The corridors of the Han estate stretched long and silent beneath the soft glow of moonlight. Silver patterns from the latticed windows spilled across the polished wooden floors, guiding a lone pair of hurried footsteps. Bamboo swayed gently in the night breeze outside, their rustling forming whispers that seemed to follow her as she ran.
Her breath trembled. Her vision blurred. She could no longer contain the turmoil twisting inside her chest.
She stopped before a familiar wooden door. Her hand clenched into a fist—then she shoved it open.
The door slammed against the wall with a sharp crack.
Inside, a single lantern flickered weakly, casting long shadows across the room. The faint scent of sandalwood hung in the air, mixing with the cool night breeze drifting through the half-open window. Beside that window, sitting cross-legged and silent, was Han Li.
He didn't look up. Not at the noise. Not at her shaking form. It was as if his mind was miles away.
Her heart constricted painfully.
"Brother!" Her voice cracked with the force of her emotion. "Why do you act as though none of this matters? Do you not hear them? The whispers, the laughter—they call you weak, a disgrace to our name! Every day their words cut deeper, and I… I can't bear it any longer!"
Tears spilled freely down her cheeks, shining in the dim light. She turned her face aside, ashamed of her shaking hands, ashamed of how powerless she felt.
Slowly, Han Li lifted his gaze.
Calm. Steady. Unfathomably deep.
He watched her quietly, letting the echoes of her pain fade into the room. Then, in a tone soft yet heavier than stone, he spoke:
"Eternal life… why is it that humans do not posses it, I have always pondered this question. Is it the law of fate or is it a curse placed upon humanity that we can not live beyond our brief years, if humans truly lived eternally what would happen to the world is it truly fair that we must suffer this fate humans fear loss the loss of family of friends of everything they love and above all humans fear death not because their slain by others but because death it self is a cycle the unbearable law of nature."
The lantern flame flickered violently, as if those words disturbed even the stillness of the room.
For a moment, she stood there frozen—stunned by her brother's response.
Han Li lowered his eyes slightly. When he spoke again, his voice carried a quiet, distant weight.
"Compared to the vastness of the heavens… I am insignificant. A speck of dust in a world that forgets the moment it turns. Whether they praise me or mock me, it changes nothing. In the end, all things return to silence."
He shifted his gaze to the window.
Moonlight touched the edges of his face, giving him an almost ethereal stillness. To her, it felt as though he were gazing far beyond the night sky itself—past the clouds, past the stars, into a realm she had no hope of understanding.
Then he turned back to her.
"You need not worry about me any longer," Hanli said quietly. "Walk your own path. As long as you do that, it is enough."
With those words, he closed his eyes again and returned to his meditative posture. His breath steadied, deep and distant. The world around him fell away, as if he had stepped into another state entirely.
Her heart trembled.
She remained standing there, uncertain, breath shallow. The warmth she associated with her brother was still there—but now layered beneath something vast, something unreachable.
The shadows in the room swayed gently as the lantern flickered.
And she realized, with a tightness forming in her chest, that her brother was still beside her… yet already beginning to walk a path far beyond her grasp.
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