<blockquote>Lan Qiren's sister-in-law disappeared with his nephew shortly before the birth of her second child. Twelve years later, Lan Qiren encounters some teens and tweens in a teahouse.
.
It’s impossible. He could be stepping back forty years to his own childhood, to that very face on his brother showing how to grip a sword for the first time. Lan Qiren makes a kind of choked noise, but thankfully it must be quiet enough that none of the young men hear.
Either he’s going senile at the age of fifty or--
His head is ringing, but all he can think is that the young man is the right age. It’s been just over twelve years since his sister-in-law’s second pregnancy was announced, and here is this boy, with that nose and that chin and that brow, already furrowed, just like his father...</blockquote>