It was late at night on the dim streets of Liyue Harbor, and the lights were slowly going out.
The people had drifted off to sleep. Only one man remained, his face haggard, his clothes ragged, a bottle in his hand and the reek of alcohol clinging to him. He wandered like a puppet that had lost its soul.
His name was Zhou Lian.
When he was little, he, too, had once had a complete family.
His father had a sharp mind and went into business, gradually bringing prosperity to their home.
Sadly, tragedy always struck so swiftly. His father died of illness when he was four.
His mother came from a merchant family in Liyue Harbor. Though she had never done household labor, she was gentle, virtuous, educated, and sensible.
After his father's death, their circumstances changed, but with support from his mother's family, life never became truly difficult.
But who could have imagined that, when he was seven, his grandfather's family would travel to Sumeru on business and be attacked on their way back to Liyue by monsters infected with Archon Residue? Every man in the family died at their hands.
From then on, the family's fortunes collapsed.
His mother, who had been born into wealth, took on the burden of supporting their home.
To care for him, she was willing to do any work, no matter how filthy or exhausting.
Perhaps the deaths of his father and his grandfather's family had made her realize how fragile life was. His mother began studying medicine and took him through the mountains and countryside, teaching him to read and write while treating the sick.
In the end, they settled in Qingce Village, where mother and son lived a poor but simple life.
Years of toil and travel had left his