Rats have traditionally lived alongside humans, always close at hand, and what Chang dubs the rat kingdom is in fact none other than the jianghu, peopled with figures who themselves are rats.
老鼠向來與人類並存，「瞻之在前、忽焉在後，倏而滅、倏而生」，「鼠國─竹林市」則是「一座看不見的城市」（冊一，頁 26）。其實，「鼠國」就是一般所稱的「江湖」，「老鼠」就是「江湖人物」。