Transmigrated into a Grandpa, Embracing the Laid-Back Life

Chapter 17: First Steps into Qing Shi

The black wheat bun was dry and hard, scraping his throat until it ached.

Su Ming nibbled at it in small bites, like a squirrel stashing food for winter; every motion showed how precious it was to him.

The remaining road felt so stifled the atmosphere could be wrung dry.

Zhao Rui hunched on the cart board, covering his head with a ragged coat, saying nothing. He looked like a plucked rooster that could no longer fluff up.

Old Qian’s whip arm had lost much of its strength; he kept glancing back at the empty cart bed and letting out long sighs.

Only the mule still trod tirelessly, the creaking wheels the lone soundtrack of the journey.

Su Ming swallowed the last bite of bun, drank some of the slightly cool water from his waterskin, and turned his gaze to the distance.

At the edge of the horizon, a faint blue-gray line appeared.

As the mule cart drew closer, that line thickened and rose, until it resolved into an imposing city wall.

The wall was built from massive bluestone blocks, each stone mottled and weathered by wind and rain, like the wrinkles on the face of a taciturn old soldier.“Arriving at the Newcomer Village main city—Qingshi Town,” Lin Yu’s voice carried a flicker of interest.

The mule cart stopped at the end of the line before the city gate.

People and vehicles entering the city formed a long serpent: farmers pushing wheelbarrows of vegetables, itinerant merchants carrying crates, and several ornate carriages with curtains tightly drawn, giving off an air of aristocratic unapproachability.

It was the first time Su Ming had seen so many people.

A jumble of sounds poured into his ears like boiling porridge: hawking cries, bargaining voices, the lowing and snorting of oxen and horses, the rumble of wheels...

A complex smell hung in the air: livestock dung, the sour stench of sweat, and an indistinct tantalizing aroma of food drifting from the city.

All of it excited and at the same time instinctively tensed his body.

He reflexively pressed his hand against his chest, where one or two or three qian of silver were hidden, and that cold skinning knife.

That was all the courage he had.

“Don’t be nervous, relax,” Lin Yu soothed. “What you need to do now is observe and learn. Watch their clothes, listen to their accents, analyze their identities. This is a real world, far more vivid than anything in your books.”

sauntered over and prodded the cart board

business

coins and, wearing a smile, handed them over. “Captain, they’re from

then glanced

the disheveled, listless Zhao Rui, then at the raggedly dressed Su Ming, and

scoffed, waving his hand. “Move along, move along!

body twitched; the coat slipped from his head, revealing a face flushed bright, but

is far sharper than a

cart creaked

for a moment, then

before Su Ming

and shining by the years. Lining the roads were row upon

cloth shops, rice stores, pawnshops... signs of all

dressed. Men wore silk shirts, women sported silver hairpins; even the children wore brand-new cloth and chased each other through the

prosperity made Su Ming feel as if he’d

such tall buildings, such bright

at the roadside like a small weed uprooted from rural soil and suddenly planted into a wealthy

that country-bumpkin look! Yes, exactly like that, keep your head down, watch

Rui jumped down from the mule

confidence that came from being the Village Chief’s son

torn clothes, lifted his chin, and resumed

resentment inside him finally found an

of deliberate disdain. “Eyes all wide? Never seen anything before?

Ming only silently withdrew his gaze, making no

Rui, was

away the humiliation of the road. “My aunt handles the records at the county academy;

cart to a designated carriage depot, then led the two through a

walked and silently committed the route

sponge, greedily absorbing everything around him: which shop clerks looked most alert, which alley reeked the worst, which beggar in the

an herbalist’s shop, his

plaque outside the medicine shop displayed various herbs drying in the

serious. “Look at the plaque on the left, third row—see the

Su Ming scanned it.

was an unremarkable withered weed: yellowed leaves, shriveled roots, mixed