Time flows differently in the mountains, and one remains oblivious to the world's vast transformations.
「In the 459th year of the Han Emperor's reign, early in the second month.」
In the small village hidden within the Inner Mountain Pass, as winter faded, the air grew thick with the promise of spring.
The once-scorched mountain forests and lands were now draped in a tender green. As if overnight, the earth had shaken off all traces of death and donned the vibrant, life-filled mantle bestowed by the new spring.
As the morning sun cast its first rays, a thin mist swirled through the mountains, gently blanketing the village like a veil of fine silk.
In the region Beyond the River, wisps of cooking smoke rose and mingled with the mountain mists, painting a hazy and tranquil scene. On both sides of the still-dry riverbed, villagers swung their hoes across the stretches of farmland that extended far to the north, preparing for the first spring planting of the year.
