Chapter 33 — Descending the Mountain

Suddenly a slender, jade-white hand, as though reaching out from eternal darkness, bearing a share of quiet beauty, printed with the moonlight and starlight of the sky, stretched toward the flower.

And plucked it!

In that instant a thunderclap sounded in Zhang Qingyue's head; it was as though all the moonlight in the heavens had lost its luster, and the whole garden was plunged into darkness.

He turned his head and looked, carrying with him an inexplicable resentment.

A young girl in water-green robes stood there, as though she had drawn all the radiance of the sky to herself, and gently lifted the blossom to her nose and breathed in deeply.

Note 1: Classic of Mountains and Seas, Book of Mountains, Volume Four, Mount Zhugou: "Going south by water another five hundred li, one comes to Mount Zhugou. It has no grass or trees, and much sand and stone. This mountain is a hundred li broad, and abounds in sleeping fish."