Ordinary Disciple

Early winter.

The morning light is hazy.

A solitary figure climbs up the ridge.

It is a boy of about fifteen or sixteen, braving the cold wind, his youthful face lifted, beads of sweat glistening on his brow, breathing heavily, his lively eyes filled with both excitement and unease.

Yu Ye is heading to Spirit Flood Gorge to take part in this year’s winter hunt.

Winter hunt is what the mountain folk call it. Though Yu Family Village, Bai Family Village, and Feng Family Village are situated in remote corners, they preserve ancient customs to this day, holding rites for spring hunting, summer gathering, autumn slaughter, and winter hunt. Each year, at the turn of autumn and winter, the young and able men of the three villages travel together over two hundred miles to Spirit Flood Gorge, hunting wild beasts and curing meat for the winter, or gathering herbs to trade for cloth, salt, iron tools, and other necessities to supplement their daily needs.

Yet, Yu Family Village has ancestral rules—minors are forbidden from leaving the mountains to hunt.

Yu Ye, only fifteen, is not yet of age, but he slipped out of the village in secret, embarking alone on the journey to the winter hunt.

He had travelled through the darkness for half the night, and the sky was growing brighter.

Yu Family Village, and the Star Plain Gorge where it lies, were long out of sight. All around, only mountains upon mountains, shrouded in morning mist, the world blurred in every direction.

At the foot of the mountain lay a river valley.

If he