I saw them-the colors flowing from you, the colors that made up my world.
-Qi Wu
Colorblindness was a rare congenital condition. Those afflicted saw a monotonous world, with no concept of any colors beyond black, white, and gray. The only treatment was to wait for their destined person to appear.
Unfortunately, Qi Wu had Colorblindness, but he scoffed at the idea.
Waiting for his destined person was just like a princess in a fairy tale waiting for a knight to save her.
No one was obliged to save anyone else, nor was anyone meant to be saved.
Qi Wu thought he had no need for it.
Until that day, when Qi Wu saw someone at a deserted puppet-show stall.
The Puppeteer had waist-length hair and wore a simple T-shirt and trousers as he stood beneath the eaves. In front of him was a small stage covered with dark fabric. His hands were slender and beautiful, with calluses on his knuckles. Fine threads wound around his fingers, their ends attached to a lovely puppet.
When his hands moved, the puppet moved with them, as though he and the puppet had become one, no distinction left between them. The Puppeteer's voice was beautiful, like a clear mountain spring, like the lilting song of a lark.
Qi Wu watched, entranced.
The puppet and the Puppeteer took a bow together.
The other man raised his head and met his eyes with an indifferent expression.
In that instant, color entered his dull, gray world.
Color slowly flowed from the Puppeteer's eyes. Qi Wu had never seen that strange, dazzling hue before and had no name for it, yet it gradually took root in his world. The cries of the vendors around him seemed muffled by fog. He could make out nothing but the deafening