[Featured on Wattpad's Asian Fantasy and Wattpad's Undiscovered Gems!]
A man can see without his eyes, but he cannot see without his heart.
Hua Manlou learned this truth after his sense of sight was taken away from him at a young age. But he's for...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Slender fingers rhythmically tapped against the smooth cloth, a soft, almost inaudible sound. Hua Manlou's gaze briefly flickered to his companion, who had finally returned after what felt like an unusually long absence. Lu Xiaofeng, ever the observer, chose silence. As a guest in the Hua family's home, he knew that the previous moment was one for Hua Manlou, a chance for him to share something with the young woman who had captured his attention.
"Here," Hua Manlou's voice cut through the quiet, catching Lu Xiaofeng's full attention.
Turning toward his friend, Lu Xiaofeng braced himself for anything, though a spark of curiosity flared in his chest. "Brother Lu, put this on." Hua Manlou placed a delicate red ring on the table, his fingers brushing the surface with care.
"What?" Lu Xiaofeng blinked in confusion. "Why? It's not my sixtieth birthday, is it? What are you giving me presents for?"
Hua Manlou flashed a playful grin, his eyes gleaming with something unspoken, before giving a small nod, urging him to put it on. "Just put it on. There's something I need to tell you."
Lu Xiaofeng hesitated for a moment, but, curiosity piqued, he slipped the ring onto his middle finger, where it fit perfectly. "Okay, I've put it on. Now, what's going on?"
The air shifted. Hua Manlou's smile faltered, and a strange silence enveloped the room. His friend's gaze turned distant, lost in thought, his face tight with an emotion Lu Xiaofeng hadn't seen before—something deep, something heavy.
Hua Manlou rose slowly from the table, his steps hesitant as he began to pace, as though searching for the right words, or perhaps unsure if he should speak them at all. The tension in the room thickened, and Lu Xiaofeng could feel it, the quiet pain in his friend's eyes a stark contrast to the playful demeanor he had always known.
Blindness had never truly bothered Hua Manlou; he had long ago adapted to the world without sight. Yet, there was one who had taken it from him—one who wielded a power over him unlike any other, a power that no other man could ever hope to possess.
"That night... I heard my father dueling in the tunnels beneath our manor grounds..."
A door slid upwards as the young Hua Manlou approached the dark tunnels, leaving the darkness of the night for a different type of darkness. Clashes of swords could be heard not far in the distance, and he recognized the sound of his father's grunts. Another man seemed to be fighting with him, but he was not sure who.
The young child slowly stepped deeper into the tunnels, even as the original door at the entrance closed behind him. The light was only brought to his eyes through the slits in the ceiling and the sides of the tunnel.
Beneath an offering table was a small open area, large enough for a child of his size to fit through. As he leaned closer down to the gaping area, he heard his father's voice more clearly. He was down there, fighting with his enemy.
