The more people lived glamorous lives by day, the more people engaged in lowly trades by night.
Outside Profound Candle Prefecture, beneath a great locust tree by the riverbank, Rongyao draped himself in a gray robe and leaned against the withered trunk, quietly watching the lights of the distant villages and towns. The waves of fishy stench drifting from the black river seemed to have no effect on him.
Rongyao's life seemed inseparable from the night.
His father was a night-soil hauler and latrine cleaner. Rongyao followed him at night to transport the waste. They usually set out in the early hours, after everyone had fallen asleep, and delivered the night soil from every household to the manors outside the prefecture before dawn. The manor servants would then take over and use it as fertilizer.
Actually, those days had not been that hard. It was smelly, but once he got used to it, it was nothing. Hauling night soil paid fairly well, enough to keep them fed and clothed. Besides, the streets were empty in the middle of the night, with bright lights shining everywhere. While his father pushed the cart, Rongyao could run around beside him. The streets seemed as vast as the entire world, and he could never finish running through them.
Later, the waste baron demanded that the latrine cleaners pay more "fertilizer fees." His father got into an argument with him and was beaten to death with a manure ladle. Less than two days after his father died, the money in the household was taken by his paternal aunt and uncle. Still, his uncle at least buried his father and even took Rongyao in.
His aunt was a good person, just somewhat weak. His uncle, meanwhile, loved gambling and smoking. Whenever he came home, he either