Yu Lingye was just about to head toward the Castle when the activity over at the waystation quickly drew her gaze.
The man pushing the cart stopped beside the courtyard gate and called inside. Soon, people came out to help unload the timber. Several long beams were lifted onto a rack, revealing the buildings they had obscured.
Her eyes slowly widened.
From a distance, she had only noticed the newly laid roof. Now that she had followed the road closer, she discovered that far more had changed.
The collapsed half of the main building had been rebuilt, the doors and windows replaced, and a wooden rack for airing bedding stood outside the second-floor windows. The muddy ground in front of the building, which used to collect water whenever it rained, had now been paved with stone slabs, with gravel filling the gaps. Drainage ditches dug along both sides led all the way out of the courtyard.
Yu Lingye looked down and stamped on the paving.
The slabs were not particularly even, and several were distinctly different colors, but wheels could now roll over them without sinking into the mud and making every inch a struggle, as they had before.
Farther along this road, the expanded stable stood on the left. The troughs were filled with fodder, and a laborer crouched nearby, inspecting a wheel. An open space beside it had been left for unloading goods. The storage shed's doors were open, revealing sacks and wooden crates stacked inside.
A row of low buildings had appeared on the right.
One had its window shutter propped open, with several long tables inside and people sitting by the door, eating from bowls. The scent of stew drifted out, mingling with the smell of baking bread. When a passing worker called inside, someone handed