```
By dusk, Da Fei's hired carriage arrived at the station of Holy Mother Monastery in the suburbs, seeing from afar a vast cluster of buildings surrounded by high walls, towering and imposing. The sonorous chanting of holy songs drifted from a distance.
Catherine exclaimed in rapture, "How sacred, how majestic!"
Da Fei sighed, "I feel like it's more like a prison."
Dressed in ceremonial uniforms, smarter than ever, the two approached the gate where an old nun, hunched and clad in black robes with a black veil on her head, was sweeping the floor and barred their way.
She said grimly, "Stop right there, this is not a place for you to intrude."
Looking at her witch-like face marked by scowls, and that broom that seemed to fly, Da Fei's heart skipped a beat— "Your Majesty, do you still remember Xia Yuhe by the Daming Lake?"
Da Fei snapped back to reality in a trance: "I'm here to find someone named—"