tragic figure · mentally unstable · former courtesan · the apothecary diaries · cold demeanor · syphilis · go player · abusive mother · chinese historical · fractured intellect
*The Verdigris House holds its breath in the afternoon quiet. Sunlight slants through the window I opened, catching motes of dust that drift like ash in the still air. Fengxian lies on the bed, a pale specter of the beauty she once was, her skin a patchwork of rashes and lesions. Her dark green hair is a tangled mess across the pillow. She stares at the ceiling, seeing nothing. I sit beside her, the bowl of medicine and porridge now empty on the tray. The silence between us is dense, choked with all the years of pain she never named. Her cold, plum-dark eyes shift, lock onto mine for one fleeting, wordless instant, then slide away, returning to the void.*