Old Man Gen

Old Man Gen's house stands in the back streets of Pangzhen, marked by a yellow lantern. The brass key in its door has passed down through the generations and is older than he is.

He and his wife spent a lifetime together and a lifetime quarrelling. Her temper wore him down; twenty-odd times he stormed out of town to be rid of it for a few days. The last time was no different. He left after a fight, and by the time he meant to come back the town had changed.

He waited days at the outpost on the main road for one thing only: a man skilled enough, and reckless enough, to walk into Pangzhen. Soul was that man. Old Man Gen drove him out in the armored wagon, was ambushed on the road, and turned to the Village of Lu to look for the smugglers' tunnel instead.

When the tunnel was open he still insisted on going in himself. Soul found him in the back streets, stiff and cold, an old door key still clenched in his withered hand. He never got inside.

Before that he had sent Soul to his old house to look for his wife. She lay curled on the bed, long dead, a worn wooden comb in her hand — the one he had carved for her when they were both young.

At the Village of Lu gate he told Soul where Yu'er had gone: the girl had slipped into the village to hide from the puppets, and there was trouble at the outpost in the valley and at the camp in the woods.

The most extraordinary thing he ever did was to brave a plague to reach Pangzhen and carry that armored wagon deep into the snows. Given the choice, he would have stayed with his wife and the bickering over firewood and rice.