Stories in poetry

A Freshly Cooked Meal by the Bridge

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · A Rural Novel in a Historical Setting · Complete · 36 chapters · 8 reads

A bowlful is missing from the new rice Shen Qiuniang hid atop the cupboard for New Year. Her daughter A-He says she gave that bowl of rice to the gentleman repairing the bridge in exchange for learning to write her full name. Her mother takes the empty bowl to find him, but beside the bridge there are only wooden pieces, hemp thread, and an impoverished scholar who keeps delaying the work. With the autumn harvest approaching, a bridge and a few characters have both become obstacles mother and daughter cannot get past.

This original novel was written with AI assistance, expanding on the poetic spirit of Li Bai’s “宿五松山下荀媪家” (Lodging at Old Mother Xun’s Home Beneath Five Pines Mountain) and this site’s original short story. The characters, villages, period, and plot are all imagined. It is neither a biography of the poet nor a translation or adaptation of the original poem.