The first sound that broke the morning silence was a wooden bucket striking the side of the village well. It echoed through the narrow street, but no one came to collect it. A moment later, a door opened, and an old woman stepped outside carrying a broom. She stopped halfway down the steps, staring at the road as though she had forgotten why she had come out. Across the street, a shopkeeper stood beneath his wooden signboard, counting the same few coins again and again. Even the birds perched along the tiled rooftops seemed unusually quiet. The village had woken up, but something about its morning routine was wrong.
At the small shrine near the square, Qing Li crouched beside the stone steps. His fingers rested against the place where Xu Yang had been sitting earlier. He looked towards the distant rooftops, where faint lines of light appeared and disappeared above the village. Yan Luo stood a few steps behind him."The changes haven't stopped." Qing Li said, slowly rising to his feet. He brushed the dust from his sleeve and glanced towards the square. "If anything, they're getting worse." Xu Yang was sitting on the shrine railing, lazily washing one paw. He did not even look up. "Delusions." His voice entered their minds without passing through the air. Qing Li turned towards him, his brows drawing together. "Delusions? The villagers are forgetting their own homes, their names, and things they did only yesterday."
Xu Yang finally stopped licking his paw and looked at him. "Memory bends. People remember what they need. The rest is noise." "And what happens when they forget everything?" Qing Li asked, taking a step closer. His voice was controlled, but the worry in his eyes was difficult to hide. "Will they still know who they are?" Xu Yang tilted his head. "They'll find something else to remember." Yan Luo gave him a long look. "You make it sound rather simple." He uncrossed his arms and glanced at the strange lines above the rooftops. "But the entire village is moving around you. The threads are connected to your presence." Xu Yang blinked slowly. "And?" "And that makes you the centre of this disturbance." "Being the centre of something doesn't mean I'm responsible for it."
Xu Yang jumped down from the railing and landed quietly on path. "An axis doesn't have to understand every movement around it." Qing Li stared at him for a moment. "Do you ever listen to yourself?" Xu Yang looked up at him. "Of course. I find myself quite reasonable." Yan Luo lowered his head, hiding the faintest smile. Qing Li noticed and gave him an irritated glance. "Don't encourage him." "I didn't say anything," Yan Luo replied, turning his face away. "Your expression did," Qing Li muttered. Xu Yang flicked his tail. "At least someone here knows how to appreciate a sensible explanation." Qing Li let out a quiet breath and turned back towards the village. His amusement disappeared almost immediately.
Near the well, a child had stopped in the middle of the road. He was holding a small wooden toy and looking towards a woman standing nearby. "Mother, didn't we move here last year?" he asked. The woman frowned and adjusted the basket on her arm. "No. We've lived here all our lives." She paused, then looked confused. "Or... was that the other house?" The child lowered his toy. He seemed unsure whether he should correct her or agree. A few steps away, another woman placed her basket on the ground. She picked it up again, walked two steps, then stopped and repeated the same movement. This time, she seemed to have a different reason for doing it.
Qing Li watched them closely. "They're multiplying," he said quietly. "The layers are getting thicker." Yan Luo moved beside him, his gaze travelling from one end of the street to the other. "Objects, names, conversations... everything is overlapping. The farther they move from the shrine, the more confused things become. Near this place, the memories are still holding together." Xu Yang looked towards the shrine. "Then perhaps you should stop staring at the problem and find out why." "We are trying," Qing Li replied, giving him a pointed look. "Some of us have to work instead of sitting around washing our paws."
Xu Yang looked down at his clean paw. "I was doing something important." "Of course you were." Yan Luo said, his voice carrying a trace of amusement. "The fate of the world can wait until you're finished." Xu Yang gave him a satisfied look. "At least you understand." Qing Li closed his eyes briefly, as if asking himself for patience. Before he could reply, Xu Yang began walking across the square. His small paws made almost no sound against the stone path. As he passed the villagers, their movements became slightly steadier. The child looked down at his toy again, while the woman finally lifted her basket and continued towards the market. The shopkeeper stopped counting his coins and began arranging them in a neat row. The changes were small, but Qing Li noticed them. His eyes followed Xu Yang carefully. "His presence is keeping them connected," he said. "Not completely," Yan Luo replied. "The threads are still breaking. Heaven is trying to adjust the pattern, but every movement seems to create another problem."
Xu Yang stopped near a wooden stall. A young man stood behind it, counting several copper coins in his palm. He frowned, counted them again, and then looked at the customer waiting in front of him. "I thought there were three yesterday," he muttered. "No, perhaps it was four. I remember giving one away." He stared at the coins as if they had personally betrayed him. Xu Yang watched for a moment before looking away. "People have a strange attachment to permanence." Qing Li approached him, his expression troubled. "Memory is the foundation of identity. If it collapses, they may lose more than a few days of their lives." "Then perhaps their foundation was never very strong." Xu Yang replied. Qing Li opened his mouth, but Yan Luo raised one hand slightly, stopping him.
Above the village, Heaven's lattice flickered. Several geometric lines appeared across the pale sky, forming a pattern that stretched from one rooftop to another. For a brief moment, the entire structure became visible. Then the lines twisted sharply, breaking apart before joining again in a different arrangement. It looked as though something was repeatedly trying to calculate an answer and failing. Xu Yang lifted his eyes towards it. The lattice remained suspended for several breaths, unable to settle into a fixed shape around him. Qing Li watched the pattern with a tight expression. "It's still trying to place you within its order." "Then it should find a better way to spend its time," Xu Yang replied. "You really don't understand the seriousness of this."
Qing Li turned towards him. "Everything is moving around you. The memories, the people, even the village itself. You're the axis of these changes." Xu Yang sat down beside the wooden stall and curled his tail around his paws. "An axis is just a word people use when they need something to explain the movement around them. I simply exist." Yan Luo looked at him for a long moment. "Sometimes, existing is enough to change everything." Xu Yang glanced at him. "That sounds unnecessarily dramatic." "I was trying to make a point." "Try making a shorter one next time." Qing Li rubbed his forehead. "I should have stayed in bed." "You would have argued with the pillow," Yan Luo said. Qing Li turned to him with an offended expression. "At least the pillow wouldn't answer back."
Xu Yang's ears twitched. "Perhaps you should start talking to it. You might finally have a peaceful conversation." Yan Luo let out a quiet laugh, while Qing Li gave both of them a displeased look. Before he could respond, a faint vibration passed through the shrine stones. It was so subtle that an ordinary person might have mistaken it for a cart moving along the road. But Qing Li immediately turned towards the shirne. The old bronze bell hanging beneath the shrine's eaves moved once. A single clear sound spread through the square.
The villagers paused. The child looked towards the shrine, the shopkeeper stopped moving his hands, and the woman carrying the basket stood completely still. For one brief moment, the strange memories seemed to settle. Then the invisible threads trembled again. Some snapped, while others shimmered before disappearing into the air. Qing Li's expression hardened. "The shrine is reacting." Yan Luo approached the stone steps and placed his palm against them. He closed his eyes, sensing the faint spiritual energy beneath the ground. "It's a focus, not the source." His eyes opened, and he looked towards Xu Yang. "Whatever is happening, it begins somewhere else." Qing Li followed his gaze. "Everything is still gathering around him."
Xu Yang looked at the bell, then at the two of them. "Are you finished discussing me as if I weren't sitting here?" Neither answered immediately. The lattice above the rooftops flickered one final time before fading from sight. The village slowly returned to its morning routine, although the uneasiness remained. Qing Li lowered his hand from the shrine stone. "We should keep watching. Whatever Heaven is doing, it hasn't finished." Yan Luo nodded. "We'll monitor the square. Keep your distance from the villagers and don't interfere unless necessary." Qing Li turned towards Xu Yang. "And you should be careful." Xu Yang gave him a lazy look. "I will. As always." "You say that every time," Qing Li muttered. "And yet I'm still here."
Xu Yang stretched his front paws and looked rather pleased with himself. Yan Luo shook his head slightly before turning away. "Come on. We have work to do." Qing Li followed him, though he glanced back once before disappearing into the narrow street. Xu Yang remained near the shrine for a while. Once the two had gone, he leapt onto the low railing and looked across the village. The people were moving again. Doors opened, carts rolled along the stone roads, and vendors began calling out their prices. Everything appeared ordinary from a distance. That was perhaps the most unsettling part. Xu Yang jumped down and began walking towards Lin Chen's temporary residence. His paws made no sound against the wooden bridges and stone paths. As he passed the village well, the bucket that had been swaying earlier finally came to a stop. He glanced at it briefly before continuing.
Far beyond the village, an abandoned watchtower stood on the edge of a steep cliff. Its wooden pillars were black with age, and half of its tiled roof had collapsed. Old prayer bells hung beneath the remaining eaves, their surfaces covered in rust. Beyond the broken railing, the mountains stretched into the distance. Wang Xio stood beside one of the cracked pillars, looking down at the village below. His dark robes moved slightly in the cold wind. From this height, the village looked peaceful, almost untouched by the strange events taking place within it. But his eyes were fixed on something the villagers could not see.
Countless threads stretched above the rooftops, crossing one another like the lines of an unfinished formation. Some connected people to their homes, others to memories and forgotten events. Every few moments, the threads shifted. A few disappeared, only to return in a different position. Wang Xio watched in silence. "So even memories can be rewritten." he murmured. He raised his hand, following one of the trembling threads with his eyes. It broke before reaching the shrine, then appeared again, connected to something that had never been there before. His fingers slowly lowered. "But if the past can be changed so easily, what is left for anyone to call the truth?" His gaze moved towards the village square.
The black cat was crossing the street. Around it, the threads briefly settled, their restless movements becoming still for a few breaths. Wang Xio's eyes narrowed. "You keep trying to give everything a place," he said quietly, his gaze following the cat. "But what if something was never meant to belong to your order?" He fell silent. The old prayer bells above him moved slightly, but no sound came from them. Wang Xio looked at the cat again. It was such a small creature, walking without concern while an entire village struggled around it. "You don't even seem to understand what your existence is doing." A faint smile touched his lips. "Or perhaps you understand more than you let others believe." His expression soon returned to its usual calm. He turned his attention to the threads above the shrine. One by one, they began to fade, but the space around the black cat remained strangely unsettled. Wang Xio watched until the last visible line disappeared. "A mistake can be corrected," he whispered. "A forgotten thing can be remembered. But what happens when the world itself refuses to accept the truth?" He looked towards the distant mountains, his eyes unreadable. "I wonder which of us will be forced to change first."
Meanwhile, Xu Yang reached Lin Chen's temporary residence. The door was slightly open, and the smell of warm rice drifted from inside. Lin Chen was standing near the doorway, arranging a few things on a small table. When he noticed the black cat approaching, he stopped and lowered his hand. "You're back." Xu Yang walked past him without answering. Lin Chen watched him enter, then glanced towards the empty street. "You always stay outside, even when we leave food for you." He crouched slightly, trying to catch the cat's attention. "It's as if you belong somewhere else. Or perhaps you're waiting for someone." Xu Yang stopped near the doorway and looked back at him. Their eyes met for a brief moment. Lin Chen felt something strange in that golden gaze. It was not the look of an ordinary animal, but he could not explain why.
Xu Yang turned away and walked towards the corner where Lin Chen had placed a small mat for him. He circled it once before settling down. Lin Chen watched him quietly, then returned to the table. "You really are a strange little fellow," he murmured. Xu Yang closed his eyes. Outside, the village continued with its usual morning sounds. Children laughed along the road, a wooden cart passed the courtyard, and someone called out from the nearby market. Yet beneath those familiar sounds, he could still sense the faint disturbance of the memory threads.
Qing Li and Yan Luo are right about one thing. Something is changing, and it isn't limited to this village. I thought I knew this world. I knew the novel, its characters, its major events, and even some of the secrets hidden between the chapters. At least, that's what I believed when I first arrived here. But none of this is in the story I remember. The forgotten memories, Heaven's lattice, and now an entire village struggling to remember its own past. I can't recall a single mention of any of it. Have these events always existed beneath the original story, hidden from the readers? Or has my arrival changed something that was never supposed to happen?...He opened one eye and look towards the doorway. Perhaps I'm too confident in my knowledge of the novel. I treat it like a book whose ending I already know. But the more I see, the less certain I become. If this world is already changing its own story, then what exactly is waiting for us at the end? And more importantly, is the ending I remember ever going to happen at all?