Soul Lock at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda

Half a bronze tally was wedged in a crack between the bricks on the north wall of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. The day Su Jinyu pried it out, a burn mark appeared in her palm, exactly like the half of the character "good" on the tally. That night, she dreamed of an armored man standing atop the pagoda in a snowy night. His lips moved three times, saying, "Wait for me to return." The next day, a lock of hair appeared in a groove in the tally, wrapped in red silk embroidered with two characters: Zhaoning. An old woman in Xi'an said Zhaoning was the fifth daughter of Emperor Gaozu of Tang. Two hundred and eighty years ago, Xue Huaian, commander of the imperial guards, opened the Xuanwu Gate for her. After their plan failed, he was imprisoned beneath the pagoda, eternally guarding the Buddhist scriptures. Zhaoning burned incense for thirteen years, and the flame was passed down for twenty-six generations, all while she waited for someone with a surname that was neither Chen, Zhao, nor Wang to burn the final stick. Su Jinyu's surname was Su. The four white incense sticks split apart on their own. An imperial edict was engraved on an iron plate in the underground palace, and a copper key fit the rusty lock beneath the pagoda. The final stick was to be burned tomorrow evening. Crouching beneath the wall, she asked, "Who are you, really?" Chains rattled, and a hoarse voice called to her through the crack in the bricks: "Zhaoning." Two hundred and eighty years had passed.

Had he mistaken her for someone else? Or was he right all along?