At quarter past 5:00 AM, Ji An woke from a hazy dream to hear a faint noise from the bamboo basket.
He yawned, and the sound from the basket immediately ceased.
Rising from his bed, he walked to the basket and saw the Spirit-Seeking Rat bound like a zongzi with strips of cloth.
This Spirit-Seeking Rat was clearly a juvenile; adults were as big as cats.
The juvenile had only its eyes exposed, while its mouth and limbs were tightly bound by the strips of cloth.
It wasn't very strong and was tightly wrapped in three layers of cloth, making escape impossible.
Ji An ignored it, went outside to splash his face with water, and the coolness quickly refreshed him.
The sky looked like an overturned bowl, with the moon a mere sliver, and the starlight was incredibly dim.
The distant mountains resembled a giant beast lying in the shadows, indistinct and hard to discern.
