In 1626, the Tianqi Explosion left all its victims naked, and the top of a sedan chair vanished.
What did that explosion blow away?
Where did the sedan chair's roof go?
Someone is waiting.
Someone is searching.
Four hundred years later.
Qi Huaizhen is a charlatan.
A dirt-poor one.
The roof of her Taoist temple leaks in three places, and she can't afford to fix it, so she livestreams to scam people out of money.
One day, someone with the username "Gui" sent twenty Carnival gifts in her livestream.
Qi Huaizhen's eyes lit up. "Goddess of Wealth! What would you like me to read for you? Romance? Career? I can even tell you who you were in your past life!"
The other person replied with just one sentence: "Could you show me the bell on your ear?"
Qi Huaizhen touched the tasselled bell earring on her earlobe.
It had been passed down in her family. She'd worn it for over twenty years and never thought much of it.
Fine, if the Goddess of Wealth wanted to see it, she could.
They arranged to meet in person. The one who showed up was a stone-faced woman dressed in black, half a head taller than her.
The woman stared at the bell on her ear for a very, very long time.
"I've been waiting for you for four hundred years."
Qi Huaizhen: "..."
"Is sending twenty Carnival gifts how people in ancient times proposed?"
The woman didn't say a word.
But the corner of her mouth twitched.
The stone-faced woman was looking for something: the roof of a sedan chair, lost four hundred years ago.
She said, "Come with me. When we get back, you'll have enough to fix ten Taoist temples."
Qi Huaizhen went.
Not because she wasn't afraid of dying.
Because she was too poor.
Blurb written on March 3, 2026
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