At his first lesson, Pei Wujiu, the ninth instructor at Dingzi Academy, was mocked and dismissed by his students. As he called the roll, he reached Fang Dou in the fifth row. The child's name faded before his eyes until only the character "kou" remained. In an instant, all forty-odd people in the classroom saw nothing but an empty seat, a bowl of water, and a jacket. No one could remember who had been sitting there. Even the child beside the seat said there was a schoolbag on it. Pei Wujiu went over, held the child's wrist, and stared at the deeply pressed line of writing as he read the full name aloud. He repeated "Fang Dou" three times. The horizontal stroke and two dots of the character for "dou" grew back into place, and only then did the forty-odd pairs of eyes see the child again. The child burst into tears and asked why he couldn't remember his own name. When class ended, all forty-seven name cards were accounted for. But who had pressed that name into the mud?
