Shen Fei and Xiao Ning'er did not wait long in the guest room.
As dusk fell, the young scholar in the gray robe returned. He stood outside and tapped gently on the door twice, only pushing it open after Shen Fei answered.
He carried the same wooden box against his chest. After entering, he first bowed slightly to them both, then set the box on the table and took out a sheet of paper with writing on it.
"The clan chief invites you both to dinner in the reception hall."
The handwriting was the same as before, the strokes awkward but legible. Shen Fei read it, handed it to Xiao Ning'er, and nodded to the scholar. The scholar put away his paper and brush, gestured for them to follow, and turned to lead the way.
The two followed him out of the guest room and headed east along the village's dirt road.
Dusk had already settled. Oil lamps had been lit in the wooden houses on either side of the road, and warm yellow light spilled through cracks around the doors and windows, casting long, slender streaks across the ground.
Some people were talking inside their houses, while others were busy at their stoves. The clatter of spatulas against iron pots drifted through the doors, mingling with the crackle of burning firewood. It sounded little different from dinnertime in an ordinary household in Glory City.
After roughly a hundred paces, the scholar stopped before a building noticeably larger than the other wooden houses.
Its outer walls were built from a combination of smoothed stone and thick logs, making it far sturdier than the ordinary homes. A horizontal plaque hung beneath the eaves. Wind and rain had worn its lettering somewhat indistinct, but they could make out roughly three characters.
Two