The Villain's Ledger Has No Heroes Chapter 14: The Window for People Who Do Not Exist

The breathing behind the posting window was too slow to belong to a clerk waiting for a document. Shen Qiao measured the pauses between breaths. He counted seven heartbeats, then nine. A faint odor came through the gap: river mud, old incense, and something sweet that made him think of flowers left too long in a closed room. On the desk the higher register flickered, exposing a line of…