Beifeng Sanli

There is only one road to Sanlibao. Going south on the road is Wild Wolf Beach, an endless stretch of grass. I heard that there are really wolves in it. Going north is Duanlong Ridge. The mountain is so high that the top cannot be seen, and it is shrouded in fog all year round. I have lived in this place for seventeen years, and I have never seen anyone from the other side of the ridge or the beach. The old people said that this road used to be an official road, and there were many merchants traveling from south to north. Later, I don't know what happened, the official system was abolished, the merchants disappeared, and only dozens of families like us were left, guarding this untravelled road, year after year. My mother died young and I never saw her. My father said that she didn't have it when she gave birth to me, so she left a piece of cloth with a fish embroidered on it, which was blue and had red eyes. I sewed that piece of cloth into my clothes and carried it with me all the time. Until that night, when the north wind was blowing the most fiercely, someone knocked on my door. The person who came was a man in black, with a long knife on his back and covered in blood. He looked at me and said: "Your mother is still alive."