The Returning Boat Has No Shore [Short Story]

He was once a young general personally appointed by the emperor, victorious three times, with crowds lining the road to welcome him home.

Then one day, a heavy snowfall and a horse trampled one of his legs beyond repair.

When he was carried back to the capital, the doors of his family home were shut. His father did not come out to greet him, or even look at him.

From then on, his father acknowledged only his younger brother as his son, and the girl who had once been promised to him came to break off their engagement.

He knelt before the ancestral hall, at the palace gates, in the spring breeze,

waiting to hear, "You're still alive." No one answered.

He was Shen Guizhou, returned without a boat to carry him home.

The world remembers only that he died on the battlefield,

forgetting that he was still alive, standing in the wind for so long.

Theme: Life