the lotus pier of jiang chengs childhood is gone, its disciples and vendors, even its stray cats ran off or died in the fires. but the world repeats itself in funny ways and as the years go on from its rebuilding some of the things he remembers come back. one day jiang cheng notices that the shimeis use the same pond as their predecessors to get away from the boys, without having ever met them, the new merchants that move into town find themselves laying out their stalls in the same formation, he finds a stray with her kittens tucked away into the same corner as the cats from his childhood had used, despite the whole area having been burnt and rebuilt. his youngest disciples sit in the same corner of the food hall, the older ones find the same inns to drink at, the teens still dare each other to jump from that one tree into the lake. the lotus pier of his childhood may be gone, his parents, sister and brother too, but things have a funny way of repeating themselves that are both excruciatingly painful and warm at once.
