Four Now

The shopkeeper carried a boning knife and sneezed several times in a row. "Fuck, I'd better hurry back. Someone's thinking about me. There must be customers at the shop!"

Everyone knew that the City Lord was a street loafer.

Whenever she had nothing to do, she liked to wander around the city.

Everyone had long since grown used to it.

Some people would respectfully call out, "City Lord," when they saw Jiang You, and she would acknowledge them.

Some would smile at her, and she would nod back.

Jiang You liked to patrol the place she had built with her own hands again and again. It felt like watching her own children grow. She could never get enough of it, no matter how many times she looked.

There were many mountain villagers setting up stalls along both sides of the street. Some of the goods were fruits and herbs they had gathered in the mountains themselves.

Some were wild game they had hunted themselves.

Some were all kinds of strange and unusual mushrooms.

Others sold their fingernails, strands of hair, and teeth that had fallen out. Though these things didn't look like they could be sold, there really were people who bought them.

These mountain villagers had their own beliefs, but how should she put it? They were truly complicated.

There were mountain gods, spirits, and many people who believed in sorcery.

Take Old Cripple Granny, for example. She always said that sorcery and medicine were inseparable, and that a qualified witch doctor should be able to communicate with Heaven and Earth.

As for whether she could communicate with Heaven and Earth, Jiang You didn't know.

But she had once personally seen Old Cripple Granny pull out one of Grandpa Mula's already loose teeth, roast it in the fire together