At dusk, a carriage stopped in front of Qi Shui Pavilion.
Manager Ji got out of the carriage and walked into the pavilion alone.
He went to the gazebo first, but Yao An was not there today. He then headed for the main house, but just as he reached the doorway, he suddenly stopped.
The door of the main house was left open. The afterglow of the setting sun was blocked by the eaves, leaving only a sliver of light at the threshold; deeper inside, it was a solid wall of darkness.
From within that dim house, Manager Ji heard a sticky, wet chewing sound, accompanied now and then by a woman's painful moans, as if something were tearing at her internal organs.
He tensed, instinctively retreating two steps, staring into the house in bewildered alarm.
A moment later, the chewing stopped. Yao An, draped in a long robe, walked out of the darkness and stood just inside the threshold, in the shadow, his expression half a smile, half not: "You come and don't even call out?"
