Xu Yang shook off the strange feeling and jumped onto the courtyard wall. He crossed it quietly before leaping down onto the narrow path leading towards the village shrine. He did not need to search for the source of the disturbance. He could already feel it pulling at him. The shrine stood on the highest part of the village, surrounded by old trees and worn stone steps. Moonlight fell across its wooden entrance, where the bell hung beneath the roof. It remained still, but the air around it felt heavy.
Xu Yang's ears twitched as he looked towards the courtyard. There they were again.The memory threads. Hundreds of pale strands passed through the village, connecting houses, roads, and people.Most were faint and followed their usual paths. However, several had changed direction. They curved towards the shrine, gathering around its inner courtyard.Xu Yang narrowed his golden eyes. Wonderful. I was hoping for a quiet night, but apparently the shrine has other plans...He jumped onto the stone railing and looked around. He was not the first to arrive.
Qing Li stood near the offering table with his arms crossed, watching the threads above the ground. Yan Luo was beside one of the old pillars, examining a talisman in his hand. Both turned towards Xu Yang when they noticed him. "You felt it too." Qing Li said, lowering his arms as the cat approached. Xu Yang settled on the railing and wrapped his tail around his paws. "Unless you were expecting another cat to investigate the shrine at this hour." Qing Li looked at him for a moment before glancing at Yan Luo. "Does he always speak like this?" Yan Luo folded the talisman and slipped it into his sleeve. "Unfortunately, yes." Xu Yang flicked his tail.
Qing Li gave a small shake of his head and returned his attention to the threads. "They're bending towards the courtyard." Xu Yang followed his gaze. "They're not simply bending. They're being pulled." Yan Luo moved away from the pillar and examined the strands more closely. "They haven't broken yet." "That's not particularly comforting," Xu Yang replied, looking at a thread that had twisted around the base of a stone lantern. Yan Luo gave him a brief glance. "Would you prefer that they had?" "I'd prefer to be somewhere else entirely."
Xu Yang lowered his head and studied the ground. Qing Li almost smiled, but his expression soon became serious again. "The changes started with small things. People misplaced their belongings, forgot the arrangement of their own houses, and confused familiar names." Yan Luo nodded and stepped closer to them. "Now their memories of entire events are changing. I remember meeting Xu Yang near the eastern road, but he remembers seeing me on the western path. Both memories feel real." Xu Yang's ears moved. "Because the threads are being rewritten in layers."
Qing Li turned towards him. "Layers?" Xu Yang looked at the faint strands passing above the stone railing. "They're not being erased or completely replaced. The old memories remain underneath, while new ones are being written over them. Like ink bleeding through paper." Yan Luo's expression changed as he considered the explanation. "That would explain why people can remember two different versions of the same event." He looked towards the village below. "Both memories are still present, but neither can fully settle."
A faint tremor passed through the threads above them. All three looked up. One strand tightened and slowly curved towards the shrine bell.Qing Li stepped forward. "This isn't random." Xu Yang's gaze remained fixed on the strand. "No. Everything is gathering towards the same place." Yan Luo looked towards the shrine entrance. "The courtyard?" Xu Yang shook his head. "Through it." Yan Luo frowned slightly. "What do you mean?" Xu Yang jumped down from the railing and walked towards the centre of the courtyard. "The threads aren't stopping here. They're passing through the shrine and gathering somewhere beneath it."
Qing Li closed his eyes and extended his senses. His breathing slowly became steady as he followed the faint vibration beneath the stone. After a moment, he opened his eyes. "I can feel a centre," he said, lowering one hand towards the ground. "But it's not inside the shrine. It's deeper." Yan Luo's expression darkened. "Something buried beneath it?" Qing Li shook his head. "Something anchored there." Xu Yang's ears flattened. Yan Luo looked between them. "Who would anchor memory?" Neither Qing Li nor Xu Yang answered.
The shrine bell moved slightly. The threads trembled together, their light growing stronger for a moment. Xu Yang looked towards the dark space beneath the entrance. "It's not simply taking memories," he said quietly. Qing Li opened his eyes fully. "Then what is it doing?" Xu Yang's tail lowered. "Gathering them." Yan Luo stepped closer, his fingers tightening around the edge of his sleeve. "For what purpose?"
Before Xu Yang could answer, another tremor passed through the courtyard. This time, the disturbance was strong enough to make the stone railing vibrate. For a brief moment, the shrine appeared different. Its wooden beams looked new, its walls were damaged, and then they returned to their present state. Qing Li stumbled backwards and caught the offering table to steady himself. "Did you see that?" Yan Luo turned towards him. "I saw it." Xu Yang did not move. His eyes remained fixed on the shrine. "Those weren't illusions. We just saw different moments occupying the same place."
Qing Li looked at the old entrance again. "Then the threads are affecting more than people's memories." Yan Luo nodded slowly. "They're beginning to affect the present itself." Xu Yang's expression grew serious. "We're running out of time." The threads above them tightened, pulling towards the hidden centre beneath the shrine. A second hollow chime came from the bell. This time, the sound seemed to travel through the ground rather than the air. Somewhere below them, something shifted. The village would not simply forget its past if this continued. It might begin losing the present as well. The bell fell silent, but the threads continued to tremble.
The courtyard remained quiet after the second chime. Xu Yang crouched near the stone railing, his golden eyes fixed on the threads beneath the earth. Qing Li knelt a short distance away, holding one hand above a faintly glowing strand. Yan Luo stood near the steps, watching the movement around them. "The anchor isn't dormant anymore," Xu Yang said, his ears turning towards the ground. "It knows we're here." Qing Li looked up at him. "It's responding to us. More precisely, it's responding to you." Xu Yang's tail moved once. "It's pulling the threads towards the centre, but it's not breaking them. Whatever is beneath us seems to be trying to protect something."
Yan Luo lowered his hand towards the stone steps. "Protecting something doesn't make it harmless. The distortions are spreading, and the longer this continues, the more the village will change." A faint hum passed beneath their feet. The bell swayed once, although there was no wind. Qing Li quickly withdrew his hand as the threads began to tremble. "There. Did you see that?" Xu Yang watched the strands brighten. "They're gathering more tightly." Yan Luo stepped closer to the centre of the courtyard. "The anchor is pulling everything towards itself." Qing Li traced the movement of one strand with his eyes. "It's ancient. Older than the village, perhaps older than the shrine itself. But the threads weren't made to erase memories. They were meant to preserve them."
Yan Luo looked at him. "Then why are they changing people's memories?" Xu Yang lowered his gaze towards the glowing strands. "Because something interfered with their original purpose. The threads are still trying to preserve what they were made to protect, but they're no longer following the same rules." Qing Li slowly stood up. "So something changed the way the anchor works." Xu Yang nodded. "And now it's testing everything around it." The three fell silent. The threads near Xu Yang began to move. They curved around his paws without touching him, changing direction whenever he shifted.
Qing Li watched them carefully. "Do you feel that?" he whispered. "It's watching how we move and how we touch the threads. It's almost as if it's trying to understand us." Xu Yang's ears flattened. "I don't think it's trying to learn." He looked towards the centre of the courtyard. "It already remembers. Everything that comes into contact with it becomes part of what it holds." Yan Luo's expression tightened. "Then it may already know more about us than we know about it." Before anyone could respond, the bell rang. The deep sound passed through the courtyard, and the threads shook violently before becoming completely still.
Yan Luo looked up at the bell. "We've come too close." Qing Li kept his eyes on the ground. "If we go further, the anchor might collapse. What happens to the memories stored inside it then?" Xu Yang stepped down from the railing. His claws made a faint sound against the stone. "We cannot simply walk away. If the anchor weakens, the entire village may begin to forget. Not just names or small events. People could lose their families, their homes, even the lives they've lived." Qing Li looked towards the inner courtyard. "Then we need to find a way inside."
Yan Luo nodded and approached the centre of the shrine. "The threads are pointing towards something beneath the stone floor." Xu Yang followed them with his eyes. "There's probably a hidden entrance." Qing Li glanced at him. "And how do you know that?" Xu Yang looked back at him. "Because ancient things rarely leave convenient doors." Qing Li stared at him for a moment. "That's your reasoning?" "Do you have a better explanation?" Xu Yang asked, flicking his tail. Yan Luo ignored their exchange and examined the stone beneath the offering table.
After moving aside a layer of dust, he found a faint circular mark carved into the floor. The threads gathered around it. "Here," he said, brushing the dust away with his sleeve. Qing Li crouched beside him. "This mark is part of the seal." Xu Yang approached them and looked down. "Then let's see where it leads." Yan Luo placed his palm against the carving. A faint light spread across the stone, revealing several old symbols.
The ground gave a low vibration. Slowly, a section of the floor shifted aside, revealing a narrow passage beneath the shrine. Cold air rose from the opening. Qing Li looked into the darkness. "It seems the shrine was built over something." Yan Luo withdrew his hand. "Or built to keep it hidden." Xu Yang stared down the passage. I knew this night was going to be troublesome. I just didn't expect the shrine to have an entire underground section...He looked at the two men. "Are we going down, or are we planning to stand here until morning?" Qing Li gave him a brief look before stepping towards the opening. "You're surprisingly impatient for someone who complains about being tired."
Xu Yang followed him. "I'm tired of standing around. That's different." Yan Luo entered behind them, and the stone floor slowly closed above their heads. The passage beneath the shrine did not look abandoned. Qing Li noticed it first. Dust covered most of the floor, but several narrow trails passed through it, as if something had moved along the corridor not long ago. He slowed down and examined the marks. "Someone has been here." Yan Luo moved ahead, running his fingers along the wall.
Faint symbols appeared beneath his touch before slowly fading. "These aren't defensive seals," he said, studying the markings. "They're records." Xu Yang padded between them, looking at the walls. The deeper they went, the stronger the strange feeling became. Fragments of memories brushed against his mind. A child laughing, a bowl breaking against the floor, and someone making a promise beneath the rain. None of them belonged to him, yet each felt strangely familiar. He shook his head. Why am I getting other people's memories now? I already have enough trouble remembering my own life...He continued down the corridor, keeping his attention on the path.
The passage ended at a spiral staircase that descended into a faint amber light. The light came from the stone itself, spreading across the steps like the last warmth of the setting sun. Qing Li stopped halfway down and tilted his head. "Do you hear that?" Yan Luo paused behind him and listened. At first, there was nothing. Then a faint sound reached them. It was made of many voices speaking at once, but none of the words were clear. Xu Yang's ears flattened. The voices were not coming from the corridor ahead. They were coming from beneath them. Qing Li exchanged a glance with Yan Luo before continuing down the stairs.
At the bottom, the passage opened into a large underground chamber. All three stopped at the entrance. Thousands of luminous threads hung from the domed ceiling. They were thin as silk and stretched down towards a circular stone basin in the centre of the room. Some glowed warm gold, others pale blue or dim violet. Their light moved slowly, making the entire chamber look as if it were filled with countless tiny lanterns. Qing Li stepped inside and looked around. "This isn't a storage room," he said, his voice low. "The threads are moving through the entire chamber." Yan Luo approached the basin. A strange liquid light moved inside it, turning slowly like water caught in a gentle current. When a thread touched its surface, its glow became steady. When another flickered, the light inside the basin grew stronger.
Yan Luo watched it for a moment before speaking. "It's a preservation system. Not a prison." Xu Yang looked up at the hanging threads. Some were frayed, others tangled together, and a few had been joined with strands of a different colour. The repairs looked careless. Qing Li noticed one thread hanging lower than the others. He reached towards it, but Yan Luo caught his wrist. "Don't touch it yet." Qing Li looked at him. "I'm only trying to see what it contains." Yan Luo released his wrist but kept his eyes on the thread. "Then be careful. We don't know what touching it will do." Qing Li slowly brought his fingers closer.
The moment they nearly touched the strand, an image appeared in his mind. He saw a wedding hall decorated with red silk. A bride stood beside the groom, her face hidden beneath a veil. The groom turned towards her, but his face changed before Qing Li could recognise him. The scene shifted. The hall was empty, yet the sound of wedding drums continued. Qing Li pulled his hand back sharply and took a step away from the basin. "Those memories are being repaired," he said, rubbing his forehead. "But something is wrong with them." Yan Luo looked at him. "What did you see?" Qing Li described the wedding, his expression still unsettled. "The memory kept changing. The hall was the same, but the groom's face was different every time."
Yan Luo nodded slowly. "When a memory becomes damaged, the system tries to restore its continuity. It fills the missing parts with something that fits the pattern." Xu Yang looked at the basin. "So it preserves the shape of the memory, not the truth." Yan Luo turned towards him. "Exactly." Xu Yang understood. That explained why the villagers remembered things that had never happened. Why familiar houses looked slightly different, and why people could recall the same event in two completely different ways. The system was not necessarily trying to deceive them. It was trying to repair something it could no longer understand...Qing Li looked towards the ceiling. "Something must have forced it to activate. A system like this wouldn't keep working if there was no damage to repair."
Yan Luo's gaze slowly shifted towards Xu Yang. "When the sky split, the balance of the world was disturbed. Memory may have become the only thing this system could use to keep events connected." Xu Yang's tail flicked once. So the world started forgetting itself, and this place tried to save it. That sounds noble enough, except it's doing a terrible job...He looked at the threads again. Some of them were tied into knots that did not belong together. Others had been stretched so tightly that they were almost transparent. Wonderful. Even the ancient machinery in this world has poor working conditions.No wonder everything is falling apart...
As he approached the basin, the liquid light began to move faster. The threads above him brightened one after another. The frayed strands straightened, and several knots slowly loosened. Qing Li stared at the change. "It's reacting to you." Yan Luo shook his head slightly. "Not reacting. It's aligning with him." Xu Yang stopped at the edge of the basin. "Could both of you stop discussing me as if I'm not standing here?" Qing Li looked at him. "Then perhaps you can explain why the entire chamber changes whenever you move." Xu Yang glanced at the glowing threads. "If I knew, I would have mentioned it." Yan Luo moved closer but did not touch the basin. "Be careful. Whatever is beneath this chamber may be connected to you." Xu Yang looked into the liquid light. For a moment, he did not see his reflection. Instead, he saw a series of places and moments layered over one another. The village before the shrine was built.
The shrine standing alone before the first house appeared. Then a wide, empty field where nothing had ever stood. The images changed again. Beneath them all was a dark space shaped strangely like his own outline. Xu Yang's ears lowered. What is that supposed to mean?...He leaned closer, trying to see more,but the chamber suddenly shook. It was not a violent movement. It felt more like something beneath the basin had shifted its position. A slow pulse travelled through the stone. Every thread in the chamber moved at once. Qing Li took a step back. "It's waking." Yan Luo shook his head, his eyes fixed on the basin. "No. It's noticing."
Xu Yang felt something then. It was not a voice or a clear thought. It was an awareness so large that he could not find its beginning or end. It seemed to recognise the place where he stood, as if the stone itself remembered someone who had once walked there. Xu Yang swallowed. I really don't like the way this place is looking at me. First the bell, then the threads, and now an entire underground system. Is there anything here that doesn't want my attention?... A thread near the edge of the chamber suddenly snapped. The sound was so small that it almost went unnoticed. Its light disappeared, leaving a dark space among the other strands. The basin immediately surged. Its liquid light rose and spread across the surface, while the nearby threads brightened to fill the empty space. A wave of energy passed through the chamber.
Xu Yang staggered. For one brief moment, he could not remember why he had come there. He looked at the basin, the threads, and the two men beside him, but their purpose seemed to have slipped from his mind. Then the basin flared, and the missing memory returned. He lowered his head, breathing a little faster. Qing Li caught his shoulder. "Did you feel that?" Xu Yang looked at him and nodded. Yan Luo's jaw tightened as he watched the broken thread. "The system is overextending itself. It can no longer maintain all the memories without damaging them." Qing Li released Xu Yang and looked towards the basin. "It's trying to repair every damaged thread, but each repair puts more pressure on the others." Yan Luo nodded. "It can preserve the structure, but it cannot restore the original truth. Eventually, the entire weave will become unstable."
Xu Yang looked into the basin again. The dark space beneath the reflections seemed deeper now. It no longer looked empty. It felt as if something was waiting there. He began to understand what the system was trying to do. It could not separate the memory of him from his actual presence. Whenever it tried to stabilise the threads, it drew more strands towards him. It was trying to make him the centre of everything, a fixed point around which every memory could settle.A living anchor. His tail slowly lowered. So that's the plan? Turn me into a support beam for the entire world? I don't remember agreeing to that job...Qing Li seemed to reach the same conclusion. He stepped closer to the basin, his expression growing troubled. "If you become its centre, the memories may finally stabilise.
But everything will begin to revolve around you." Xu Yang looked at him. "Meaning?" Qing Li hesitated before answering. "People may stop forgetting, but their memories will no longer change. Their lives could become fixed around whatever the system remembers."Yan Luo looked at Xu Yang, his voice quieter than before. "You wouldn't truly live. You would simply remain." Xu Yang did not answer. More threads began to tilt towards him, drawn by the basin. Their light was warm, almost welcoming, but he could feel the pressure behind it.
Qing Li quickly stepped between Xu Yang and the basin. "We are not deciding anything tonight." The threads trembled as if they had encountered something they did not understand. Yan Luo placed one hand against the stone rim. "If the anchor fully activates, it may not give us the chance to decide." The basin suddenly flared again. This time, the images inside it changed. Xu Yang saw a boy running through the village. The boy passed beneath the shrine bell, and someone called out to him. Xu Yang turned towards the voice, but the face of the person calling was unclear. Then the voice called his name again. Except it was not his name. The sound changed halfway through, becoming something else. The boy stopped running. His face blurred, and the entire memory shook as if something had tried to force it into place.
Xu Yang stared at the scene. The memory was trying to include him, but it could not decide who he was.The boy looked up, and for a brief moment, his eyes were the same golden colour as Xu Yang's. Then the image broke apart. The basin's light dimmed, and the threads recoiled sharply. Qing Li stepped closer to Xu Yang. "What did you see?" Xu Yang kept looking at the basin. "It tried to place me inside a memory." Yan Luo's expression changed. "But it failed?" Xu Yang nodded slowly. "It couldn't decide what name to give me." Qing Li frowned. "Because you're no longer recognised as part of this world's original history." Yan Luo looked at the threads. "Or because your existence does not belong to a single version of it." Xu Yang gave a quiet sigh. Great. Even an ancient memory system can't figure out who I am. I suppose that's one more thing I have in common with it.
Yan Luo studied the basin carefully. "It cannot fully integrate you. Not yet." Qing Li folded his arms, still looking troubled. "Because he's not just part of this world anymore." Far above them, the shrine bell rang once. The sound travelled down through the stone and passed through every thread in the chamber. The basin surged, and the light inside it spread towards the edges. From somewhere deep beneath the stone, something shifted. It did not rise, and it did not wake. But its attention turned more fully towards the place where Xu Yang stood. Xu Yang stepped back from the basin. The threads did not follow him. But they did not forget him, either. Qing Li released a breath he had been holding. "We need to find a way to shut this down without destroying everything it has preserved."
Yan Luo nodded and examined the basin's rim. "Or find a way to make it preserve the truth instead of filling every gap with something else." Xu Yang glanced up at the hanging strands. He watched one of them move slightly before returning to its original position. Can memory really be taught to remember the truth? He lowered his eyes. That sounds like a difficult lesson, even for someone who has existed longer than this village. The basin slowly returned to its steady glow. The threads stopped moving, and the chamber became quiet again. Yet the awareness beneath them did not disappear. It remained there, waiting. As the three turned to leave, a thread near the ceiling flickered.
Xu Yang stopped and looked back. The strand split into two identical threads. Both carried the same memory, but the images inside them were slightly different. One showed a child standing beside a wooden gate. The other showed the same child standing beside a stone wall. Neither memory faded. Both continued to glow. Qing Li stopped walking and turned towards them. "That shouldn't be possible," he said, stepping closer. Yan Luo looked up, his expression changing as he understood what had happened. "It's creating two versions of the same memory."
Xu Yang watched the strands for a moment. "And neither one is willing to disappear." Qing Li slowly lowered his hand. "Then the system is no longer repairing what has been damaged." Yan Luo's face grew tense. "It's making choices." Xu Yang looked back at the basin, unease settling in his chest. Great. First it forgot things, then it started making up replacements, and now it wants to decide which version is real. At this rate, I should be grateful if I wake up tomorrow with the same number of paws...He turned away from the basin, but the two threads continued to glow behind him.