Helplessly I watched Youzhou cavalry drive on, plunging He-Luo into darkness.
Five Later Poems on Going Beyond the Frontier
Five Later Poems on Going Beyond the Frontier
A Farewell Banquet for My Uncle Yun, the Collator, at Xie Tiao Tower in Xuanzhou
After the Upheaval and Separation, Exiled to Yelang by Imperial Grace: Recalling Former Travels and Expressing My Feelings, Presented to Wei Liangzai, Prefect of Jiangxia
Waiting for a Guest
To the Tune “Niannujiao” · Spring Feelings
Writing of What I Saw at Night
Lang Tao Sha · Seeking Wine from Wu Jianshan on the Double Ninth
Shen Jianwei returns to Linpu to close the Go club her father has run for twenty-seven years. On a night of plum-season rain, her old friend Liang Xu, with whom she has not had a long conversation in years, fails to arrive as agreed; instead, her recorder captures an elderly man borrowing an umbrella. During the ninety-day relocation period, an old house about to disappear brings together people who left home, a boy without talent, a recording engineer who cannot hear clearly, and a Go player unwilling to admit to growing old. They must decide what to keep, and learn to let others leave.
Gu Qinghe makes her living copying designs. To pay for food and lodging at an inn, she paints a screen of red leaves, yet on Cold Mountain she finds white stone and lush green. Drawing a route for a stranger entangles her in damaged goods, an exclusive master pattern, and an old bridge awaiting repair. Traveling between the mountain town and the city, she weighs wages, personal obligations, and her art, learning to take responsibility for what she paints—and what she fails to paint.
Shen Heng, who earns his living copying books beside the river, keeps postponing his return home. One autumn night, two children beside the hedge damage a paper lantern and come seeking his skill; if he stops writing to repair it, he will receive less pay when he delivers his manuscript tomorrow morning. When the lantern shines again, he finally finishes the letter home he has never dared to send.
After years of calling bids for an antiques association, Lu Qing finally saves enough to buy an old chair from a mountain temple. He carries it upstairs at Rainwatch Tower, hoping to make his first major deal for himself. With every compliment from a guest, the chair legs sink a little deeper into the floorboards. He tries to rise, but the armrests tighten around him. Rainwater has flooded the lane below, while those at the table keep discussing the chair’s great value. First, he must make the smiling guests hear that he truly cannot get up.