Chapter 1: Prologue

A winter evening.

On the last subway train of Beijing's Line 5.

There were few passengers, only scattered riders in a handful of cars. In one carriage, there was just a single person — a drowsy woman wearing black-framed glasses and a white down jacket... or perhaps a girl? Anyway, these days, older virgins are as common as mature young girls, so it hardly matters whether one says woman or girl.

"Not a shred of inspiration!" As the carriage jolted, the girl snapped awake and began muttering inexplicably. "There isn't a single decent urban legend in all of Beijing. And that one about seeing the Dragon-Locking Well if you're alone on the last Line 5 train... there are lights everywhere, modern equipment all around. I'd have to be an idiot to keep wasting my time here!"

"But what about tomorrow's chapter?" After venting, the older girl stood up, holding the handrail, and let her thoughts drift weakly onward. "I've already taken two days off. I can forget about this month's perfect attendance bonus. My editor probably won't even bother with a hack writer like me. But those few die-hard readers I still have will probably be unhappy, right?"

"I had perfectly good time-travel stories to write. Why on earth did I ever get it into my head to write urban supernatural?"

"Could it be that my talent has run dry? Should I switch jobs? But what else can a useless Chinese literature major do besides write web novels?"

"Maybe I should go back to my hometown?"

While her thoughts wandered aimlessly, the subway doors suddenly opened. It seemed... they had arrived at a station?

The older girl shivered as the cold wind rushed through the open doors, and then, almost instinctively, she stepped out.

It was pitch black all around. The subway car behind her paused only briefly before closing its doors and continuing on its way. The bewildered older girl still couldn't grasp what was happening. But soon, as her eyes adjusted to the light, this writer of women's fiction had no attention to spare for anything else. Or rather, she was utterly transfixed by the scene before her — an utterly ordinary well, built of stone, dilapidated and starkly real. Behind the well stood a stone tablet, its inscription blurred beyond recognition. To one side of the well stood a stone pillar, and from this pillar a long iron chain stretched out, trailing all the way down into the mouth of the well.

In that very instant, the older girl seemed to forget emotions like shock and fear. Driven almost by a sense of mission, she strode forward quickly and tried to grab hold of the long chain, simply to see if it was truly endless, as the legend said. After all, having come all the way to the Dragon-Locking Well, wouldn't it be a wasted trip not to pull the chain?

But the very moment she grasped the chain, the stone tablet behind the well suddenly trembled slightly, then rapidly cracked apart. The stone pillar where the chain began broke off directly, and a flash of multicolored light flickered from within the well. And then, this muddle-headed, fearless writer of women's fiction was dragged backward into the well by the iron chain.

The instant she entered the well, the stone tablet shattered completely and covered over the well's mouth.

"In the first month of the first year of the Yongshou era of Han, a minor official in Liaoxi was returning from the provincial seat when he encountered a woman emerging from a well on the road. She claimed to be a native of Qiao in the Pei Kingdom, saying she had fallen into a well and, in a daze, found herself here. The official observed her complexion, speech, and clothing, all of which were befitting a great family, and he took her in. Half a year later, the official died. The woman did not remarry, but lived as a widow raising his posthumous son. Moreover, she was skilled in trade, knowledgeable in goods and wealth, delighted in charity, and aided orphans and widows. She was always respected by the clan, and all called her: Lady Gongsun." — In Search of the Supernatural

(End of Chapter)