This is a story about guilt being acknowledged and finally laid to rest.
Thirty-six-year-old Lin Xu is tormented by a dream that has repeated for 25 years: on her elementary school's playground, a boy invites her to run. For some inexplicable reason, she slows down and watches helplessly as he is taken away and executed atop a distant mountain. When she hears that her hometown's elementary school is to be demolished, she decides to uncover the truth.
She discovers that the boy was called Chen Du, a transfer student who had long since “disappeared.” The clues point to an ancient tradition: Chen Du came from the Du family, a clan that took on the suffering of others. To save his gravely ill mother, he chose to transfer her misfortune onto himself, and Lin Xu was the “anchor” he selected. Her survival was built on his self-sacrifice.
In the end, Lin Xu realizes that what tormented her for over two decades was not a ghost, but the loss of her right to know and to choose. She says goodbye by designing a memorial park, transforming her nightmare-like memories into a profound understanding of life's fragility and sacrifice, and finally making peace with herself.
