Shen Zhuxi did not know how long she had been lost in that heavy, drowsy sleep. She only felt as though she had sunk into a stretch of mud so deep that every step was impossible.

The mud turned scalding hot at times, as though live coals smoldered beneath it, and at other times turned bitterly cold, as though ice lay hidden underneath. Shen Zhuxi drifted in the haze, unable to control her own body. She wanted to get out of the mud, but her exhausted and powerless body was trapped in the thick, clinging mire and could not move. Even opening her eyes to see what was around her had become an impossible luxury.

She could not say how long had passed when some faint clarity suddenly surfaced in her hazy consciousness. Through the mud that swung between burning and freezing, she sensed a warm, moist breath of air moving around her. She wondered if it was an illusion, strained to make it out, and then caught hold of a familiar sound.

A voice so familiar that even in the midst of sleep, it struck her like a thunderclap.

Memories came flooding in. She remembered her own name, and that other name carved into her very body, never to be forgotten for as long as she lived —

“Li Wu…”

She struggled and murmured his name, barely audible.

Her voice was faint and hoarse, no louder than the hum of a mosquito — yet in the very next instant, someone came rushing to her side.

“Shen Zhuxi!” Li Wu’s voice, both frantic and overjoyed, rang out in her ears.

Shen Zhuxi gathered all her strength and forced open her weighted eyelids.

Her vision swam and blurred. Li Wu’s hazy outline wavered before her. After several blinks, the image slowly settled into one, and her sight cleared. Shen Zhuxi saw Li Wu’s gaunt face, rough with unshaved stubble, and a pang of sorrowful tenderness surged up in her instantly.

“You… you look so…” She stretched out a trembling hand and laid it gently against his hollow cheek, her voice raw: “How long have I been asleep?”

Li Wu gripped her hand tightly, and a tremor he could barely conceal ran through his voice:

“You’ve been asleep for three days, little fool.”

“Three whole days?” Shen Zhuxi said, startled. “I… what happened to me?”

“Poison… insect… bite… sick…”

A halting, oddly accented voice came from not far away. Only then did Shen Zhuxi realize there was a third person in the room. She turned instinctively toward the voice, catching just enough to make out that she was lying inside a small wooden cabin, before Li Wu’s two large hands came to cover her eyes firmly.

“Go put some clothes on before you come back out here!” Li Wu barked.

After that, the sound of bare feet on the floor came from inside the room, along with unintelligible muttering in that strange, halting voice. After a moment, Li Wu lowered his hands. Shen Zhuxi saw a young boy dressed in a full covering of tiger skin, his feet bare on the ground.

The boy had delicate features. A scattering of small brown freckles dotted his cheeks and the bridge of his nose like a thin veil, which by rights ought to have given him an amiable and charming look — but the boy had no care for his appearance. His hair was shoved back in a wild tangle, shaped like a long bird’s nest, and the four limbs that peeked out beneath the tiger skin were spotted with dried flecks of mud. His large, dark eyes rolled briskly in their sockets, keen and alert, with the clear whites and dark irises of an animal long accustomed to forest life — a wild, small creature that had suddenly come face-to-face with people.

“I… Dong Miji…” the boy said, pointing to his own chest, forcing out his imperfect words in the language of Yan with great effort.

He extended one hand — and the tiger skin he had been clutching at his chest slid downward.

Li Wu’s eyes went wide. Before the skin could slide past the boy’s chest, he shot up like an arrow and in the blink of an eye was standing before Dong Miji, catching the falling skin with a deft hand.

He rearranged the tiger skin in a few quick movements, wedged both ends of it firmly under Dong Miji’s armpits, and glared at Dong Miji with a ferocious look: “…If it drops again, your head drops with it.”

Whether Dong Miji understood or not, he bobbed his head up and down rapidly, like a chicken pecking grain.

…It appeared Li Wu had already established absolute authority over this individual.

Shen Zhuxi was still marveling at this when Li Wu returned to the bedside. The exasperation on his face vanished in an instant and was replaced by warmth and concern — a transformation so complete that Dong Miji, who witnessed it, was left staring in blank astonishment.

“This immodest creature is called Dong Miji — he is the one who has been destroying our markers all this time.” Li Wu explained to Shen Zhuxi, who had been unconscious for nearly three days. “His clan has lived at the bottom of this cliff for hundreds of years, cut off from the outside world. They neither leave, nor allow outsiders to enter.”

Shen Zhuxi had just opened her mouth with a question when Li Wu cut her off without hesitation.

“I know what you’re about to ask,” he said with complete seriousness. “Rest assured — I have absolutely not gone native.”

Shen Zhuxi stared at him blankly.

She looked at Dong Miji, who was standing nearby in a fog of confusion, then looked back at Li Wu, who had misunderstood her entirely, and said: “I was going to ask — since outsiders aren’t allowed to enter, how are we…”

“Kill… originally… kill…” Dong Miji seemed to have caught only those words, and jumped in to speak. “I… my… mother…”

“Mother,” Li Wu said, cutting him off.

“Mother! Mother!” Dong Miji remembered the Yan word and nodded enthusiastically. “My mother says… we… not kill women… you are her man… also… not kill…”

“This is a strange place — the ones in charge are all women.” Li Wu, seeing Shen Zhuxi’s puzzlement, added this explanation.

“Is it like the Kingdom of Women from the storybooks?” Shen Zhuxi was astonished — she had not imagined there was truly such a place in the world where women held authority.

“I don’t know what this Kingdom of Women is. But the people here are all thoroughly indecent —” Li Wu knitted his brows, visibly disgusted. “They don’t marry. They simply couple freely. Today with this one, tomorrow with that one — every single one of them is like water that flows in any direction!”

Shen Zhuxi thought about it for quite a while before she understood that the expression he meant was “fickle as flowing water.”

“Would you please say less.” She glanced over at Dong Miji, who was listening in, feeling wary.

“I’m the one who taught him whatever Yan language he knows. I know perfectly well what he can and can’t understand.” Li Wu said, and gave her shoulder a reassuring pat.

“I’m going to get you some water.” Li Wu said. “You’ve been living on flower nectar these past few days. Are you hungry?”

Now that Li Wu mentioned it, Shen Zhuxi realized she was famished. She nodded, and Li Wu said: “I’ll go get you something to eat.”

“But…” Shen Zhuxi could not help glancing at Dong Miji.

If Li Wu left, there would only be her and Dong Miji in the room.

This boy looked simple and innocent enough, but who could say what he might do the moment they were alone?

“Don’t worry. He doesn’t have the nerve.” Li Wu said.

With Li Wu’s word on it, Shen Zhuxi felt reassured. After Li Wu stepped out of the wooden cabin, she looked toward Dong Miji, who was standing idle and staring at her with open curiosity, and said pleasantly: “My name is Shen Zhuxi.”

Dong Miji blinked at her blankly.

Shen Zhuxi slowed her speech and pointed at herself with her right index finger: “My name — is Shen — Zhu — Xi —”

This time Dong Miji seemed to understand. He slowly repeated it after her: “Shen — Zhu — Xi —”

“That is my name.” Shen Zhuxi smiled. “Why did you destroy our markers?”

Dong Miji went blank again.

The quality of Li Wu’s three days of teaching left much to be desired.

Shen Zhuxi drew a vertical line in the air with her finger, then looked at Dong Miji: “Do you remember this?”

“Yes…”

“Why did you draw this?”

“I… save… you…” Dong Miji wrung his mind for words and said haltingly, “If our clan people find you… if… if… Qiqi people find you… all die… die… long long long long ago… outside people came before… we… hate outside people…”

The words “Qiqi” were spoken in Dong Miji’s native tongue — words he had been unable to dredge up any equivalent for in Yan language, blurted out in desperation. Given that a Yan word for “people” followed, Shen Zhuxi guessed that “Qiqi people” must refer to another group living somewhere in the depths of the vast cliff chasm.

As for the “outside people who came long, long ago” — that must have been the person who, in the outside world, left behind the legend that the abyss beneath the great cliff could be traversed by passing through the Swallowing-Heaven Cave.

“If you wanted to save us, why did you ambush Li Wu at night?”

Considering that he likely could not understand the word “ambush,” Shen Zhuxi rephrased:

“Why did you try to hurt Li Wu in the middle of the night? He nearly died at your hands —”

“I didn’t mean it!” Dong Miji became agitated, and his cheeks flushed for no apparent reason. Before Shen Zhuxi could puzzle out why he was turning red, she heard Dong Miji say with a look of genuine anguish: “Missed… missed… I wanted to… hit the ground… scare him… but I don’t know why… hit him instead… I didn’t mean it…”

Could there truly be such an absurd blunder?

Shen Zhuxi studied him — he did not look like he was lying — and tentatively accepted this account.

“You call them the Qiqi people — what do they call you?” Shen Zhuxi asked again.

Dong Miji thought for a moment and said: “Rong… Rong people…”

“What Rong people?”

Li Wu walked back in carrying a large clay bowl. The bowl was filled with various kinds of fruit, and hanging from his left hand was a water skin filled to the brim.

“He says his clan is called the Rong people — didn’t you know that?” Shen Zhuxi said.

“What do I care about that?” Li Wu replied shortly. “You lay there unconscious for three days without a sound, and I was frantic enough to get sores all around my mouth — whether they’re called Rong people or Hairy people, the only thing I cared about was when my woman would wake up!”

Shen Zhuxi looked at the dark shadows under his eyes and the hollows in his cheeks and said nothing, feeling too guilty to speak.

“And in all these days I haven’t managed to see the chieftain — meaning this little nuisance’s mother.” Li Wu cast a none-too-pleased look at Dong Miji, who had been standing quietly and deferentially since his return. “In this peculiar place, where women are held above men, they insist that the chieftain will only receive them once you’re awake. I have wanted to meet her but couldn’t get an audience!”

Li Wu picked up a red fruit from the clay bowl — still beaded with moisture — and brought it to Shen Zhuxi’s lips. She bit into it, and an abundance of sweet juice welled up in her mouth at once. Worried that the juice would spill, Shen Zhuxi instinctively opened her mouth wide over the part she had bitten, taking in as much as she could. She sucked in several mouthfuls and swallowed the sweet rush of juice, then asked:

“When can I meet the chieftain?”

Dong Miji, knowing the question was directed at him, answered: “You woke up… my mother will know… should be tonight…”

“I’m going with her.” Li Wu said immediately.

Dong Miji looked at him with an expression of difficulty. After a moment, he said: “I… will think of something.”

Whatever Dong Miji said to his mother was not known to them. But that very same evening, the chieftain of the Rong clan did indeed summon both of them.

Shen Zhuxi had only just recovered from her grave illness, and her body was still very weak. The Rong clan chieftain was even so considerate as to send two powerfully built men wearing nothing but wolf skins around their lower bodies to carry a palanquin for her.

Li Wu saw this and very nearly lost his temper entirely. He sent the two barely-clothed men away, lifted Shen Zhuxi into his arms sideways, then commanded her to keep her eyes tightly shut, and carrying her past the many curious Rong people who had gathered to watch, strode at full speed straight into the chieftain’s great house.