On New Year's Eve, Qin Yang was hunted by a Nian beast and forced into a horror instance called "New Year's Escape." She cleared it by chance, earning three "Lucky Money Coins" and a huge cash prize, which she used to buy an old house. By the window stood a parasol tree, with a faded paper shuttlecock tied to one of its branches. Someone was waiting beneath it.
From then on, she began going through one holiday instance after another: Sending Poverty Away on the Fifth Day, Humankind's Day, Praying to the Stars, Heaven's Day, Earth's Day, Son-in-Law's Day, The Rat Bride, Yang Gong's Day of Misfortune, the Lantern Festival, Qingming, the Dragon Boat Festival, Qixi, the Ghost Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Double Ninth Festival, the Winter Solstice, Little New Year, Laba...
In every instance, she met someone waiting: three children waiting for their big sister to come back and play shuttlecock with them; an old woman waiting for her daughter to come home for dumplings; an old woman who had made paper shuttlecocks for twenty-one years; Lin Ye, a folklore graduate student who had waited twenty-one years for her return; Zhang Honghu, one of thirty-seven people waiting for her to come and take their place; Su Qing, waiting for her sister to save her; a moon goddess who had waited ten thousand years; a guardian of the New Year who had waited a hundred and twenty-three years; a seasonal deity who had waited tens of thousands of years...
Again and again, she took their place: with time, copper coins, dragon energy, fire, and herself.
Later, she discovered that the one she had been waiting for all along was herself. The twelve coins were the twelve versions of herself from her past lives; the three buds bore witness to the three times she had taken someone's place. The fire in the stove had burned from the first instance to the last, never once going out.
This is a story about "waiting" and "exchange." Some waited twenty-one years, some a hundred and twenty-three years, and some ten thousand years. But as long as someone was willing to take their place, they could keep waiting until they were found.
Qin Yang was willing to take their place. So she became the new seasonal deity, watching over that world and waiting for Lin Ye and the others to come home for a meal every Little New Year.
Once they came, the cold was gone.
Theme: Giving, fulfillment, and legacy
