Hua Zhu Port bustled with ships coming and going.
Porters carrying loads on their backs, under the scorching sun, their sackcloth soaked with sweat, beads rolling off their chins, splashing onto the bluestone slabs, evaporating with each breath they took.
"Why hasn't the Hengshui Envoy from Pingyang Prefecture arrived yet? The station sent a message days ago, and two days have passed without a sight of him, causing us minor officials quite the trouble, eh."
Two prefectural officers, one fat and one thin, sat waiting in the teahouse, sweating profusely, their soap-colored clothes stained with visible sweat marks, continuously fanning themselves, inevitably feeling irritable.
"Disaster comes from careless talk." The thin officer drank up his tea, "The prefectural city is a big place, with bluestone roads that allow three carriages to run side by side, buildings so tall one cannot see the sky,
