Heyu/Story: Difference between revisions
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{{Neighbor Stories/Image|Heyu When Will the Bright Moon Guide Me Home | {{Neighbor Stories/Image|Heyu When Will the Bright Moon Guide Me Home Image 01|left}} | ||
"Exactly! They say the Boss invited an immortal down to the mortal realm. As the immortal grows sickly and their life shortens, the Boss grows healthy and long-lived." | "Exactly! They say the Boss invited an immortal down to the mortal realm. As the immortal grows sickly and their life shortens, the Boss grows healthy and long-lived." | ||
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{{Neighbor Stories/Image|Heyu When Will the Bright Moon Guide Me Home | {{Neighbor Stories/Image|Heyu When Will the Bright Moon Guide Me Home Image 02|right}} | ||
Immortal? How absurd. | Immortal? How absurd. | ||
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When spring came, a new tale took root in the courtyard: the immortal had ascended and returned to the heavens. | When spring came, a new tale took root in the courtyard: the immortal had ascended and returned to the heavens. | ||
|s3_title = Timeless Springs, Familiar Soul | |||
|s3_text = | |||
Business was booming at The Named Springs, whose fame had spread far beyond the neighboring hills. Quite fittingly, it had made a name for itself. | |||
"You really have an eye for location," remarked one of the guests as he soaked in the steaming water. "That legendary garden where the immortals are said to dwell is just a stone's throw away. No wonder these springs have something otherworldly about them." | |||
The proprietor flicked his fan and gave a derisive snort. "When I first came out here to make a living, I'd never heard a peep about that garden. These springs owe what they are to nature. Gods, immortals, and all that lofty nonsense have absolutely nothing to do with it." | |||
Just then, an old melon farmer came hurrying in, his face creased with worry. He'd spotted some strange-looking thing lying by the entrance, he said, and couldn't tell whether it was dead or alive. But if it had even a breath left, surely they couldn't just leave it there. | |||
The proprietor paused, pinched his fingers together in a swift divination, and clicked his tongue. Snapping his fan shut, he rushed toward the door, leaving behind a muttered, "Just my rotten luck!" | |||
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{{Neighbor Stories/Image|Heyu Timeless Springs, Familiar Soul Image 01|left}} | |||
Wedged between the snowy rocks lay a ragged heap of torn clothing, with fallen red plum blossoms scattered all around. | |||
The hot spring proprietor gave the... <i>thing</i>, which was presumably a person, a tentative nudge with his foot. | |||
"Hey there. Still alive, sir? We're running a hot spring here, y'know. A place for rest and recuperation. We don't do burials. So wherever you came from, best head on back!" | |||
The thing that was probably a person slowly raised its head. His face was deathly pale, his eyes as dull and vacant as a piece of shattered jade. Then, in a voice as cold as a ghost's, he said, "I have nowhere to return to." | |||
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The proprietor's eyes narrowed into a smile so forced that a vein throbbed visibly on his forehead. Grabbing the wretched lump by the collar, he dragged him inside and, with a casual heave, tossed him straight into the steaming pool. | |||
"I couldn't care less if you have a home or not, just spare me the poetic nonsense!" | |||
The ragged remains of his cloak slipped from him into the hot spring. Veiled in long white hair, the weakened young man fell to his knees, coughing uncontrollably until his palm was stained with blood. | |||
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{{Neighbor Stories/Image|Heyu Timeless Springs, Familiar Soul Image 02|right}} | |||
The proprietor seemed to give in at last. His usual smile faded as he scratched ruefully at his ear and clicked his tongue once more. | |||
"I see you've got rare aptitude. Fate must've put you in my path. And since you're here anyway... well, let nature take its course and see if you pull through." | |||
On the path homeward, there stood a hot spring inn. Only upon sinking into its waters did he truly come alive. | |||
|s4_title = A Beauty in the Moonlit Woods | |||
|s4_text = | |||
Fleeing the southern winter, the young man cradled the sprig of red plum blossoms to his chest, carefully guarding it against the rocking of the boat that bore him toward home. | |||
To little Heyu, the journey felt agonizingly long. So long that the moment he closed his eyes, Sister Jiu would appear. He would see her leaning against the window, quietly unraveling the faded characters of an ancient book. And every time, he found himself burning to ask her: Why must our people live in hiding? Why is the road home so endlessly, unfathomably long? | |||
"To keep from being found, of course." The memory, hazy and yellowed with time, suddenly found its voice. He realized with a pang that he had almost forgotten how she sounded. "That place... only those drawn by fate will ever find it. And when that moment comes, you will feel it, too." | |||
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{{Neighbor Stories/Image|Heyu A Beauty in the Moonlit Woods Image 01|left}} | |||
"I don't want to feel anything." He heard the petulance in his own voice. To think he was once so willful, and that there had once been someone who simply let him be. "Those people bound to us by fate... they're all... they're all here to..." | |||
"To 'borrow years' from us?" Sister Jiu suddenly laughed. But the frail laughter soon dissolved into a violent, unrelenting fit of coughing. The sound shook him to the core, setting his heart pounding with dread and leaving him scarcely able to breathe. | |||
So the stories about borrowing years were true? | |||
"To live or to die is but the natural course of things..." Her sigh stirred the flowing light. "Yet, most hearts in this world have nowhere to rest. And with nothing to hold on to, how is one to bear the weight of living? And so, they ask for the impossible." | |||
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How could the years allotted by Heaven and Earth ever be borrowed? | |||
"If you carry compassion in your heart, you will see the soul in all living things." The immortal lowered her gaze, and the light that fell upon him was heavy with pity. | |||
But why? Why? Why must we be the ones to bear such cruel mercy? | |||
A child so young naturally could not understand. Yet someday... | |||
A sudden wind swept through the ancient book, turning page after page as the boundless ink slowly faded into nothingness. See not. Hear not. Know not... Form alone endures, and therein lies longevity... | |||
Why? Why? Why must we be the ones robbed of a home? | |||
They had promised. When spring came, we would go home. | |||
How did the wait for a single spring stretch into ten empty years? | |||
If only I could see them again. Just one last time... | |||
<i>To look upon the pines of our home is to see us.</i> | |||
Just one more glimpse. That was all I begged of the heavens... | |||
<i>If you can't find your way home... promise me you won't cry.</i> | |||
---- | |||
{{Neighbor Stories/Image|Heyu A Beauty in the Moonlit Woods Image 02|right}} | |||
Home at last. His footsteps felt weightless, skimming the earth like the wind. Cranes danced gracefully amid the emerald bamboo. How could he have ever lost his way? <i>We are almost there. Look—</i> | |||
Not a single soul remained. | |||
Amidst the howling wind and swirling snow, the youth embraced the ancient pine, the sprig of red plum in his grasp having long since withered away. | |||
---- | |||
<i>Young master, where have your thoughts gone?</i> | |||
I was wondering... if I've come too late. | |||
What if I were to ask for the impossible? | |||
}} | }} | ||