Ye Mu stands expressionless in the snow. Although his face betrays no reaction, internally his nerves are taut. A name that he only so recently received has just been pronounced by a stranger from a strange village, Ye Mu cannot help but feel sceptical.
The man slowly and carefully comes nearer, as if not to scare away a small, defensive animal. His old hairy face holds countless, ineffable pains that seem to deepen the wrinkles in his eyes.
"Ye Mu"
His voice is choked and trembles. He barely manages to reach the tense Ye Mu before his strength leaves him almost completely, and he falls on the intruder, crying while hugging him.
"My son"
At the sound of these two words, the previously quiet crowd starts to erupt and exclaim:
"Is that the Ye-family's lost child then?!-" "Who would've thought that small child survived the battle-" "He only came back after 10 years!-" "How did he survive?-" "Madam Ye is sure to celebrate-" Tsk Tsk. Poor child looks like he's gone dumb. Can't even say a word to his father-"
The bustle and hustle doesn't bring Ye Mu out of his trance as he carefully assesses the man hugging him while crying.
When he first came into this strange place, he was lying on a pile of bodies next to a jungle. This means that this body is this man's son, which went far away on the other side of the wall for some inexplicable reason and then died amid many others.
Remembering the reactions he met with when telling people he came out of the forest, and the rumours he's heard from the townsfolk, he presumes that the jungle is a place people rarely come back from, at least not alive.
This makes him curious, what was "Ye Mu" doing, skinny as he was, in that dangerous place? Who were the people he was travelling with? Why did he take over him specifically? And how does the water know his name?
These questions dance in his head for a while until the crowd quiets down and catches his attention; the assembly of people splits itself in two to make way for a tall, muscular and handsome man.
The man looks like a warrior as he holds in his hand what looks like a bow, his long hair is slightly braided with threads of leather and his face is stern as if he never smiled a day in his life. His bushy eyebrows crease his forehead as he frowns upon Ye Mu.
Ye Mu has yet to wonder who this man could be before the warrior speaks rigidly:
"You don't remember us."
It isn't a question. The man looks deep into Ye Mu's eyes as if he already knows that the half-naked man standing before him is not his brother, but a stranger.
The father stops his heartbreaking tears and freezes. Gazing into his son's eyes, as if looking for something, he seems to realize that what his eldest son said is true, and quickly his face sports an expression of devastation.
No longer crying, he stands in front of his son with unfocused eyes, as if trapped in a different timeline.
The warrior had long finished grieving his dead brother, and now that he's back, he isn't sure what to feel. Especially so when he looks into those dead eyes. Eyes that he is seeing for the first time on that familiar face.
His gaze passes his father as he invites them back home.
"I'm sure you have an explanation for us."
Ye Mu deems them harmless and decides to follow them home. He is curious to know why such a weak person died among the strong in a ferocious jungle.
As they walk, the surrounding villagers glance their direction in curiosity. Most of the attention is on Ye Mu and his strange attire. But that isn't the only thing attracting the people's inquiry; The Ye family is very famous here. They are renown to be strong and wealthy men and fertile, smart and beautiful women. People have been saying their posterity was blessed by God up until misfortune fell upon them, and they lost their youngest.
That is why when people heard the quickly spreading rumour that the child has come back, they couldn't help but become interested in the boy. He looks so different from when he left. His back is broad and strong, almost comparable to his brother's. His hair is short, and he is wearing nothing but a treasured blue-cheetah pelt around his waist.
Ye Mu doesn't heed the whispers and clamouring of the villagers. He looks around the small stands selling fish and meat, as well as other trinkets and toys. He spots a suspicious-looking man covered by a black hood. The man is standing in front of a carpet full of intricate and pretty jewels: mirrors, necklaces, earrings, pendants, gloves, all that one can think of. The goods strongly resemble the things Ye Mu saw at the earlier market. Everyone seems to avoid him as he has no costumers like the other small shops.
Ye Mu strongly feels a familiarity with the man, as if he has seen him before; not in this world, but the one he comes from.
His attention is forced back to the family as they arrive in front of a big house made of wood and glass. Ye Mu wonders how the glass was made as he looks at the flickering silhouette of a hunched back woman working with her spinning wheel.
The woman looks up from her work and her gaze falls on him immediately.
At first, the woman frowns with estrangement, but the frown eventually turns into a surprised expression. The pretty lady brings her two small hands to her mouth as if to hold back her cry. Ye Mu keeps his eye on her and wonders if this is the mother the other two men mentioned. What a young-looking mother.
The brother who has been observing him all this time realizes that Ye Mu truly doesn't remember anything, not even his wife.
His face darkens and a pang of pain grips his frozen heart.