The bronze bell rings once every sixty years. With each toll, one person vanishes from the world.
That person's parents no longer remember them. Their name disappears from the family register, and even they forget what they were called. The neighbors say, "That house has always been empty."
Only the Bellkeeper remembers.
A Bellkeeper must have no name. He remembers everyone on earth, while no one on earth remembers him. He can walk into a crowd, and the moment people turn away, they forget him.
When Shen Ting turned seventeen, he inherited the Book of the Forgotten. The first thing he did was search for his older sister, erased by the bell.
She was still alive, sitting beneath the window of an embroidery shop, stitching a crane. Her stitches were still unmistakably hers. She looked up and asked, "What would you like, sir?"
Shen Ting said, "I've come to take you home."
She asked, "Where is my home?"
Three days later, the bell would ring again. Last time, sixty years passed between tolls. This time, only three days.
