Five years ago, the thirteenth day of the eleventh lunar month.
Suzhou, Huaxi County.
The back mountains of Phoenix Valley.
"Baka yaro!"
"Snap... snap-snap... snap..."
"..."
Xie Jiuli felt her head buzzing, her body stinging with raw, searing pain.
She snapped her eyes open, only to be met with the sight of wooden clogs, a samurai uniform, a shaven pate, and a short, stunted man with a murderous gaze, scowling at her with malicious, unbridled rage as he gripped a long whip.
Confusion washed over her. She had just blown up a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force base on Kyushu Island and was rushing back to Nanjing to attend the national memorial ceremony for her father. Why, in the blink of an eye, was she in these mountains, in such a predicament?
Chapter 17