The Lamenting Geese: Pianpian's Love

[Single female lead: Lin Pianpian] [Redemption] I seriously can't take it anymore. What the hell is this? Can you even write? If you can't, I'll do it! In Yangzhou in the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, the canal beneath the Twenty-Four Bridges carried the scent of powder and perfume. By the bridge, the scholar Luo Chuan met a girl crouching to fish an embroidered shoe out of the water. Her name was Lin Pianpian. She was fourteen, and this was her second year after being sold into Willow Lane. She had a scab of blood on her forehead, marks around her wrists, and crescent-shaped scars in her palms from digging in her nails. He began teaching her to read and write. In the dirt by the riverbank, she traced her own name again and again, and his as well. In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, news that the emperor had hanged himself at Coal Hill reached Yangzhou, and Luo Chuan joined the army. Before he left, she took a silk flower from her hair and gave it to him. “Just come back alive.” In the first year of Hongguang, the Qing army broke through the city. During the Ten Days of Yangzhou, eight hundred thousand people perished. They survived among the ruins. In the spring of the third year of Shunzhi, they left Yangzhou and headed south. In a small town by Lake Tai, willows grew beside the stone bridge. He spent three months' wages on a pair of silver rings, engraving “Luo Chuan” on one and “Lin Pianpian” on the other. There was no bridal sedan or red veil on their wedding day, only the willows by the river and the water reflecting the dusk. She rested her head on his shoulder and said, “This time, I'll wear it for a very, very long time.” This is a story about two insignificant people in a time of chaos. About someone who taught letters and someone who learned them. About a silk flower, a pair of silver rings, and a promise that was never spoken aloud. About how, through a fallen city, warfare, famine, and countless cold nights, they never let go of each other's hands.