The Milky Way ushered in the night, hanging a lone moon among the stars.
The sky darkened early in the late autumn. As some of the hard laborers returned home, their wives were just starting the cooking fires, sending plumes of smoke spiraling into the air.
But on East Fire Kiln Street, in a desolate alley...
A certain courtyard residence seemed like an overstoked furnace. Billow after billow of black smoke, thick with roiling steam, shot straight into the heavens, overwhelming all the nearby wisps of cooking smoke.
Instructor Liao, who had been summoned by Wei Dinchang of the Wind and Cloud Association and had been running around all day, raised his white eyebrows and frowned sharply.
"At this hour? Don't tell me there's a fire."
He followed the address he'd gotten at the Wind and Cloud Association's Fire Kiln and fixed his gaze on the scene.
He discovered that the residence that looked like it was "on fire"...
...was his exact destination.
