I was wedged fast in the rock face like a peg, unable to move a muscle save for my legs, which had slight freedom of movement, and my eyeballs, which could still swivel. Stuck between the stone slabs, I felt compressed like ciba during New Year celebrations, my entire body squeezed outward. My generously proportioned belly, in particular, felt ready to burst.

"Are you alright? If you can't manage, come back up!" Jiye and Manniaoniao cried out from above. I forced out a breath, suppressing an indescribable discomfort, and said in a firm, low voice, "Since I'm awake, there's no way I'm pissing myself here. You two hang on, Flower and I will be up soon... Keep the flashlight steady on Flower..."

Before I finished speaking, I glimpsed Flower slowly sliding down. A surge of panic shot through me, my head snapped up, my scalp tingled, and I felt blood rush. My nose pressed tight against the hard, cold rock face; my goal was to adjust my sightline so I could lasso that large blister on Flower’s leg in the shortest possible time.

My hand could almost brush that blister. Despite its proximity, the rope was soft, I was nearly exhausted, and my vision was blurry. Ten times I struggled to loop the snare over, yet failed to slip it into the blister. At that moment, I realized a colossal mistake: if only I had brought the bamboo bow, this task would have been much simpler! I cursed my own stupidity repeatedly.

Flower heard me arrive and seemed to understand my predicament. It let out a mournful cry, relaxed its legs as much as possible, and began to slip slowly into the bottomless fissure. A chill ran through me—was Flower about to follow that water buffalo's example of self-liberation? I shrieked in alarm, "Flower!" My arm shot out to its absolute limit, and with lightning speed, I secured the loop around that life-saving blister. I quickly tightened the snare, disregarding whether it caused Flower pain, and pulled alternately with both hands, hauling Flower up and holding it tightly against my chest.

I was so overcome with emotion that tears streamed backward, and I was ecstatic, even though my mouth was alarmingly close to an inappropriate part of Flower’s body.

"Pull up!" I bellowed. Manniaoniao heard me and didn't dare delay, using every ounce of strength he possessed to haul us up. As the gap in the rock widened, the soreness throughout my body began to ease, and my breathing became smoother.

Clutching Flower tightly, in the beam of the flashlight, I saw a patch of my scalp, complete with a tuft of hair and a streak of blood, spiraling down into the dark, eerie chasm, mingling with the shed black fur of Flower.

With Flower’s added weight, the brown rope strained harder. Midway up, there was a sharp snap—one strand of the brown rope broke! My soul nearly fled my body. If we plummeted again in freefall, there was no doubt: Flower and I would never see the sun that was so tantalizingly close again.

The men above grew tense and increased their pulling speed. Just as I managed to hoist myself high enough to see Manniaoniao was only a meter away, came a series of snap, snap, snap sounds—only one strand of the brown rope remained attached.

At the critical moment, Manniaoniao swung his body sideways, letting his left foot hang down, stretching himself into a 'T' shape, and yelled urgently, "Grab my foot!" I held Flower tightly with my right hand, arched my back with all my might, and reached out my left hand to grasp the edge of Manniaoniao’s shoe. Using the last vestiges of my strength, I braced my legs against a rock face, settling into the crevice in a '7' shape, gasping for air. Jiye held onto Manniaoniao, helping him stand up with difficulty; his left cheek was scraped raw and bloody by the rock wall, and his ear was nearly torn off.

Though my entire body felt limp, my concern for Flower kept me going. I managed to secure myself against the rock wall before having the chance to turn Flower around in my embrace. Upon seeing me, Flower stretched out its dry tongue and licked my face, its eyes swimming with tears.

Flower tried to lick again, but I laughed and stopped it. "Enough! Flower, your tongue feels like an iron broom, it’s uncomfortable. Next time!"

After resting a while, I carried Flower over to Manniaoniao and Jiye’s position. Without waiting for Jiye’s permission, I gently placed Flower into Jiye’s basket. Jiye shot me a helpless look but said nothing.

With Flower safely rescued, my spirits lifted considerably. I pulled out the canteen strapped to my body and took two long, hard swigs. Seeing this, Manniaoniao scooted close and sucked greedily at the canteen like a nursing infant, then let out a sigh. "My waist was almost snapped in half! You two brothers are nothing but trouble!"

I laughed heartily and said to Flower, "Quickly thank Uncle Niao!" Flower gave me a confused look, barked once at me, and it nearly made me want to box its ears.

"Hahaha... Alright, Flower is rescued too. Let's get moving! You two brothers can have your reunion later!" Manniaoniao, seeing that I had shot myself in the foot, chuckled maliciously and urged us on.

I had intended to check Flower’s injuries, but then I realized we couldn't delay any longer. First, I wanted to rescue Tan Ping'er as soon as possible, and second, staying in a place where we could be crushed into meat paste at any moment was too dangerous. Flower seemed out of immediate danger; it was best to wait until we reached the exit.

I untied the brown rope from my leg, pulled Flower out of the basket as if hoisting a sack of flour, and slung it onto my back. Reaching down, I felt that large blister on Flower’s leg was still there, now more pronounced and hardened by the rope snare. While feeling relieved, I fumbled to loosen the brown rope from Flower's blister.

Because of that brief delay, Jiye had already pulled the basket out and, with Manniaoniao, was nearing the exit.

I dared not linger. Carrying Flower, I cautiously maneuvered my way along the rock face. Flower wasn't light, and I was already completely spent. Moreover, I had to keep my legs spread to balance on the wall, causing my legs to tremble violently as I moved forward with agonizing effort. Fortunately, although the rock face was smooth, it had many fine textures and wasn't slippery. The fissure was wider at the bottom and narrower at the top, which allowed me to barely maintain my footing.

While progressing with my heart in my mouth, I didn't expect Flower to let out a sharp bark right by my ear and suddenly spring over my head like an arrow, startling me so much that my right foot buckled, and I nearly fell back into the fissure. I looked up to see Flower bouncing back and forth between the rock faces like a spring, trying to leap to the exit. Alas, having been trapped for so long, its legs were stiff from being wedged in the rock. After a few jumps, it landed spread-eagled on the wall, its claws scraping audibly against the stone.

I hurried forward, reached out, and embraced Flower, panting hard as I pushed forward a few steps until I reached the exit.

"Aha!" I cried out excitedly, "The sky has no fierce wind, the sky has no rain, there is the sun in the sky..." I suddenly recalled the next line was, "The girl speaks not, the girl opens not her mouth, how is the girl thinking in her heart?" Thinking of Tan Ping'er, a bad omen struck me, so I quickly shut up.

Stepping into the full wash of sunlight, colorful phantoms danced before my eyes. After a bout of dizziness, my vision gradually adjusted!

I rubbed my aching eyes a few times and began to survey the scene at the exit, only to find Jiye and Manniaoniao standing motionless on a narrow ledge like two mud statues, their backs to me.

Tan Ping'er is in trouble! That was my immediate thought.

Anxious, I rushed over to the two men, only to be stunned into silence by what met my eyes.

The first thing that caught my eye was a giant tree—no, strictly speaking, two trees; two utterly distinct trees!

"Jiye, how can there be such strange trees? Are those two trees a lacquer tree and a ginkgo tree?"

"They are a lacquer tree and a ginkgo tree!" Jiye nodded solemnly.

The lacquer tree and the ginkgo tree were twisted together tightly, from root to crown, like braided dough. Their trunks were massive; the thickest part likely required four men to encircle. Their roots were intricately tangled, with root tendrils as thick as human legs plunging deep into a patch of pitch-black soil. Looking up, both trees were lush and leafy, shading the sky completely, presenting a dense, verdant mass. When a slight breeze blew, glimpses of their equally intertwined branches appeared within.

Upon closer inspection, one could see the lacquer tree was riddled with huge, oblique, eye-shaped sores. The interior of these sores was pitch black, resembling countless eyeless sockets. Streams of milky white lacquer sap oozed out, running along the inner edge of the sores, then meandering down the trunk. The sap darkened as it flowed downward, changing from white to brownish-yellow, then from brownish-yellow to inky black, pooling into the earth. The entire scene looked as if thousands of empty eyes were weeping sorrowful tears simultaneously.

In contrast, the ginkgo tree clung fiercely to the lacquer tree. Regardless of the thickness of the lacquer tree's branches, a ginkgo branch tightly entwined it. One could clearly see deep grooves, varying in width and depth, etched into the lacquer tree’s trunk where the ginkgo constricted it. The leaves of the lacquer tree leaned consistently in one direction, while the unyielding ginkgo leaves followed closely, growing in the same direction.

The lacquer tree seemed unwilling to yield, its branches desperately stretching outward, as if trying to break free from the ginkgo's embrace. Coupled with its body covered in black 'eyes,' it resembled a person in utter despair, crying out to the heavens!

A very strange feeling began to well up in my heart, as if I were that struggling lacquer tree, filled with resentment and despair.

This feeling grew so intense that it forced me to avert my gaze and survey the surrounding environment.

If the cavern holding the water bamboo forest was a "cauldron" battered with bumps and dips, then this place was an intact "cauldron." The surrounding walls were bare stone, converging upward from the floor, reaching a height of about forty or fifty meters. There was absolutely nowhere to set a foothold or climb on these walls. Fortunately, this enormous circular "cauldron" had no lid; a hole of unknown size opened at the top, through which the sunlight slanted, illuminating a sheer cliff face on one side. Through the gap between the two strange trees, one could faintly make out a few wisps of white clouds in the blue sky. The tightly entwined ginkgo and lacquer trees grew just below the opening. Limited by our sightline, we couldn't tell how far the tops of the strange trees were from the hole above, but we could clearly see that the nearest point of the trees was still over two zhang away from the surrounding rock walls.

"Yin-Yang Tree! It's the Yin-Yang Tree!" Jiye said, his voice trembling after a long silence.

"Yin-Yang Tree?" Manniaoniao and I exclaimed in unison.

"Yes! I never thought the legendary Yin-Yang Tree would be here!" Jiye's voice shook even more, whether from excitement or fear.

Manniaoniao and I looked at him, puzzled, waiting for him to continue. Jiye stroked his stubbled face and asked, "What do we call the ginkgo tree in our region?"

"Băiguǒ tree?" Manniaoniao and I chorused again.

"Correct! 'Băi' (white) is in the name for the ginkgo, and what about the lacquer tree? Even though its name doesn't contain the character for 'black,' the sap is black. These two trees are entangled, one black and one white—isn't that like the two faces of Yin and Yang?"

Jiye spoke with utter seriousness, but I grumbled internally, thinking his reasoning was far-fetched. By that logic, if my skin was fair and Manniaoniao’s was dark, and we embraced, wouldn't we become 'Yin-Yang People'?

Jiye noticed my look of disdain and his expression grew even sterner. "I know you think I'm talking nonsense, but these two trees have another meaning, which you probably won't believe either!"

"What meaning?"

"This relates to the name of the ginkgo tree. Think about it: in our local dialect, doesn't 'xìng' (apricot/ginkgo) sound the same as 'hèn' (hate)?"

Manniaoniao and I nodded silently, unsure what the word 'hate' had to do with the so-called Yin-Yang Tree, and both looked at Jiye, waiting for him to elaborate. "As for the lacquer tree, it ties into a very old legend or perhaps a curse of the Tujia people," Jiye paused. "Legend says that a long time ago, there were three Tujia men, surnamed Huang, Qi, and Zhong. They didn't know each other initially but met by chance and became acquainted, eventually sharing a room at an inn. Before sleeping, all three worried about the same thing: whether their valuables would be stolen by the other two while they slept. So, they all swore a fierce oath guaranteeing they wouldn't steal from the others. The oath taken by the man surnamed Zhong was, 'If I steal your belongings, may I be sliced into ten thousand pieces.' The oath of the man surnamed Qi was, 'If I steal your belongings, may I become riddled with holes.' The man surnamed Huang naturally swore an oath as well. In the middle of the night, Zhong and Qi, greedy for wealth, broke their oaths and jointly stole Huang's luggage and fled. The result..."

"What happened?"

"Alas! Soon after, the man named Zhong turned into a Zongshu (a type of tree), and the man named Qi turned into a lacquer tree! Their oaths were fulfilled."

I was about to speak when Jiye continued, "Legends are just legends, they shouldn't be taken as truth. The reason I tell this legend is that I suspect these two trees were planted by some master to vent hatred in his heart, and very likely, it's a curse from a husband against his wife!"

"Ah? Why?"

"'Xìng' sounds like 'hèn' (hate), and 'qī' (lacquer) sounds like 'qī' (wife). Hating the wife? Doesn't that suggest the action of a husband? Looking at the state of these two trees, doesn't the lacquer tree symbolize a wife trying to break free from her husband's shackles, while the man is filled with hatred for his wife?"

Although I felt Jiye's narrative was largely fabricated, looking at the massive, intertwined trees before me, combined with that inexplicable sense of despair in my heart, I couldn't find a suitable rebuttal for the old man.

"Woof!" My contemplation was broken by Flower’s sudden bark. I snapped out of my daze—to hell with hating husbands or wives, I needed to find Tan Ping'er first.

Flower violently wrenched free of my hand, kicked back with its hind legs, and shot toward the Yin-Yang Tree like an arrow.

Could Tan Ping'er be near the Yin-Yang Tree? My heart leaped with joy. Without hesitation, I ran forward, but Jiye, quick as lightning, grabbed me back. "Wait!"

The saddest thing in the world is watching success within grasp, only to have that hope whittled away piece by piece by someone like Jiye—like watching the finale of a favorite TV show only to have the screen saturated with vicious commercials.

"Do you want to die? Look at what’s beneath us!" Jiye ignored my disgruntled glare and pointed furiously at the dark soil below. "What is that?"

His sternness made me finally notice the soil I had overlooked. The massive shade of the Yin-Yang Tree kept the area beneath it dim and gloomy. Earlier, I had focused entirely on the trees and their surroundings, paying no attention to the ground conditions.

This soil was bizarre: pitch black, utterly barren, not even a dead twig or leaf. It was perfectly clean. The entire patch of ground was covered in wrinkles of varying widths, looking like a gigantic scab, extending outward from the tree roots in a gentle slope toward the rock walls.

I muttered internally, what’s wrong with this ground?

Jiye picked up a stone the size of a bowl and hurled it forcefully onto the ground. With a heavy thud, the stone rolled a few times before stopping. Where the stone had passed, I saw several dark fissures spreading open, and thick, brownish-yellow liquid was bubbling up from the cracks.

I was shocked. Can a mere stone crack the ground?

Jiye nodded. "As expected! Beneath this hard crust is raw lacquer! It's a raw lacquer pool!"

Raw lacquer? I thought of the bamboo tubes lacquer workers used to hold it. Once raw lacquer was sealed in a bamboo tube, the top layer quickly dried into a scab, but beneath that 'scab' was thick, coffee-colored sap, viscous like honey.

So that’s it! Thank goodness Jiye stopped me. If I had rashly jumped onto the surface, and if that hard crust couldn't bear my weight, I would have 'enjoyed' nine lives’ worth of trouble.

Flower had already run to the base of the Yin-Yang Tree, resting its front paws on the thick trunk, looking up and barking frantically. After a few barks, it turned its head toward me, its eyes filled with expectation and anxiety.

Tan Ping'er must be up in the tree! That was my first thought. The problem now was how to get across. I measured the distance with my eyes and found that our current position was the closest point to the Yin-Yang Tree. I immediately came up with a plan: I tied a tight knot using the already broken strands of the brown rope. I took the bamboo bow, attached the looped rope to a bamboo arrow, and shot it toward a branch slightly lower than our position. The arrow looped around the branch and fell to the ground. I signaled Flower to hold the end of the rope in its mouth and wrap it several times around the base of the Yin-Yang Tree. I secured the other end to a sturdy spot and pulled with all my might. It felt stable enough, so without hesitation, I hung onto the brown rope and swung across.

The roots of the Yin-Yang Tree plunged deep into the raw lacquer pool. I dared not risk standing on the hard crust of the lacquer surface, so I squatted down on the root, gripping the edge of one of the 'eyes' firmly. I looked up—what was that? Wasn't that the piece of red cloth I had given Tan Ping'er to ward off evil?

I was both thrilled and anxious. Without waiting for Jiye and Manniaoniao to catch up, I searched around and, using the lacquer tree's 'eyes' and branches I could grip, I rapidly climbed up to the red cloth, my heart pounding like thunder...