Grey Tile Lane in Heaven Dou City

Three days later, outside Heaven Dou City.

The official road was wide enough for six horses to run abreast. Travelers came and went like ants moving house, packed so tightly there was no trace of open space.

Luo Yan blended into the crowd, dressed in gray, his face clean and bare.

He had long since shed that disguise. Only half a grass stem snapped from the roadside remained between his teeth.

He raised his head and looked ahead.

The city walls were almost excessively tall, massive grayish-brown stones stacked one atop another.

The city gates stood wide open. A squad of armored soldiers stood on either side, along with several soldiers in Heaven Dou guard uniforms, inspecting the merchant caravans entering and leaving.

"Heaven Dou City."

Luo Yan bit down on the grass stem until it tasted bitter. "Will this new map be more fun?"

He entered the city without taking the main road.

Heaven Dou City's main streets were broad, lined with shops on both sides. Their gilded signboards gleamed so brightly they made his eyes ache.

But Luo Yan only glanced at them before turning into a side street.

He deliberately chose alleys with awnings overhead and walls that never saw sunlight year-round.

He knew places like this well.

The old locust tree outside Dorm Seven in Notting City had grown in a neighborhood just like this.

In the end, he found an old inn tucked into a corner of a small street called Grey Tile Lane.

Its storefront was small, its signboard blackened by smoke. Several clotheslines jutted out from the second floor, dripping water onto the ground below.

The owner was a one-eyed old man, squatting at the entrance and repairing a three-legged stool.

"Looking for a room?" the old man asked without raising his head.

"Let me see the room first," Luo Yan said.

"Ten Copper Soul Coins a day. Stay five days, and breakfast's included."

Luo Yan squatted down and watched the old man hammer nails. "Your breakfast wouldn't happen to be yesterday's leftover steamed buns, would it?"

Only then did the old man raise his single eye and look him over. "What, you can't eat that?"

"I can afford it," Luo Yan said with a smile. "I have a small appetite."

The room was at the far end of the second floor. It was small and dark, but clean.

Its window faced an even narrower alley behind the inn. Looking down, he saw nothing but gray-tiled rooftops.

Luo Yan pushed open the window. Wind poured in, carrying the smell of someone else's cooking.

"Not bad... at least I have somewhere to stay."

Over the next few days, Luo Yan went nowhere else.

During the day, he wandered around several nearby streets. At night, he leaned by the window and listened to people arguing downstairs.

All kinds of people lived in Grey Tile Lane: laborers, secondhand goods sellers, errand runners, and two mysterious residents who never left during the day and only lit their lamps at night.

Luo Yan soon became a familiar face to the owner of the bun shop at the entrance to the lane.

The owner's surname was Liu. He smiled at everyone, and when he smiled, his face looked like the folds of a steamer basket.

Every morning, Luo Yan bought two meat buns—one for himself and one for the dog.

That dog was Grey Tile Lane's stray. It had yellow fur and a black muzzle. Whenever it was hungry, it sat in front of the bun shop and refused to let anyone touch it.

"You look even less like someone who came to Heaven Dou City to make a living than that dog," Boss Liu said once.

"Then what do I look like?" Luo Yan asked.

"Like you came here on vacation," Boss Liu said.

"I've watched you for quite a while now. You've always been alone. You're a Soul Master, aren't you?"

Luo Yan nodded. "I am."

"Here to apply to Heaven Dou Royal Academy? Or Blue Tyrant Academy?"

"Uncle, do I look old enough?"

Boss Liu looked him over. "No, not really."

Boss Liu lifted the steamer lid, and white steam surged out, obscuring his face until only a vague collection of wrinkles remained.

"You're not here to enroll in an academy, you don't look like you're visiting relatives, and you don't look like you're doing business either."

He said, "A half-grown kid like you, coming alone to Heaven Dou City—either you've got something going on, or you're sick."

Luo Yan smiled. "You really are a good judge of character. I'm sick."

Boss Liu chuckled and did not press further. He stuffed a freshly steamed meat bun into Luo Yan's hand. "If you're sick, don't go hungry. This one's on me. I've seen you looking after that dog every day. That beast usually doesn't even like me, but it gets along with you."

Luo Yan accepted the bun and thanked him.

The yellow dog crouched by his feet, its tail sweeping back and forth over the ground.

"Little dog, do you think I'm sick too?"

Luo Yan crouched down, broke the bun in half, and held one half before the dog's mouth. "But look, only sick people would share a bun with you."

The dog whined, snatched the bun, and ran off.

Boss Liu shook his head repeatedly. "You're so young, but you talk like some old monster."

Luo Yan stood and dusted off his hands. "Thanks, Boss Liu. Tomorrow, I'll treat you to tea—the most expensive kind. One Copper Soul Coin for two bowls."

"Get lost," Boss Liu cursed with a laugh.

Luo Yan turned and headed toward the mouth of the alley.

But he had barely taken two steps when hoofbeats sounded.

At first, they were faint, like someone driving wooden stakes in a distant courtyard.

But in an instant, they drew close, so fast that even the yellow dog by the road had no time to bark.

Luo Yan turned his head. From the corner of his eye, he saw a gray horse charge straight in through the alley entrance. A young man in the uniform of a low-ranking Spirit Hall steward rode on its back, his body bent low.

The people in the alley scattered to either side like scraps of paper blown apart by the wind.

Clay figurines slipped from several children's hands and were trampled into mangled lumps beneath the horse's hooves.

An old vegetable seller was bent over arranging his stall when the gray horse knocked over his basket of vegetables before he could react.

Radishes and greens rolled everywhere. The old man fell hard onto the stone pavement, his knee striking with a dull thud and one palm scraped raw.

He hissed in pain but did not cry out.

He only braced himself against the ground and slowly reached for the overturned old wooden crate.

The rider looked back once.

Not at the old man, but to see whether his horse's legs had been scratched by the stall.

After confirming they were fine, he squeezed the horse's flanks and rode away without looking back.

"Who told him not to watch where he was going?" a cloth-selling woman nearby muttered.

Luo Yan stood a few steps away.

The dust kicked up by the hooves had not yet settled.

He watched the old man sit on the ground and slowly retrieve a radish that had rolled to the edge of the gutter. He wiped it with his sleeve and put it back into the broken basket.

The radish's skin was gray now. It could not be wiped clean.

He went to pick up another one, moving slowly, as though he were gathering up all his belongings.

The people around them began to disperse. Someone laughed, while others pretended not to see.

Luo Yan did not choose to step forward and help.

He merely stood where he was, still holding half a bun wrapper in his hand.

Wind blew in from the alley entrance, carrying the wrapper down to his feet.

He lowered his head and glanced at it.

"I remember that riding horses in the alley is forbidden, isn't it?" he suddenly said.

A man carrying a shoulder pole beside him froze. "So what if it is? That was a Spirit Hall horse. Who's going to do anything about it?"

"Oh."

Luo Yan nodded. "Spirit Hall horses can trample people."

The man's expression changed slightly. He looked around and lowered his voice. "Little brother, don't talk nonsense. In a place like this, it's best to stay out of trouble if you can."

Luo Yan said nothing more.

He walked to the roadside, took several Copper Soul Coins from his clothes, and placed them in the vegetable seller's broken wooden crate.

The old man looked up, his face covered in dust. His lips trembled as if he wanted to say thank you, but did not know whether he should accept them.

"I'm buying radishes," Luo Yan said.

Then he truly picked the most inconspicuous carrot from the ground, wiped it on his sleeve, and took a bite.

"Not bad. Pretty sweet," he said.

The old man was stunned, and several nearby vendors looked over as well.

With the carrot between his teeth, Luo Yan slowly walked deeper into the alley, his pace as unhurried as ever.

When he reached the alley entrance, he suddenly stopped and looked up at the sky.

"The wind will always come."

His voice was so low, it was as though he were speaking to the flagstones beneath his feet. "Perhaps I can make it come a little sooner."