The Bells of Pingyao

My name is Chen Sanshun. I'm the seventh-generation watchmaker in the ancient city of Pingyao, making a living by tending to our family shop.

A pocket watch leapt onto my workbench by itself, and I dreamed of a girl named Yunniang in a moon-white dress. She had waited for me through seven lifetimes, all to fulfill a vow from our past life.

Strange things kept happening in the old city. The watch ticked backward, two skeletons embracing were found in a hidden room, and the county records concealed the truth about a lovers' elopement. Yunniang and I met again across the cycle of rebirth, and fragments of our memories gradually fell into place.

Xiao Zhao investigated the archives, Aunt Wang hid a box of letters, and the dragon-and-phoenix chains were finally joined. On the night of my thirtieth birthday, the fate binding us through seven lifetimes reached its conclusion.

It turned out love could cross the boundary between life and death. A watchmaker doesn't just repair clocks and watches: he repairs a bond between two lovers that has endured for seven hundred years.