The whole process now, looking back, felt bizarre and unbelievable. Even stranger was the fact that Qin Ping'er, who had attended university, remained utterly silent throughout, allowing me to lead her around like a puppet while I busied myself. If anyone had witnessed this, they certainly would have thought either I or Qin Ping'er had lost our minds or were possessed. At the time, I didn't dwell on it; relying on my eyesight and Qin Ping'er’s hand, I worked up a cold sweat from exertion, managing to pull out all but the last two Yin Arrows from Man Niao Niao—the one in his back vest area and the one in the back of his head.

These last two arrows caused me considerable difficulty. The problem lay in two aspects: firstly, unlike the others, these two showed no sign of loosening even after a good deal of prodding; secondly, their locations were precisely where Man Niao Niao’s vital points lay, meaning one wrong move could lead to everything being for naught—his continued stillness was proof enough of this.

Sensing my hesitation, Qin Ping'er whispered, "What's wrong?"

I gritted my teeth, thinking to myself: if it’s a total loss, so be it; if I survive, I’ll have lived countless years. Since I was already treating this desperate case like a last resort, what was one more risk? If the outcome wasn't what I hoped for, perhaps my overworked "plumb bob" shouldn't be blamed for the misfortune of his "Scale."

With that thought, I decisively took Qin Ping'er's hand and moved closer to the arrow in Man Niao Niao's back. I leaned in close to her ear and said, "Whether Man Niao Niao lives or dies depends entirely on this moment. Do not let go unless I tell you to, understand?" Qin Ping'er nodded, asking no further questions.

A quick, sharp pain is better than a long, drawn-out one. I didn't care if Man Niao Niao could stand it. Grasping Qin Ping'er's fingers around the shaft of the back arrow, I took a deep breath, roared, "Hold tight!" and yanked upwards with all my might using Qin Ping'er's wrist. Man Niao Niao convulsed, letting out a sharp cry of pain. I was only focused on using my left hand to press down on him, unprepared for the pulled arrow’s tip to nearly impale Qin Ping'er’s eye. Fortunately, my reaction time was swift, and I managed to snuff out the momentum, allowing Qin Ping'er to narrowly escape. I realized later this was just my own anxiety playing tricks; that arrow posed no real threat to her.

Once that arrow was out, Man Niao Niao’s shrieks echoed thunderously. Relieved, I followed the same procedure and successfully pulled the final arrow from the back of his head. The pain Man Niao Niao endured during this process is beyond description, but I inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. Touching him, I found his body was gradually warming up, like early spring.

"Done!" I couldn't contain my excitement, grabbing Qin Ping'er’s hand to feel Man Niao Niao’s back.

"Done?" Qin Ping'er's voice held a note of joy mixed with doubt. When she touched Man Niao Niao’s back, she nodded forcefully, "Done!!"

Man Niao Niao cried out a few more times, thrashing about on the ground, before gradually falling silent. I jumped in alarm and quickly checked his nose; I found his breathing even and his body temperature returning to normal. I realized the poor fellow had simply worn himself out and passed into a deep sleep.

I managed a wry smile and, dragging my exhausted body, switched places with Qin Ping'er.

I slumped down onto the cold stone beam, my face slick with cold sweat pressed against the stone, unwilling to speak. Qin Ping'er, perhaps from exhaustion too, remained silent as well. Gradually, her breathing evened out. I looked up and saw that she, too, had fallen asleep, nestled against Man Niao Niao.

After the intense effort, I longed for sleep to restore my strength, but this stone beam was no comfortable chaise lounge, and that circular platform was no Simmons mattress. Yet, Qin Ping'er and Man Niao Niao were now sleeping soundly and adorably, and as their leader and anchor, I had to maintain vigilance—what if they rolled over and tumbled off the beam? So, I offered another bitter smile, keeping a hand on each of their clothes, my head still resting on the cold, hard stone as I thought things over.

I decided it was time to properly sort through certain matters.

Based on our current predicament, my initial guess was correct: the plum blossom pattern on the embroidered shoe held a hidden significance. Looking back now, there was a stronger piece of evidence supporting this: the "Tiger's Mouth" of that small stilt house. I should note that, within my line of sight, I hadn't seen a single stilt house whose main door faced the opposite direction of the stone archway; they all faced the same direction as the archway, which was east. Only that very small stilt house broke this pattern, its door facing west. This was surely suspicious. If that stilt house corresponded to the first plum blossom on the shoe, did the passage after the "Swallow's Mouth" represent the main trunk of the plum tree? We had been running helter-skelter inside and had no time to check if the passage’s direction matched the tree trunk’s. Now that the embroidered shoe had fallen into this massive pit and vanished, comparison was impossible.

If this hypothesis holds true, then this giant pit represents the second plum blossom. But what precisely did the size of each blossom signify? Did it correspond to the size of a specific space? For example, this pit was far larger than the previous "Swallow's Mouth."

I shook my head with a wry smile, thinking things certainly couldn't be that simple.

As for why Man Niao Niao nearly died from the Yin Arrows while Qin Ping'er and I remained unscathed was also perplexing. Man Niao Niao was a burly man, and after being infused with "Flames" by Old Lady An'an Tima, his Yang energy should have been robust. Ordinary Half-Puppets—if such things even existed—shouldn't have been a match for him. The strange thing was that he was the one who suffered, while Qin Ping'er, the only known Yin person, came away completely unharmed. Wasn't that strange?

Of course, there were many more things demanding my thought and exploration. For instance, what exactly was this place?

I only vaguely remembered it being a large, funnel-shaped deep pit, similar to the "Reef Hollow" in Anle Cave. As for the specifics, my focus on saving Man Niao Niao had prevented a thorough look. Now that I could finally catch my breath, I could see the pit clearly.

Upon seeing it clearly, my first thought was: how familiar this place looks.

After thinking for a long time, I suddenly realized: I wasn't familiar with the place itself, but with its structure. This deep pit was nearly identical to the Leizi at my home—it was simply a colossal version of it.

The Leizi (fourth tone) might be a product of the Stone Age, extremely rare; only my family in Xiama Port Village possessed one. Its function was similar to the common stone mill: a tool for the final processing of grain crops. Our family's Leizi was used to grind corn kernels into corn flour. Its structure generally resembled a stone mill, composed of upper and lower sections, but with slight differences. A stone mill has a small inlet near the edge of the grinding plate, whereas the Leizi's inlet is large and located in the center of the plate, tapering downward like a funnel. A horizontal beam ran through the center, holding a vertical axle that secured the upper and lower grinding plates. Corn kernels were poured into the funnel-shaped inlet; as the plates rotated, the kernels were ground into powder between their interlocking teeth, then leaked out through the gap between the plates, completing the milling process.

Mentioning the Leizi always brings tears to my eyes. As a child, I had countless close encounters with it, helping my grandfather operate it countless times. I developed a severe aesthetic fatigue towards it, even growing to detest it. Fortunately, as life improved, the Leizi was eventually replaced by machinery, becoming an artifact of history, silently occupying a corner and narrating bygone hardships.

My lengthy description only serves to illustrate that this place is a Leizi, this dark, deep pit below is the Leizi Pit, and the platform where Man Niao Niao and Qin Ping'er lay is naturally the Leizi’s central vertical axis.

The question remains: was this massive "Leizi" naturally formed or artificially carved? If natural, I wouldn't be surprised at all; in the hidden corners of Xi Du, natural features mimicking everyday tools due to karst topography are commonplace. If it were carved by hand from a single gigantic stone, the implications warrant deep thought. From my observation, I lean toward the latter suspicion; no matter how marvelous nature’s craftsmanship, it wouldn't render something so uncannily accurate—apart from the sheer size, there is almost no discernible difference from a real Leizi.

So, who created this giant "Leizi"? And what purpose does its placement here serve?