Li Wang gazed into the distance, his hand slowly tightening into a fist until his nails dug painfully into his palm.
I'm not gay.
He repeated the words inside his head, almost mindlessly, as though saying them enough times would somehow make them true.
I'm not into men.
Yet the moment the thought settled in his mind, another voice rose from somewhere deep inside him.
"Gay men go to hell!"
The shrill, scathing voice cut through his thoughts with such clarity that Li Wang's entire body stiffened.
His mother's voice.
It was a voice he had heard countless times throughout his childhood, a voice that had once filled their home and followed him into adulthood. No matter how many years passed, no matter how far he moved away from that house or how much he tried to forget the past, that voice had somehow remained buried inside him.
Li Wang closed his eyes tightly, trying to force the memory away.
He didn't want to remember.
That woman was gone.
She had been gone for years.
