Walking down the unfamiliar street, Mo Linsheng understood more clearly than ever what it meant to feel as though a lifetime had passed.
His difficulty moving kept his pace slow, which gave him a good chance to look around.
The small county town was actually quite a bit less developed than his hometown's county town. There were hardly any multistory buildings; nearly everything was single-story. The roads were uneven, there were few businesses, and even fewer pedestrians.
But after more than a month in the mountains, even those few pedestrians gave him a faint sense of fear.
In the mountains, the first thing to do upon seeing someone was stay alert. Now, with so many pedestrians around, he felt out of place instead.
As he looked at the pedestrians, they looked back at him strangely. Mo Linsheng knew what he looked like now. He found a barbershop and went in for a haircut.
"How long has it been since you washed your hair?" The barber frowned. "You haven't had a haircut in a month or two at least, have you?"
"Yes, a month and a half," Mo Linsheng said. It had not actually been that long, but for some reason his hair seemed to grow faster in the mountains.
"All right, let's wash it before we cut it."
After his haircut, Mo Linsheng paid and left, feeling much fresher.
At least people no longer looked at him quite so strangely.
The workwear Li Long had given him was still new, so he did not need to replace it. It was just a little dirty, and he planned to wash it back at the guesthouse.
First, he needed a change of clothes. He went to the market and bought some at a clothing shop, then went to the Department Store for