The wind threads through the black pines like a dull blade scraping bone. Snow doesn’t fall—it lashes sideways, stinging into the gaps of a collar, melting into a sharp, immediate pain. The torchlight trembles in the white storm, revealing a trunk, a branch, a sliver of ground—then surrendering it back to the deeper dark. They move slowly. Boots sink with a muffled crunch, and every step feels like an argument with the forest: please don’t notice us. Someone coughs once and regrets it instantly—the sound rebounds, thin and humiliating, as if the trees are laughing at his fear. The mail should be warm by now, tempered by body heat, but it isn’t. It’s wrong-cold, as though an unseen chill is crawling over the metal from the outside in.
风穿过黑松林，就像一把钝刀在刮骨。雪不是落下来的——它横着抽打，刺入衣领的缝隙，融化成一种尖锐、即时的痛楚。火把的光在白色的暴风雪中颤抖，照亮了一截树干、一根树枝、一抹地面——随即将它们交还给更深邃的黑暗。他们缓慢地移动着。靴子伴随着沉闷的碎裂声下陷，每一步都感觉像是在和森林争吵：求求你，别发现我们。有人咳嗽了一声，随即立刻后悔——声音回荡开来，细微而羞耻，仿佛树木正在嘲笑他的恐惧。锁子甲此刻本该是温热的，被体温捂热了，但它没有。它冷得不正常，仿佛一股看不见的寒意正从外向内地在金属上爬行。
