When I was seven years old, I picked up a Pisces jade pendant at the door of the Prime Minister's Mansion.
After waiting all night, someone came. He knelt down, pinched my face, and told me to wait for him to come back. He took me to the night market, bought me candied haws, and tied a silver bell on my ankle - a jingling bell, so that I wouldn't get lost when following him.
He said his name was Jinlin. I don't know what this name means.
Later I found out that he was the Marquis of Jing'an, the late emperor's nephew and the new emperor's uncle. The people in the court were afraid of him, and the enemy soldiers fled when they heard his name. But he never had these identities to me - he was just someone who would climb over the wall in the middle of the night and take me out of bed to look at the moon.
He broke the Pisces jade pendant in half and left half in my hand.
"Wait until I come back and then fight back."
I've been waiting for seven years. From the age of seven until he was fourteen, from spring until winter, from the day he left until everyone said he would never come back. I held the jade pendant for seven years, polishing it from rough to smooth. Every night I listen to the bells on my feet ringing, jingling bells, as if asking for me - when will you come back?
Later I went to the Northwest.
In the border camp, I took off the man's mask.
Intention: "Waiting" is not passively consuming time, but actively growing up to be able to stand side by side.