Splash.
When water filled to the brim, it overflowed; dark waves circled back.
An expanse of floodwaters poured forth, smashing into the Huai River as thunder rumbled endlessly.
A snot-nosed child stretched out his index finger to block an ant's path and looked up.
Under the eaves, the nest of swallows returning north stood empty. Crows, orioles, and ducks in the pond all began calling, mixed with the barking of neighborhood dogs.
Green moss clung to the wall's base, silently spreading. On rainy days, there were few guests drinking tea in the teahouse, yet there were always one or two refined souls who liked this quiet atmosphere of listening to rain. Ripples spread across the water in their teacups, circle after circle, while the bronze wind chimes beneath the porch rang without cease.
It was not the tinkling of rain striking them.
It was something noisier, more chaotic, more terrifying, as though... the ground was trembling.
The shopkeeper gripped his pole and stood frozen in the doorway.
"Neigh..."
Lightning flashed, illuminating the street.
The black horse raised its forelegs and reared diagonally upright.
Rain soaked his coir raincoat. The cavalryman clamped his legs around the horse's belly and swung his whip, the tip cleaving apart a black-striped snake that darted across the street.
Though the spring chill still bit to the bone, snakes had awakened from hibernation. Their movements were stiff and slow, yet they crawled down the mountain like they were flying, crossing the streets.
Before the cavalryman could rein in the panicked black horse, faint noises arose from underground. Then small clumps of earth bulged up. Beneath the flagstones, in the dirt, in the sewers... not one or two, but swarms upon swarms of ants, centipedes, and woodlice crawled about in disorder. At last, they formed a vague