A week later, at the No Dilution Pub.
The bright afternoon sun brought a touch of warmth to the slightly cool weather. A few stray dogs lazily lay outside the pub door, patiently waiting for the arrival of leftovers. Aside from food, not much could interest them; even the daring provocation from a nearby cat with a severed tail couldn't make them budge.
However, these few stray dogs were somewhat blocking the entrance to the pub, and a guest who wanted to enter yelled at them a few times and then kicked them hard to make them move farther away.
There weren't many customers inside the pub. A few scattered guests were leisurely smoking pipes and reading newspapers to pass their boring time, or playing a strange card game in pairs. The mild sound of cards hitting the table and the polite greetings like "sorry," "thank you," and "well played" made it clear that both card players were very courteous.
