After everything had settled into dust.
In a small village at the foot of the now-nonexistent Yunlan Mountain.
The village was not large, but precisely because of that, it had not been greatly affected.
Some of the village guards had naturally made a few guesses. Though the adults were unsettled and frightened, they could not possibly go to bed hungry. As the sun set, thin curls of cooking smoke rose from the little village.
Near a well at the village entrance stood a household beneath a massive ancient tree. The tree was likely over a hundred years old, and with early spring's arrival, its canopy, which blocked out the sky and sun, had slowly begun to come back to life.
"Ding ding dong dong, clang clang."
"Zheng!"
A burst of exceptionally crisp zither music rang out. Though disorderly and without rhythm, it gave people a sense of being soothed, as if their hearts had been cleansed.
The little girl with braided pigtails wore a worn little cotton jacket. It had been made from old cotton that could not be sold, and the cute little girl had already worn it for three years.
"Mm..." The girl wrinkled her slightly dirty little nose, once again feeling the cotton jacket tighten around her. Although it had deliberately been made a little larger, time had passed, and the garment was gradually becoming too small for her.
"Um, when will Grandma come back?" The little girl lay atop the long zither, her tiny body pressing down on several strings as she stared fixedly at the setting sun beyond the canopy.
The sunset was blood-red, while clouds glowing like flames in every shape drifted across the sky outside the village.
"Grandma has been gone for over a month already, right? Why did she leave?" The lingering