Chance Encounter with an Alien Noble, First Glimpse of the Royal Court's Situation

Chen Wuya tucked the broken waist token deep into the front of his coarse cloth robe, his fingertips lingering for a moment at the edge of the empty slot. He turned and walked out through the courtyard gate, leaving the battered cart in the corner by the wall, its crooked wheels sunk into the dust. Bai Zhi followed half a step behind him. The two made their way slowly down South Alley, neither hurried nor sluggish, like ordinary peddlers newly arrived and looking for their way.

The marketplace gradually grew noisier. Vendors shouted before the fur stalls, while hammers rang from the blacksmith's shop. Chen Wuya stopped in an open patch of ground, took out an old cloth from his pack, and spread it on the ground. One after another, he laid out several objects—a copper bell polished bright with wear, a bone carving etched with a beast's head, and a curled-edged shard of iron. He planted a small wooden sign beside them, its charcoal lettering reading: "Fortune-Settling Wonders, Not Exchanged for a Thousand Gold."

Passersby caught sight of it and burst into laughter.

"Has this southern barbarian gone mad, selling scraps at sky-high prices?"

"What do you know? I heard they can alter one's fate—things made exclusively for the highborn."

As the chatter drifted away, Chen Wuya lowered his head to straighten the corners of the cloth, the edge of his mouth lifting slightly. Bai Zhi stood just behind him to one side, her gaze sweeping across the street entrance. Two saber-bearing men were watching from that direction. Their attire was finer than that of ordinary guards, though neither wore a uniform.

Before long, a man in a dark brown brocade robe strolled over. Gold-thread embroidery at his cuffs flashed beneath the sunlight. Two attendants followed several paces behind