Secrets in the Lake, the General Admitted Defeat, the Mask Came Off, the True Face Was Revealed

Ever since Ding Longxiang had been tricked and captured, she had been tightly bound and locked in a chest. She ate and slept inside it, drowsy all day, sleeping whenever she closed her eyes and eating whenever she opened them. If Li Xian felt inclined, he exchanged a few words with her while feeding her. It was utterly stifling. The greatest movement she could make in her idle hours was to turn onto her side and change her sleeping position. She endured this for seven or eight full days. Once, she was washed, but even then her ropes were not loosened: she was simply hung from a tree and doused with water. At last, she was taken out of the chest, washed, dressed, and bound anew. Her wrists and ankles were finally separated, allowing her to straighten her body and set both feet on the ground. Then she was wrapped in sheer gauze and a black robe and taken away from the chest. Yet she suddenly encountered a siege by the Wood-Seeking Guard, and with her life hanging by a thread, she was wielded like a sword or saber. Afterward, she was carried back toward the north of the city, through the nine districts in the east, then over the Life-and-Death Ledge, into a mountain ravine and a limestone cave, enduring ordeal after ordeal. Only aboard the boat did she finally gain a moment's relief.

Although her hands and feet could hardly move, her legs no longer had to bend behind her and could stretch out. To her, this was truly a luxury. Sitting securely and swaying gently with the boat, she soon drifted into sweet sleep. She had a strange dream in which she wandered into a forest filled with green snakes. They suddenly surged toward her. She struck