Changle First Year, the first day of the first month.
Dong-
Dong-
The familiar morning bells rang from the Bell and Drum Tower day after day. Cloud Peace City lay wrapped in silver-white, and men and women in new clothes walked its streets and alleys everywhere.
For the New Year, even the Black Bureau had taken on a fresh appearance. Red couplets and two large characters for "fortune" adorned the black gates that had once made people pale at their mere mention.
Down in the dungeon, prison guards delivered dumplings to the prisoners one cell at a time. The dungeon prisoners had their food restricted to prevent escape; apart from being taken out for beheading, this was their only chance all year to eat their fill.
In the Earth Character Number One Room, two figures who had spent nearly two years imprisoned without daylight leaned together in a corner, their hands and feet chained. Their hair reached their shoulders, and their beards obscured their faces, making them look like decrepit old men of sixty or seventy.
After years of isolation, unable to hear or see the outside world, their eyes had grown vacant. They passed the endless darkness solely by counting mealtimes.
"Brother, isn't the food a little late today?"
Wang Er had once been a burly man, but now he was terribly thin, resembling a long-haired ape as he leaned nearby.
Wang Chengjing's injuries had long since healed. Now thin as a bamboo pole, he rested his hands on his knees.
"Seems so. What year and month is it?"
"I've forgotten. We've probably been here a dozen years or so, right? That Ye Jingtang really holds a grudge. He might as well have killed me with one stroke..."
"Ah..."
Wang Chengjing had long since regretted everything-not just provoking Ye