In the third year of Baoding in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, it was winter.
The leaden gray clouds pressed extremely low, as if they were trying to wrap the entire Hengzhou border into the biting cold wind. The ruined temple outside Nihe Town had long since lost its incense, leaving only a few mottled earth walls barely holding up the leaky roof. The cobwebs hanging from the beams were torn back and forth by the wind, and the withered grass debris from time to time fell on the huddled figures on the ground.
Gu Liang Ai Xi was woken up by a sharp chill.
She opened her eyes suddenly, and the first thing she saw was not the familiar white ceiling in the apartment, nor the warm yellow eye protection lamp in Dr. Lu's studio, but the dark beams - the wood had become brittle with decay, and a few deep cracks were still embedded with old dust. There was a layer of hay as thin as paper beneath her body, and the moisture mixed with soil seeped through the tattered cloth, making her spine ache from the cold.
"Hiss..." She wanted to raise her hand to rub her stiff neck, but found a tingling pain in her left wrist. When she lowered her head, she saw a light brown streak.
