The sun was setting.
Bai Ye had practically turned into a wife-waiting stone at the entrance of the City Lord's Manor, yet no one had come.
"Mr. Bai, it's about to get dark. How about tomorrow..."
Jiang Qing had barely opened her mouth when Bai Ye interrupted, "They're here."
Jiang Qing froze slightly and followed Bai Ye's gaze toward the end of the street.
At the end of the asphalt road, the orange-red sun had been swallowed halfway by the horizon. Amid that fiery glow, a figure strolled down the street as though he had stepped out of the sun itself.
With the light behind him, his features were blurred, while a long shadow stretched across the ground.
Bai Ye narrowed his eyes and watched the approaching man.
A stranger.
His first impression was that the man was a complete stranger.
There was not the slightest trace of Ghost Clown's affectionate yet crazed temperament on him.
He had deep nasolabial folds, rough dark skin, coarse linen clothes, a straw hat, and a hoe slung over his shoulder. Fresh mud still clung to his pant legs, as if he had just returned from the fields.
"Mr. Bai, is this your old friend?" Jiang Qing scrutinized the newcomer but could not see anything remarkable about him. He looked like an ordinary farmer.
Bai Ye let out a soft sigh, his voice carrying the weathered weight of time. Reunited with an old friend from ten years ago, he did not say much.
He merely said, "Long time no see."
The hoe-carrying man stopped a short distance from them and flashed an honest grin. "I came to pass along a message for Xiao Chuan. His wife is afraid of the dark and won't go out at night, so he said he'll come over tomorrow."