I had to sacrifice the real, living, breathing her. To me, she represented beauty in its highest form. And I went and treated her like a piece of meat. It was a mess of my own making, the product of my own savagery and barbarism. But what else was I supposed to do? No matter what, Shui Ling, I’ll always feel your absence. From now on, for the rest of my life, I have to change my ways and pay the price for the crimes I committed as an eighteen-year-old. As long as I’m alive and able, I won’t stop talking about humanity and all of its fears.
