"Yesterday afternoon, I got another call from Xiao Guo."
"I breathed a sigh of relief."
"If he could call, that meant his condition probably wasn't serious."
"But—"
Su Xun furrowed his brow slightly. "He told me something strange."
"Something strange?"
Xiao Xiao rubbed his fingers along the side of his teacup, feeling a faint warmth at his fingertips.
"Mm."
Su Xun recalled the phone call from yesterday afternoon. "Xiao Guo said he'd run into another patient at the hospital who was in the same situation as him."
"The same situation?"
Xiao Xiao looked thoughtful.
"Yes. Like Xiao Guo, that person had also been sent to the hospital after fainting."
"And like Xiao Guo, he'd also visited Kirin Mountain behind Qingshui Village."
"Qingshui Village? Kirin Mountain?"
Xiao Xiao realized he didn't recognize either place.
"No wonder you haven't heard of them, Master Xiao."
Su Xun smiled. "It's a small village in the mountains, with only a little over twenty households."
"And most of the residents are elderly."
"The young people have all moved to the city."
"Most likely, they won't be coming back."
That was a problem every underdeveloped village had to face. Su Xun thought of the elderly people sitting in the courtyard, basking in the sun.
Like those old folks, the whole village seemed to be cloaked in the dusk of its declining years.
"It's an ordinary village, and there's no particularly spectacular scenery nearby."
"But its natural environment is well preserved. It's surrounded by mountains and lush vegetation. In recent years, when the weather turns hot, some people have started coming there to escape the heat."
"Though there aren't many of them, they do bring a little liveliness to the village."
"Sorry, I got sidetracked."
Su Xun paused, then smiled apologetically.
"Not at all."
Xiao Xiao smiled and