Xu Changqing awoke to the faint sound of voices. 'It must be one of the Zhi Kouching leading guests into the mountains,' she thought. 'They're probably not far from where I entered.'
She recalled the first time she'd heard a voice in Changqing Garden; it had given her quite a scare. Fortunately, it had been her grandmother's voice from back home. For a moment, she had thought someone else was in here with her.
But since one of the Zhi Kouching was leading guests into the mountains, 'the sun must be high in the sky by now.' Otherwise, they wouldn't dare enter this area so early in the morning.
Even on the outskirts of the mountain, no one who didn't grow up in Baizigou would ever guide someone who didn't even know that a simple cloth strip marked a trap.
Xu Changqing had no intention of finding out who was outside. She first put away a gem-inlaid item, an enamel pocket watch, and a packet containing about eleven or twelve loose diamonds.
