They’d only walked half the way when suddenly there was a great downpour of rain, coming down in sheets, and the two were stopped halfway along the journey. Li Shiyi and Song Shijiu hid under a lush elm tree, clothes similarly soaked, wrapped frigid and wet around their bodies. Song Shijiu gazed at the water streaming in gurgles on the ground, and stretched her head out to gaze at the heavens. “Just now it was a bright and sunny day; how strange.” The top of her head warmed; she pulled her neck back, and saw Li Shiyi expressionlessly covering her head with her own hat. Song Shijiu reached her hands up to hold the hat, stroking it as if her palms were holding a watermelon. Both people were equally embarrassed; then they heard the sound of a whistle, alternating in length, approaching from the distance, as if looking for some sort of animal cub; it was an incredibly plain tarpaulin umbrella, under which was a woman approaching her forties, with one eye and sloping shoulders; her appearan...