After breakfast, Bai Yujun idly cast a divination.
After carefully interpreting it, she frowned. A long journey faced obstacles. It seemed her itinerary would be delayed. That was how travel went—on the road, one might encounter all sorts of things and people, stopping and starting along the way.
As usual, she drew a crowd the moment she left the inn. The townsfolk watched out of curiosity. Fortunately, the tiger had been fed well.
She bought two more burlap sacks.
One hung from each side of the tiger's back, replenishing their travel supplies.
Just as Bai Yujun was buying and buying, a gaunt man with a long face blocked her path.
The tiger hesitated over whether to bite him to death.
The skinny man narrowed his eyes and pointed toward a teahouse in the distance.
"Little girl, someone wants to see you. You'd best go meet them."
Having delivered the message, he turned and left. As Bai Yujun stuffed walnuts into a sack, she found it boring. Many people had heard her conversation with the constable yesterday evening. Those crooked, evil sorts had suffered losses and wanted revenge. Yet they did not dare offend the imperial court, so they chose the soft persimmon to squeeze. At the same time, they feared that dragging in her nonexistent Lineage would make the matter blow up.
Someone had probably come to warn them last night, and then they had used Evil Arts to command ghosts. If she had guessed correctly, the backlash from their Evil Arts had made them furious, and they could not resist trying to recover their lost face.
She poured the walnuts into the sack and pulled the rope tight.
The street buzzed with noisy voices. She called to the lynx, which was studying a brick carving, and continued shopping.
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