Lin'an, a cold winter day. The protagonist is blind and lies in a dilapidated house, with only a young apprentice and three wild dogs left by his side.
He asked his apprentice to call all the children in the neighborhood and said that he wanted to teach "the last part of the book." The children gathered around the bed, and he was telling the story of Yue Wumu. When he came to the words "Give me back my rivers and mountains," he suddenly sat up straight and his voice was as loud as when he was in Bianliang Washer.
"Dear readers, I would like to know what happened next——"
He didn't finish. Xingmu fell to the ground.
It had been snowing outside for three days and three nights, and no one in Lin'an knew that the storyteller who once made half the city laugh was gone.
The young apprentice later inherited "Xingmu" and went further south to continue storytelling in a small town filled with miasma. The first time he said it was: "By the way, there is a Mr. Lin in Bianliang City..."
