That afternoon, Black Snake and He Ning saw Chen An down the mountain.
The Azure Cloud Monastery was home entirely to female Daoists, so it was inconvenient for Chen An to stay there. He had stopped by to visit old friends while traveling on business and would spend the night in the County Seat.
Fate was a strange thing. An experience more than twenty years ago had tied an invisible thread between the paths of their lives.
From then on, they had become old friends who could hold one another in their thoughts.
They had met again, only to part once more. Years might pass before their next reunion; who knew when or where it would be?
They watched Chen An's retreating figure disappear into the distance.
On the way back, Black Snake walked slowly beside He Ning, listening as she spoke from the heart.
Sensing the tremors of rapidly approaching hoofbeats, they looked back and saw a mounted constable from the Government Office arrive at the foot of the mountain.
The black-clad officer dismounted and hurried up the mountain. Seeing this, Black Snake slipped into the dense woods beside the path.
The man greeted He Ning, then hurried on toward the Azure Cloud Monastery.
After evening prayers, He Ning brought a lamp to the Stone Terrace.
She spoke of the confidential letter from the Government Office that the officer had delivered that afternoon. What it described was decidedly strange: in a long-abandoned stone grotto in the neighboring county, the sculpture once enshrined there had vanished. It had not been stolen. It had actually run away.
The Abbot said it was most likely some secret cultivation method, but the cultivator had failed to foresee how the world would change, and an unforeseen event had cut off the incense offerings.
In