The streets of the village were basking under the orange light of the setting sun, they were swept through by the calm winds of the rim, a fresh wind, a wind common in this part of the year as the days made themselves shorter and the nights longer, colder. But even as the afternoon’s gained a cooler atmosphere, the warm laughs of the people balanced themselves with the cold air to create something beautiful in its own way. And across the streets ran a child, weaving through the adults, too occupied by their own issues to appreciate the beauty of the world around them, which even he could as he was dodging and weaving through them.

He particularly liked the way in which the rays of the sun would bounce on the tiled roofs and how, at this hour, it gave the village a mellow feeling.

At this hour, as it had become usual for him, he would run to meet his friends and play and talk, always in the same area, the two pine trees at the wallthern border of the village, those marking the threshold between the village and the temple. The three of his friends were already there. A taller boy, older than the rest, stood out amongst them and was the last to notice his arrival. His head was shaved oiled, the light of the sun bouncing off of it and he wore a dark green top piece with brown pants. The second tallest was most definitely related to the first, though he was quite a bit larger, he wore the same thing as his brother but his head was not shaved. The last one of the group was a girl with long dark hair and wide eyes wearing a red dress. Wang, Ming and Xun.

The boy finally rested when he saw the three of them, only a few meters away from him. The first one to notice his arrival was the girl, and as her gaze crossed the one of Li, she quickly looked away, with an emotion the young boy could not quite identify. “Hey guys!” he greeted, with only as an answer the strange gaze of the two others who suddenly stopped the conversation they were having. They, too, looked at him with strange gazes. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?” He asked but got only silence as an answer as well as the gazes which began to get really unsettling for him..

The bald boy turned his gaze away first and took a step towards him. Only two words came out: “Get lost”. He had whispered them so he was uncertain he had understood clearly what he had heard. “Wh- What?” the expression of the taller boy straightened. “Li, I said, get lost!” now he had heard it for sure. But, why? What had he done? He wondered and confused, he simply stood still, uncertain what to say or do next.

Ming was still looking at Li but Xun had now entirely turned away from him. The sun was now behind the mountains in the west and the color of the lights and the shadows slowly started to fuse together. “Why? What did I do?” Li finally said. This time, Wang gritted his teeth and looked directly in the eyes of Li. “Because you’re a son of a whore is why! Get lost, we never want to see you again!” frightened, Li took a step backwards. “Wang, Ming, Xun…” He called out in desperation. The tall boy picked a stone lying on the ground and yelled again, “Go away!” and in fear of getting hit, Li fled and ran.

Arriving home, Li went to his mother to cry. She knew not the reason but she could guess, it was bound to happen. What should have stayed hers to bear was now also going to befall upon her only child. On that night, he asked what being a ‘wore’ meant. He did not receive an answer.

Li never played with the three of them again and they stayed as far away as possible from him as they could. One day, Xun, the girl, stopped playing with the other two boys and yet still, she would not ever speak with him. Wang started to actively seek him out, to insult him and bully him until Li finally refused to leave his home during the day. And as the days went on, his anger grew. To Li, they never truly were his friends, they had given up on him for no reason, just like the adults were always doing. But the thought that perhaps all that hatred was justified did plague his nights of nightmares.

Only at night would he go outside, beyond his mother’s garden. Exploring the streets as few people were left outside of their homes. One time, out of curiosity, he started to explore the outer portions of the village, in the forest, even during the day. And at least there, Wang would leave him alone. By following a small unused path, he found a large clearing within the forest that became Li’s home outside of home, a place where he would spend most of his days.

Through his nocturnal escapades, Li started to listen in on the people and explore more of the village, even the places where his mother had forbidden him to go. That is how he learned what a wore was. And though his anger was directed only at Wang and himself before, then, he turned his anger towards his mother.

Wang’s father was well liked in the village so on the birth day of his son, many would gather. From afar, Li would see the festivities, forced to stay away from them and unable to partake with the other children that were invited. The people were laughing and the other kids were playing and though Xun was always there, she never seemed happy and she never talked to either Wang, his brother Ming or anyone else.

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Every time he saw how these people treated Wang and Ming, his anger grew, his desire for what they had sometimes led him to desire to crash the party but he never had the courage to in the end. But on the sixteenth birth day of Wang, things went differently as for the first time, he was seen. It was a man he did not know the name of. The man saw him and yelled to make people aware of his presence. Surprisingly, the first to react as Li was getting away was Wang himself. Li ran from him as fast as he could, dodging through the people, vaulting over crates. They ran from the central portion of the village till they reached the docks.

Li ran until his path was blocked by a large stone wall. He was out of breath and Wang jumped at him. Wang punched him multiple times in the face. “Who do you think you are?” He yelled as he threw his fist at him. “I left you alone and I thought you understood but no!” His vision was fading, everything was starting to lose definition and become a singular mess of dulled colors with no discernable shapes. The people on the docks were simply looking at the sight or away from it but no one was willing to do anything. Suddenly, someone from the crowd that had formed lunged himself at Wang but by then, Li had already lost consciousness. As he was being pushed away, Wang was yelling in anger.

When he gained back consciousness, it was night, the pale light of the full moon reached through his room. His mother was sleeping on a chair beside his hard bed, a kang. The events of the day slowly started to unfold in his mind as a sharp pain manifested all over his body. In the past, Wang had taunted him, and he only started to escalate after Xun stopped talking to him but never had he hurt him so badly. He didn’t bother to rise from the bed, there was no point. He didn't want to move, to face his mother, or anyone else. All he wanted was to lie there, alone in the dark, and forget the pain he felt.

He did not sleep that night.

In the morning, his mother woke up. She did not immediately realise Li was awake but when she did, tears flooded her eyes and she tried to hug him, only for Li to face away from her. She cried and he cried. “Li, I am so sorry” she said in between her sobs. “This is all my fault, if only I…” she did not have the strength to finish her sentence. He was ashamed of his weakness, she was ashamed of herself, thinking that her own son now hated her and thinking she deserved it. She wiped her tears as she left Li’s room, trying to regain control of her emotions.

The next day, the man that had saved Li’s life came to visit. He was allowed in by Xina. He entered the small abode and was directed to the boy’s room where for the whole day he had stayed. He sat near the bed, where Li was still lying. There was a long silence. The man was uncertain of how to start the conversation, he wasn’t even certain of the reason he had come.

“Hey… Hi, my name is Kai… How are you doing?” Li didn’t answer at first. He didn’t know what to say. He stayed face turned away from the man. “I am sorry for what happened…” The silence was only growing in awkwardness and Li still refused to say anything. The thought of saying thank you had crossed his mind but he refused to do so, in fear he might lose more the little pride he had left, after being nearly beaten to death and then saved.

The man was unsure on how to proceed after Li's apparent refusal to communicate. He stood there, searching for the right words to say, the right words to make Li feel more comfortable. But what could he say to help this kid in front of him?

“I was born on the mainland.” he began. “When I was your age, I was the youngest child, I had five older brothers. Everyone often looked down upon me and whenever I struggled with something…” He waited before continuing his tale, looking for the boy’s reaction. “But I was great at the one thing my parents valued, combat. I sought to prove my worth to them and to do so, I used the one thing they respected to my advantage. They never looked down on me ever again.” There wasn’t any response from Li and after a while, Kai left the house. But Li did reflect on the words of the man who had saved his life. If he wanted to live like Wang did, he needed the respect he had. He needed to become more than the boy without a father. He rose from his bed and walked around the house, his mother was not home, likely gone to buy some ingredients at the market or to gather them herself. He exited to the garden and looked up at the mountain on which the temple of the purple dawn resided, then, on the temple itself. Li smiled. If it was respect he wanted to gain, he’d aim for the highest height there was so that no one may look down on him ever again.