Chapter 642: End of Leave

Guangzhou Old City, south of the city, Geshuijie.

The light of a kerosene lamp approached from afar, accompanied by the "clop-clop" of horse hooves, as a carriage slowly traveled along the ancient flagstone road.

Under the night, Guangzhou Old City was deep, secluded, and silent. To the right of the narrow flagstone road flowed a silent city river, its surface shimmering with scattered fragments of moonlight.

To the left of the flagstone road was a high wall. The back residence wall of some unknown great household stretched on continuously. Beneath the bluestone wall base spread fine, delicate moss, and the green brick wall surface was covered with the dense, fine scars of age—every corner spoke of the illustrious family status of the residence's owner.

Curled up, with his sleeves drawn together, Zhou Yi half-reclined inside the carriage canopy. He had not drawn the carriage curtain, only stretching his legs out beyond the carriage.

An old-style two-wheeled carriage without a shock absorption system or rubber tires jolted constantly the entire journey, even on a relatively high-grade flagstone road.

Yet Zhou Yi was very accustomed to this jolting, especially in tonight's environment.

His mood at this moment was very "spacious."

The jolting of the wheels, the deliberately hooked-open curtain, the slowly receding street scenes—whenever these elements came together, an unforgettable scene would leap out from Zhou Yi's memory: back then, fleeing disaster from his old home in Ezhou, he had ridden in the same jolting carriage, out of the Ezhou city gate, and boarded the Yangtze River pier.

Everything was so deceptively similar—the same flagstone road, the same city river, the same high wall. At this moment, the distant Ezhou and the Guangzhou he was in merged into one, emptying Zhou Yi's thoughts and placing him in a state of "void-like clarity."

This rare state of relaxed thought was soon interrupted by a clamor of noise.

When Zhou Yi became alert, he suddenly realized the carriage had already passed through the quiet Geshuijie and arrived at Xingshijie, not far from the Great Nanmen.

Zhou Yi immediately reached into his coat and pulled out an exquisite copper-cased pocket watch for a glance.

In the dim carriage canopy, the green fluorescent hands on the dial clearly told Zhou Yi it was the end of xu-hour—exactly 9 o'clock in the evening.

"Good, I can still make it."

Seeing that there was no problem with the time, Zhou Yi's suspended heart settled, and he lazily lay back down in the carriage bed.

Almost a full hour had passed since he left Yang Liushui's home.

Tonight's New Year's Eve dinner had been very fulfilling for Zhou Yi. It wasn't really because of the wine; most importantly, through the festive atmosphere and his interaction with Yang Liushui's family, Zhou Yi, all alone, had gained spiritual replenishment in this distant, foreign land.

Moreover, this time he had thoroughly resolved Yang Liushui's "work" and "Organization" issues, which to a large extent could be considered "repaying" Yang Liushui—an arrangement that made Zhou Yi very much at ease.

He knew that he would be away on assignment for quite a long period next; if he didn't settle Yang Liushui properly, he wouldn't feel at ease while away.

However, emotions like these must eventually dissipate. When the carriage reached the bustling Xingshijie, Zhou Yi, who appeared to be lounging lazily in the carriage bed, had in fact seamlessly switched into "work" mode, becoming the cold Imperial Claw produced by the training system.

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As the influence of the New District expanded daily, the seemingly ancient and sluggish Guangzhou Old City had long been affected in every aspect, and the Great Nanmen architectural complex was the place that had changed the most.

In the years before this, although there were various traditional programs inside and outside the city after nightfall, most were limited to the "entertainment industry," such as painted boats and Hangyuanjie. As for the rest of the city, it was mostly pitch-black.

Nighttime, in truth, had little to do with ordinary people. This was the seventeenth century; common households might light a single oil lamp and could not afford other entertainments.

Yet now, the moment the carriage turned into the entrance of Xingshijie, clamor and dense lamplight rushed to meet them, catching one off guard.

Under the night sky, this area near the Great Nanmen of Guangzhou had now clearly become a bustling marketplace. The roadside was filled with all kinds of food, from traditional rice noodles, wontons, and lotus-leaf-wrapped chicken, to modern fried chicken, barbecue, and dai pai dong.

Most of these stalls hung bright kerosene lamps. Amid the smoke and cooking fumes, many diners from who-knows-where packed the seats tightly, their shouts and laughter never ceasing for a moment, keeping the stall owners busy and sweating profusely.

Beyond the food stalls, further ahead at the Nanmen Inner Square, it was equally brightly lit, with freight wagons from inside the city and the north of the city filling the square.

Originally, there was no square at the Nanmen; after entering the south city gate, there was just the main street and the shops and residences on both sides.

Later, one day, the government went mad and forcibly demolished a large area of land inside and outside the Nanmen. Afterwards, they built a circle of two-story buildings around the square and began renting them out to various large Commercial Firms for profit.

Now, whenever night fell, goods from inside the city and the north of the city would successively gather at the Nanmen Inner Square for inspection and accounting. The major trading companies would transport the goods out of the Nanmen for loading onto ships early the next morning, promptly crossing the river to deliver them to the New District.

The carriage Zhou Yi rode in thus traveled against the endless stream of people, through this peculiar environment—unprecedented in a thousand years—as bright as day, arriving at the south city gate.

At the south city gate, Zhou Yi got off the carriage. First, he politely took out some silver bits and settled the fare with the coachman.

Then, he straightened his clothes and walked out of the city with an utterly ordinary gait.

If this were a few years ago, the main gate of Guangzhou South City would certainly have been closed long before this hour. However, over these past few years, with the suppression of banditry in the surrounding areas and the development of commercial activities, the closing time of the Great Nanmen—the gate of Guangzhou Old City closest to the New District—had been pushed later and later. Now, it often wouldn't close until hai-hour (10 PM).

Zhou Yi encountered no trouble leaving the city—the gate soldiers responsible for collecting tolls at the city gate wouldn't pay attention to a person with utterly ordinary clothes, an utterly ordinary face, and utterly ordinary behavior, someone you'd forget the moment they passed from sight.

As he walked out of the city gate archway, Zhou Yi brushed past a large group of "workers" with tired faces, wearing denim work uniforms. These people were precisely the source of the bustling prosperity inside and outside the Nanmen—Natives from the inner city coming off the evening shift in the New District.

The weakness of the base industry and the excessively rapid expansion had created the awkward situation in the New District where "finding a room is harder than anything." Coupled with the constant need to resettle refugees arriving by sea, there were still vast numbers of workers in the old city who hadn't managed to get housing and could only commute across the river daily on shift boats, much like the losers living in the seventh ring in later generations.

Passing through the majestic and thick South City Gate, Zhou Yi saw at a glance the dazzling, brilliant lights on the opposite riverbank. In the nights of the seventeenth century, that expanse of lights so captivated the eyes of the Natives, so shocked them. Who knows how many Native elites were won over by the mighty force represented by that expanse of lights, throwing themselves without hesitation into the cause of the Transmigrators.

Outside the Nanmen at night, no one was resting either; the industrious Ming People had already started their night shifts. Type 28 passenger ships and cargo ships with lights hanging from their bows busily moved in and out of the pier. There was also the "highway" construction site outside the Nanmen, where the embryonic form of a later-generation county-level road had already appeared.

To supply the New District's colossal appetite, a primitive industrial chain had long been established. On the short stretch of road Zhou Yi walked to the pier, he saw no fewer than three boats of live ducks and geese queuing to board the slaughter ship.

A live Qingyuan goose, after overnight processing through the industrial chain, would become a smooth, dressed goose delivered into the New District around three or four in the morning. By noon tomorrow, the dressed goose would have become fragrant honey-glazed roast goose, lying on a porcelain plate awaiting the enjoyment of the Transmigrated Nobles.

Meanwhile, all the goose and duck feathers would be collected and sent to factories to be made into down jackets for export, without wasting a single bit.

Zhou Yi reached the pier and skillfully boarded a passenger ship in the waiting area.

Before long, the passenger ship was full. The boatman shouted a work chant, hoisted the sail, and set off, rowing the ship toward the opposite riverbank.

The boats on the river surface were in good order, with dedicated "roads" for coming and going to ensure traffic order.

The "roads" on the water surface were formed by two sets of waterproof buoys burning kerosene inside. Every boat passenger seeing this magical "night-luminous lamp"—its upper half made of glass—for the first time would click their tongue in wonder.

The guiding route formed by the night-luminous buoys allowed boatmen, in the nights of the seventeenth century, to cross the broad river surface without any danger and come directly to the New District Pier.

The moment Zhou Yi jumped onto the New District Pier, it was exactly 9:40.

Arriving at the New District meant being on his own Territory, free of all taboos. Zhou Yi went up the pier, and in the waiting area, he skillfully shared a ride with someone in a beautiful four-wheeled carriage, heading to Central Avenue.

"Central Avenue" was the earliest established administrative district avenue. This street, featuring a large central cross roundabout, was wide and high-grade, surrounded by core administrative units. And the square nearby was naturally called "Central Square."

The hardened roads of the New District were both flat and hard. A four-wheeled carriage equipped with a spring shock absorption system ran on them steadily and swiftly.

Before long, Zhou Yi got off at the Great Cross, then walked on foot through the square east of the cross and turned into Guangchang East Road.

From here on, inspections became strict. At the entrance of Guangchang East Road, Zhou Yi first underwent a round of temporary inspection.

The roving inspection team, armed with live ammunition, was very interested in Zhou Yi, a "Ming Person" daring to wander around Guangchang East Road late at night. However, the next moment, when Zhou Yi took out his identification, the inspection team understood: so it was a Dog Runner from the Intelligence General Bureau.

Thus, after passing through one more fixed checkpoint, Zhou Yi finally arrived on foot at his unit: No. 11 Guangchang East Road.

An utterly ordinary iron gate, an utterly ordinary gatehouse, an oil lamp hanging by the window, and an old man dozing behind the glass window—by all appearances, No. 11 Guangchang East Road was just an utterly ordinary administrative unit, probably a sinecure department like the archives bureau.

However, the moment Zhou Yi stepped through the iron gate and rounded the spirit screen, as someone familiar with the inside story, he immediately felt the gaze of N pairs of eyes.

Zhou Yi knew that at this moment, suddenly standing under a bright, large LED bulb, his eyes couldn't react and he fundamentally couldn't see what objects were several meters away.

And under the high-intensity light, he was now not only pinned by the rifle-wielding sentries behind and to his sides, but also by the snipers on the walls in the darkness ahead to his left and right — Zhou Yi himself had once served as duty sniper; his Rifle Shooting score at the Training Camp was 95.

Slowly pulling out his blue ID and giving it a shake, then making an internal hand signal under the light, Zhou Yi waited until his eyes adjusted to the light before stepping forward steadily, crossing the "target zone" and arriving at the Intelligence General Bureau's actual gatehouse.

The next moment, the duty officer inside the gatehouse, wearing a peaked cap, began checking the ID against the register.

"Name."

"Zhou Yi."

"Reason."

"Reporting back from leave."