At nine that evening, the streetlights had been on for hours, their dim glow stretching and shrinking the shadows of passersby.
Most of the little shops lining the street had closed, leaving only the convenience store's cold white lights.
The temperature had dropped sharply that day, and the night air was quite chilly.
Having just finished shopping at the supermarket, Jiang Ci pulled her thin jacket tighter around herself and zipped it all the way up, but the wind still found its way into her collar.
She frowned, adjusted the mask on her face, and quickened her steps toward her rented room.
The road here was narrow. Every so often, a delivery scooter would zip past her, kicking up a dusty gust.
At times like these, Jiang Ci would habitually move aside, and the soles of her shoes would often scrape against pebbles in the pavement cracks, making an unpleasant little sound.
To avoid that noise, she deliberately picked smoother spots to step on, but it barely helped.
When she finally reached the old building where she rented a room, she saw the woman running the ground-floor shop closing up, her strong arms pulling the plastic awning down with a loud rustle.
Jiang Ci glanced over as she passed, but the woman never even looked at her. She was entirely focused on packing up her stall, probably eager to get home.
Jiang Ci calmly looked away. As her gaze dropped to the edge of her mask, she suddenly felt that some of her habits really were unnecessary.
-I haven't been popular for ages. Who would bother staring at me?
If Spirit Abyss Chronicle doesn't turn things around either, that unscrupulous company probably won't give me any decent opportunities to try again.
*At that point, it would be no different from