The morning market stalls were lined up in rows, smoke curling into the sky, and inside the oilcloth tents hung with paper lanterns, people sat crowded together, talking and laughing, enjoying breakfast. The hawkers' calls and the joyful chatter of the common folk about the victory in the war against Xiliang melded into a cacophony, the marketplace bustling with noise.
Little guard dogs, released early by their owners from the courtyard, squeezed between breakfast stalls and people's legs, sniffing around in search of accidentally fallen meat buns or other food, only to be shooed away by the stall owners with soup ladles, causing them to flee with tails between their legs, provoking laughter from all as the recently departed Tianfeng Kingdom was likened to these young dogs.
