Lucky Sightings: Zi Yuan's Journey to Healing

Zi Yuan was the only son of a fisherman and his wife. He had another name, but he disliked it, so he asked everyone to call him by his nickname. He was born with a pair of eyes that seemed to pierce through reality itself. It wasn't a special trait, but it was rare enough that people would stop what they were doing and stare at him whenever he walked into the village on a day when the fog hadn't settled in yet.

He lived in a small coastal village, near the largest river system in their Empire. Although his father didn't make much money from fishing, Zi Yuan had enough food to eat and clothing to wear.

The most interesting thing about his life was that he kept finding himself in places where women were changing their clothes or bathing, and what's more - he was always alone there. It wasn't so strange for him that he didn't even notice it at first, until someone told him one day when he was six years old. Since then, Zi Yuan kept noticing how often this happened. The women would always tell him off, sometimes scream at him, or chase him away with their towels.

He didn't think much of it until one day when he heard two men talking while fishing next to each other on the bank of the river. One of them started telling the other man about how Zi Yuan saw a girl taking her clothes off once and then went up to her house, knocked on her door, and she answered without changing back into her clothes.

"You're kidding me," the second man said. "That can't be true."

"It's true! I heard it from my brother-in-law! They say that boy has some special power!"

"Then why don't we try something?" The second man suggested after thinking for a moment. "Let's spread some rumour about him."

They both agreed on that plan and started spreading around stories about Zi Yuan as if they were fact: "Zi Yuan has a special power!"; "Zi Yuan is blessed by gods!"; "Zi Yuan can see things no one else can see!"; "Zi Yuan is a prophet!"

The more rumours they spread around, the more people believed them, until finally the whole village started raving about this strange boy who could see things no one else could see and hear things no one else could hear. And because they spoke of him in such high regard, soon even those who weren't originally from their small coastal village came to visit just to get a glimpse of Zi Yuan and his powers for themselves - because everyone wanted to know if their loved ones would be safe under this boys special protection!

And so soon there was always an audience watching Zi Yuan everywhere he went, hoping to be protected by some kind of invisible force field around them (which none existed), making sure that nobody bad would ever happen to them either - but their faith never left them unprotected! Because not only did they believe in his powers, but also in his luck - because whenever something good happened to those who believed in him, people assumed it must have been due to Zi Yuans special protection! And whenever someone got sick or died despite believing in Zi Yuan - they simply blamed themselves for not believing strongly enough! After all - how could anyone be lucky if they've turned their back on such a person? Do you want your own luck gone too? Don't you want good things to happen? So don't turn your back on Zi Yuan! You'll regret it forever!

Just like how after some time nobody left any gifts for Zi Yuan anymore because those who did were considered unlucky (and instead of offering gifts they left offerings instead), or how nobody dared going near strangers any longer because those who did were cursed somehow by Zi Yuans luck (and instead started following strangers from afar), or how nobody dared being too close with each other any longer because someone might have seen them undressed without getting cursed for it (and instead started avoiding each other), or how everyone treated pregnant women very well and gave them lots of gifts because they knew that otherwise something bad would happen to them or their baby... etcetera.