The Rising Sun rose in the east.
Dawn spilled across the streets. Merchants and porters threaded between horses and carriages, and an old man carrying a rack of candied hawthorns sat on the stone steps outside a tea shop and raised his voice:
"Candied hawthorns-"
With his saber at his waist, Ye Jingtang stopped outside the tea shop, leading Black Horse. He turned toward the rack of bright red candied hawthorns, and a few words suddenly echoed in his ears:
"Jingtang, want some?"
"Only little kids eat that stuff."
"You're only six, brat. You think you're not a little kid just because you stopped wearing split-crotch pants?"
"Mm."
"Hmph! A man without a wife is still a virgin chick at sixty. Wait until you can bring a wife home before you play the grown-up with me... here..."
In the blink of an eye, twelve years had passed.
He remembered sitting on horseback back then. His adoptive father had led the horse ahead of him just like this, an identical saber hanging at his waist.
He could more or less count as a grown-up now, but he had also moved to the front of the horse. When those old words happened to come to mind, he could not help feeling a little regret that the things remained while the people had changed.
Ye Jingtang glanced back at the empty saddle, silently considering when to take Heroine Luo back to Red River Town to burn some paper money.
As he walked along the street and put those thoughts aside, the rumble of carriage wheels came from the intersection. He looked up to see a luxurious carriage approaching.
Black Bureau constables cleared the way ahead. The carriage window was propped open, revealing a woman's face brimming with martial spirit. She was watching