The twilight resembled a layer of soft gauze, gently spreading over a village in Yingtian Prefecture, on a desk for tax collection.
This place was also beside a tea stall.
Li Xiwen, a forty-year-old newly appointed clerk, in this hazy light, was concentrating on verifying tax slips.
He was a poor family youth who had failed the scholar examination three times, and his sleeves still carried the lingering bitter scent of the medicine brewed for his sick wife at home, wafting around without dispersing.
Indeed, even Yan Shan, responsible for the Recovery Society's affairs, had not noticed the many invisible barriers now impeding entry into the society.
Connections, significant entry fees, and even whether one is a fellow townsman of Jiangning; these conditions stand like invisible barriers, continuously keeping people like Li Xiwen out.