My blood ran cold. I scrambled several steps behind Hua’er, tossing aside the tiger-buckle Chunyu I held, and lunged forward, managing just to grip Hua’er’s short, thick tail. But the instant I lunged, the soil around the opening gave way violently under the strain. Hua’er’s tail instantly slipped from my grasp, and the dog and Qin Bing’er tumbled toward the pit like dry kindling, accompanied by Qin Bing’er’s soul-piercing scream and Hua’er’s helpless yelp... How terribly similar this scene was to when we fell into the Stygian River in Anle Cave!

My thoughts froze for a mere tenth of a second. Then I shot upright, stamping hard on the collapsing earth, and flew several meters sideways, diving headlong into the gaping maw of the pit. Only in mid-air did I realize the hole beneath my feet was profoundly dark, its depth unknowable, as gusts of air thick with all manner of rot and mildew billowed out, making my stomach churn until I nearly suffocated and passed out...

During the fall, regret flooded me. In that instant I saw Qin Bing’er and Hua’er drop, I hadn't conjured any noble thoughts of "Better to die on the same day than be born on the same day," or "If we cannot share a bed in life, we must share a tomb in death"; it had been a purely instinctual reaction. Now, assaulted by the reeking air surging from the abyss, logic screamed at me: if Qin Bing’er and Hua’er landed below, dazed and unable to dodge, wouldn't I, plummeting like a cannonball, crush them, breaking their bones and spilling their guts? Damn it all, impulse had been the ruin of me! Why hadn't I thought to reduce my speed by sliding down with the collapsing soil?

—But regret was useless now. I could only pray silently that there was a Stygian River waiting below, just like in Anle Cave!

A brief explanation is due here. Ever since leaving Anle Cave, I had been wearing my glasses—not contact lenses. During that lunge above, my spectacles had long since flown off, and I had no time to search for them. Consequently, my vision was now a blur; everything I looked at was riddled with phantom images. I couldn't discern the state of Qin Bing’er or Hua’er, only faintly hear their cries and barks echoing downward, piercing my eardrums... Of course, I was no exception; I flailed my limbs and shrieked in terror!

In that moment of sheer panic, Qin Bing’er’s scream abruptly ceased, and Hua’er let out one muffled whimper before falling silent.

Were we there? At the last possible instant, I exerted every ounce of strength to draw up my legs, contract my core, and pull my head in, curling into a tight ball. My intention was to avoid landing on Qin Bing’er and Hua’er, preventing further injury to them. Whether I myself would be smashed to pieces was beyond my immediate concern.

Before I could fully execute this maneuver, my head suddenly jarred to a halt, nearly snapping my neck, and a searing pain shot through my entire body, even reaching the deepest-seated nerve endings. Yet, I knew instinctively that I had reached the bottom. I tried to stand up, but before I could even lift my head, my entire body tumbled forward like a ball. Terrified, I clawed and flailed, attempting to steady myself, but having used my heels to briefly brake, achieving a near-standing posture, the momentum carried me forward, and I pitched headlong onto the ground. The dust kicked up mingled with the strange odors and flooded my throat, filling my chest and lungs with grit and earth. My body slid uncontrollably downward, much like skiing head-first. The hard gravel scraped my entire head and face as if they were being burned!

Realizing the soil was soft, in that desperate moment I jammed my hands into the earth ahead of my head, pushed off with my belly, and executed a backward flip, spinning 180 degrees to land in an inverted position. My thin shirt ripped free from my belt, quickly shredding like a tattered flag. My back felt as though countless scrubbing brushes were scouring cured meat; I didn't need to look to know I must have earned countless bloody welts. The searing, fiery pain was irrefutable proof.

Every part of the human body, regardless of how aesthetically pleasing or seemingly important it is, finds its ultimate utility at the right moment. For instance, if my stomach hadn't been slightly protruding and elastic, could I have used it to perform that flip? No! Furthermore, my heels proved invaluable; they acted as a brake against the sliding earth. I angled my soles and lower legs sharply, using my heels as the primary brake and my backside as a secondary one, aided by my hands. I slid for about ten meters before finally stopping.

Ptooey! I spat out the dust in my mouth and gasped for air. Turning my head sideways, I saw the original opening perched slightly above and to my left, now nothing more than a tiny patch of light the size of an ashtray. Of course, the actual light source was smaller than an ashtray—why? Anyone who wears prescription lenses knows the effect.

The area beneath the opening was already somber and dark, and my unfortunate nearsighted eyes, now without glasses, perceived only a chaotic void. Everything was fuzzy, even the clods of dirt right in front of me appeared as severe phantoms. I couldn't hear a single sound either, and I had no idea where Qin Bing’er and Hua’er might have rolled off to.

The Buddha once said that if God bestows a defect upon one part of your body, He must compensate elsewhere to maintain Einstein’s principle of universal balance. My eyesight is poor, but my mind is sharp. It was only now that I realized I was positioned on a steep incline, the slope covered in loose yet firm sand and soil...

Damn it all! I cursed inwardly. I am Man Yingying, an eagle soaring in the heavens, so why have I spent this recent period constantly stumbling into sunless underworlds, unable to fly or climb?

Muttering irritably, I reached out to scrape the dirt blocking my nostrils, only to find I was still gripping that embroidered shoe tightly!

The moment the faint, oppressive scent of the shoe reached me, the immediate past began to recede into memory. "Bing'er... Hua'er..." I tried to shout, but found I couldn't utter a sound. It seemed I had been knocked "silly" again—all willpower, yet no voice. Blast it!

I used to watch my mother scrub cured meat with a brush and wonder if the meat felt pain. Now, I finally knew firsthand: it hurt—a pain that sunk into the bone, into the heart, and into the thick, aged skin on the back of my heel!

In this predicament, I truly felt inclined to compose a poem to commemorate the moment. However, my overwhelming worry for Qin Bing’er and Hua’er made me abandon the thought. I would save that for my memoirs once we saw daylight again!

Since this place was a slope, Qin Bing’er and Hua’er must have rolled to the bottom. Perhaps they were stunned silly too, which is why there was silence. Only now did the sentiment of wanting to share the tomb arise.

After a struggle, I managed to force the words trapped in my throat out in a rush: “Bing’er... Hua’er... Where are you?” But my volume remained low, audible almost only to myself.

One of my palms was rubbed raw, caked with sand and dirt; I knew without looking that it must be a bloody mess. Thankfully, the hand holding the embroidered shoe was somewhat protected by the sole, though the sensation was worse than being pricked by the needles of Huo Ma grass. The heel of my imitation leather shoe had completely detached, turning it into a sandal. Well, that was one less thing to worry about fixing later.

I carefully stood up, ignoring the agony racking my body, squinting my eyes to try and see where Qin Bing’er and Hua’er had fallen. But even with my eyes narrowed to slits, the world remained pitch black. Panic rising, I braced my rear on the ground and tried to stand straight up. However, the sudden exertion caused my legs to buckle; lacking anything to grip, I pitched forward again in a spectacular belly-flop onto the slope. Thinking fast, I mimicked my earlier maneuver, sliding sideways, allowing me to crawl forward and stabilize myself on the incline. My pair of "sandals," however, were now embedded several meters above my head in the dirt.

Furious enough to burn a hole in my backside, I thought, Fine! If I’m barefoot, I’m not afraid of shoes! At worst, it’s just as Man Niao’er says: 'If death comes, look up to the heavens; if you live, you live forever!' Is a mere slope going to scare me? Hah!

I spun around and began running barefoot up the slope, leaning backward, paying no heed to the uneven footing or the fiery sting of my torn skin! My only conviction was to find Qin Bing’er and Hua’er—even if all I found were two mangled corpses. At least they would be the remains of our family of three, never separated in life or death.

The sound of the wind grew louder, my speed increasing. But I employed strategy: when the speed became uncontrollable, I’d sit down hard and skim forward for a stretch, then stand and run again. As I continued this run-and-skid motion, my subconscious registered a massive obstruction ahead. Unable to stop in time, I jumped forward with both feet near the obstacle. Moments later, a sharp pain shot through my ankle, and I felt myself vault onto a roof-like structure. Before I could react, a thunderous crash erupted, followed by a choking cloud of smoke and dust. I plunged straight down through the roof-like object, only to find myself skewered horizontally across what seemed to be a load-bearing beam. The pain in my two usually quiescent 'eggs' twisted every nerve in my body, robbing my hands of the strength to grip the beam. My body resumed its freefall...

Thud! In the blink of an eye, I crashed heavily onto the ground. The world exploded into stars blinking like my mother’s eyes, my internal organs revolted, and a metallic, sweet taste surged into my throat...

Subconsciously flailing my hands in the darkness, I unexpectedly closed my fingers around a warm, trembling hand...