Backstory
Yingpei is obedient, he was as a child and even now. Maybe because his parents were the same towards their matriarch grandmother’s orders. Their devotion up to their untimely death may be why Yingpei’s grandmother was more lenient towards him than towards other relatives, including Gingko. Being a child who saw his parents listen to such a stern old lady, he was pretty easy to convince and sway. Yingpei didn’t get scolded, occasionally seeing his grandmother scold and chastise those around him, but his cousin and her parents were outliers in the amount of animosity they received. Yingpei’s respect for his grandmother had faltered since he was perhaps 8, concealing those feelings as he continued to receive her praise for a few more years.
He had also concealed the ordeal of being able to see the supernatural, a byproduct of living in a spiritual atmosphere for years. When his grandmother passed away, he was amazed at how easily his relatives left their shared home. While he could hear through thin walls that many did not like their matriarch, with sayings like “This house will be much more peaceful without her”, no one disputed that Yingpei would inherit all she had considering he had no living parents. While she wasn’t the best influence, his grandmother did raise him like a son. He had recently turned 18 then, an heir to a temple he was genuinely interested towards, while most of his family had feigned it because they couldn't see the world the way his eyes allowed him to.
As he wrapped up school, he did consider doing tennis professionally one day until his grandmother's passing. It was a dream he'd given up in respect to his family, sure his parent's wouldn't have wanted him to leave everything in the wrong hands. His cousin Gingko married a tennis player, the two travelling the world for her wife's games, while Yingpei could only hear stories of their endeavors within the same walls he grew up in. Still, he'd begun to see some new things around him, mostly in his dreams.
For a while, he'd heard the chiming of bells around the temple halls, but he never knew where it'd come from. Following the sounds, he'd go to bed as usual, but those nights he'd have terrible nightmares. Tormented by visions or war, of malice, he wasn't sure if it was some kind of stress affecting him, but the dreams were vivid and strong. When it'd keep him up long enough, he decided to invite Gingko and her wife Ijus over to help, far too exhausted to fight it alone. When the pair arrived, he'd then see a mysterious girl in his dreams, warding off the nightmares occasionally, but things still got out of hand
The nightmares were the doing of an evil God named Ephialtes, one who became stronger through the bad dreams and fears of humans. Lurking around the temple to look for an old comrade sealed away on the grounds, Yingpei was simply sustenance for them as they searched. When they lured Ijus into unsealing the urn their comrade was in, they whisked Ijus away and left Gingko and Yingpei behind in surprise. Too late to seal the Evil Gods who revealed themselves, a girl named Eden appeared, the same person Yingpei met in his dreams.
Introduced to Eden, the Hope left behind in Pandora's box, Yingpei and Gingko were taught about the Miseries, evil Gods from the original Pandora's box scattered about. While they were encouraged to leave the ordeal to the Gods and Pandoras who tracked the Gods, Gingko and Yingpei insisted on becoming involved given they could see things regular humans couldn't, and to save Ijus. Yingpei was uncertain, afraid of what lied beyond them even, but he didn't want Gingko to lose her loved ones as he had. She was always stubborn not to go along with her predicaments, a strength Yingpei didn't have, so if she was going to fight her way through the world of Gods and spirits, he was going to help her.