Provincial Dongshan - a city that neither the hands of the capital's censors nor the clawed paws of monsters can reach - is somewhat like a box with a secret, too intricate even for a learned official of the seventh rank. Where do the lines of my father's poems lead? What secret game did Mr. Choi play against the imperial court? And what is on the other side of the endless toxic fog? All this needs to be put into place. If only it makes sense on a planet that died three centuries ago.