Chapter 37: The Alley

The afternoon spent itself in the slow rhythm of a city that had not asked them to hurry.

They walked. They argued about a dumpling stall whose owner was charging twice the going rate and getting away with it because the dumplings were that good. Su Qingyue tried one and conceded the point. Lin Xuan paid.

They drifted through a bookbinder’s lane where she stopped to read a spine, frowned at it, and put it back. He pretended not to notice the small smile she wore for the next three streets.

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