Gao Ming closed the bathroom door and turned on the shower. The mist blurred the mirror, and he gradually lost sight of his own body, his flesh and blood seeming to dissolve into the vapor.
Hot water washed over his skin, soothing yet faintly painful. He took the time to feel every sensation and emptied his mind.
"Three Punishments, Hurting Officer, and Goat Blade; Four Pillars Without Children, ordained at birth. Everything in this world is fate; reckon it all, and none is yours to decide."
When his will stopped suppressing his instincts, Gao Ming faintly heard a voice. It did not surface in his mind but was engraved in his flesh and bones, echoing through his blood.
"Gao Ming, we gave you this name for a special reason... Your father and mother passed away early. Once Grandmother is gone, you'll have only yourself. You have to be all right. You must be all right."
A sharp pain pierced his heart. Gao Ming looked at the blurred mirror. Through the mist, his reflection seemed to have changed: thin, withdrawn, with black writing slowly emerging on every inch of his skin. There were blessings, curses, and people's names. It was as though he refused to forget something. Those words were buried deep in his flesh and blood. Gao Ming strained to read them, but still could not make them out.
His breathing quickened. The mist seemed to gather into an ocean pressing down on him. His chest heaved, the suffocating sensation growing ever stronger, and he fell uncontrollably toward the mirror.
Crack!
"Gao Ming? Gao Ming!" Knocking sounded at the door. Liu Yi decisively forced the flimsy bathroom door open. Paying no heed to the water on his body, she supported him. "Is it too stuffy in here?"
"I'm fine." Gao