Shen Yanzhi stepped into Qingxi Town in the dusk, stepping on the smell of soot from the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway. Houses with black tiles and white walls are crowded on both sides of the river. The walls are peeling off into mottled gray, like the chapped wrinkles on the face of an old lady. The damp wind came over him with the smell of water and grass, and he subconsciously tightened the collar of his windbreaker - there was something else mixed in the wind, much like the sobs that leaked from the cracks of a woman's throat when her mouth was covered.
"Sir, are you dressed in this suit from Shanghai?" The innkeeper was an old man with a goatee. His fingers were tapping the abacus on the counter, but his eyes were fixed on the silver pocket watch on Shen Yanzhi's wrist. The pocket watch case was engraved with the pattern of the Tower of London. It was a gift from his tutor when he was studying abroad. At the moment, the hands of the watch were stuck at a quarter past seven, which was half a beat slower than the wall clock in the town.
"Let's check something." Shen Yanzhi put the suitcase in the corner. When the bottom of the wooden box rubbed against the blue bricks, half a dry lotus leaf came out. He noticed that there was a yellowed talisman paper affixed to the lintel of the inn. The lines on the cinnabar painting had spread, and tiny holes had been eaten away at the corners by insects. "Isn't the town... Not peaceful recently?"
