You perfectly capture that feeling of a story, told by village elders. The ending, carrying the body of the man who was once his enemy home is just so perfect, and carries such a wealth of metaphor, it caps the tone so very well. You weave in more than one moral here, which really adds to that.
The realism of street crime brings a far more relatable touch to this, and dropping in that Mr Renhe Ren, a man who strives for the noble sentiments of a superior man, and in a way, as the aspiring crime boss, was just a beautiful touch in how people see themselves. Then the tattoo, in a way representative of what his enemy had that he strives to gain ties into that, being the first thing he notices about the corpse adds to the feeling he had been blinkered by his desire for power.
Then seeing his enemy dead, with the hate in his eyes, the snarl upon his lips, and the impact that has. The life he chases has the same fate, and the hate has already claimed his heart. There is so much in just that about the decimation hate carried and nurtured has. The realisation of the bond between them, and the similarities, creates a perfect hitting point, and musing of ways to try and gain forgiveness build this burden of responsibility, he doesn't know if he can, or how he can, but he is determined to try. And then the ending, just wonderful! Like a true fable, this has a message to be taken on a surface read, or half hearted listen to elders, but equally had a lot that can be gained on reflection <3
Thank you for that thoughtful comment, Calluna. This "ending" was easy for me to visualize (of course, finding the words to express the sentiment not so easy). I've reached a certain age where reflection is not only natural but inevitable. I don't know about a Book of Life, but there is a record of my misdeeds and omissions in my own head. When I try to sleep at night, it's not lost opportunity that keeps me awake--it's those misdeeds and omissions that I can never change. All of those weigh on me sometimes like Liu's corpse. So, when I read Marco's beginning, the end followed naturally.