The thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month. New Year's Eve.
Tianjin lay beneath a gloomy sky. The old north wind whistled through the alleys, rattling the red paper on every household's door.
It was not fully dark yet, but firecrackers were already going off in a steady chorus across the inner city. Wealthy families had hung great red lanterns outside their gates, bathing half the street in crimson light.
That was New Year for people with money.
The poor souls of South City had their share of New Year cheer too. It was just thinner, and laced with calculations.
The number of rickshaws on the streets had hardly fallen for the holiday.
If anything, plenty of townsfolk who normally could not bear to pay for a ride had bitten the bullet today, hurrying off to deliver gifts to relatives
and eat New Year's Eve dinner.
That gave the unattached carriage drivers with no homes to return to an opportunity.
Most had fled famine in other provinces, or were bachelors whose families had all died. Usually, they slept in "feather rooms" that cost two copper coins a night, dozens of them crammed onto one communal bed beneath a thick layer of chicken feathers for warmth.
Today, if they made a few extra trips and saved a handful of coins, they could eat dumplings with meat filling on New Year's Day.
Qin Geng walked down the lively yet desolate street in a brand-new dark padded gown and cloth shoes with thick, layered soles.
He had not gone to Xu Jin's Shanty.
The brothers there had all returned to their villages.
They had earned money following Fifth Master Qin this year, and each of them now stood a little straighter. They were eager to buy a few yards of patterned cloth for