At eight in the morning, Ning’an Ancient City officially opened for business. Sun sat upright in front of the ticket window, looking faintly excited.
"Boss, is the construction over at West City Street really finished?" Looking at the empty little plaza outside the window, Sun couldn’t help but ask again.
"Relax, it’s really finished." Chen Yan gave a grunt of affirmation while scrolling through his phone without looking up. "If you don’t believe me, you can go see for yourself after work today."
"As long as it’s finished, that’s all that matters." After repeatedly confirming that the construction was truly over, Sun finally breathed a long sigh of relief.
The Ancient City’s revenue over the past week had been dismal to the extreme. As the ticket clerk, the despair he felt was the most obvious and intense. Now that the construction was finally over, even though it was unclear whether tourists would return, at least the hardest days were behind them.
The two of them made small talk like this, and before they knew it, over an hour had passed. The Ancient City still hadn’t seen a single customer. Chen Yan was fine, but Sun was getting a bit antsy.
Suddenly, the sound of footsteps came from outside the window.
A young couple approached at a leisurely pace. The young man wore a backpack, while the young woman held a parasol. He was currently looking at something on his phone.
Walking up to the ticket window, the young man glanced inside and directed his question to Chen Yan, who looked more like the manager. "I saw on your Note Official Account that Yongtong Bridge is open today. Is that true?"
"It’s true." Smiling and nodding, Chen Yan pointed at the glass. "Look, that’s where the construction notice used to be posted. We just took it down last night."
"That works. Two tickets." Once he was certain Yongtong Bridge was really open, the young man didn’t waste any words and directly scanned the QR code to pay.
Chen Yan was very fast as well; the moment the transaction went through on the customer’s end, he had already finished printing the tickets. Taking the tickets handed to him, the young couple turned to leave.
"Please wait a moment, you two—" Chen Yan called out, stopping them.
Facing the confused young couple who had turned back around, Chen Yan explained, "Here’s the thing. After this recent upgrade and construction, the Ancient City’s original West City Street has been officially renamed Qinghe Street. Along with that, some of the interactive experiences on the street have also been upgraded."
"Such as?" Seeing his earnest expression, the young man didn’t react much, but the young woman’s interest was piqued.
"For example, after entering the city, you two can stroll, take photos, and have fun. But if you want to buy food or drinks on Qinghe Street, you’ll need to have some copper coins, because the merchants on Qinghe Street only accept those now." Reciting his well-rehearsed pitch, Chen Yan wore an apologetic look. "Of course, this is just a way for our Ancient City to enhance tourist immersion. If you two aren’t interested, you can just go straight in and enjoy your visit."
"That sounds pretty interesting..." Listening to Chen Yan’s explanation, the young woman’s eyes lit up slightly, seemingly tempted.
However, the young man next to her caught the catch and asked bluntly, "So what you mean is, if we don’t have copper coins, we won’t be able to buy anything once we go inside?"
"That’s right, but..." Nodding slowly, Chen Yan counted out twenty copper coins from the cash box, divided them into two small stacks, and pushed them out through the window. "You two are the first batch of guests since Qinghe Street’s upgraded opening. These copper coins are a lucky bonus for good fortune. They aren’t included in the ticket price."
"Wow, this really has that authentic vibe!" Picking up a copper coin for a look, the young woman’s eyes grew even brighter, and she couldn’t help but praise the idea.
The young man silently picked up his copper coins as well. Feeling their heavy weight, whatever slight dissatisfaction he originally had completely dissipated.
Politely thanking Chen Yan, the young couple pocketed their copper coins. Listening to the CLINK CLINK CLINK sound coming from their pockets, they happily passed through the turnstiles and entered the Ancient City.
"Boss, when did our West City Street get upgraded to Qinghe Street? How come I didn’t know about it?" Having watched the entire exchange from the sidelines, Sun couldn’t hold back anymore and hurriedly asked as he watched the couple enter.
"What do you think I was doing cordoning off that street for seven days?" Chen Yan shot him an exasperated sidelong glance. Having successfully promoted the copper coins with his lucky bonus excuse, he leaned back and quietly waited for the tourists’ feedback.
Beyond the turnstiles was a short transitional path planted with dwarf bamboo on both sides.
As they walked, the young man fished a copper coin out of his pocket and turned it over in his fingers, marveling as he examined it. "It’s actually quite heavy. It feels a bit like real copper."
"It is real copper, okay?" the young woman walking in front said without looking back.
Perhaps because Chen Yan’s smile had been too sincere, or perhaps because she had received a free perk first thing in the morning, she had a very good impression of the smiling ticket seller.
Although it was still a niche attraction for now, its excellent reputation meant that the travel guides on Notes regarding Yongtong Bridge were quite comprehensive. After entering the city, the two didn’t go anywhere else; as soon as they finished walking the transitional path, they turned directly toward the west side of the city.
But as they walked, they sensed something was wrong. The distance from the entrance to West City Street wasn’t long. According to the travel guides, if you headed straight west after entering the city, the moment the concrete road turned into a flagstone road, you had arrived at West City Street.
But now, the concrete road had ended, yet what appeared before their eyes was not the flagstone road mentioned in the guides, but a dirt road.
Their first reaction was to wonder if they had gone the wrong way.
Looking up, they saw a wooden archway standing right where the dirt road met the concrete path. The archway looked quite old at a glance. Two round wooden pillars supported the crossbeam and bracket system on top, displaying an ash-brown hue typical of decades of weathering.
A wooden plaque hung on the crossbeam. Its paint was mottled, but the three large characters on the plaque were still clearly legible—
"Street... River... Qing..."
As the young man read the characters on the plaque aloud one by one, he suddenly felt the flesh at his waist being pinched. "That’s Qinghe Street!"
Glaring wordlessly at her foolish boyfriend, the young woman didn’t bother entertaining him. She lifted her foot, stepped through the archway, and walked into the street. The ticket seller had told them that West City Street had been changed to Qinghe Street, and they had indeed just seen the archway for Qinghe Street, which meant they hadn’t gone the wrong way.
However, the travel guides clearly had videos showing that West City Street not only was paved with flagstones, but its architecture was also in the style of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Therefore, they were now deeply curious—extremely curious. They had been to scenic spots with concrete roads, and they had visited plenty of scenic spots with flagstone roads. But a spot bold enough to upgrade a flagstone road backward into a dirt road was a first for them. It was a novelty.
After passing through the archway, the buildings on both sides gradually came into view. Just as they expected, this street was completely different from the West City Street filmed on Notes.
The houses on both sides of the street were generally not tall; the highest was only two stories. The eaves were low, the walls white, and the tiles black. The white walls were a grayish-white, faded by the wind and sun, with the plaster peeling into fine cracks in several places.
The tiles were also very ordinary. The eaves were carved with the simplest of patterns—no auspicious beasts, no inscriptions. A few tiles were missing corners, the broken edges filled with moss. There were no flying eaves, no intricate bracket systems, and no carved beams or painted rafters.
The entire street gave off a very peculiar feeling. It wasn’t dilapidated; rather, it felt more like...
"Did we really go the wrong way and stumble into some nearby ancient village?" Instead of walking further, the young woman instinctively lowered her voice and asked the young man beside her.
The young man didn’t answer. He was staring at a shop with a cloth banner hanging outside, not far ahead.