"Jade wall before the mountain..."
Qiu Yan was sitting on horseback, listening to the scout's report. As for the carriage, it trailed behind them, rolling along slowly.
After pondering for a moment, he asked again, "Do you know where this road was originally meant to lead?"
At his question, the scout turned to look at the guide. The latter hurriedly replied, "Reporting to the Marquis, although this official road has fallen into disrepair, there are still quite a few travelers upon it. Not far ahead, there was originally a village, and people traveling north and south were not uncommon."
This guide had not accompanied Qiu Yan from the Imperial City. Rather, when Qiu Yan had disembarked in Meng Prefecture, the local officials learned that he intended to head north to Ze Prefecture. Fearing that he might take the wrong road, they had arranged through the post station for someone to guide him. This man knew everything within several miles as well as the back of his hand; there was absolutely no chance that he had remembered wrongly.
Yet now, the road in his memory had suddenly been blocked by a towering mountain. It was truly strange, to the point that the guide thought of ghosts and gods. Unease filled his heart, and he also feared that Qiu Yan would blame him for leading them astray, so his hands and feet trembled as he spoke.
Qiu Yan waved a hand and offered a few calming words. His mild tone settled the guide considerably. Then he said, "Let me ask you this: there was no mountain on this road in your memory. Does the place where that village stood now overlap with this mountain?"
"This..." The guide froze at those words and thought carefully. Sure enough, he discovered that the mountain overlapped