Ordinarily, notices like this were only handed out during summer and winter vacations, or when a similar incident occurred within the district, to remind parents and children to guard against such things.
But however often the notices were issued, children still drowned every year because they got carried away playing or their parents were careless.
Qi Gu folded the pink notice and tucked it into a book, planning to show Shifu when he returned to Floating Mist Temple.
On his way home, eight-year-old Qi Gu searched the little dirt path up the mountain for food he could bring back, as usual. Shifu was sorely lacking in money-making skills, so Qi Gu had learned from a young age to shoulder part of the responsibility for supporting them, "hunting" for things like wild fruit and pheasants to take home.
Halfway up the mountain, he encountered Wang Xiangxiu, whom he had not seen in a long time. She seemed thinner than before, and there were several scabbed scrapes on her sun-darkened wrists. Instead of greeting Qi Gu with her usual gentle smile, she had a dull, gray haze in her eyes, as though mist had swallowed their vitality.
Little Qi Gu did not yet possess the skill at face-reading he would have later, and could not tell why Wang Xiangxiu had become like this. He walked over to her, studied the wild tangerine tree, then said, "There's another ripe one on the left."
Without a word, Wang Xiangxiu climbed over, picked the tangerine he had pointed out, and handed it to him.
There was much Qi Gu did not understand, but he could vaguely sense that something must have happened to her. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, nothing..." Wang Xiangxiu shook her head. Suddenly, light returned to her mist-shrouded eyes, driving away the fog. "I'm