Like a fart in a windstorm so are the days of their lives.

When I was a child, it was a very nonvisual universe, and people with a sense of the visual were not respected."

The Mandarin of Yangcheng was a powerful figure. In that part of mountainous southern Shansi, the principal city was Tsechow. Several days' journey away, circling out from the capital, were the four smaller sister cities: Yangcheng, Chin Shui, Kaoping and Lingchuang, tiny walled citadels nestling among the high mountains. The Mandarin of Yangcheng ruled his city and district by decree from the governor and war lord at Taiyuan, the capital of Shansi far to the north. The government at Taiyuan owed nominal allegiance to the Nationalists. Yangcheng lay deep in the mountains.

The zealots glowed with religious fervor.