The wooden checkpoint closed behind them.
The noise of the outside world was shut out beyond the walls. A gravel road ran through the valley and into the woods. The canopy interwove overhead, vines hanging down across the road. Some branches drooped so low that passing ox carts required their drivers to raise bamboo poles and push them aside.
Several residents carrying bamboo baskets approached from the opposite direction.
They wore cotton and linen clothes with straw sandals on their feet, their baskets filled with dried herbs. As they passed Bai Zhu and the others, they merely glanced up at them without speaking.
Bai Zhu looked back.
"One step apart, two different worlds."
Milluki hugged his cloth luggage bag, sweat pouring down his face as he walked.
"Save the sighing and come help me carry this."
"With stamina like yours, are you really an assassin?"
"Can't assassins get tired?"
"You should've said so earlier. I could've put your luggage in Knov's space."
Milluki stopped and glared at him for several seconds.
"Why didn't you mention that before we set out?"
"You never asked."
"Bai Zhu, one day I'm sewing that mouth of yours shut."
Piyu walked ahead of them. Without her phone, she could only keep flipping through the few paper maps. After checking the route again, she raised a hand and pointed toward a fork in the distance.
"According to the entry registration, we need to reach Tamu Village ahead by tonight. If we keep up this pace, we'll make it before dark."
"Is there anywhere to stay?" Bai Zhu asked.
"The village has wooden cabins for visiting volunteers."
"What about food?"
"We'll probably have to make it ourselves."
Bai Zhu slowed down.
"Can we switch villages?"
"The three nearby villages are all the same."
"Then what do people