A Strange Little Shop

Shengtian, Hushitai.

Hushitai was the pronunciation of Mongolian words meaning "a place flourishing with reeds". The area used to be a stud-farm in the Qing Dynasty and was set up as a town after the modern state was established. It was now an economic development zone.

There was plenty of land and a population disproportionate to the size of the town. Residential areas and business quarters gathered up here and there in lumps, leaving out vacant factory buildings and idle farmlands for miles on end.

"Clank! Clank!"

The shutter door rolled up and a yawning Yan Han walked out. He looked this way and that at the door and shuddered at a chilly gust of wind. Here began another boring, uneventful day.