Chapter 1: The Last House on the Mountain

The locals had told her the old man on the peak would not see visitors, did not want company, and had once turned away the provincial governor by not answering the door for six days. Meng Qiu knocked anyway, because she had run out of other options and her left hand had not been warm in three years. The door opened on the second knock, which she suspected meant he had been watching her climb the path for the past hour and had simply been waiting to see whether she would give up. He looked at her left hand, then at her face, and said, with no particular ceremony, "The Glacial Wasting. You have perhaps two winters left. Come in."