Changping County’s city gate opened.
The Secret Espionage Directorate and the Troubles-Quelling Guard surged westward; only a few dozen men remained hidden in the county, continuing to hunt for any trace of Chen Ji.
As for Liao Zhong, he seemed to have been forgotten.
Neither Wu Xuange nor Xuan Snake paid him much mind.
In Changping, inside a courtyard in Gongji Lane, a household man had just lit the stove.
In the main room a boy of three or four sat on a low stool, eyes bright, staring toward the kitchen.
A woman behind him sat on a chair, smiling as she tied up his little hair.
The boy sniffed the fragrance coming from the kitchen, blinking his watery eyes. “Father, I’m hungry. I want stove candy.”
The man laughed from the kitchen. “The Kitchen God’s already left—where would there be stove candy? Ping’er, wait a bit, the rice will be ready soon….”
Before his words finished, someone knocked at the outer gate.
The woman instinctively clapped a hand over the child’s mouth.
The man stepped out from the kitchen; he and the woman exchanged a silent look.
He gestured with a hand; the woman clutched the child and hurried deeper into the room, shoving him into a wooden chest used for clothes.