The pattering sound of the rain was like the quiet music of instruments in harmony; plump hands dredged up from within the vapour, holding the wrung out towel loosely between fingers, stretching forward into the bedding to wipe Song Shijiu’s back clean from top to bottom. Her back was both glossy and tender, having alluring dips and valleys, shoulder blades protruding slightly, but not too much, as if a dove restraining its wings. A Yin gazed at the red mark, smaller than a grain of rice, on the back of her neck; the bright moonlight smudged it a bit larger, and her absent-minded gaze turned it into the size of a fingernail. It stilled on the skin of the occupied young lady, as if an intruder entirely lacking decorum, and traced over the outline Li Shiyi’s words had drawn, like an uneducated seductress. The beautiful state of the young lady; the envy and shame in her heart had both long been peeled away, and so she could calmly and meaninglessly use Li Shiyi and Song Shijiu to make jok...

As the night fell, the stars twinkled like fireflies; the Li family courtyard had sunk into a deep sleep, only Song Shijiu’s room lit bright, the traces of a quiet, cold, elegant shadow on the screen window, which had attracted a layer of comfortable warmth in the yellow light. When Song Shijiu had returned from the mountain god temple, she’d immediately been struck with a fever, eyes blinking dazedly as she’d spoken nonsense; Tu Laoyao had volunteered to go look for A Luo; when A Luo heard about it, she said it was just snake venom from having just switched noses, and the fever would be gone in a night. Said like this, Li Shiyi couldn’t relax, and fed Song Shijiu half a bowl of plain rice porridge, sitting by the bedside and making sure that she slept peacefully. Song Shijiu’s vitality had improved a bit, but her cheeks still remained crimson, and her lips were also bright red, as if they’d been stained by juice from blossoms; her eyes were parted narrowly, as if having been assaulted...

Chen Man ran downstairs; downstairs had already turned into a mess, like a pot full of porridge. The sound of police sirens, the incessant alarms of the ambulances, and the group of people standing in a circle and watching obstructed by the police cordon; each person had their heads stretched out, looking within, wanting to see the state of the victims with their own eyes. Humanity’s favourite thing was watching a bustling scene; after all, it hadn’t been them  who the needle had pricked, so they didn’t know pain. Chen Man stood lifelessly at the doorway, looking at the doctors and nurses running about, hurriedly taking away those few injured people; in total, there were four who had been directly covered with white cloth. Five people; one was missing. Secretary Yang hurriedly followed after; it could be counted as chasing after; the police blocked them and didn’t let them advance; Secretary Yang hurriedly tugged at Chen Man’s sleeve, and said, “General Manager, don’t stand about h...

This was the first time that Song Shijiu had heard Li Shiyi speak on intimacy. However, it wasn’t aimed at her. Originally, when the four characters of “its love lasts eternally” came from Li Shiyi’s mouth, it was as pleasant to listen to as experiencing a long-lasting kiss. Song Shijiu felt her own love, hanging in the balance, had turned into tea, and had been gently plucked out by Li Shiyi, placed within a pot, and been scattered by boiling water, four scattered limbs and white bones emitting a pleasant scent, and then been picked up in a reserved and aloof manner by her, from the small pot into her mouth. To love someone in secret was to lift a heavy weight as if it were a light one; even if the heart expanded a hundred times and contracted a thousand, what was usually shown on the surface was only the remainder of those few things which were not crucial. It was impossible to demand that anyone else sympathise with this; even hoping there wasn’t anyone else who could sympathise wit...

Song Shijiu suddenly became interested. “What type?” “Probably around two years before I moved to the mountains, there was a young lady who asked me to act as a matchmaker.” The sound of rainfall had decreased a bit, and the skies had also cleared several degrees; the embroidery frame in Yan Niang’s hands stretched the white silk tight, reflecting the rays of light, and the fine warp and weft of the silk could be seen. “What you need to know is, the young lady came to visit herself to ask for a matchmaker, which was incredibly strange; not to mention, that young lady’s appearance was extremely lively and beautiful. My eyes are thin and long, and not very attractive; that young woman had a pair of both large, and black, and beautiful eyes, her brows rising upwards, with a tender-heartedness to them. In the decades before and the decades since, I’ve yet to see beautiful eyes like those again.” As she spoke, she gestured with the hand with the thimble at the edge of her eye; the corner of...

No one knew why Chen Man was so fixed on wanting to buy that piece of land. She’d originally assumed that her own role had changed, and so she could persuade Chen Man and make her give up on this plan, but the facts were clear; Jiang Xichu was still too naive. No matter what, Chen Man wasn’t planning on changing her decision; Jiang Xichu, infuriated beyond measure by her, could only compromise in the end. Never mind, never mind; it was just a piece of land, wasn’t it? As long as she was happy, even if she planned to go to Africa to buy land, there wasn’t a problem. The issue of the land temporarily came to an end; it wasn’t that Jiang Xichu’s stance towards her in her own mind was that magnanimous, but that she already couldn’t draw out an inclination to pay attention to this tiny matter of land. Because the day of the accident…was arriving quickly. Jiang Xichu’s thoughts had been consistently steady; she hadn’t forgotten any of the words that the young man wearing the white shirt had ...

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...

The group was silent; Mulan’s obsession was so deep that, after her body was interred and rotted, her proud figure, unwilling to age, unexpectedly transformed into the appearance of her youth, dying stubbornly and desperately along with her faded sense of self. Washing hands and making soup, riding a horse and carrying an iron qiang—was the exchange not more than simply life or death? Li Shiyi sighed, and, along with Song Shijiu, left the tomb first; Tu Laoyao picked up the newspapers and followed along after A Yin. The remainder was Taishan prefecture’ business. A Luo stood upright in the middle, gazing at the kneeling Mulian whose heart beat with fear; she said, quietly and softly, “You changed fate without authority, and are guilty of a crime; now, I need to find and bring back Mulan; you’ll consider your actions while in the Shentu Command—bring back Mulan’s hun spirit, and we can discuss punishment then. If this is my judgement, will you accept it?” Mulian bowed her head, and said...