The first half of A-Tu's life was like a drifting duckweed, rootless and untethered. He wandered between different cities, working odd jobs and living in cheap rental rooms, feeling like a disposable shadow in the world. Everything he owned could fit into a tattered canvas backpack.
Then, a distant relative's will, like a pebble dropped into a stagnant pond, changed his life's trajectory. He inherited something he had never heard of—a plot of land at the foot of a remote mountain, long since abandoned.
When A-Tu first stood on this land that was now his, he felt not joy, but a deeper sense of bewilderment. It was a barren, cracked piece of ground, overgrown with weeds taller than a man and scattered with a few weathered stones. There was no running water, no electricity, only a rickety, almost-falling-apart wooden hut.
What kind of inheritance was this? It felt more like a punishment.
Just as he was about to turn and leave, to return to his wandering but at least familiar city life, he found a small sachet made of coarse cloth in a dilapidated drawer in the hut. The sachet held no spices, just a single seed.
It was a seed he had never seen before. It was completely black but had a strange, metallic luster, and it felt heavy, as if it had condensed all the weight from deep within the earth. Inside the sachet was a yellowed slip of paper with a few faded lines of text:
"The beginning of all things is one. Plant it, water it with your patience, and the earth will return everything to you."
A-Tu held the cold, hard seed, standing on the desolate land and looking at the rolling green mountains in the distance and the vast sky overhead. For the first time in his life, he owned something that was truly his, something unshakeable. Not money, not status, but a piece of land and a promise.
In that moment, an unprecedented, grounded feeling slowly rose from the soles of his feet. This feeling was more stable than any bed he had ever slept in.
An invisible hand descended from a cloud and gently placed a Pentacle, a symbol of infinite potential, into his palm.
He decided to stay.
【Echo from the Mirror】
What is that "seed" that belongs to you? It could be a long-shelved project, a skill you want to learn, or a home you want to build. Are you willing, like A-Tu, to find a plot of land for it and begin the first cultivation?