Empty Stele

Su Muzi is an apprentice at the blacksmith's shop in Qinghe Town.

The day his master died, he left him two things: a broken sword and an anvil. The anvil had been smashed off a stele. There were seven steles in all, each given to one of seven people. This piece was the heart of the stele.

He doesn't know who his father is. He only knows that his master told one lie in his entire life, and left him one instruction: Don't lose the anvil.

That winter, someone came from the city and said, "There's a name missing from the thirteenth level of the city wall. It's been missing for thirty years. Someone has to fill it in."

The person who fills in the name must climb upward. With every level he passes, he has to give up something of his own.

On the first level, he forgot his mother's face.

On the second, he could no longer remember what a girl looked like. Her name was Mo Atang. He could still say those three characters, but she could no longer hear him.

On every level above, someone is waiting for him, with rules he must obey.

He walks slowly. A blacksmith can't fly.

Thirty years later, he finally stands before that stele.

There are five hundred and seventy-three names on it.

The space left blank on the stele has been empty since the very first day.

At last, he understands who it was meant for.