Carbon Embers

"Ember" is written in the fourth year of Yuanhe, when a charcoal seller caught Ding Ye from Huaishu Village and fled into Nanshan, where he lived in a mud house with an old widowed woman. After the old woman died of illness, he was set on fire by the villagers and driven away. He took his young son and fled into the blackened Tanshan Mountain to make a living by digging charcoal. He met the carpenter Li Zhi by chance in the market, and the two fell in love with each other. Li Zhi helped him repair the roof of his house and gave his youngest son a bone whistle. Later, he left with his two sons due to military conscription. In the cold weather, the price of charcoal went up. The old man's right shoulder collapsed from digging charcoal, and the youngest son went without hot food for three days. He drove the cattle cart loaded with thick charcoal into the market, but two palace and city officials forcibly took away the entire cart of charcoal and the old cattle with half a piece of red yarn. Returning to the mountain empty-handed, he pushed open the door and entered the house. He saw that the youngest son had frozen to death on the earthen bed, with pieces of charcoal in his hands and a bone whistle wrapped around his fingers. He wrapped the body of his youngest son layer by layer with red gauze, carried him to the official's house, placed him on the threshold, walked into the main room and hung himself from the beam. The old man was reincarnated as an old farmer in Duling. With his spiritual consciousness cleared and all the old physical injuries still present, he spent his days guarding the thin fields. Taxes were pressed, fields were confiscated, government orders were changed to conscription, and official missions went to the countryside to arrest soldiers. He huddled in the earthen hut and heard the officer say "Next stop to Huaishu Village" through the wall. He felt a cold feeling in his lower back, and five old injuries on his right shoulder, chest, stomach, lower back and bottom of his ears broke out at the same time. He left the village at night, and his body knew the way, and walked all the way back to Tanshan Mountain. Half of the threshold of the deserted house had collapsed. He sat on it, folded the red gauze and put it back on the stove. The bone whistle stood on the window sill. When daylight was about to break, he picked up his pickaxe and walked towards the depths of Tanshan Mountain. After the sound of footsteps disappeared, a very light sigh came from the ground. The suffering in the world outside the mountain is still in a cycle, and the embers are not extinguished, and the cycle continues.