"That's about enough. Let's go." Jiang Lan put away the porcelain bottle, picked up Doro, and ran toward the alley's exit.
"Doro?" Doro looked back at Tang San lying on the ground.
Translated, that probably meant, You're leaving him here by himself?
"He won't die." Jiang Lan didn't look back. "He's the protagonist."
Doro thought about it and decided that seemed to make sense.
The man and the soul ran through the twisting alleys, turning corner after corner. Before long, they vanished into the maze of streets in the inner city.
Not long after, a bald, scar-faced man turned in from the other end of the alley.
He was burly, with a hideous knife scar stretching from his brow ridge all the way to his chin. His bald head gleamed faintly blue in the dim light.
He walked over to Tang San, looked down at him, then raised his head and glanced toward the direction Jiang Lan and Doro had disappeared. He remained silent for a moment.
Then he bent down, hoisted Tang San off the ground, and slung him over his shoulder like a dead dog before turning and disappearing into the dark alleys of Slaughter City.
Jiang Lan and Doro ran through the inner city, winding through the alleys for quite some time. Only after the alley behind them had fallen completely silent did they stop in an unoccupied blind spot.
Three sides were bordered by high walls, while the fourth was blocked by a towering pile of broken wooden crates. Thick dust and debris covered the ground, and only a thin strip of gray daylight filtered down from above.
Jiang Lan crouched against the wall, pulled two orange candies from his pocket, popped one into his mouth, and held the other out.
"Have a candy to