Also known as: How Long Is Five Hundred Years?
[Compassionate guide gong x Devoted, steadfast shou]
[Xie Qingci] Curator of the Old Tales Archive, who records old stories, writes last words, and compiles family trees for all under heaven.
Cool and detached on the surface, he hides a yearning for a place to call home.
He recorded everyone, but never himself.
[Bai Jiu] A thousand-year-old white fox.
Casual and aloof on the surface, he has been devoted and steadfast for five hundred years.
He waited for him outside the mountain gate of Baopu Sect through five cycles of reincarnation and five lifetimes of forgetting.
Five hundred years ago, he crouched down to bandage a fox's wound.
Five hundred years later, that fox crouched in the shadows, waiting for him through five lifetimes.
At last, in this life, he turned around.
But Heaven demanded his life.
He stood at the edge of a rift, his nine tails shattering one by one in the dark red light.
Blood splashed across his moon-white clothes, like great roses blooming in the snow.
In his final moment, he turned his head, the corners of his mouth curved upward.
He said, "Do you know how long five hundred years is?"
"Long enough for a fox to come to your feet and say, 'I'm not leaving.'"
He scattered, transforming into a little white fox curled in the palm of a hand.
He forgot him.
He carried the white fox back to the Old Tales Archive.
This time, it was his turn to wait.
Theme: Five hundred years is long enough for faith to take root. Those who love all living things can love just one person, too. The world's many hardships can become a home when written down.
