Falling on the Nanmu Branch in Mid-Spring

蕊木属Aug 2023

2.5

Word count: 140K words
Chapters: 46

Summary

His armor still on, Jin Qinan stood before the gate of Yuan's residence and gazed at the courtyard draped in white mourning cloth, as if at a loss. He felt his hands and feet no longer obeyed him, as though the vast whiteness had pierced his eyes. He remembered that the man had always been brash and flamboyant, and had never liked white. With a trembling hand he seized the young servant by the collar and asked.

"Where is your young master?"

The servant looked up at Jin Qinan, a faint red rimming his eyes as tears seeped out. With a bitter smile he asked, "General, you ask me where my young master is?"

He struck Jin Qinan's hand away, smoothed his mourning clothes, and, as though he had not heard the question at all, walked ahead of Jin Qinan in disregard of master and servant. Where is the young master? Outside Changle City, pierced by ten thousand arrows, bones crushed to dust.

Editor's review

This is a romance grounded in classical sensibility. It opens with spare dialogue and gesture, setting an armor-clad general against a mansion draped in white mourning, and in a few lines completes the emotional arc from bewilderment to despair. The author, Ruimu Zhu, excels at handling intense emotional conflict with restrained strokes, relying not on long passages of inner monologue but on the stiffness of the body, the trembling of the hand, and the servant's silent breach of propriety to convey information; readers must piece the truth together from the white space between the lines. The core tension of the story comes from the dislocation between loyalty and loss, status and feeling: the general comes seeking a person, only to find a fate of ten thousand arrows and crushed bones. This narrative of unequal information lets the sense of tragedy build layer by layer. It is suited to being read in one sitting on a quiet afternoon, and also to readers who enjoy ancient-style angsty romance and value atmosphere and the texture of language, who will savor the details of the opening again and again. Note that the emotional tone is heavy; this is not light entertainment.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy ancient-style romance and prefer tragic aesthetics
Readers who appreciate elliptical narration and are willing to reconstruct the plot from details
Readers interested in classical character relationships such as loyal servants, generals, and noble houses
Writing enthusiasts, who may learn from its emotional staging in the opening

Not a good fit for

Readers hoping for light, sweet romance with a happy ending
Readers sensitive to heavy material such as death and funerals
Readers who prefer fast-paced, plot-driven fiction and are unaccustomed to elliptical narration

Reading tips

Read the opening passages first, paying attention to the details of the general's movements and the servant's reactions, then look back to understand the emotional turn.
While reading, watch for the recurring image of "white," which is both mourning ritual and a foil to the character's personality.
If the emotional impact is strong, read in sections and leave buffer time between chapters.
After finishing, retrace the timeline to understand the causal relationship between the ending "outside Changle City" and the opening scene

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FAQ

Why does the general repeatedly ask "Where is your young master?" in the opening?

The general comes to Yuan's residence still in armor, and the courtyard draped in white mourning leaves him at a loss. He senses something ill but does not want to believe it, so he asks again and again—both a question and a self-deception. The servant's silence and breach of propriety have in fact already given the answer; the general simply cannot accept it.

Why is the servant disrespectful toward the general?

The servant wears mourning clothes, has tears in his eyes, answers the general's question with a bitter smile, and deliberately walks ahead of the general, breaking the hierarchy of master and servant. This externalizes his grief over the young master's death and also hints at resentment toward the general—in the servant's eyes, the general may well be implicated in the young master's fate.

What does "Outside Changle City, pierced by ten thousand arrows, bones crushed to dust" mean?

This is the servant's inward answer about the young master's fate, and the heaviest information in the whole passage. It shows that the young master did not die of illness at home but died under a hail of arrows outside Changle City, with no remains left. The white mourning in the courtyard is the funeral rite held for him; what the general finds is an empty house with no one left to return.

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About the author

蕊木属 Author

Ruimushu is an author in the field of Chinese online literature about whom very limited public information is available. Their real identity, nationality, dates of birth and death cannot be verified. What is currently known is that Ruimushu has only one work in the database, titled Zhong Shi Luo Nan Zhi, commonly categorized as time-travel alternate history—a narrative type set in a fictional time and space with time travel as its premise. Judging from this single trace of authorship, their writing leans toward imaginative storytelling set in ancient or otherworldly backgrounds, a genre that typically emphasizes characters' fortunes and plot twists unfolding within an alternate setting. Because there is only one work, it is not yet possible to identify a stable writing style or to judge their linguistic features and narrative preferences. Readers who wish to learn about this author can only begin with Zhong Shi Luo Nan Zhi; further creative developments and a fuller picture of their work await more public information.