Zhang Siyu held out her hand to Carp.
"I'll take you there."
Carp lowered her head and looked at the large rock she had sat on for three hundred years.
She had worn a shallow hollow into its surface. Beside it grew a few clumps of wild grass she had enclosed with little stones.
In three hundred years, she had never left that rock for longer than it took an incense stick to burn.
She was afraid that if she went too far, he wouldn't be able to find her when he returned.
But now she knew where he was, so she would go find him.
She took Zhang Siyu's hand and hopped barefoot off the rock. Her hand was cold, but her grip was tight.
Three li wasn't very far.
Following the gravel path toward the foot of the mountain, through a bamboo grove and around several old pine trees, brought them within sight of the old bridge.
The bridge was built of stone, its large blocks polished smooth by wind and rain. Beneath it lay a dried-up stream.
Weeds grew from the cracks between the stones, swaying gently in the wind.
Zhang Siyu stopped at the end of the bridge and let go of Carp's hand.
"He's under the bridge."
Zhang Siyu spoke to Carp, encouraging her.
"Go on. I'll wait here."
Carp nodded and walked barefoot across the gravel bank, making her way toward the underside of the bridge one step at a time.
She reached the edge of the arch and stopped. A human shadow lay curled up there.
After three hundred years, the Earthbound Spirit's soul had long since been worn frail by time.
But his outline remained. He wore a coarse cloth jacket with an old sweat towel draped over his shoulder, his head