Stories in poetry

An Unfinished Game After the Rain

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · A Novel of the Martial World and Social Life in an Imagined Ancient Setting · Complete · 38 chapters · 1 read

Spring rain closes the ferry crossing, and a stranger sets a chipped Go-stone jar before Jiang Chi. It belonged to her father, but contains no stones—only seven boat tallies. In the three years since leaving the besieged city, she has made her living helping boat passengers pass the time. Now a fragmentary game record draws her back to the old city’s water gate. In this game begun anew, how many people’s paths out are still at stake?

Written with AI assistance, this book expands on “To the Tune of Ruan Lang Gui: The Spring Wind Blows Rain around Withered Branches,” attributed to Anonymous in the frozen poetry collection, and the original short story “Make the Next Move after the Rain Stops.” The characters, river city, institutions, and water gates are fictional; this is neither a translation or adaptation of the original lyric nor a biography of the poet.