After finishing their tea, the two found a small inn in Qiaoying Village to stay at.
The room was small, with a narrow bed and a window facing the tea garden on the back hill.
Lin En threw the bundle on the ground, collapsed onto the bed, and buried her face in the pillow.
"I wish I had a Serenitea Pot too."
He said it in a muffled voice.
"You won't need to sleep on the grass in the wild."
Ronava she unwrapped the bundle.
What is the Serenitea Pot?
Lin En rolled over, facing the ceiling, and gestured as he explained.
After hearing about things like "a cave within a pot," "something where you can put a house, grow crops, and raise fish, "Ronava nodded.
"It's truly amazing; there's a hidden world inside. If such a thing really existed, it would certainly be much more convenient."
"Right! I think so too."
Lin En sighed and shrugged.
"Unfortunately, I don't."
After resting at the inn for a while, the two went out and took a stroll around Qiaoying Village.
This place isn't very big, but it has many tea gardens. Tea trees cover the hillsides, creating a lush green expanse.
There were many tea merchants buying tea leaves by the roadside, and several shops offering tea-picking experiences for tourists, with signs hanging at the entrance that read "Pick tea by hand, endless fun!"
A shopkeeper was soliciting customers on the roadside when he saw the two approaching and quickly went to greet them.
"Would you two like to try a tea-picking experience? It's only 5,000 Mora per person!"
Lin En rolled her eyes and whispered to Ronava.
"Anyone who participates in this tea-picking activity is a jerk. They pay to pick tea for others, and the tea leaves aren't even guaranteed to be theirs."
Ronava didn't reply, but the corner of her mouth twitched slightly.
The two ignored the shopkeeper and walked up the mountain along the path in the tea garden. On both sides of the path were tea trees that were waist-high, and the leaves glistened in the setting sun.
When we reached the halfway point of the mountain, the terrain suddenly leveled out, and the summit was a wide, flat area with few trees and excellent views.
Standing on the flat ground, Lin En looked into the distance and could see the winding river at the foot of the mountain and a town built against the mountain in the distance, much larger than Qiaoying Village, which should be Yilong Wharf.
"That should be the Yilong Wharf we're heading to."
Lin En pointed into the distance.
Ronava stood beside him, her silver hair blowing in the mountain breeze, her gaze fixed on the town in the distance he pointed to.
"It doesn't look far; it should be able to get there in two hours tomorrow."
The two stood on the mountaintop for a while, watching the sun slowly sink in the west, the sky changing from blue to gold and then to black.
The tea pickers in the tea garden finished their work and went down the mountain one after another, and wisps of smoke rose from the rooftops of Qiaoying Village.
"It's getting dark, we should go back."
The next morning, the two packed their bags and continued their journey.
The road from Qiaoying Village to Yilong Wharf is much easier to walk than before. There are no steep mountain walls to climb; most of it is a gentle slope and a gravel path along the river, with occasional wooden bridges spanning the stream.
Lin En walked much more easily than the previous two days, and even had the leisure to enjoy the scenery along the way.
After walking for about two hours, a tall stone gatehouse appeared ahead. Behind the gatehouse was a town built against the mountain, much larger than Qiaoying Village, with houses with blue tiles and white walls layered up to the mountainside.
The stone tablet at the entrance of the town bears three characters: Yilong Wharf.
"We've finally arrived!"
Lin En stretched and then lifted the bundle up a little higher.
The two entered the town and looked for shops according to the markings on Hu Tao Tao's abstract map.
The map was drawn crookedly, but the marker still said to turn left when you enter the town, turn right when you see the big banyan tree, turn left at the third intersection, and the one with the steps at the entrance is it.
Lin En and Ronava wandered around the town for almost half an hour, taking three wrong turns, before finally finding the shop that Hu Tao had mentioned under a large banyan tree.
The shop isn't large, and there are indeed three steps leading up to the entrance.
Lin En stood at the bottom of the steps, looked up, and froze.
The walls were covered in graffiti, red, black, and purple, sprayed, painted, and pasted, with phrases like "bad luck," "get out," "don't open a shrine here," and "whoever opens it will be unlucky" plastered all over the wall.
The door panel was also dented with stones, and the keyhole was blocked with mud.
What happened?
Lin En turned to ask an elderly woman selling vegetables next to him.
The old woman looked him up and down, her expression not very pleasant.
"So you're here to open that 'Hall of the Dead' thing? Since word got out that a funeral parlor was going to open here, a lot of people have been unhappy. They say it's bad luck, and ever since they heard about it, more and more people have been dying around here."
Lin En immediately understood, his lips twitching. So the recent unrest Zhongli mentioned was because of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. But these people from Yilong Wharf are quite feudal; they actually believe in this?
He glanced back at Ronava; her face had darkened, and her golden eyes were fixed on the graffiti on the wall.
"So this is what Zhongli meant by 'not peaceful'?"
Lin En lowered her voice and spoke to her.
When news spread that Wangsheng Funeral Parlor was opening a branch, the locals felt it was bad luck and started making a fuss.
"Is this how mortals view death?"
Ronava clenched her fingers.
"Forget it, let's not bother with them."
Lin En quickly grabbed her arm.
"But we can't go through the front door now. If we use the key to open the door and someone sees us, who knows how many people will gather around and yell at us. If you get angry then, we'll become famous in Yilong Wharf."
Ronava glanced at him sideways.
"How do we get in?"
Lin En walked around the shop and found a narrow alley behind it. At the end of the alley was the back door of the shop. The door was made of wood, old but had not been smashed, and the lock was an ordinary padlock.
He touched the top of the door frame. Hu Tao said the key was in the crack between the bricks. He stood on tiptoe and felt around the top of the door frame, and sure enough, he found a brass key wrapped in oiled paper.
"The back door wasn't blocked, and Hu Tao left us the key to the back door, so she should have known already."
Lin En shook the keys.
Ronava walked over and glanced at the back door, then looked at the alleyway in front to see if anyone was paying attention.
"Let's open the door and go inside, clean up the place first, and deal with the graffiti outside later."
Lin En inserted the key into the lock, turned it twice, and the door opened. The two squeezed in sideways and immediately closed the door behind them.
The shop wasn't large; there were a few tables and chairs in the front, and a small kitchen and a living room in the back.
There was a thick layer of dust, but the furniture was all there; a quick clean would be enough to use it.
Lin En put the bundle on the table and let out a long sigh of relief.
"Alright, we've finally arrived."
Ronava stood by the window in the front hall and glanced out through the crack.
There were many pedestrians coming and going on the street. Occasionally, someone would stop and point at the graffiti on the wall, and someone else would spit at the doorway.
I'm going out tonight.
Ronava withdrew her gaze.
"What?"
"Speak to the person in charge of this street."
She reached out and stitched the window shut.
"The graffiti issue needs to be resolved, otherwise we can't do business."
Looking at her expression, Lin En felt that her use of "talk" might be different from his understanding of "talk."