Dwelling by Erhai, Listening to the Souls of Childhood Past

A blue-and-white porcelain urn washed up from the depths of Erhai Lake, its mouth covered with a red cloth covered in white writing. Sixteen-year-old Duan Qicun brought it home, only to discover that she too had been placed on a "Soul-Sending List." She had to send away three people to reclaim the household registration page withheld from her for sixteen years. Yang Xiaoye, a Han girl, was the second name on the list, but the only one still alive. Her grandfather, a folk Daoist priest, told her, "A living person's soul is the hardest to send off. First, you have to find the self she lost when she was fourteen."

Above the snowline of Cangshan, there is no signal for those fleeing their village. During Erhai Lake's fishing ban, underwater burials are halted. As a copper bell rings three times, the two girls salvage one another amid the squeeze between demolition and intangible cultural heritage. They want to help each other leave the town, and to keep the selves trapped in the 1996 household-registration transfer stamp.

This is a novel about identity, accents, and the tides of Erhai Lake. When the tide recedes, identity rises to the surface. When the bell falls silent, the soul has only just begun its journey.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.