- A blind innkeeper x a wandering storyteller
After losing her sight, Si Nian opens an inn.
Being unable to see makes things inconvenient, so Si Nian hires a chatty young girl, bright as a yellow oriole, to wait tables.
The girl is chattering away all day and is very capable. Before long, she helps bring in a frail bookkeeper who can't look after himself, and a chef who loves bickering with the guests.
These people argue every day, but somehow the inn gets up and running.
On the day she pays out their first monthly wages, Si Nian takes out a portrait and solemnly tells them that running the inn isn't really important.
What matters is that if any of them see the man in the portrait, they must come tell her.
The staff are full of questions and pester Si Nian for days, but she never tells them who the man in the portrait is.
So no one knows that the man in the portrait is actually her husband.
The husband she traveled south alone to find, searching for him for so long without success, with no idea whether he is alive or dead.
One night, with snow and wind raging outside, the inn is about to close when someone knocks at the door.
Si Nian sits by the window with a teacup in her hands. She hears the young girl huffily hurry over to open the door, but for some reason, the girl suddenly falls silent.
Then a gentle, refined voice suddenly sounds from outside:
“May I ask if your inn has any vacant rooms?”
The teacup in Si Nian's hands shatters instantly.
*
The man says his name is Shu Shi, and that he is a storyteller.
Ever since he stays at the inn, business booms.
Shu Shi has a knack for business and comes up with plenty of ways for them to make money. On top of that, he tells stories wonderfully. Every evening, the inn is packed, and Si Nian makes a fortune.
One evening, the inn staff drink to celebrate their success, and everyone gets completely drunk.
Si Nian has had quite a bit to drink, too. As she stumbles upstairs, she nearly trips on the stairs, but a hand reaches out from nowhere, catches her, and leads her back to her room.
By the time she lies down, Si Nian is already in a daze. In her haze, she seems to feel a cold hand caress her eyelids.
A familiar voice murmurs in her ear, still cool and clear, but heavy and hoarse. It calls her by her childhood nickname:
“Niannian...”
· Probably a short story
· Might have a tragic ending, with both sweetness and heartache
Theme: Love is the most unshakable thing in the world, and also the thing most easily lost
