A Life with One Face

How many faces must a person wear in a lifetime to get back her own?

Ginkgo, Spring Peach, Shen Xing, Princess Rose: every face was hers, and none of them was entirely her. She danced for others, married off for others, bore children for others, basked in glory for others, and suffered for others. In the end, she finally stopped standing in for anyone. Her time as a double was over, the dream was finished, and she returned to her own face, to a little north-facing room, the counter of a general store, and the glow of a skewer roasting over a fire.

The splendor and cold stares in the dream were real. But life after waking was real, too.