Flower Marsh Village.
A different sort of vitality surged through the village, like a three-year-old child who opened their eyes to the world and found everything novel, wanting to do everything and try everything.
Concealing herself, Zheng Zhaoling passed through the unfinished alleys and watched the sincere smiles on people's faces, smiles that seemed to show they could see the road ahead clearly.
There was no need to worry anymore, nor any lingering concerns.
It was as though they knew that as long as they kept walking forward, happiness would surely await them.
Zheng Zhaoling gradually slowed her steps and stopped before Flower Marsh Village's shrine.
The shrine here was nowhere near as bustling as those in the other villages she had passed through.
The shrines in those other villages truly billowed with incense, with villagers standing before them, scrambling to thrust the incense in their hands into the burners.
As though being a moment too slow would make them insufficiently devout.
The drifting incense smoke gathered into thick clouds that stung the villagers' eyes shut, yet they dared not retreat, only squeeze farther forward.
The smoke of incense dared not pause for even a moment.
Compared with the flourishing scenes at the other shrines, this place seemed utterly quiet.
There were no villagers holding incense, only a few craftsmen carving something into the shrine's outer walls.
Several notices with black lettering on red paper were posted beside the shrine's main entrance.
Zheng Zhaoling glanced over and naturally saw clearly what the notices said.
The newly established regulations of Flower Marsh Village.
Zheng Zhaoling read the notices, her brows furrowed on the first reading, her expression relaxing on the second.
She did not know how many times she read them.
Yet in the end, she merely sighed softly.
They were