Fei is a strong willed girl, like many of Mead's heroines, who doesn't set out to be a hero. She just wants to live her life and keep her sister safe and fed. But when her sister starts to lose her sight, Fei has to take action, otherwise her sister will end up a beggar on the streets with no sight and no hearing, and when her crush, Li Wei, loses his father in a mine accident due to blindness, Li Wei decides to go down the mountain to ask for help form the linekeeper, who controls how much food their village receives. Li Wei only allows Fei to follow him on his journey when he discovers that Fei's hearing has magically returned, and can keep him safe from avalanches on their decent.
(Side Note: the way Mead tries to describe the jarringness and ânewnessâ of sound, told by someone who doesn't understand sound or know how to fully describe it makes you totally re-think something that you've been used to all your life and never really thought about! It was fascinating! I caught myself pausing to take inventory of everything I could hear that I wasn't registering until I stopped to pay attention.)
While down in Beiguo however, Li Wei and Fei discover that their village is being raped of its precious metal for very little in return, and that the king has done this to other mining villages on the mountain as well, leaving villages to die in starvation and blindness when they could no longer process metal for him. Fei has to decide whether to return to sister and her village to warn them about their terrible fate, or runaway and stay with Li Wei and make a new life together.
Obviously, being the heroine that Fei is, she has to return to her sister and leave her love Li Wei. Which breaks his heart, and hers, and ours. But Li Wei said they could do the impossible together, so⦠now Fei has to believe that somehow she can make it back up the mountain to warn her village, that they will believe her, and that someday she will find Li Wei again.
(Side Note: the way Mead tries to describe the jarringness and ânewnessâ of sound, told by someone who doesn't understand sound or know how to fully describe it makes you totally re-think something that you've been used to all your life and never really thought about! It was fascinating! I caught myself pausing to take inventory of everything I could hear that I wasn't registering until I stopped to pay attention.)
While down in Beiguo however, Li Wei and Fei discover that their village is being raped of its precious metal for very little in return, and that the king has done this to other mining villages on the mountain as well, leaving villages to die in starvation and blindness when they could no longer process metal for him. Fei has to decide whether to return to sister and her village to warn them about their terrible fate, or runaway and stay with Li Wei and make a new life together.
Obviously, being the heroine that Fei is, she has to return to her sister and leave her love Li Wei. Which breaks his heart, and hers, and ours. But Li Wei said they could do the impossible together, so⦠now Fei has to believe that somehow she can make it back up the mountain to warn her village, that they will believe her, and that someday she will find Li Wei again.
