Stories in poetry

Fragrance Fades, Swallows Return

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

The third batch of ever-burning incense goes out before dawn again. Shen Xiao is drenched in cold ash, and both the remaining three hundred taels and her prospects of entering the marquis’s household hang in the balance. She remembers the two fingers her mother wore away at the grindstone, yet cannot bear to part with the jade earrings the young marquis gave her. But a fine thread missing one knot in the ash, and a fleeting cry beside the burner, make this respectable business increasingly difficult to contain.

This work was created by AI, inspired by the poetic imagery of Gao E’s “To the Tune of Qing Yu An: Threads of Incense Smoke Thicker than Mist.” Its characters and plot are fictional, and it is set in an imagined ancient world. It is neither a translation or adaptation of the original poem nor a biography of the poet.