"It is right around this time..."
Gam Hu-jeong muttered to himself, his cloudy eyes lost in thought. With his hands behind his back, he gazed out the window at the mountain, which was stark white, frozen with snow and frost. The mountain was rugged, at a glance resembling a ridge of the Heavenly Mountains.
After taking control of the Western Village, he had looked for a place to establish his escort agency, and he had chosen this spot because he liked the look of that snow-covered mountain. In the dead of winter, the Heavenly Mountains were a hell covered in snow and ice.
Even wrapped in thick cotton clothes, a fur hat, and a scarf, the biting cold made his body tremble. The mountain path out of Sichuan was treacherous enough for birds to rest on, but the Heavenly Mountains were on another level. It was so harsh that even with a change of high-quality straw sandals, his feet would freeze and swell.
From that brutal land, like one of the eight cold hells, he had abandoned the body of his only younger brother, Gam Jae-jeong, and fled. He had never forgotten that miserable day for a single moment. Every time the leaves fell and snow piled on the mountain behind him, a fleeting hope would dig into his half-healed wounds.