Rain and Mist over Jiangnan

South of the lower Yangtze River lies a plain, with hills farther south. Rain is plentiful there, and for much of the year the days are damp and shrouded in mist. The eighth volume, “Princess of the Moonlight,” will soon unfold. The heroine of this volume has an eye disease and comes from the northern shore of Dajiao Lake, deep in central Anhui, Jiangnan. In her everyday world, everything is a vast blur of white. Only in the soft glow of the moon can she see the world. Later, she marries and moves north of the Yangtze. Given her difficult circumstances, her married life is deeply painful. When Wei Si, the hero who had once helped her greatly and sought treatment for her eyes, hears of her plight, he boards a boat in the mountains south of Dayao Lake and travels downstream in search of her... But after he returns, Wei Si, a man left disabled by an earlier accident yet strong in spirit, gives up his struggle against fate and lies down forever among those mountains. Not long afterward, the heroine can no longer bear her torment and moves back to her family home. On clear, fresh nights, she often stands by the lake, listening to the gentle flow of water and gazing south in the bright moonlight. She says she has discovered that Wei Si has transformed into those mountains: his enormous form lies on the lake's southern shore, and the features of his face and upper body look just like him. “Tragedy destroys before our eyes what is valuable” (as Lu Xun said). Through realistic prose, this volume gradually reveals the tragic tenor of life. One point must be made clear: if women are the source of tragedy, then men are its vessels! Writing this, I have often gone back and forth, afraid of offending people's eyes and ears. I strive to combine literary elegance with a sense of responsibility.