He took off his old cotton-padded jacket and the thin shirt underneath, rolled them into a ball, and stuffed them into his satchel. He tied the satchel tightly with a knot at the top, and with his upper body bare, he slung the satchel across his back. The late autumn night wind lashed against the exposed board like a handful of fine ice needles. He shivered, clenched his teeth, and slid into the water on the bluestone slab.
The water was colder than he had imagined. The chill penetrated his skin, muscles, and even reached his bones almost instantly upon entering the water. Yin Wujou's breath hitched, and his body instinctively arched, wanting to pull back to the shore. But he suppressed the urge, gritted his teeth, and let his body sink into the water, beginning to swim. He wasn't a very good swimmer; he had learned the rough style by splashing around in mountain streams. His movements were stiff, and he made a lot of splashes, but he had the advantage of strength, a steady rhythm, and a fairly fast forward propulsion.
The water in the middle of the river was much cooler than on the bank. Halfway down, he suddenly felt something brush against his calf—a light, soft touch, like a fish brushing past him. He glanced down, his Spirit Vision automatically activating to its deepest point. He saw a grayish-white shadow swimming below in the murky water, about an arm's length long, shaped like a water snake but thicker, without scales, its surface gleaming with a faint fluorescent white light. The thing passed by his calf without stopping, continuing downstream, seemingly uninterested in his presence.
Yin Wujou turned his gaze back and continued swimming forward. He saw that Snow Empress had already reached the other side and was squatting on the bank, wringing the water out of her hair, her whole body glistening wetly in the moonlight. She turned back to see him swimming towards her, stood up on the bank, and stretched out a hand for him. When he swam to the shallow water and stood up, his feet touched the sand and pebbles of the riverbed. He steadied himself and walked towards the bank, taking Snow Empress's hand and being pulled ashore by her.
"Did you come into contact with something in the water?" Snow Empress handed him a dry cloth.
"It was something like a rather large snake." Yin Wujou took the cloth and wiped the water off himself; a fine layer of goosebumps rose on the panel in the night breeze. "Grayish-white, without scales, the panel glowed on its own."
"Those are things that grow from the sediment of the river's spiritual veins," the Snow Empress said. "The turbid energy of the spiritual veins, when soaked in still water for a long time, will condense into semi-living things. They don't harm people, but they themselves don't live peacefully, and most of them won't last long before dissipating."
Yin Wujou roughly dried himself off and took out dry clothes from his satchel, putting them back on one by one. The old cotton-padded jacket was a bit wrinkled from being pressed down, but fortunately it was dry and warmed him up quickly after putting it on. He glanced back at the riverbank he had come from. The dark woods and bushes on the opposite bank formed a blurry shadow, and the overturned wrecked boat was no longer visible. The river gleamed coldly in the moonlight, like a gray blade that had cut through the path he had come from and the path he was going to.
"Let's go," Snow Empress, already mounting her sturdy horse. "We'll reach the western suburbs after we cross a low hill; we should be there before dawn."
The two horses resumed their journey. The road after crossing the river was much easier to travel than the previous dirt road—although it wasn't exactly an official road, the surface was paved with gravel, and some sections even still bore traces of half-broken bricks, indicating that it had indeed been a proper road in its early days, only to fall into disrepair and abandonment over time. The wild grass on both sides of the road had shortened considerably, and the view opened up, revealing a dark, undulating outline slowly emerging at the horizon in the distance—those were the houses and city walls of the western suburbs of Capital, lying darkly against the horizon in the darkest hour before dawn, like a huge, crouching beast.
Yin Wujou rode on his horse, his gaze was unconsciously drawn to the outline of the city. This was the first time he had ever seen a real city wall, completely different from the mountain town where he had grown up—that town didn't even have walls, with dozens of houses scattered in the valley, separated by vegetable gardens and narrow alleys, and at night, the scattered oil lamps looked like a handful of broken stars. But the distant Capital wall presented an unshakable sense of weight and solidity in the night, and even from this distance, even though it was just a blurry shadow at this moment, that immense and ancient oppressive force was already clearly felt.
"You've never been to such a big city before?" Snow Empress seemed to sense his gaze fixed on her.
"I've never been there," Yin Wujou said. "Our town only has about sixty households in total."
"Stay close to me after we enter the city." Snow Empress's voice tightened slightly. "The western suburbs are different from the city. At least there are rules in the city, although they are set by the Imperial City Bureau, but at least on the surface everyone follows the rules. The western suburbs are outside the city walls, so official control is looser, and all sorts of people come from all walks of life. Don't look around randomly when you activate your Spirit Vision. Some people carry things on them, and if you look at them, they can track you down with your Spirit Vision."
"Good."
The two horses continued onward. The sky changed slowly as they traveled—from complete darkness to a deep indigo, with a barely perceptible grayish-white showing through the underlying indigo, like ink being diluted little by little with water. By the time they rounded the last low hill and entered the first village on the western outskirts, a narrow strip of pale white had appeared on the horizon, and the morning light spread from below the horizon, tinging everything with a thin, cool bluish-gray hue.
The village gradually awoke in the morning light. Withered pumpkin vines climbed the earthen walls, several shriveled, dried gourds hanging from them; a rooster crowed loudly, followed by cries from all around, a chorus of crowing like a torn piece of silk fluttering in the morning breeze. In some houses, fires were lit in the courtyards to boil water, and wisps of bluish-gray smoke rose vertically from the low chimneys, reaching high into the still morning light before dissipating. By the roadside well, someone was carrying a bucket on a shoulder pole, the rope creaking and groaning against the well pulley as the buckets were lowered, the damp water rising in wisps of steam in the morning light.
Snow Empress paused under an old locust tree at the village entrance. She took out the last two sesame seed cakes from her satchel and handed one to Yin Wujou. The cake was completely cold and as hard as a rock, but Yin Wujou took it and took a bite. The fragrant sesame seed crust cracked open, revealing a soft, fluffy interior despite its coldness, with a slightly sweet taste emerging as he chewed. He finished the cake in a few bites, then took out his water pouch from his satchel and drank some cold water, feeling much better afterward.
"Beyond this village is the back wall of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau," Snow Empress said, pointing ahead. "The Director's study is on the second floor of the west side of the main building. That wall faces this village, and behind it is a vegetable garden. Beyond the vegetable garden is the perimeter wall of the Observatory. The wall isn't high; I can help you climb over."