In the winter of the fifth year of Shaoxi's reign in the Song Dynasty, boatman Geng Weili and his son Geng Wanqi met a sick and old man by the Tongji Canal. The old man's surname was Shen, and he said he wanted to go south to find relatives. The Geng family and his son took him south, thus starting a journey of pursuit that spanned three generations and lasted for decades.
The old man Shen Zhi was originally from Tokyo. He was separated from his sister Shen Yun during the Jingkang Incident. He traveled north and south for forty-three years and never gave up searching. Geng Yiqi followed him southward, passing through Chenliu, Tokyo, Fuli, Xuyi, Yangzhou, Pingjiang, and Lin'an, and finally found Shen Yun in Yuezhou. The day the brother and sister reunited, it had been forty-three years since they were separated.
Shen Zhi stayed in Yuezhou and passed the handwritten book he carried with him to Gaoqi. That thin book was filled with records of the places he had traveled, the people he had asked, and the news he had heard. From then on, the bird took over this "letter from home" and continued to write about his own experiences.
After Shen Zhi's death, the bird followed his last wish and returned north to visit the old willow tree planted in the Sui Dynasty. Many years later, the bird and its son looked north and then went to the willow. After Wangbei grew up, he took his son Gengchuan to the willow three times - the same tree, the same question and answer, three generations, eighty years.
Willow was speechless, but witnessed everything.
