After rushing about for a day again, in the night they rested in a small village on the way; the village was very small—one could walk from start to end following a single road; in the middle was a small inn, transformed from the previous owner’s courtyard house; it was of some age, and was even more dilapidated than A Tang’s inn; on entering the inn, there was a scent of horse hooves and wet rice straw blended with mildew. The four, bustling in, devoured a few bowls of noodles, and then without further discussion, went directly to the rear courtyard to rest. The inn was small and the inhabitants were few, and the waiter wasn’t particularly enthusiastic; only after pinching her brows for a long while was A Yin able to call for a few buckets of hot water, using a few to clean her body, which had been soaked for a whole day. Tu Laoyao, naked, leaned inside the bathing bucket, letting out rarely-heard moans and gasps of pain; the majority of the day’s silence had been stuffed in the rush ...