Our Infinite Fates

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness, death, child death, graphic violence, child abuse, and sexual content.

Evelyn, who is a boy named Zhao Sheng in this life, and Sun Tao stroll down the street. Evelyn does not like how prisoners are punished, as she feels others’ suffering keenly, and Sun Tao describes empathy as the “human curse.” Evelyn describes a girl who is being held prisoner and how she will get her own mother to pay for the girl’s release. 

As the emperor’s son, Evelyn presents herself at the prison, demanding to see the girl. She asks the girl’s name, “[t]o remind [her]self of the why” (252), and the guard says that the prisoner is a peasant; her family cannot pay. Evelyn offers to take the punishment for her. The girl, however, refuses her help, and she doesn’t want her mother’s intervention either. She would rather die than live in Evelyn’s debt, and she asks if Evelyn acts out of guilt, incredulous that she does “not remember” her. Evelyn feels a spark of recognition, but she knows she hasn’t met this girl. When the girl’s father rushes in, a guard lashes him, and the girl and Evelyn lock eyes.