Autumn, the seventh year of Jinghe.
Lead-gray clouds, like water-soaked cotton wool, weigh heavily over Jurong County, Yingtian Prefecture. The leaves of the old locust tree next to the official road were wilted by the continuous rain, and the edges of the leaves were rolled into burnt yellow. When the wind blew, they rustled down, mixing with the rotten grass in the mud, exuding a damp and rotten smell.
The great goose woke up from the cold.
A biting chill penetrated into the seams of his bones along the thin burlap clothes. He opened his eyes suddenly, but what he saw was not the familiar laboratory dome with cold light, but the low and dilapidated thatched roof. Several rafters that were blackened by smoke were standing crookedly, and spider webs were knotted layer by layer in the corners. A gray spider was slowly repairing the holes in the center of the web.
