Hantai Prefecture, Yellow Mud Alley.
After being trampled day after day, the earth in the narrow alley had been packed firm, its surface bearing a greasy sheen. Under the sun, it gleamed white and dazzling.
In the small courtyard beside the alley, a well had been built of blue bricks, its mouth three feet above the ground. Several dead branches lay crisscrossed over it as a cover.
Crack!
A soaking wet satchel snapped the dead branches and was flung out of the well first, smashing into the ground and kicking up dust. Two furry paws hooked onto the blue bricks. With a forceful heave, a black shadow leaped out, spun two and a half times in mid-air, and landed on one knee.
Water dripped onto the ground, staining the yellow earth brown.
Achoo!
Ta Ta Kai sneezed twice, shuddered, and grabbed his satchel.
Pingyang's plum-rain season was muggy and damp, yet Hantai Prefecture was not hot at all—only dry as could be.
He grabbed a tuft of fur and wrung out the water, smearing it over his nose tip to keep it moist. Ta Ta Kai looked around, found a pile of earth in the corner, and scraped aside the clumps of yellow dirt, revealing a large pitch-black hole.
Shaking the water from his head, he burrowed inside.
"Eep! Eep!"
He waited for a while.
"Eep! Eep!"
Again and again.
"Eep! Eep!"
At last, an answer came from within the hole. Ta Ta Kai's face brightened, and he began eeping with all his might.
After nearly half an hour, soft scraping sounds came from the hole. A chubby marmot half-ran, half-walked out, its flesh jiggling all over. Halfway out, it suddenly stopped and twisted left and right twice, rubbing loose some dirt from the tunnel walls. The marmot stretched a