"Uncle Zhang, where's my grandfather's letter?"
Li Xiang stepped across the uneven bluestone road, avoiding a wheelbarrow piled high with blue bricks.
"I left it at home. Something that important? I wouldn't dare carry it around."
Old Zhang flashed a simple, honest grin. "Come on, I'll take you to it. With that letter at my place, I've barely dared sleep these past few days. I kept worrying a thief might come."
Li Xiang set aside his plan to head for the Blackwater Pool passage and unlock the Warrior Profession. He turned and followed Old Zhang.
They passed through several ruined alleys whose roads had been cleared.
"Xiao Li..." Old Zhang glanced back at Li Xiang as they walked. "If life out there gets too tiring, come back. Everyone here thinks about you. You'd be welcome."
"To tell the truth, ever since your family's embalming shop at Peaceful Hall vanished from town, folks from all around have felt something was missing. Even walking at night doesn't feel right anymore."
Ordinary people's hopes were always the simplest.
In this Age of Chaos, when lives were worth less than weeds and people could die violently in the street at any moment, an embalming shop that could see someone safely through their final journey and give them a dignified burial was, in a sense, their last defense against the fear of death.
"..."
Li Xiang kept walking, though his eyes lowered slightly.
So that's what all the circling around was for. He wants me to stay in Blackwater Ancient Town and return to being a dutiful Embalmer.
"Uncle Zhang, I appreciate the thought."
"But times have changed. Once you set foot on some roads, there's no turning back. We'll talk about it another time."
Old Zhang opened his mouth, apparently wanting to persuade him