(￣︶￣) The Heavenly King covers the Earth Tiger
Outside Yangzhou, beside the main road, stood an abandoned shrine to the local earth god.
The shrine was already in terrible disrepair. The clay statue of the god was missing half its body, and a thick layer of dust covered the altar table. It wasn't incense ash, either, just ordinary dirt and dust. As for the cobwebs, the holes in the roof, and the puddles on the floor, there was no need to mention them.
So it was no surprise that hardly anyone wanted to come here, much less linger inside the shrine. Even the two senior and junior brothers working for Annie were no exception!
Although they had arrived at the shrine on time that day, as agreed, to prepare for the rendezvous, once they saw its condition, they resolutely chose to wait in the relatively clean patch of wild grass on the hillside behind it. They didn't go to the dilapidated shrine in front, where a few old locust trees stood beneath a hazy veil of dusk.
See?
"..."
At that moment, Senior Brother Zhao, the scar-faced one, lay on the grass behind the ruined shrine, arms pillowing his head and legs crossed. He looked completely at ease, a blade of grass between his teeth as he gazed at the clouds on the horizon, gradually tinged with gold and red.
If you ignored the old and new scars on his face, and his ragged clothes streaked with blood for reasons unknown, he looked more like someone out enjoying the countryside than a desperate man who made his living with a blade at his throat.
"..."
Beside him was his junior brother, dressed like a refined young scholar. The man seemed rather uneasy, so he paced back and forth, occasionally glancing