I’d been making deliveries all day. My raincoat had stopped doing any good ages ago. Rain ran down my collar, soaking my skin until it felt cold and clammy. The clean shirt I’d changed into before heading out that morning was now drenched and clinging to me like a rag.
But I didn’t complain.
This was the path I’d chosen.
An hour ago, I’d been staring blankly at a wall in the Dragon King Hall’s secret chamber. A portrait of the previous hall master hung there, with a row of incense burners beneath it, smoke curling through the air. Qin Mo knelt behind me and spoke in a hushed voice. “Hall Master, why take on this sort of work yourself? Any of the brothers could make the delivery for you.”
I didn’t turn around. I just looked at the eyes in the portrait. Even as the previous hall master lay dying, he hadn’t closed them. He’d been waiting for an answer, but I couldn’t give him one. I simply said, “I just want to see what life is like for an ordinary person.”
Qin Mo didn’t try to talk me out of it again. He knew there was no changing my mind.
