The smells here were a jumble.
To make it easier to see, March 7th had Yan Huan conjure a flame as a makeshift lantern.
Under the red firelight, the alley gradually came into view.
March 7th noticed a particularly strong smell coming from a crumbling wall nearby, mingled with the stench of urine.
Human or dog, she couldn't tell, but someone's waste lay there in plain sight.
She dreaded to think what else might be lurking in the foul-smelling puddles on the ground.
"I kind of want to change my shoes," March 7th said, fighting down her nausea.
"They'd just get dirty again." Yan Huan lounged in his wheelchair like an old lord, his voice languid:
"Young people need a little hardship. Bear with it and you'll get through it..."
"Look at me. I'm here too, and you don't hear me complaining, do you? Heh... That just goes to show..."
"..." March 7th's gaze dropped to Yan Huan's feet, which were resting on the wheelchair's footplate.
"Keep talking and I'll dump you out."
"Ummmm..."
The rundown homes along the way were silent. If not for the faint candlelight inside them, March 7th might have thought everyone living there was mute.
Following the directions, the two eventually reached a deafening factory.
"?"
"What the heck is this place?"
"Are we going in?" March 7th could barely hear herself over the clanging.
"We came all this way. Might as well take a look."
At Yan Huan's insistence, March 7th pushed him into the factory.
The hammering and clattering were a relentless assault on their eardrums.
"Stop. What are you two doing here?"
A man who looked like a security guard sprang up and blocked Yan Huan and March 7th's path.
"Uh, we're family." March 7th stopped the wheelchair on the rust-stained floor