Ten Thousand Viper Sea.
The vast ocean stretched away, its waters ink-black.
Here and there, patches of azure dotted the sea. Seen from high above, they formed a strange, dazzling spectacle, clustered around islands of every shape and size.
One island was long and narrow, resembling a gigantic turtle.
"Caw," "caw"...
Amid the cries of seabirds, flocks of white birds glided down toward the island with their backs to the setting sun. Their golden-edged silhouettes quickly vanished among the dense vegetation.
In a coconut grove near the center of the island, a stream babbled along.
It was one of the island's rare freshwater streams. Along its banks, on ground that rose and fell, stood a hundred scattered bamboo houses—home to a village of ordinary folk.
At dusk, cooking smoke curled upward.
Amid the clamor of crowing roosters and barking dogs, several children waved palm fronds as they chased one another across the open space between the bamboo houses.
The women, their hair swept into high buns and their long dresses wrapped close around them, came and went as they prepared dinner. The aroma of grilled and simmering seafood mingled with the island's distinctive floral fragrance, distracting the children from their games. They kept running to the cooking fires to peek and plead for an early taste.
The men who had just returned from fishing sat shirtless on little stools outside their homes, their dark-brown chests bare. They chatted as they tidied the sails, fishing nets, and other gear they needed to make a living.
A little black dog wagged its tail as it scampered after its young master.
"Xiao Hei, go!" The boy had just begged a piece of fish from his mother. He wolfed down the flesh in a few bites, then grabbed the fish bones and hurled them