They didn't enter the town through the main gate.
The road curved wide around the stone walls, dipping into a sprawl of low buildings and half-permanent structures that clung to the outskirts like an afterthought. Roofs overlapped at uneven angles. Smoke drifted from cookfires and kilns. The air smelled faintly of oil, damp wood, and boiled grain.
This was where people who didn't belong inside the walls found their place anyway.
Mei slowed, eyes moving from stall to stall. There was no single market square—just a long stretch of narrow lanes where carts had stopped long enough to pretend they were shops. A butcher's table leaned against a post. A woman boiled something thick and dark in a pot patched too many times to count. Two men argued over the weight of a sack, voices rising and falling in tired rhythms.
"…It's a lot," Mei muttered.
Tianlian gave a small nod. "It usually is."
"That's… a lot of noise."
"Better to notice it than be part of it," he said.
She huffed softly, scanning the crowd. "I don't know how people live like this."
"They get used to it," he said. "Or they stop noticing."
They moved with the flow of foot traffic instead of against it. Tianlian didn't rush, but he didn't linger either. He matched the pace of the crowd, just another traveler with dust on his boots and no destination.
A boy ran past them, nearly colliding with Mei before swerving at the last second. He laughed, breathless, and vanished between carts.
Mei watched him go, then glanced down at her sleeve. "At least he didn't knock anything over."
"Give it time," Tianlian said. "There's always something someone will bump into."
She gave him a wry look. "…Thanks for the heads-up."
They stopped near a stall selling flatbread and fried goods. The seller, a broad-shouldered woman with a red scarf tied around her hair, looked them over quickly, trained eyes missing nothing.
"Two for a copper," she said. "Eating now or taking them with you?"
Mei hesitated. "Uh… we'll eat here."
Tianlian leaned slightly closer. "Two." He set the coins down.
The woman nodded and returned to the pan. Oil hissed. The smell made Mei's stomach tighten.
"You hungry?" Tianlian asked.
"I wasn't going to say it," Mei replied, trying to hide a smile.
"You didn't have to," he said.
They ate standing beside the cart. The bread was dense, the filling salty and hot. Mei chewed slowly. "Not bad," she admitted.
"Outer towns are better at feeding people than impressing them," Tianlian said.
She snorted softly. "Sounds like you've been around a lot of towns."
"Enough to know what to expect," he said.
Once the food was gone, they moved on. The lane narrowed, then widened into a rough clearing where several wagons had been parked in a loose circle. People rested under their canopies. Someone repaired a wheel. Someone argued with a driver about space.
Mei shifted her pack higher. "Where do we stay?"
"Not inside," Tianlian said.
"That's… reassuring," she said, not fully convinced.
A gray-robed man stood near the edge of the clearing. Narrow wooden board propped against a crate. He looked stiff, out of place among traders and laborers.
Mei noticed him first. "That man—"
"I see him," Tianlian said.
The gray-robed man caught their eyes and hesitated. Then stepped forward. "Travelers," he said, voice careful. "If you're staying in the outer town for more than a day, there's a registration board… for work or lodging. Helps prevent problems."
"Problems?" Mei asked.
He winced slightly. "…Mostly dumb arguments. Over space, over water. Sometimes carts. Happens a lot."
"That sounds exhausting," Mei said.
He exhaled, a quiet laugh escaping. "It can be. I'm supposed to make it less so."
Tianlian glanced at the board. Few scraps of paper pinned, ink smudged. "We're passing through. But we'll be nearby tonight."
Gray-robed man nodded, shoulders relaxing. "Then that's fine. Just… don't set up too close to the road. Drivers don't like surprises in the dark."
Mei dipped her head. "Thanks for letting us know."
He gave a small nod. "Safe evening."
They walked on. Noise thinned as they moved toward the sprawl's edge, where structures were farther apart, ground showing more packed dirt than stone.
Mei glanced back. "He looked tired."
"They usually are," Tianlian said. "Order is louder than chaos, but it takes more effort."
She was quiet for a few steps. "…Is that why you didn't want to go inside the walls?"
"Partly," he said. "Inside, people expect permanence. Out here, they expect movement."
"And we're…?"
"Moving," he said. "For now."
They found a shallow rise near some scrubby trees. Ground dry enough to sit without soaking clothes. From here, the outer town looked less like noise and more like a glow of lamps and cookfires.
Mei set her pack down, stretched her legs. "So this is living on the edge."
"For tonight," Tianlian said. "Tomorrow, someone else's edge."
She watched smoke drift into the dimming sky. "…No one here seems to belong, but everyone acts like they do."
"That's how temporary places survive," he said. "Pretend long enough to get through the day."
Mei leaned back on her hands. "…Do you ever get tired of pretending?"
He considered, eyes on the wall's line of light. "Sometimes. But pretending is lighter than explaining."
She smiled faintly, not comforted, just honest.
Lamps flickered on one by one. The outer town's faint glow stretched, uneven and restless. For now, that was enough.