The Broken Plum Blossom

A common man's wrath leaves two corpses and blood flowing for five paces. I invite you to watch the play within the play. Look at your reflection, and don't mistake it for someone else. This is not an eunuch's novel. It's a short story for a World Intangible Cultural Heritage writing competition, a little tale about shadow puppetry and the guqin. The title was originally meant to be Guangling Melody, which would have been more obvious, but a big shot got there first. Plum-blossom cracks are an exceptionally rare type of crackle in a guqin, said to take a thousand years to form. It seems more poetic this way. May what is lost in the east be gained in the west.