After climbing for half an hour, she noticed that the sky was overcast, and a large dark cloud was moving toward her from the northwest. Fortunately the pit with goldthread was nearby, and she quickened her pace. Just then she heard a noise from a tree. It was a python. Her legs went limp. She decided to go around this big guy. As she ran nervously, she wondered if this was the one Gray had encountered. After she detoured and thought she had finally distanced herself from the scary python, she saw that the mountain before her was now unfamiliar. It was a place she had never seen before, and the woods were so dense that they blocked every way out. Even the path she had taken had disappeared. This was a banyan tree forest. Mrs. Yi had seen this ghostly tree only in books, for it was not a local species. Mrs. Yi was cut off in the dark banyan forest. It was difficult to take a step in any direction, and she suddenly felt exhausted.

She heard rain falling—at first, only the pitter-patter of rain in the woods, but soon such a heavy rain that she couldn’t keep her eyes open. Mrs. Yi stood against a big tree, holding herself together. She thought, Will I die here today? She thought of her husband, she thought of the director, and she thought of Kay. But she was quite composed. The cold rain had cleared her mind. “So there have always been two Niulan Mountains,” she said with a little laugh. Ah, the python was the serpent of fate which had led her to this place! But what did it mean? A strong force grew within her—she must struggle. “Darling, my dear! Help me!” she shouted wildly.

Ah, her husband answered her from afar. His voice was barely audible, and she didn’t know what he said, but she knew he would come for her, no matter what. Mrs. Yi kept shouting as she looked for a way out. The rain was lighter, but there was no way out. The aerial roots of the banyan trees were dangling above, like evil spirits. Cornered, Mrs. Yi suddenly started digging in the ground with her hoe. She didn’t know how she came up with this idea—as if it were premeditated. After digging up the surrounding weeds, she found that the rain-soaked mud was easy to dig. She dug a few times, and shouted a few times to her husband again. It was strange: there were no roots or stones in this spot, only beautiful red earth, and so she easily scooped up the earth and threw it aside. Soon she had dug out a waist-deep pit. Mrs. Yi was energized now and thought this might even be a tunnel. Before long, the pit was the depth of a person, and inside the pit she could no longer hear her husband’s voice. As she was reinforcing the wall of the pit, a man behind her said, “Why do you keep beating me on the back? I have a herniated disc.” Mrs. Yi looked up, and saw that the pit was now spacious and at least five meters deep, so deep that she couldn’t climb out by herself. The man stood in front of her and looked at her curiously.