Behind the Bright Walls [Rewritten, See New Version]

He woke starving, drugged, and marked in the back of a stranger's cart, with no idea who had taken him or why. The only thing he knows for certain is that the strange mark carved into his thigh is not normal. In a city where surviving often means being someone you're not, Xiao Jiu learns to change his face, his voice, his walk, and eventually the way he sees the world. Under the guidance of the woman who took him in, he becomes good at disappearing. He should have stayed invisible. Instead, the mark begins pulling him toward things that were never meant to be found. A locked cabinet. A strange ledger. A cracked bowl. A decades-old massacre that no one remembers the same way. And people who have spent years making certain questions disappear. Then someone starts asking about him. An investigator is tracing the remnants of a forgotten child. A powerful hall master is searching for a boy trained in a way she has rarely seen. And the woman who taught Xiao Jiu to hide has secrets of her own. Everyone is looking for something. Xiao Jiu just doesn't know yet whether they're looking for the same thing. And the mark has started pointing the way.