The night in the mountain city was inky black, the sky low, cut across by dark clouds, the clamour of the bright day swallowed by the treachery, the threat hidden in the mountains like paper cutouts. The Shengsheng lived concealed in the Jinyun mountain range; this mountain was made up of multiple anticlines, the peaks of range after range standing tall, the ancient trees that reached up to the heavens hidden within the sheer cliffs and precipitous rock faces, rugged and strangely beautiful. In the midst of the swaying bamboo, the four people followed the mountain upwards, the trickle of a stream by their ears, the scattered moonlight before their eyes, pressing against the four's brisk steps, as splendid as going for a walk in the spring, when the grass had turned green. Li Shiyi walked at the very front, holding aloft a glass-covered kerosene lamp, an outstretched hand pushing aside the obstructing bamboo; when she grasped the chilly branches and shoots, it was with a slow, accus...