Event synopsis: A Death in Chunfen
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Acting as an epilogue for Where Vernal Winds Will Never Blow, A Death in Chunfen focuses on Qiubai's solo journey from Yumen to the northwestern Yanese village of Moushan. Starting from helping a runaway boy to reach his hometown, it will soon embroil into a bizarre, ridiculous incident caused by a devastating drought, financial scandal, and local discrimination.
Afraid to Return Home
Following the Yumen crisis, Qiubai embarks on her solo journey to hone her skills as well as seeking enlightenment for a new life from her padt vindication. Along the way, she encounters surviving members of the Shanhaizhong. While hunting them down, she encounters their "leader": a Liberi boy by the name of Fang Xiaoshi. Xiaoshi tries to hurt her, but he is no match to the experienced nüxia and ex-Yumen guardswoman.
Xiaoshi constantly attempts to escape from her during their trek, and it became a troublesome journey for Qiu. He quietly runs away from a restaurant and hides in a nearby woods, yet Qiu manages to track him down. Suddenly, a hungry tuskbeast stalks Xiaoshi, and Qiu swiftly killed the beast instead from harming the boy. Camping out for the night, Qiu learns about Xiaoshi's past on how he fled the village after a wrongdoing done by him three years ago, and how Xiaoshi wants make a name for himself as a heroic xiake, whether good or bad, which she considers to be ridiculous.
The next morning, they reembark on their journey, passing the Chidao, Yanese imperial highways that connect other nomadic cities across the empire. Through the highway, they eventually arrive at the small mountain village of Moushan, passing by a temple and a grave at the entrance, and greeting a villager who immediately seems wary of Xiaoshi, running from him and to the village elder. Having returned home, Xiaoshi informs Qiu that his father is his only living relative left, entering the his old house, and looking around for his father, but despite the home still being cluttered and seemingly lived-in, there's no one home, so Xiaoshi leaves to search for his father in the village.
Courtyard Valley
Three years ago (Terran year 1099), Fang Xiaoshi had a heated argument with the villagers. They intended to expand their local temple, the Yishan Temple, out of honor for the village's founders, but it quietly occupied a portion of his family's land. He accused them over prejudice against his family because they are outsiders who did not want to integrate with the local Zhou clan, but the villagers argued that this arrangement was agreed upon by everyone. Besides, the temple had been protecting the village's harvest since its erection, so they cannot remove it. Spitefully, Xiaoshi decided to blow up the temple with dynamites stolen from his father. Unfortunately, the explosion was too devastating that, despite he survived the ordeal while being injured, the villagers deemed that he might have died. Even though they later found evidences of his traces, the village's search party could not find him, hence they considered him died in the wilderness.
Back in present time, the villagers are spreading news about Fang's miraculous survival. It eventually reaches Xiaoshi's father, the village only hunter, and he makes his way through the crowd to reunite with his son while carrying logs on his back. Mr. Fang attempts to express his gratitude to Qiu for escorting Xiaoshi home. Qiu accepts his gratitude but decides to leave immediately to give them some time. Now being alone, Mr. Fang is relieved that Xiaoshi has returned to him safe and sound. But the son notices him making something weird with the logs he collected—a wood coffin which his father claims for somebody who has left the village years ago. The father urges his son to be obedient to the villagers this time and not to ruin their "plan," but the impatient boy is unhappy to see his family being bullied by the Zhou clan.
Outside, Qiubai meets the village chief of Moushan, Zhou Shun. While he expresses his gratitude for bringing back Xiaoshi, he also explains to her the village's current dilemma. For the past two years, there has been an ongoing drought in their village which resulted in a harvest failure. Fang's ordeal only desecrated the Zhou's ancestors, the founders of the village who turned deserts into into arable land, but his sudden return shocked them. In response, Qiu, having brought Xiaoshi back, feels partially responsible for his safety, and Mr. Zhou reassures that he will not discommode Fang and his father. While Qiu has left the village under Mr. Zhou's escort, she senses the village's abnormality and quietly strolls around to observe the villagers.
The village holds an urgent meeting at the Yishan Temple, now partially-repaired thanks to Mr. Fang's effort, with Zhou personally conducting it. He formally proclaims to consider integrating the Fang into the Zhou clan along with promised protection and blessings, but he has one condition to them: Xiaoshi must forge his death this time.
Neither Gods Nor Demons
A few days prior to Qiubai and Xiaoshi's arrival, a mudslide caused by a heavy rainy night destroyed parts of the Chidao near the village and unfortunately killed an unnamed boy with only his camcorder salvageable from the disaster. Because the dead boy resembles Xiaoshi, Mr. Zhou and the villagers decide to fabricate a story wherein the missing Xiaoshi was killed in the disaster while performing maintenance work on the highway. In turn, the local authorities will recompense them with a larger sum of money as subsidies, an urge that has been neglected for the past two years. And with the money, they could then survive these tumultuous times by purchasing seeds and farming devices needed for cultivating the land and bringing in water. Eventually, they forcefully coaxed Mr. Fang into agreeing as well. And since the money was promised to go through Mr. Fang first, he had planned to use it to travel and search for his real son, hence agreeing to take part in their scheme.
The elder knows his wicked scheme, but the village has no other option. So, he visits the Yishan Temple alone to make amends to his ancestors. Unbeknownst to him, Saga was meditating behind the statue, after taking shelter in the village from the flood, and overheard everything, wishing to help them. She could only shows her pity to the village chief.
Back to the present, Mr. Zhou has Xiaoshi detained by others until the village receives the money as he could not take back his forgery from the official report. And that night, some kids takes the camcorder from the elder's house and turns it on, and at the elder's behest, they show the camcorder to him. He sees a familiar figure: a female Forte Messenger known as "Wind Chimes" who often comes to their village. This shocks him that not only was the mysterious dead boy was not alone, but also, the Messenger knew him as well.
Meanwhile, Qiubai is quietly stalking the elder. She reassures herself that the village does plans to conduct an abnormal scheme. She notices Mr. Zhou is have a debate with a villager grudging over his broken tractor. She learns that he needs the village's only mobility scooter owed by the elder to plow the land, but the scooter has already "spoiled" in his words. She then meets Mr. Fang who is carving a false wooden grave marker for his son. She warns the hunter for playing along with this scheme, but Mr. Fang proclaims that this is for his family's sake. For the time being, Qiu quietly stays in the village to ensure his safety and prevent the villagers from making a grave mistake.
Health and Safety
The next day, the villagers are panic of the sudden arrival of the local envoy dispatched by the mandarins. Mulberry, representing the magistrate court, heads on to meet with Mr. Zhou. To the elder's surprise, not only she is unaware of Mr. Zhou's request for subsidies, but also, she is here as an investigator for the mudslide. So, he strongly pushes back against Mulberry's request to check the fortifications across the mountain slopes, claiming there will be no one to escort her. And to bring him another surprise, Saga hopes out from the temple's ancestor statue and volunteers. The elder wishes to continue interfering but was needed elsewhere, as there is trouble on Mr. Fang's side.
Mr. Fang hesitates to place down the grave marker. His mind is filled with doubt that the villagers who once ostracized them would suddenly treat them nicely. Nevertheless, the villagers force him to do so by snatching the grave marker and place it by themselves. Just then, Qiubai interrupts them and slashes the marker in two with her sword. She admonishes they for defiling two innocent lives just for the sake of survival and threatens them to release Xiaoshi. But she is then informed that Xiaoshi has been relocated to a nearby mountain due to the madarin's surprise visit, prompting Mr. Fang and Qiubai to quickly rush there.
Meanwhile at the site of the mudslide, upon investigation, Mulberry and Saga found some truth regarding the incident. The mudslide was not natural because evidences of explosive residue are found around the collapsed walls. Upon further investigation, Saga found tracks in the sand made by a mobility scooter. They conclude that the villagers uses their scooter to transport their crude explosive and then destroyed it altogether with only one goal: to blast off the highway intentionally.
Mr. Zhou, having lost his hope on his wicked scheme to save the village, is then approached by Wind Chimes, the familiar female Messenger. She then drops off the financial subsidies the village had urgently applied for two years, to Mr. Zhou's bewilderment. It turns out that the local mandarins did respond to their call, but a devastating Catastrophe in a nearby region caused a huge delay in getting to Moushan. Upon receiving this, the elder immediately demanded Xiaoshi to be released. But he receives a gravely bad news: Xiaoshi has leapt off the cliff.
Nameless Minion
Some time earlier, two villagers forced Xiaoshi up the mountain to avoid the sudden arriving mandarins. Xiaoshi struggles against their grasp, claiming that he will reveal the plot to the authorities. His words agitate one of them to throw him down the clif, but Qiubai interrupts them just in time, knocking out the two villagers and saving Xiaoshi.
Xiaoshi, now being freed, plans to return to Moushan and report to the authorities. But his father arrives and stops him from returning. Mr. Fang wants Xiaoshi to obey the villagers so that they will no longer ostracize the family; he claims that he has owed the village too much since the day he settled down in Moushan. Xiaoshi attempts to refute, saying that they could make a better living in a nearby nomadic city beyond the village. To disappoint the boy's ideal, Mr. Fang then reveals the truth regarding his mother's death, a mystery that has been accompanying Xiaoshi's life. His mother died just because of the same attempt Xiaoshi is suggesting: leaving Moushan for a better life, but the harsh reality of the outside world tortured her, eventually bringing her onto her deathbed due to grave illness. Mr. Fang stands firm, disallowing Xiaoshi to return and threatening him to jump off from the cliff. Xiaoshi, now filled with frustration, finally asks a simple question, and he gets the answer he wants from his father: it would be better for Mr. Fang if "Fang Xiaoshi" his son to die. The boy then jumps off from the cliff to commit suicide, much to the horror of both Qiu and Mr. Fang.
Back to the village, Mr. Zhou sorrowfully kowtows and prays before his ancestors for repentance. He finally admits that he was the one responsible for the mudslide by planting crude explosives around the Chidao's fortification. By doing so, he thought that the maintenance would bring some income to the village to survive the drought. But he did not anticipate that his plot would result in the death of two innocent boys: one being killed by the mudslide and the other committing suicide. Saga then approaches the elder to comfort him. She has heard the elder's repentance day in and day out, and she does not rebuke him for his actions, saying that to think evil is natural and logical for a man, but the difference between an evil thought and an evil deed is very slim. She also admits that she is the one who turns on the camcorder for the children even though she unintentionally did so. The remorseful elder wishes he would have avoided the mistake long ago, so he decided to ignite the final pouch of explosives inside the temple to erase both himself, his wrongdoings, and other witnesses. Fortunately, Saga swings her naginata to slice the bomb and admonishes him for ending his wrongdoings without repentance. Finally, Mr. Zhou resolves to reveal the truth to the authorities, but he has fallen to a point that he could not even stand up and recover from the shock.
At the bottom of the cliff, Xiaoshi feels that he is both liberated and still alive. It all thanks to Qiu for swiftly catching him through her kung fu while he was falling down. She comments that this is the third time she has saved his life and praises him for still being able to discern good from evil. She allows him to leave the village, journey with her for a while until reaching the nearest city, and mentors him some kung fu but with the oath of killing him if he ever veer from his own justice.
Lone Mountain
The story happens days before the Moushan scandal from the perspective of the mysterious, nameless boy prior to his unfortunate death. The boy was born to a family who sheltered him but upon recently being diagnosed with Oripathy. He opts to use the remainder of his life to adventure and film a travel documentary as his farewell gift. Having travelled for a while, he is entranced by the world around him but becomes increasingly aware of his worsening condition that depletes his life. He eventually encounters Wind Chimes and asks for permission to document her career as a Messenger, which she agrees to so long as he can keep up with her.
While travelling with Wind Chimes, the boy learns that she is also an Infected. But unlike others, she chooses to work as a Messenger thanks to her calling, despite being a job for the lower class. Out of curiosity, the boy has been asking her that if she thinks it would be better for the society to present equal opportunities to the people and grant them equal statuses, hence no longer working in poor condition as a Messenger. Such question has been a tense topic to Wind Chimes, and after travelling together sometimes, she expels him from her party because she thinks he is badmouthing her career and the commonfolks.
Two months later after the scandal, when Wind Chimes has been serving as a Rhodes Island Messenger, she recovers the elder's camcorder and restores its data with Click's help. She feels sorry for the boy being accidentally dragged into Moushan's scandal. Watching through his final recording, she learns that the offensive question is not for his own selfish take, but for the benefits of the public so that they will be well-aware of it and make contributions for improvement of the society. She accepts his genuine apology and decides to help him finish his documentary through his camcorder.
As Wind Chimes tours around the village, she notices something different. Land around Moushan has been fertile once again thanks to newer farming equipment. With the subsidies received, conditions in the village have improved drastically. But Mr. Zhou has left somewhere, and it is likely that he has been incarcerated for his wrongdoings.
There is an easter egg in the boy's final recording. He ran into Fang Xiaoshi along the way, and the latter wanted the documentarian to record his proclaimation: he swears he will become the most powerful xiake across Yan. Xiaoshi then quickly runs off, jokingly claiming that a "she-devil" was chasing after him.