Many years ago, Yu-Guang was born to a small and poor family in Taiwan.

During this time, Taiwan was under the Qing Dynasty’s rule. Under such an oppressive environment, Yu-Guang was the only hope of his family. His name, Yu-Guang, means the last beam of light in Chinese. Like his name suggests, his family wanted him to get work that would help the family gain more money.

Although Yu-Guang knew his parents expected him to be rich, he did not want to follow their plan for him. When Yu-Guang was 12, he discovered a love of painting. Through painting, he felt like he had created his own world. On the small canvas, Yu-Guang created tons of masterpieces in many styles of art. Without painting, Yu-Guang felt unimportant, although he was the “last beam of light” to his family. So, Yu-Guang tried communicating with his parents and hoped they would support his dreams.

However, his family thought Yu-Guang was crazy. His family wished for him to become rich and successful, but Yu-Guang knew that the only thing that would make him happy was art. He loved both his family and painting, so Yu-Guang had to make a big decision: which should he sacrifice, his passion or his duty to his family?

—

Years passed and Yu-Guang had become a man. Yu-Guang had his own family, and he had sacrificed his time painting to help his family. With Yu-Guang’s support, his family’s finances got better and better.

He had almost forgotten his love of painting, and painting was not a part of his life anymore.

On a winter day, Yu-Guang was up in the mountains to cut down trees for wood so his family could cook and stay warm. Suddenly, he heard a girl speaking to herself. The girl sounded far away from Yu-Guang, but he could hear the girl sobbing.

At first, Yu-Guang pretended not to care and he just wanted to finish chopping wood and head back home since the sky was darkening. However, the woman suddenly stopped sobbing and that made him curious about what the woman was doing. He put his axe down and walked quietly and slowly towards where he thought the cries had come from. Suddenly, he saw a girl hanging from a tree. Yu-Guang quickly pulled the woman down. However, the woman had passed away. Although Yu-Guang was nervous, when he saw a paper on the ground below the hanged woman, he bent down to pick it up.

The note the woman had left was a letter to her parents, and her name was Yu-Shin.

Dear Mom and Dad,

I am sorry to leave you so suddenly like this. I just wanted you to know that for the past two years I haven’t been happy. My husband’s family has treated me very well. However, living in such a large and rich family, my life was restricted. I couldn’t live the life I wanted. Instead, I had to listen to what my husband asked me to do. The problem is, I do not love my husband deep in my heart. The only reason I married him was to be the daughter you wanted me to be, and act the way you’ve always wanted me to.

All I wanted was support from my family to allow me to follow my dreams. I always told you, I wanted to be an actress. However, you only wanted me to get married to a rich person so our family could be rich as well. As a result, I sacrificed what I love to make you happy, but in the end, none of us are really happy.

It is my life, and I must decide how to live it. I had chosen you instead of my happiness. But now, I choose to be free.

Your Daughter,
Yu-Shin

After reading the note left by the woman, Yu-Guang felt hopeless.

He remembered his love of painting. He did not not want to feel the pain Yu-Shin did because of the restrictions his family had put on him as a child. He wished he could decide how his life had been.

Yu-Guang carefully put the note back on the forest floor.

Under the dark and cold night sky, Yu-Guang walked further into the woods, as his family waited for his return.