A piece of Japanese incense

Chapter 231 Wangchao City

The salty sea breeze, carrying the unique fishy smell of the sea, violently poured into Yu Tuan's lungs.

She opened her eyes half asleep and half awake, and what came into view was a gray city. The tall but mottled city walls stood against the backdrop of the sea and sky, and thick seaweed and shell debris of various colors piled up at the base of the walls.

"Miss, is this Wangchao City?" Yu Tuan asked in a low voice.

"Yutuan! You're awake!" Tingzhu helped Yutuan sit up in surprise.

Zhi Yihe patted Tingzhu's arm, and Tingzhu immediately understood and fell silent.

In the past month, they changed their names. Zhiyi, using the pseudonym "Nanyin", was the widow of a merchant who had suffered a disaster in the north, while Tingzhu (Ningning) and Yutuan (Xiaoman) were her distant cousins who had taken refuge with her.

They all wore coarse hemp clothes with countless patches on them, and their faces were smeared with a thick paste made of earthy beeswax and inferior yellow powder. The paste was greasy and made their originally pretty faces look waxy and dull, with large pores.

Zhi Yihe's hair was tied with a greasy cloth, deliberately left disheveled to hide her short hair and the scars on her head. Her lips, stained dark brown with crushed herbal juice, were cracked and flaky, and when she smiled, her teeth, stained slightly yellow by the same herbs, were exposed.

In order to hide Yutuan's injury, Tingzhu and Yutuan deliberately hunched their backs and kept their faces as low as possible.

"We're here." The driver, who had been silent all the way, spoke in a bad tone. If he hadn't charged them a fare that was 30% higher than the market price, he would not have been willing to take them to this "hellish place".

Zhi Yihe paid the fare. The driver glanced at him warily and warned in a thick local accent, "For the sake of money, I'm giving you a piece of advice: close your doors at sunset and don't wander the streets. This city... is not peaceful."

The coachman's meaningful look made Zhi Yihe's heart tremble. She calmly scanned the city that exuded a dangerous atmosphere.

Zhi Yihe thought that by disguising himself as the most inconspicuous woman, he could hide in this dangerous place.

But as soon as she stepped into the heavy black iron city gate, she felt the gazes of countless people, which was chilling.

In the shadows of the city gate, two men in tattered leather armor leaned against the women, their arms folded as they slowly scraped their bodies again and again. Their eyes held no curiosity, only scrutiny, a kind of cat-and-mouse amusement. One of them even had a grass stem in the corner of his mouth, revealing half a charred, rotten tooth as he chewed.

The market was bustling with activity, the cries of hawkers echoing one after another. The fishmongers deftly scraped the scales of fish, blood splattering on the greasy wooden chopping boards, a fishy stench filling the air. But his eyes would occasionally lift, resting precisely on their faces with a professional alertness.

The old woman selling coarse porcelain bowls nearby counted the bowls with her cracked and calloused hands, glancing at the path they were walking on out of the corner of her eyes.

Even a little boy with a runny nose playing with dirty shells on the side of the road looked up at them with a coldness and sharpness in his eyes that was inconsistent with his age.

Every step she took on the bumpy stone road covered with fish scales and dirty water made a sticky sound. Ting Zhu was close to her, her arms were stiff, and Zhi Yihe could feel her tense muscles trembling slightly.

"Ah...sister." Tingzhu's voice was as thin as a mosquito, with tears in her eyes, "They...they are all looking at us..."

"Don't talk!" Zhi Yihe lowered his voice to a very low level. "Keep your head down! Walk faster!"

They quickened their pace, sweat seeping from their foreheads, mixing with the greasy wax on their faces and flowing into their eyes, making them feel astringent and painful.

Zhi Yihe felt that they were like three insects that had strayed into a spider web. They could only maintain a numb and dull expression on their faces, while their hearts were beating wildly in their chests.