RaiYa's Perspective
My life was nearly perfect before that replacement (JunHe) came. Our family used to eat meals together and we played in the courtyard while my mother watched over us. Even when WeiEr died and mother was bedridden, she never stopped trying to take care of my siblings and me.
It was only then when father adopted that orphan and mother would spend all her time in that tiny room. She loved the boy more than her own children. She would spend all day making him food and clothes even though she's never even cooked or sowed before. No one was allowed to see him other than a few servants. Day by day my mother grew weaker, but her visits to that room never stopped. Whatever that was in that room was slowly sucking away at her life.
One day father called me in his quarters. I was 15 at the time. He looked into my eyes with much sympathy and told me,
"That child is pitiful. It was my fault to adopt him RaiYa. Do not blame that child or your mother. Since you are the older one, I hope you can understand and watch over that child."
I held my anger back and tried not to show my expressions. Not only mother, but even father had cared for that orphan enough to ask me to watch over him. That day I was driven with hatred for the first time. I was determined to watch over him. I'll watch him slowly suffer until he can no longer bare living. I'll make him pay for splitting our family apart.
A year later my mother passed away. I remember her yelling out WeiEr's name several times up to her last breath, but it wasn't my deceased younger brother that she was calling, it was that replacement. Not once did she call out to any of her biological children. It was like we never existed.
A few days after I saw that orphan sitting in the courtyard where my family used to spend time together. His eyes were covered and he wore such extravagant rich robes that my mother had sown. My younger siblings were with me that day and as they watched the sight of him playing where we once played, anger and hatred also fueled their hearts.
Meiyi was the most sensitive when mother changed. She ran up to the orphan and attacked him. NaiWei joined her, stripping that orphan's robes layer by layer. HuLang stood by me as we watched the whole thing unfold. The boy was beaten so badly to the point of losing his memory that day.
The very next day my father punished us. He whipped the back of our legs 50 times and locked us in our room for a week. I remember NaiWei yelling at father saying,
"Why do you care for that monster father?! He stole mother from us and now he's ruining our family! Our lives have changed for the worse because of him!"
"How have your lives changed for the worse?! It has only begun. You youngsters are still too young and immature to understand even if I told you. It's not that boy's fault. Your mother was sick in the heart and mind. She couldn't accept reality and I idly watched her go crazy as she brainwashed that boy. If anyone has taken anything, then it is us who has taken that boy's life. He will never be able to live in the outside world." father replied.
I didn't care for father's explanation nor did I try to understand it. Brainwashed? If anyone was brainwashed, it was him and mother. How did we take that boy's life? Wasn't he living well with all the riches and love he received from mother? All I could feel was anger and even more hatred towards that orphan, but just as fathers asked of me I watched over the boy as my siblings beat him up.
So many times he was secretly beaten without my father knowing and almost every time he couldn't remember it. One time he was muttering nonsense in an unconscious state.
"It's okay. I'll forget about it mother. I forgive you. I'll forget about it I promise." The boy repeated over and over.
Other times when he was beaten he would repeatedly say he was WeiEr and all the things WeiEr liked.
"I'm WeiEr. I like to eat porridge and candy. I love playing in the courtyard with my brothers and sister. My mother and father is the best. Brother RaiYa pats me on the head all the time. My sister Meiyi and I love to take walks with mother. Brother NaiWei and HuLang are rough, but they love me a lot. I'm WeiEr. I like to eat porridge and candy. I love playing in the courtyard with my brothers and sister. My mother and fath-"
He creeped us out even more. Sometimes he would scream in the middle of the night and bang on the walls. He would cry out,
"Let me out! Please! I'll do anything, so let me out! Forgive me mother I didn't mean to. I'm sorry! I promise I won't leave. Don't hit me."
That's when I knew that orphan boy was definitely crazy. My mother has never beaten us once. She would never raise her hand against a child.
For a couple years, my siblings and I studied, trained, and tortured the orphan. By the time I turned 18, my father called me into his quarters.
"I know you youngsters have been beating that poor boy for a while now. Do you not find him strange or unnatural?" my father asked.
"Nothing out of the ordinary. He lives like dog shit and he'll remain as dog shit in my eyes." I replied.
"18 and still blinded by your hatred. How will you take over the family if you can't even wake up?" Father sighed.
"..."
I didn't understand him. My eyes are wide open and I can see just fine. A few days later I joined the army as a soldier and worked my way up. I rarely visited home and my brothers soon came to join me, but they regularly returned home every chance they had unlike me. I preferred to work. I wanted to prove to my father that hatred did not blind me.
After a few years, letters from MeiYi increased and she begged me to return home for the winter. That's when I saw a young lady sitting under a tree next to the side of the road. The snow slowly fell on top of her as she held her knees and shivered in the cold. I called out to her and when she opened her eyes her golden eyes looked straight into mine. It was beautiful.