Unconscious Little Intimacies

Azure Mountain belonged to the Yunling Mountains of the Hengduan Mountains, the southern extension of the Himalayan orogenic belt. It lay in central Dali Prefecture, west of Erhai Lake.

In truth, you didn't have to buy a ticket to climb a mountain. If you were tough enough and not afraid of dying, Azure Mountain was just a few hundred meters behind Yunmiao Village—just climb it. The scenic area merely encompassed all of Azure Mountain's attractions, giving it a cultural character rather than making it just a mountain.

After breakfast, Wang Yan drove Xu Hongdou, who had changed into a set of Song Dynasty Hanfu and was carrying her padded jacket, to the entrance of the scenic area. They bought tickets for the Horse-Washing Pool Cableway, boarded a cable car, and set off.

This sightseeing cableway began at Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils Film City, passed through Seven Dragon Maidens Pool, and went straight to Horse-Washing Pool at the summit of Azure Mountain. It offered panoramic views of Azure Mountain and Dali Ancient City before reaching the mountaintop at an altitude of nearly four thousand meters.

They took the cable car up, then huffed and puffed their way to the summit. By then, it was already noon. Mainly, Xu Hongdou was not in the best physical condition. Besides, they had been taking pictures all along the way. And seeing how professional Wang Yan looked with his camera, some people would ask him to take a few group photos for them on their phones while he was photographing Xu Hongdou.

It was a clear, lovely day, crisp and bright beneath blue skies and white clouds. The otherwise unremarkable scenery at the summit looked all the more beautiful for it. They breathed the thin air, looked over the wildflowers blanketing the mountainside and the sea