Five years later…16

The morning sun pierced through the mountain mist, casting a golden pattern of light and shadow across the forest floor, filtering through the canopy and the gaps between the leaves.0

The Li Family had been farming near Moongaze Lake for another five years. It had been sixteen or seventeen years since they picked up the mirror. The stone paths on Mount Lijing were now slightly tinted green by moss. The birds on the branches chirped a song, celebrating the start of a new day.1

Old Xu sat down, leaning his hunched body against a cold, moss-covered tombstone. His frail hand grasped a handful of soil.0

“Why… am I still not dead?” he wondered out loud.7

A few years back, Old Xu moved up to Mount Lijing and resolved to watch over the Li Family’s ancestral graves. Despite protests from Li Xiangping and others,...0