The first day of the siege.
The crowing of roosters started as a long line had already formed outside the porridge stall on Qiu Ci Street.
In the line, singers and dancers wrapped themselves in thick camel hair blankets showing only their cheeks, servants, pimps, and guests stood in line, holding ceramic bowls, waiting for the line to slowly move forward.
The border army soldiers, not in armor, wrapped in grey headscarves, carried long iron ladles to serve the thin porridge to the queued-up citizens.
Qi Zhenzhuo carried his bowl back from the porridge stall early, lifted the cotton curtain, clattered up the wooden stairs to the second floor, and knocked on Li Xuan's door.
Li Xuan, inside the room, put on his clothes and opened the door, puzzled, "What's the hurry for?"
