Those hoodlums didn’t notice him and Yan Liqiang acted like he didn’t notice them either and just walked past.
The capital city wasn’t a completely unfamiliar place to Yan Liqiang. He knew that in a place like the capital city, those hoodlums had deep connections behind them. Most of them would be the eyes of different levels of government as well as the wealthy. Even the Emperor had some eyes like this.
If these hoodlums didn’t notice you on the streets, it pretty much meant that no one would notice you in the capital city.
It seemed like his image change was very successful this time. Yan Liqiang laughed to himself and kept walking ahead while munching on his flatbread.
Everything in the capital city was expensive. They weren’t affordable for a newcomer youth so Yan Liqiang didn’t go in the city and started walking around the town like an ordinary youth. By the time Yan Liqiang finished the flatbread, he arrived at an ordinary inn and walked in. He asked for the price and then took the cheapest room.
“This room sleeps ten, six copper coins a night. You can’t bring anyone in, and you don’t have a blanket. If you want a blanket, then it’s two extra copper coins per night. I’m going to tell you now — you need to look after your belongings in the common room. If you lose anything, it’s not our responsibility. There’s no use even if you report to the law enforcement office, you understand?” The attendant brought Yan Liqiang in.
Yan Liqiang heard this and could only nod.
In the inn corridor, there were quite a few random things stacked there. The people living here were pretty much all poor foreigners. During the day, they would all go out to find jobs, so most of them weren’t here. A few people were playing chess in the courtyard. When they saw Yan Liqiang, they just took a glance and lost interest.
In the blink of an eye, the attendant took Yan Liqiang to the common bedroom.
That common bedroom was indeed a common bedroom. In a twenty square-meter room, there were two wooden beds that reached from the door to the corner of the wall. There was a narrow passage in the middle and there was a hay mattress on the bed as well as a few tattered bags. The smell of sweat mixed with foot odor drifted in the room.
“There are only seven people in this room now, so just find a place to sleep.” The attendant pointed at the bed and was about to leave. He didn’t want to stay here for one extra second.
“Brother, may I ask where I can find a place to work in the capital?” Yan Liqiang pulled the attendants sleeve and shoved a copper coin in his hand, acting like he didn’t know anything. “I just arrived, so please give me a few pointers!”
The attendant felt the copper coin and stuffed it in his chest before telling Yan Liqiang the places to look for work in the city. Then, he left after Yan Liqiang expressed his gratitude.
Looking around the room, Yan Liqiang casually threw his bag at the head of the bed and just went out. He went to the nearest job street and roamed around until night.
When Yan Liqiang came back, the rest of the people in the room came back too and were discussing job opportunities in the room. One of them had found a short-term job which was keeping horses for a wealthy family, but the others haven’t found a job yet.
Yan Liqiang was very quiet and listened on the side, rarely speaking. The group chatted for a while and then fell asleep.
Before sleeping, Yan Liqiang checked his bag. It had been searched indeed. In the bag, there were only two sets of tattered clothes and a fake family letter. There wasn’t a single copper coin inside. Yan Liqiang pretended he didn’t know and used the bag as a pillow and slept.
In the middle of the night, snoring sounds echoed in the room. Yan Liqiang felt a hand touch his body and reach for his arms, wanting to take what was there. Yan Liqiang kicked and there was a grunt. The hand retreated back and nothing else happened that night.
The next morning, the person who found a job left the inn. The rest of the people acted normal and cleansed themselves with the water from the well next to the hostel before leaving. Yan Liqiang was the last.
While washing his face, Yan Liqiang scooped the water up from the well and looked down at the reflection. Yan Liqiang smiled, and the face looked quite similar to Wang Baoqiang’s, full of ruralness. No one who saw this face would think he was some expert. This was what Yan Liqiang wanted.
In the next four days, Yan Liqiang left early and came back late, acting completely like an ordinary person. He also went to those job markets and walked around. He didn’t get anything these few days, but at his inn, two hoodlums and a law enforcer came at night. A few people sleeping in their room were called out. But they only scanned Yan Liqiang once and didn’t ask anything.
On the fifth day, Yan Liqiang left the inn early in the morning and bought two buns on the side of the streets. He chewed as he went to the Hundred Clans Market outside the city in the west. Yan Liqiang had been strolling around this area for the past few days. This was the place where Yan Liqiang hired Xu Enda and the rest.
At just daybreak, quite a few people had come to the empty space next to the river. Yan Liqiang came here and also found a place waiting for his ’employer’ to come.
It was the 24th day of the second lunar month in the 16th year of the Yuanping reign in the Great Han Empire. This was the day he arranged to meet Fang Beidou.
As the sun came out, more and more people started coming over to hire people. Yan Liqiang came up and when the sun was getting high, Yan Liqiang finally saw Fang Beidou…
