Chapter 238

The setting sun bled across the sky, casting its dying rays upon the weathered streets of Jin City. A garbage cart rolled slowly down the road. The vehicle was battered and worn, emanating a nauseating, pungent odor that felt utterly jarring in the quiet streets. Soldiers of various nationalities from the Eight-Nation Alliance patrolled the area, swaggering arrogantly through the city they had trampled underfoot. Yet whenever the cart brushed past them, the foul stench rolled out in a wave, causing the soldiers to scowl, hurl curses, and quicken their pace to get as far away as possible. The driver was a stooped old man whose face was etched with the lines of age, resembling cracked, parched earth. He flashed a ingratiating smile, nodding continuously in greeting to the soldiers while muttering unintelligible words under his breath. Anyone who understood the Daxia language would have realized the old man was cursing them with a smile. However, the soldiers did not share a language with him and had no idea what he was saying. The old man kept his smiling face plastered on, as if it were his only way to survive in these troubled times.