BOOK FOUR: THE MANTIS, THE CICADA AND THE ORIOLE

螳螂捕蟬，黃雀在后 (táng láng bǔ chán, huáng què zài hòu)

Chinese, "the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind". Idiom meaning to pursue gains in front of you while ignoring danger behind.

When you read the account of a murder - or, say, a fiction story based on murder - you usually begin with the murder itself. That's all wrong. The murder begins a long time beforehand. A murder is the culmination of a lot of different circumstances, all converging at a given moment at a given point. People are brought into it from different parts of the globe and for unforeseen reasons. [...] The murder itself is the end of the story. It's Zero Hour. -- Agatha Christie, Towards Zero