Thousand-Household Officer Ge was exhausted. Leaning against the stone railing, he watched the mountain clouds unfold like a painting.
It was cold. He wanted to cover himself with a thick quilt and sleep soundly. Perhaps he had only been a passerby for a moment, perhaps for a very long time. At last, the mountain mist dispersed, and sunlight spilled over him with a comforting warmth. Even his wounds seemed less painful. Perhaps Little Hedgehog's healing art had done some good.
The sunlight was dazzling. Countless rays blurred his vision, and in his daze, he saw the household he could barely remember...
It was an evening. His tall father held his hand and followed the crowd forward.
Ahead was his father's straight, sturdy back, while all around them were pale faces filled with fear and numbness.
In that gray-white, oppressive world, the gathered crowd stood silently. Through the gaps between them, he saw a blood-red, gold-lacquered platform. Someone atop that magnificent platform was screaming and wailing, while several people laughed recklessly. They were eating people—some tearing and gnawing brutally, some drawing blood and condensing it into pearls, others elegantly and meticulously savoring human hearts.
The veins bulged on his father's hand as he clenched his fist tightly. His nails dug through his palm, and drops of red blood trickled from between his fingers.
The powerful ones seated high above ate people, and even demanded that mortals watch.
The scene shifted beneath the blinding sunlight. His father tried moving their household away from danger, then squandered all their savings and knelt to beg for the so-called means to grow stronger. Yet lacking the aptitude, failure had been inevitable. Despair and unwillingness had nearly turned his father into another person.
Standing outside the door with his back to the sunlight, he silently watched