I was beginning to think this village had found a new way to make my life difficult every morning. First, people forgot their own names. Then they forgot their homes. Now even their memories couldn't agree on what had happened yesterday. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if someone woke up tomorrow and decided the village had always been a lake. I padded across the stone path, flicking my tail. Qing Li and Yan Luo were already investigating the strange changes, which meant I could probably expect another long discussion about memory, fate, and why everything seemed to happen around me. Wonderful. Just what every cat needed.
Far beneath the shrine, something stirred. It did not rise or move through the earth. Instead, it slowly turned its attention towards the village. Its awareness passed over the rooftops, the villagers, and the countless threads connecting their memories. Then it noticed the black cat. Something about him did not fit the pattern. This presence had existed long before the village was built, long before Heaven's lattice had taken shape. For ages, it had remained silent beneath the earth. But now, for the first time in a long while, it had found something worth observing.
Qing Li arrived at the square first, brushing the mist from his cloak. Yan Luo followed a few steps behind, his gaze moving across the village. Both stopped when they noticed the strange lines flickering around the villagers. The threads were faint, but their movements had become much harder to ignore. Some crossed one another, while others seemed to split and disappear before forming again. "They're colliding." Qing Li said quietly. His brows drew together as he watched two threads pass through the same point before pulling apart. "Memories from different moments are overlapping. Some even contradict each other."
Yan Luo followed the movement of a nearby thread with his eyes. A merchant was counting his coins, only to pause and begin again. Each time, his hands moved in a slightly different order. "It's getting worse," Yan Luo said. "And the shrine isn't the only thing affecting them. Something beneath it is pulling at the threads." Xu Yang walked past them without slowing down. His paws made almost no sound against the stones. As he passed a group of villagers, the threads around them briefly settled. The confusion in their movements eased, as if someone had gently straightened a tangled piece of string. Yet Xu Yang could feel something beneath the ground. A faint pressure brushed against his senses, then disappeared. It felt almost like someone watching him from behind a closed door. He glanced towards the shrine. So something down there had finally noticed me. How lovely. I was starting to collect strange attention from places I couldn't even see...
The villagers continued with their daily tasks, unaware of what was happening around them. Their minds seemed to smooth over anything they could not understand. A child near the fountain suddenly stopped playing and stared at the wooden toy in his hands. "Didn't I already play this game?" he asked. His companion looked at him, then shrugged. "Maybe you want to play it again." The child seemed satisfied with that answer and returned to the game, but a moment later, he made the same move again.
Qing Li watched them from a distance. "They can feel something is wrong," he said, "but they don't know what it is." His gaze shifted towards Xu Yang, who had settled near the shrine steps with his tail curled around his paws. "The closer they are to him, the more stable their memories become." Yan Luo's expression grew serious. "Even so, the presence beneath the shrine isn't simply watching. I can feel it responding to the changes."Xu Yang's ears twitched. It observes. That is all it can do for now...He lowered his head onto his paws. If it wanted to introduce itself, it could at least have the courtesy to do so properly...
As the morning passed, the distortions became more complicated. A shopkeeper misplaced his tools, found them where he had left them, and then insisted he had never owned them. A woman repeated the same conversation twice, using different words each time. Even the children seemed affected. Their games changed halfway through, and none of them remembered the original rules. Qing Li crouched beside a young boy who was trying to tell him a story from the previous day. The boy stopped several times, confused by his own words. "Yesterday, the old man gave me a red stone." he said. Then he frowned. "No, it was a wooden bird. I think."
Qing Li gently asked him to continue, but the boy only shook his head. "I don't remember anymore." Qing Li stood and looked towards Yan Luo. "This isn't ordinary memory loss. The memories are changing while people are trying to recall them." Yan Luo examined the faint threads above the boy's head. "Different versions of the same event are being placed together. One moment pushes against another, and the threads keep trying to settle." "Then why isn't Heaven's lattice correcting them?" Qing Li asked. Yan Luo's gaze moved towards the sky. "Because it isn't here. Or something is preventing it from working."
Xu Yang yawned from the shrine railing. "You two have been discussing this for half the morning. Have you considered that perhaps the world simply has a poor memory?" Qing Li turned towards him. "People are forgetting parts of their lives." "And yet they are still eating, walking, and arguing. I would say things are going rather well." "That's your idea of things going well?" "I am a cat. My standards are different." Yan Luo glanced at him, almost amused, but his expression quickly became serious again. "You can joke about it, but the changes are spreading." Xu Yang stretched his front paws and settled down again. "Then keep watching. Worrying won't make the threads behave."
Qing Li and Yan Luo began testing the changes more carefully. They questioned several villagers about events from the previous day, then returned to ask the same questions a little later. The answers rarely matched. One merchant remembered selling a basket of peaches, while another insisted he had bought them. A woman remembered visiting the shrine with her daughter, though her daughter claimed they had stayed at home. The closer Qing Li and Yan Luo came to Xu Yang, however, the fewer contradictions they found. Near the shrine steps, the threads became steadier. Around the black cat, some even stopped moving altogether.
Qing Li studied the pattern for a long moment before speaking. "It's like a web. Every memory is connected to another. When one changes, the others begin to shift as well." Yan Luo nodded. "And the closer those threads come to him, the more stable they become." Both looked towards Xu Yang. He was busy cleaning one paw. "Why are you looking at me?" he asked without raising his head. "Because everything seems to lead back to you," Qing Li replied. Xu Yang paused and glanced at him. "That sounds like a very convenient conclusion. Have you considered the possibility that you simply haven't looked hard enough?" "We have," Yan Luo said. "We checked the entire square. Nothing else remains consistent."
Xu Yang gave a small flick of his tail. "Then perhaps your investigation needs more work." Qing Li sighed. "Do you ever take anything seriously?" "Of course. I take meals very seriously." Yan Luo lowered his gaze to hide a faint smile. Qing Li, however, looked as though he was reconsidering every decision that had brought him here.
The two men continued their investigation, making simple diagrams to record where the distortions appeared and how they changed. Qing Li marked the places where memories had contradicted themselves, while Yan Luo followed the movement of the threads between them.
Slowly, a pattern began to emerge. The disturbances spread through the village, but they did not move in a straight line. When one person's memory changed, the threads connected to nearby people shifted as well. Some became tangled, while others disappeared completely. "Look at this," Qing Li said, pointing to the centre of his diagram. "The same pattern appears again and again. The more confused the memories become, the stronger the pull towards the shrine." Yan Luo studied the marks before tracing one line with his finger. "And every line eventually leads back to him."
Xu Yang blinked at them from his place above the steps. "You have given me several names today. Centre, axis, stabiliser. Should I expect a formal title next?" "This isn't a joke," Qing Li said. "You may be the reason the village hasn't fallen apart completely." Xu Yang tilted his head. "Then you should be thanking me." "You really are impossible." "And yet, here you are, still talking to me." Yan Luo straightened and looked towards the shrine. "There's another problem. The threads aren't only reacting to him. Something else is changing them from beneath." His eyes narrowed as a faint tremor passed through the ground. The lines above the square shivered, then settled into a different arrangement.
Qing Li followed his gaze. "That presence..." "It is becoming more aware of us." Yan Luo said. Xu Yang stopped cleaning his paw.
For a brief moment, his golden eyes turned towards the shrine. The faint pressure was there again, stronger than before. It was not trying to reach him. It was studying him, as though every movement offered another piece of information. Xu Yang's ears lowered slightly. So it was learning. That was more troublesome than simply being watched.
By afternoon, Qing Li and Yan Luo had covered most of their observations. They returned to the shrine and compared their findings. The threads were still shifting, but their movements had become easier to follow. Qing Li pointed to the centre of his diagram. "The distortions spread through the village, but they all seem to return to this point." Yan Luo looked from the markings to the black cat resting on the railing. "And the closer they come to him, the more stable they become." Xu Yang opened one eye. "Are we still discussing me?" "We haven't found anything else that explains it," Qing Li replied. "You are the only constant in all these changes." Xu Yang let out a small yawn. "Then perhaps you should stop looking for a complicated answer. I am simply here." "That's exactly what makes this strange," Yan Luo said. "The threads respond to you even when you do nothing."
Xu Yang lowered his head again. "Then they have better things to do than follow me around." Qing Li looked as though he wanted to argue, but a sudden tremor beneath the shrine interrupted him. The faint lines in the air shivered. For a moment, several of them turned towards the ground, as if something below had tugged at them. Yan Luo immediately looked down. "There. Did you feel that?" Qing Li nodded. "The presence beneath the shrine." Xu Yang's golden eyes opened fully. The pressure had returned. This time, it lingered for several breaths before fading away. Whatever was hiding beneath the shrine had not simply noticed him. It was beginning to understand that he was there.
Far beyond the village, high among the mountains, an old observatory stood on the edge of a deep valley. Its stone walls were built into the mountainside, surrounded by tall cliffs and narrow paths. Parts of the roof had fallen away, leaving the upper chambers open to the sky. Thick roots pushed through the cracks in the floor, and patches of moss covered the walls. Through the broken arches, distant mountain peaks could be seen rising above the clouds.
At the centre of the highest chamber stood a large bronze instrument. Its circular frame was covered in strange symbols, with dozens of thin metal rings hanging from it. Each ring was connected to another, forming several circles within circles. Long ago, cultivators had used it to study the stars and observe changes in the spiritual energy of the world. But the observatory had been abandoned for centuries, and the instrument had remained still for just as long. Until recently.
Wang Xio stood beside it, his light blue robes moving gently in the mountain wind. He looked through the open archway towards the village far below. Old strips of yellowed writing hung from the ceiling, swaying whenever the wind passed through the chamber. He had come here to watch the changes taking place in the valley, but the instrument had drawn his attention first. One of its outer rings had begun to move. It was only a slight turn, barely noticeable at first. Then another ring shifted. Now a third was trembling, its movement growing stronger with each passing moment.
Wang Xio slowly raised his eyes. Far below, faint threads stretched above the village rooftops, twisting and crossing in ways they had never done before. Some broke apart, while others appeared in places where no threads should have existed. Yet around the black cat near the shrine, they briefly became still. Wang Xio watched for a moment before placing his hand against the bronze frame. "Even something made to measure the heavens has begun to lose its way." His fingers moved over the old symbols carved into the metal. Most had faded with age, but a single line remained clear beneath the dust: When the stars return to their first position, the unseen door shall open. His gaze lingered on the words. "So that door was never truly closed." He looked down towards the village again.
The black cat had barely moved from the shrine steps. Such a small creature, and yet the threads of an entire village seemed to bend around him. A faint smile appeared on Wang Xio's face. "You have no idea how much trouble you're causing, do you?" Before he could say anything more, the bronze instrument gave a low, uneven sound. One of its rings suddenly turned in the opposite direction. Wang Xio's smile disappeared. He looked towards the ground beneath the shrine, his eyes narrowing slightly. Something was moving there. Not physically, but its presence was growing stronger. "And something else has noticed you." He remained beside the instrument, listening as its strange sound slowly faded through the empty chamber. After a moment, he looked back towards the village. "I wonder..." His voice was barely louder than the wind. "When it finally reaches for you, will you recognise what has been waiting beneath your feet?" The last bronze ring stopped moving. Wang Xio lowered his hand. For the first time that day, there was no amusement in his expression. He stared at the distant shrine for a long moment before speaking again. "Or will it recognise you first?"