At six-thirty in the evening, the old town of Nancheng was shrouded in a layer of gray mist. On both sides of the narrow streets, low-rise bungalows were crowded together. The advertising paper on the wall was blown by the wind, revealing the mottled wall underneath. The street lamps at the entrance of the alley were in disrepair for a long time, and the bulbs flickered on and off, making the shadows of passers-by grow longer and shorter, like struggling ghosts.
Suffering from a severe abdominal pain, Li Tiancheng bent over and leaned against the mottled wall. The cold sweat on his forehead slid down his cheeks and hit the dusty concrete floor, leaving a small wet mark. He had just unloaded the last truck of cement from the construction site, and the high-intensity physical work had drained the last bit of strength out of him, and this sudden abdominal pain seemed to bring out all the suffering he had suffered in the past twenty years.
