When Yu Bennian was eight years old, her father gave her a bowl of medicine. The medicine was sweet and she "died" after drinking it.
A month later, everyone in the Yu family was executed, and she was the only one not included in the list. Later, she changed her name to Yu Nian, served tea and poured water in a teahouse, and turned herself into a branch growing out of ashes, growing green silently.
When I was seventeen, two men opened the door of the teahouse one after another.
One was a man as silent as a tree. He had been squatting in the backyard chopping firewood for five years and putting vegetables into her bowl for five years. His ears turned red when she called him "puppy". He held in his hand a secret letter that could kill someone, and he hid it from her for nine years.
One was a man with an unbelievably gentle smile, and an old silver ring on his sleeve. He patched up the wall for her all afternoon and said, "My hand was shaking when I blocked the knife for you." He was ordered to kill the Yu family, but ended up killing himself first.
Three people compete on the chessboard. One defends, one attacks, and the other sits in the middle counting the next three steps with a smile.
They have tested each other, been suspicious of each other, and put knives on each other's necks. Later, they blocked each other's knives, played cards under the moon, and put together a complete painting on a broken table from the fragments they had held for ten years.
This is not a story about three good people who meet and become friends. Three people each holding a handful of ashes walked to the same fire and decided to light a big one together.
Thinking of returning, thinking of returning. If someone thinks about it, someone will return.
Intention: How can a person live in ashes? Should I live with hatred, or should I let go and let something new grow.