The sky darkened extremely early in the Jing Dynasty; the mountains and forests sank completely into ink-black, with only some lonely lamps in the county town.
Chen Ji drew his horse to a halt in the distance and looked from afar at Siping County. The county had only low, earthen ramparts, pockmarked and ravaged by time, long since unrepaired, and there were only two old soldiers before the gate.
Those two old soldiers were not there to fend off foreign enemies; they only supervised the tax when commoners came into town with firewood and mountain goods on their backs, collecting a dozen or so coins, not even bothering to check travel permits.
Chen Ji did not enter the county town, but turned his horse into the depths of the forest, riding another two li before stopping.
He swung down from his horse, first tossing Yuan Xing into the snow, then helping Zhaolei remove the saddle, only then patting Zhaolei's back. "Go play."
