Above the Book of Oblivion

Shen Yan was seventeen, with his left leg half an inch shorter, and worked as an apprentice at a pawnshop. Everyone said he was destined to spend his whole life sweeping floors.

He had a pair of eyes that could see what was about to happen to things. Which day a piece of jade would break, which day someone would leave, which day a door would close.

Each time he looked, he forgot something.

First he forgot other people's names. Later, he forgot his own.

He could tell real jade from fake, and truth from lies, but he couldn't tell whether he would still remember today tomorrow.

From apprentice to appraiser, from appraiser to opening a shop of his own, he used those eyes to earn himself a name, and those same eyes to lose it.

On the final night, he sat on the threshold. A small sign hung above the door, bearing a single character.

He couldn't recognize it.

But he knew that character was meant for him.