When I nearly missed my step and stopped short, taking in the scene before me, my heart chilled to the bone. Ahead yawned an abyss of unknown depth, and my feet rested on a smooth, white, semi-circular stone platform jutting out from the cliff face. Opposite and on both sides were sheer drops; clumps of weeds and scrubby trees dotted the precipice, while patches of stark white rock—like flaking, mottled plaster—broke through the tangled growth of vines, thick and thin. Black was interwoven with white, white with black, resembling a garish, tattered cloth barely concealing the cliff’s bare skin. There was no wind, so the vegetation clung still, lending the environment a profound silence. Looking up revealed only darkness, and peering down brought more darkness. Neither the height of this gorge nor its ultimate depth could be ascertained.

I felt a surge of irritation. How could I have walked myself onto this dead end? Turning back, I saw Ji Ye. The old fellow remained remarkably composed. He was no longer furtively glancing behind him; instead, he set down his Sidao (Command Knife) and the Eight-Treasure Bronze Bell, shrugged off his soiled, eight-paneled black luoqun (robe), and plopped down onto the stone. From his pouch, he pulled out tobacco flakes, rolled a crude "Blasting Tube," stuck it in his mouth, and began puffing contentedly. In moments, hazy smoke enveloped his crown-adorned head, making his expression indistinct, radiating an air of inscrutable mystery.

Helpless, I sighed, dropped the Man Niao Niao—which felt as heavy as Mount Tai on my back—and sank onto the stone beside him. Though I knew the path ahead was hopeless, I lacked the strength to turn back and search for another way. Qin Ping'er, that girl, must have been exhausted too. Seeing Ji Ye and me halt, she found a clean spot nearby and sat down quietly to rearrange her attire. That ungrateful wretch, Man Niao Niao, was sleeping like a log, snoring with such vigor... honestly, as if he hadn't slept in eight lifetimes. He shifted on the stone, using his arm as a pillow, sleeping through heaven and earth, sun and moon.

Fearing Man Niao Niao might roll off the rounded stone in his sleep, I quickly grabbed some thick vines nearby and securely bound him around the waist, keeping a firm grip on the ends. I held up two fingers to signal Ji Ye for his "Blasting Tube." Ji Ye took two quick drags, flicked the ash, and handed the herbal smoke to me. I snatched it eagerly, sucked in my cheeks, and took a fierce pull of the pungent herb.

Although the flavor was far less refined than the cigarettes I usually smoked, the potency was significantly stronger. Under the soothing influence of the herb, my long-held fatigue slowly dissipated. Combined with the bamboo tube wine evaporating with my sweat, my spirits lifted, and my thoughts began to sharpen. It seemed the saying, "A man who doesn't smoke is a wasted traveler; a man who doesn't drink is a wasted wanderer," was not merely an excuse men made for their vices.

I decided to seize this opportunity to press Ji Ye on all the questions that had been clogging my mind for so long.

Once resolved, however, I didn't know where to begin. My mind was a tangle of thoughts, each demanding full clarification, yet in this precarious environment, after such prolonged exertion, my thinking lacked organization. I took a hard drag from the smoke, resolving to start with the immediate matters. Seeing Qin Ping'er and Man Niao Niao sleeping peacefully, I lowered my voice and asked Ji Ye, "How did your family... know there was liquor stored in those Nanzhu (nanmu bamboo) stalks?"

Ji Ye glanced at Man Niao Niao and Qin Ping'er, then lowered his voice in return. "I saw that method of storage when I was a child."

"Then... how did your family know the liquor inside didn't contain... those things?" I still couldn't definitively say that what was in the jars in the thatched hut was the legendary Gu (poisonous insects/charm), so I used the vague term "those things."

"You mean Gu, don't you?" Ji Ye snatched back the "Blasting Tube" and took a pull. "Because I tested it before!"

"Tested it? You entered the bamboo forest before us?"

"Mmm."

"To find that book?" I vaguely recalled Man Niao Niao mentioning Ji Ye was searching for some book.

"Mmm."

"Did you find it?"

"No."

"..." I paused for a moment. "Then how did you manage to cross Mount Leizi..."

Ji Ye cut me off. "Mount Leizi? I never crossed it. I didn't take the same route into the bamboo forest."

Huh? Not the way we came? Was there another path leading directly to the grove? Realizing this, I posed the question.

"Perhaps you didn't notice at the time. That thatched hut and the bamboo grove were not far behind the 'Suspended Tower' you mentioned. I went directly around the outer wall of the tower to enter the forest."

Ah! I was stunned. Does this mean all our hardship was self-inflicted trouble? Was my guess about the plum blossom pattern on the embroidered shoe sole wrong? Damn it, that was a huge blunder.

Ji Ye must have seen the fluctuation of emotions on my face and said, "For people like you, entering the forest directly from behind the wall wouldn't have been possible."

"Why?"

"That... I can only say it was your destiny."

Ugh? Here he goes with the mystical nonsense again! I shot him an irritated glare. Ji Ye didn't even look at me. "The last line of the song I sang explained everything."

The last line of the song? Oh, I remembered it: "That flower blooming toward the sun will eventually wither; the end of the extending branch is the cycle you seek for a thousand years." It was precisely because of this lyric and the plum blossom on the embroidered shoe sole that I concluded we had to head east and acted on it. We endured untold hardship, nearly losing our lives, only to be dismissed with Ji Ye's single phrase, "It was your destiny." Thinking about it made me feel like Ji Ye was deliberately messing with us.

"With your sharp mind, I knew you would grasp the meaning of the lyrics and find that path," Ji Ye said, offering a poorly timed compliment.

The flattery did nothing for me; I only felt infinite annoyance and intense dissatisfaction. "Are you saying my interpretation of the plum blossom on the embroidered shoe sole was correct—that it truly indicated the path we took?"

"Mmm."

"Then why didn't you just say so back then, instead of singing that bizarrely modulated song?"

"I have my reasons for not speaking plainly, and there's something I can't confirm right now. Don't ask about it; I won't tell you for the time being. As for why I continued communicating with you through song later on, I'll tell you the day I decide to accept you as a disciple. For now, I can only say this is the rule of our craft."

Blast it, that's equivalent to asking nothing! Accept me as a disciple? How had the situation reversed? Didn't Ji Ye always want me to be his apprentice before? Why was it no longer contingent on my willingness? What was that unconfirmed matter that made him so secretive?

Though brimming with questions, I believed eight or nine-tenths of one thing: that before we met in the thatched hut, after Ji Ye apprenticed under Old Man Xiang, he communicated with us only through song. Recalling that Tujia Tima (shamans/storytellers) preserve Tujia history through singing, his talk of "rules" actually seemed plausible. — In this world, some mysterious things are simply not meant for outsiders to inquire about.

I was about to ask about other matters, like Ji Ye's apprenticeship (which felt like the root of everything that followed), when Ji Ye abruptly spat out his cigarette stub, sounding slightly impatient. "It’s not the right time to explain everything to you now. There are many things I haven't fully grasped myself... We'll talk later! This isn't the moment!" After that, Ji Ye completely ignored me and walked to the edge of the stone to examine the terrain.

A flicker of anger ignited in me. The joy of seeing him again had instantly turned into resentment. This old man was growing more mysterious by the day, his actions increasingly erratic. I had no prior contact with Tujia Tima, but I wondered if the mysterious Tujia Tima were all as aloof and unresponsive as he was now? — This was so inconsistent with the boastful personality he displayed before.

I thought, if you won't discuss your own affairs, you should at least offer some guidance on what we encountered! I watched Ji Ye's retreating back, waiting until he turned around and stepped into the relatively safe zone before speaking. "We encountered many strange things afterward. Could you trouble yourself—oh, I mean, Tima Master—to enlighten us?" My attitude was sincere, but the tone was saturated with thinly veiled sarcasm aimed at his recent reticence.

Ji Ye took no offense and replied calmly, "Speak."