Stories in poetry

Where the Water Clock Falls Silent

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · Ancient Chinese–Style Mystery · Complete · 1 chapter · 0 reads

As Xie Heng counts the thirty-seventh strike, the water-clock chamber suddenly falls silent, though the water gauge keeps moving. She opens the old registers: whenever the laundry baskets leave the palace, one stretch of entries in the latter half of the night is always written in unusually dark ink. Following the trail to the western corner, she encounters a young girl who should not be hidden in a basket. Just then, the summons to the front hall she has awaited for twenty years arrives. The appointed audience falls precisely when the next load of laundry baskets is due to leave the palace.

This work was created by AI, inspired by the poetic imagery of Wang Changling’s 《长信怨》 (Lament in Changxin Palace). 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.