Stories in poetry

Watermarks on a Lotus Screen

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · Social Life in an Ancient Setting · Complete · 1 chapter · 0 reads

A farewell screen covered in painted lotuses will earn Shen Ou three months’ wages, enough to repair her mother’s boat and send her younger brother to learn to read. Yet sixteen households behind the screen must move out within ten days, and the Shen family is among them. She is accustomed to painting the silvery gray undersides of lotus leaves and knows every waterline along the foot of the old walls; the farewell banquet presses her to finish the painting, but the pond-dredging plan at the government office does not match those watermarks.

This work was created by AI, inspired by the poetic imagery of Yang Wanli’s 《晓出净慈寺送林子方》 (Leaving Jingci Temple at Dawn to See Lin Zifang Off). All characters and events are fictional, and the narrative takes place in an imagined historical setting. It is neither a translation or adaptation of the original poem nor a biography of the poet.