When the Wild Geese Return

In the final years of the Great Yin Dynasty, the realm fell into chaos. Prince of Zhenbei Gu Liao raised an army and marched south, massacring cities as he went. Twelve cities surrendered at the mere sight of his forces, and the black banners of his hundred thousand cavalry pointed toward Yanhuai, the last pass guarding the north.

Yanhuai was a small city of fourteen thousand people on the banks of the Jingshui River. It would not surrender. The townsfolk came to a decision: surrender and die, refuse and die. They might as well die on their feet and leave one unbowed city in this rotten world.

And so, before the siege began, this city enjoyed an unusually long stretch of "peaceful days."

The night watchman Chang Mao kept to his nightly rounds. Jiang Wanyin, at the medicine shop, believed good people would always be rewarded. Xiaoman, the army cook, dreamed of opening a flatbread shop. The timid soldier Gou Quan kept two strings of coins close to his chest, hoping to buy a new pair of shoes for his blind mother outside the city. General Qin Zhi, with his scar, played father to every child under his command. Everyone lived their own life, and everyone had their own measure of right and wrong.

But in times of chaos, one kind of justice is always crushing another. Good people are dragged into the abyss by their own goodness. Those defending the city are driven toward betrayal by their duty to defend it. Those who cherish life most give theirs away, and those who most want to live end up dying for someone else.

The swallows return every year. But not one of the people in this city ever came back.

Only the city did not fall. It lived on in a child, growing year by year.