Chapter Text
The first person A-Ying saw on the morning his parents died was his mama.
It wasn’t unusual. Most mornings began like this: her face or his baba’s leaning down to kiss him awake, their warm smile the first thing he noticed. A-Ying was used to the strange split of his vision that followed.
"Come on, lazybones, breakfast is ready," she said.
He saw her hand coming to his face, felt it comb his rumpled hair.
At the same time, he saw the world from her perspective—the faint glow of morning light through the window, his own sleepy face looking back at her, and said rumpled hair being straightened… a little .
It had been this way since he was five, a constant second sight that trailed behind the first pair of eyes he met each day. Most days, it didn’t bother him. Seeing through his mother’s or father’s eyes—watching them go about their day was comforting, like a secret glimpse into the world of grown-ups.
A-Ying climbed out of bed, rubbing his eyes. His thoughts were already on breakfast, wondering if there would be extra dumplings today.
Through Mama ’s eyes, he saw B aba turn ing to greet them , holding out plates with a teasing grin. “Breakfast is served ! My Lady, Little Prince .” She laughed, swatting at him lightly before sitting down at the table.
A-Ying hurried to the table and clambered into his chair, grabbing a dumpling. “These are mine!” he declared, grinning when his father pretended to be upset.
He saw himself as he stuffed his cheeks full of food.
“Slow down, Ying-er,” she said, her voice warm.
Later, when Baba went to bring Mama to her important meeting, A-Ying stayed behind, happily playing his favorite game: building the highest tower and then running into it to destroy it. Although that game was funner when an adult made the tower and he did the destroying.
He only went to school some days because with his double vision his brain would spill out because of too many information said Baba.
The car stopped in front of a huge building. Mama got out of the car and said hello to a big man who was coming towards her a faint smile on his lips. “Mrs. Cangse,” he said, his voice calm but strange. “You’ve made quite the enemy of Jin Corp.” Something flashed in his hand and Mama cried. The view tipped to the side. “Changze, leave ! Go to A-Ying !” she shouted. The view changed : the car, Baba lying on the floor on the other side, arm stretched out towards Mama. They crossed sight. “A-Ying, I’m sorry, we love you very much.” Mama said in a small voice. And all black.
“Mama?” A-Ying said wobbly, a block falling from his hand and scattering the building tower.
He stumbled to his feet, tears streaming down his face as he bolted out the door.
“Help!” he cried, rushing through to the neighbors’ door, who was supposed to be watching him. “Please, someone help!”
The next few hours blurred together. Wei Ying couldn’t remember everything clearly, but he knew this much:
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No one understood when he tried to explain that he’d seen his parents dying.
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No one could find his mama or baba.
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He didn’t know how to get back home.
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The sky was dark now.
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He had no more tears to cry.
- Someone had taken him to the police station.
- Suibian, his favorite stuffed bun, had been brought to him.
The police station was warm, but it didn’t stop the trembling in his hands or the way his breath caught in his chest. All he could do was sit there, clutching his knees, as he whispered over and over, “Mama… Baba…”
That night, Wei Ying stayed at the police station. They gave him a blanket and a small, uncomfortable bed in the corner of an office. He couldn’t sleep, his arms wrapped tightly around Suibian, everything around him was too new and unknown. The noises : unknown; the smells : weird; the shadows: terrifying. He must have fallen asleep at some point because he woke up hearing the soft voice of a woman. Immediately after opening his eyes, his vision split. He saw his red eyes and snotty nose.
They went out for breakfast, and while he was eating she explained in a soft voice many things to him: his parents could not be found. He tried to explain that he saw they were killed, that the vision broke and that could only happen if Mama was asleep or dead maybe. She didn’t understand, she asked many questions and then just said that Wei Ying had a big imagination, but maybe he should not tell such weird story to everyone. She said she would bring him to a nice family and that they would keep him safe until she could find a better place for him. She said he was going to have a hard time for a little while but then things would settle and he was going to be resli… resistant? Resilisomething. He didn’t know what she meant.
He saw he had crumbs on his noise. He scratched it away.
Then the lady brought him to a house. The house was small but tidy, with a patchy lawn in front. There was a man and a woman waiting at the door, smiling at him. He went in with the lady and they went to put his two bags in his new bedroom as they called it. It was yellow and gray. He didn’t like those colors. He liked red.
The lady told him that now that he was settled, she had to go. He said nothing. He didn’t know what he could say or do. He stayed on his new bed, clutching to Suibian.
She was walking toward her car, as soon as she sat down on the driver seat, she plugged in earphones and called some important people and started talking with big words about the running away kid, and then about the diabetic girl, and then about the one with the toxic family.
The man and the woman were talking to him, he realized. Was he hungry? No, his stomach was full of knots, no space for any food there. Did he want to play ? No. Then they went down and a minute later a huge black dog barged into his room, jumped on his bed, its big claws scratched at his arms, its sharp teeth came close to Wei Ying’s face, Wei Ying was so afraid and when the woman came back he cried for help.
The lady arrived in another family, she talked to another kid, who told her she was sad where she was, she wanted to go somewhere else. The lady said it was normal to be sad right now, that it would pass, that here was the best place for her to grief. The girl cried, the lady talked to the grown ups about things Wei Ying didn’t understand, and then left.
“He won’t hurt you, he just wants to play!” said the woman laughing.
“I don’t want ! It’s scary ! Get it away please, get it away !” he implored.
And then he felt teeth on his arms, and he shouted with all his lungs.
“Ah! Help me!”
The woman grabbed the dog by the collar and brought the dog out of his room.
Wei Ying was left alone, sobbing, he closed his eyes to try and fall asleep.
The next morning, the first person Wei Ying saw was the man at his new house. He was used to the split of vision and to see he’s sleepy face through the eyes of the person who woke him. But this time he barely had a glance of it before the man turn to the window and opened the curtains, blinding him with the daylight.
Then he saw the staircases and the the kitchen and breakfast.
“That kids weird, he slept almost 14 hours straight. He was lying in his bed staring at the sealing just now. He doesn’t like dogs. Who wouldn’t like our cute doggy!”
He knelt towards the dog to give some scratches.
Wei Ying gasped.
“Let’s go for a walk!” the man said grabbing his shoes and jacket and leaving the house with the dog.
Wei Ying could still see the dog in his double vision, but at least it wasn’t in the house anymore. He noticed he was starving, he hadn’t really eaten since the day before, so he followed the man’s path to the kitchen, where he got some toasts, fruits and juice from the woman.
When the man was on his way back from his walk Wei Ying went back to his room to hide from the dog.
“Where’s the kid?” the man asked when he was back in the house.
“Just went to his room.” The woman answered.”Weird kid that one, he keeps zoning out with a scared expression on his face as if he was seeing ghosts all the time. Creeps me out. I need to go shopping for some food. I’ll ask him if he wants to join me.”
A knock on his door brought Wei Ying out of his reflections.
“Hey kiddo, do you want to come with me to the shop ? We could buy you something nice, if you want.” the woman asked softly.
“No thank you” said Wei Ying.
And he stayed lying in bed thinking about Mama and Baba, staring at the wall.
The man was watching TV downstairs. A TV show with letters and numbers. The dog was lying on the floor next to him.
At some point Wei Ying needed to go to the bathroom.
The dog got up from the floor and disappeared from the man’s view.
On his way back, Wei Ying came face to face with the huge dog again. He’s tong was falling out of his huge mouth and he kept moving his tail very quickly. Wei Ying was so scared, he ran to his bedroom, but the dog followed him, he climbed on his bed and clutched at Suibian, but the dog was climbing too. So Wei Ying climbed onto a piece of furniture and opened the window, to climb out on the other side.
The man called the dog back, and a few seconds later the dog came sitting next to him.
There was a tree near his window so Wei Ying decided to climb out that way, and then he decided that he couldn’t leave in a house with a scary dog, so with Suibian under his arm he took the road and walked, and walked, and walked.
After a time, the woman came back and asked the man:
“Where’s the kid ?”
“In his room.”
He saw them discovering the open window, cursing at him, and asking the dog to look for him.
Wei Ying started to run.
He saw them calling the lady from the police station, tears in the eyes, and saying “Sorry” and “We don’t understand”.
He continued walking.
The next few days were a blur. Wei Ying wandered the streets unsure of where to go. He tried to sleep in a park, curled up on a bench under the stars, but stray dogs sniffed around him, barking and growling. He ran before they got too close. He slept hidden in a metro station.
The day after, when he woke up he crossed eyes with an old lady that looked at him in a weird way. His vision split,
He looked really sleepy and a bit dirty. He had some dirt on his knees.
She smiled at him a little and she took the next metro.
Wei Ying stood up. He was hungry and thirsty and he needed to pee. He went about his day trying to find his way to fulfill these three needs.
A few hours later, he noted in his split vision the lady looking everywhere in her house, muttering to herself.
“Where did I put my damn bag again !”
Wei Ying remembered that he saw it on one of the shelves of the book store she had gone to. He also remembered it was called “the Travel Book Shop”, so he went and asked around to anyone who would answer him where was the Travel Book Shop. He ended up finding the bag on the same shelf he remembered the woman had left it on. But then he didn’t know where she lived.
He sat down on a bench and waited to see or remember if he had any clue where to go.
Gladly the woman went back out and passed by a bakery named “Maison Puget”.
Again Wei Ying asked around where was that bakery, and ended up finding the woman and giving her her bag back.
“Thank you, little one,” the woman said when he handed it to her. She gave him a warm smile and then looked into her bag.
“I didn’t take anything I swear!” Wei Ying said quickly.
“Oh, I was just looking for these buns that I bought this morning to give them to you, little one !” the old lady reassured him. “Aren’t you the little boy I saw this morning at the train station? Where are your parents little one?” she started to ask.
Wei Ying felt his eyes filling with tears. He didn’t want to cry in front of the old lady and he didn’t want her to bring him back to the police station and maybe to the dog’s family, so he turned around and started to run.
She shouted at him “Hey little one, come back”.
She started to walk in the same direction but quickly she couldn’t see Wei Ying anymore, so she stopped.
“I hope he’s alright.” she said in a low voice.
Wei Ying wandered some time around the city. Eventually, he found shelter beneath an old shack across from a grand mansion. It was beautiful and intimidating, with high stoned walls and a enormous wooden door. He didn’t know who lived there, but it felt safe.
In the morning, Wei Ying woke up when a boy his age got out of the house. Their eyes met. Which meant that while staying safely in his shack, he got to learn to read through the boys vision. He learned the boy was called Huaisang. He had a big brother. He was a really big brother, with huge arms and taller than his father! So it made sense that Huaisang called him Da-ge.
The next day, Wei Ying saw Da-ge coming out of the huge house first. Da-ge’s days were really cool! He taught martial arts! Wei Ying tried to follow the instructions Da-ge was giving to his students, but after hitting twice the thin walls of his shack he thought he had better get out of it to move or he might break it. Adults class were really hard, but Wei Ying really enjoyed the class with the other children his age. When Huaisang came back from school he saw Wei Ying trying to imitate the moves he was seeing, and asked Wei Ying.
“Are you trying to impress my brother?”
Wei Ying didn’t know what to say so he just went to hide in his little shack.
The day after it was again Huaisang that he saw first. He was really happy to go to school through his eyes.
When Huaisang came back he went straight to do his homework, but Wei Ying could see him struggling with a calculating problem. The boy sighed, and decided to let it go. He grabbed a few toys and went sitting on the front porch of his house.
Wei Ying peecked at Huaisang on the porch. He looked a bit sad, and kept glancing his way. After a while Wei Ying approached him and said :
“The answer is three.”
“What ?” asked Huaisang baffled.
“Jim only has three apples left after giving two to Kate.” Wei Ying explained. Then he explained further his reasoning using Huaisang’s toys, until Huaisang understood and agreed with him.
“Ok we have to go write it down now then.” Huaisang said, standing, opening the gigantic wooden doors, and getting inside the house.
Wei Ying just stood there. Until Huaisang came back to get him.
“What are you waiting for? Come in, we have to go write the answer and then we can play together! Take your shoes off.” Huaisang said excitedly. “Well actually may be you could shower first and I could lend you some clothes… And actually are you hungry?”
Wei Ying had seen himself through Huaisang’s eyes and he understood why he was telling him to go shower! Wei Ying was longing for a bath for the first time in his life.
Once he had his shoes off Huaisang pulled him by the wrist towards the bathroom, then shoved a towel and cleaning products at him, opened the hot water in the bathtub, ran to his room to find clothes while Wei Ying climbed into the deliciously hot water, came back with clothes, went to the kitchen to prepare some snacks for himself and Wei Ying, brought the snacks to Wei Ying in the bathtub, all the while talking at Wei Ying. Wei Ying was so overwhelmed by the noises and images he felt like his head was going to explode, but he also felt warm inside and out for the first time in days.
Once he was clean, dry, fed and clothed, Huaisang brought him to his bedroom, finally sat down and asked Wei Ying :
“So how did you know I had the problem with Jim and Kate? And what’s your name? Why do you sleep in the shack in front of our house for the last three days? Where are you parents? Mine are dead. And your Da-ge? How did you learn martial arts?”
When he stopped for breathing, Wei Ying started telling him about his few last days, he told him about his split vision (Wei Ying had learned that telling adults was not really useful they never believed him but children usually thought it was really cool), his parents, how he was trying to learn martial arts through Da-ge’ lessons and learning to read with his school lessons. Huaisang was impressed.
Afterwards, Huaisang showed him his fan collection and how to make one and decorate them. They were both lying down on the floor, each decorating a fan when Da-ge found them.
“Good evening” he said gruffly.
“Da-ge!” Huaisang exclaimed, leapting up and running to his Da-ge to hug him.
Da-ge picked him up and asked “A-Sang, who is that new friend of yours?”
“That’s A-Ying!” Huaisang explained very quickly and excitedly. “He’s the little guy that was sleeping in the shack in front of our house for the last three days. His parents are dead, just like us! So I think we should keep him here with us! Can we Da-ge please!” he ended with a pout.
Da-ge looked sceptically at Wei Ying who straightened up and maid a little bow just in case.
“This one is Wei Ying.” he said hesitantly.
Huaisang batted his eyes at his Da-ge a few times and repeated “Please Da-ge, please” a few times. Until Nie Mingjue sighed in resignation and said:
“He can stay tonight.” Wei Ying slumped in relief “But tomorrow we’ll have to contact the police to see where he should be.”
Wei Ying broke down in sobs, under the looks of two bewildered Nie.
“Nooo! Not to the poliiiiice!” he cried. “They’re going to send me back to the dog’s house!”
He was trembling and couldn’t stop crying, until Da-ge approached him slowly and took him in his arms together with Huaisang.
“Hey, buddy” he said in a quiet voice. “It’s okay, you won’t go back to the dog’s house if you don’t want to. We’ll figure out a solution. It’s okay, please don’t cry.”
“Not the poliiice” repeated Wei Ying sobbing.
“Okay, okay, not the police, I’ll talk to a friend of mine who’s a lawyer and see what we can do, okay ? Calm down now A-Ying. It’s gonna be alright.”
He stayed wrapped in the Nie brother’s arms for another while, until his sobbing calmed down. Then Nie Mingjue shepherded them through their nighttime routines, and tucked the two young boys into Huaisang’s big bed. He said that it was a Queen bed, so Wei Ying was afraid for a moment that he couldn’t go in it because his father always said he was a Little Prince, not a Queen, but Huaisang said it didn’t really matter, because he wasn’t a Queen either, he was an Artist. Nie MingJue laughed at that. Then Wei Ying closed his eyes at the same time as Huaisang, and for the first time in a while he slept peacefully.