It was just past the hour of Chen, and the guesthouse was already nearly empty.
The occupants of this unassuming inn were mostly merchants and travelers. With the city under martial law at the moment, anyone wishing to leave had to head to the checkpoint near the city gate tower to wait in advance. Otherwise, once a long queue formed, they might end up delayed in the city for an entire day.
In the guesthouse's main hall, dozens of wooden tables were sparsely occupied by seven or eight scholarly-looking travelers. They sipped the cheapest yellow wine and ate the simplest of breakfasts.
As a major border town, Zhenxi Prefecture City's inns typically housed either profit-driven merchants or impoverished scholars meandering through the land.
Standing by the second-floor railing, Xu Yuan overlooked the hall below. He couldn't quite understand people like them.
