflict, charged at the vanguard, dying heroically but obscurely. Their bodies were never recovered. The only solace his father received was the two bags of gold coins sent by the Empire as compensation.

Under his father’s bed, there were four dust-covered bags of gold coins. Even when they had no food, his father never touched a single coin from them. Qi Liu knew that in his father’s heart, these gold coins represented his lost children. The two bags of gold coins for his sisters were "gifts" from members of the upper class. His father had always dreamed of marrying his daughters into good families. He flattered the Housekeeper for opportunities, spending all his earnings to have his daughters attend various beauty pageants, all in the hope that men from the upper class would notice them. Yet, men of the upper class would never marry a groom’s daughter. They would only satisfy their fleeting interest and then purchase them as maids. His father had never imagined that his efforts for his daughters would only result in another two bags of gold coins, their fate of being ordered around unchanged...

"I always wanted to change your fates. But in the end, I sent my children into a cage, into Hell..." Every time he reached this point, his father would be overwhelmed by tears. He would use his calloused, rough hands to wipe away the tears that streamed down his weathered face, his broad chest heaving with uncontrollable sorrow.

It’s not your fault, the grown-up Qi Liu would think, gently covering his father with a blanket once he quieted down. His father had shoveled horse dung his entire life, from the stables of small merchants in the county to the stables of the Government Mansion; he had sacrificed far, far too much for his children. Some people’s fates are predestined; we can’t force it. The tragic experiences of his brothers and sisters were a constant pain in his father’s heart, and a deep, indelible mark on Qi Liu’s own.

Some people’s fates are predestined.