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At nineteen, she followed her master and the others out of Mist-Hidden Vale and came to Hidden Mountain, the famed city of mechanisms, on a visiting exchange.\nWhen she first arrived on Mohist Hill, she was fascinated by the ingenious mortise-and-tenon devices scattered through the mountain. There were wooden eagles that soared through the air, wooden scarabs that scuttled along the ground, instruments that marked the hours, sky-reaching suspended structures... and, above all, that wonderful spot on Heaven's Threshold! where the stars could be observed.\n\nShe had left home, yet the stars were still there overhead. All she had to do was lift her eyes.\nOnly then did she realize that beyond Mist-Hidden Vale, within the secluded Hidden Mountain, there were so many others who were just as drawn to mathematics and just as filled with wonder for the boundless night sky.\nTogether they spent night after night amid the sea of blossoms at Driftseed Moor, watching the heavens and eagerly sharing what they had learned with everyone who looked up at the stars.\n\nWhen her time of study came to an end, the fellow disciples who had come with her to lecture and exchange ideas all left Hidden Mountain. She alone stayed behind, still absorbed in observation and charting, and in time became a teacher of mathematics and astronomy.\nBefore she knew it, she had found many kindred spirits there, and some who studied under her had even begun to call her Master. Later still, she made her home there.\n\nAnd yet, those stars... you can see them, but you cannot touch them, so why keep chasing after them? Just like those who rode the wind toward the stars, they always seemed beyond her reach.\nBut people are like that. Even when they know they will never catch what they chase, they still cannot help but run a few steps more, rise onto their toes, and try anyway. Even now, old as she was, often forgetting the way, she would still wander out the door without thinking, still chasing the stars.\n\nEh? Had she really never reached them?\nShe paused.\nIn her rough, weathered hand was a small, soft one, and beside her the little girl kept chattering away.\n\nWhere were they headed again? Ah, right. They were on their way home.\nYuelu. Yuelu. This was Granny's Yuelu.\n\n"Yuelu, do you remember how we used to soothe you when you cried as a child?"\n"With stars?"\n"That's right. Granny had a star-fishing rod when she was little, and you have one too. Shame we can't really reach the real stars."\n"Of course we can, Granny. You're being silly. Doesn't it say so in the storybooks? The Lord of Clouds plucked down stars and shared them with the world, so everyone got a star of their own. If you don't believe me, I can give you lots and lots of stars too."\nHad Yuelu prepared more "stars" at home again? Would it be the Twenty-Eight Mansions this time, or the stars of the Northern Dipper?\n\nBut this time, Yuelu was right.\nGranny had already had many stars in her life.\nShe gently squeezed Yuelu's little hand. The one in her hand now was Granny's brightest star of all.\n\nThis time, Granny had reached one.