Chapter 17: Chapter 15: Afternoon Tea

Afternoon had fallen, putting things in a humid pall of the sun’s golden light that dripped through the spaces between houses. The small courtyard garden was quiet except for the sound of crickets and the heavy bleating sobs of Li Baobao. Lush well tended to trees leaned over flower beds and a small artificial pond with a bench crafted from grey stone that the young Li was crying on.

Liu Xie stepped into the courtyard with a borrowed tea tray from the kitchen, the herbal smell of the brew wafting upwards from a little kettle with an elaborate yet quaint painting of a farming scene on it. The two cups had designs of rice plants and barley which Liu Xie felt a tad funny, that such mundane depictions would be on the cups of rich merchants who had displayed their wealth so heavily otherwise.

 

He moved up behind the crying young man and leaned down to offer a cup. “Here.”

 

Li Baobao jumped, swinging his head around to look up at Liu Xie. His eyes were red and puffy from all his blubbering. “Th-thank you.” He took one cup with barely steady hands and sipped it, making a face. “O-oh, this isn’t one of our stock, is it?”

 

“No, it’s from a sample I got at a teahouse,” Liu Xie explained as he sat down on the bench as well, putting the tray between them. “I was told an interesting story while at the teahouse, about a farmer’s wife and a snake.”

 

The young man straightened up slightly. “I… I know that one. Or at least a few versions of it. There’s a lot of them in this town,” he sipped the tea again. “In one of them, the farmer’s wife asked the snake to heal her husband and grant him a good future, and the snake agreed in return for her eyes. Another one was that the wife, since she was dying, fed herself to the snake in return for providing wealth to her husband and his children.”

 

“Ah?” Liu Xie held his own cup but did not drink from it. He much preferred alcohol. “Why are there so many variations?”

 

Li Baobao shrugged, "I don’t know. I figure it’s because once our business started using it to promote ourselves, others started as well. Each one changed their story just a bit to differentiate themselves from another, and then started exaggerating. Eventually things became so jumbled and mixed up, the original was lost.”

 

Liu Xie smiled slightly, “the perils of standing out from the crowd huh?”

 

“I-I guess so,” Li Baobao’s face turned a faint pink.

 

“Does your family have a version it favors?” Liu Xie asked as he looked into the pond’s empty waters.

 

“Hm, no. Not really. My mother’s family are tea blenders, they liked a story about the wife making tea infused with her own blood to give to a snake god that demanded tribute. My father did have a few other stories written down and collected which he put in the family shrine.” Li Baoba’s voice was growing more steady as he spoke. “I just… this is all too much for me. My brother and his wife have already been through so much. They lost a baby girl shortly after she was born, several of his investments fell through, and his gambling has only gotten worse.”

 

Liu Xie closed his eyes in thought. If there were so many stories, was it possible that it was what the town was founded upon? But there were no shrines to snakes anywhere, even though they frequently appeared as a motif in other places. In fact he had not even seen a living snake anywhere within or near town.

 

“May… may I ask a question?”

 

“You can,” Liu Xie opened his eyes to look upon Li Baobao’s nervous reflection in the water.

 

“I was wondering, how you and… Idony know each other?” Li Baobao said, before continuing rapidly, “not that I suspect you of any ill intentions, please do not take it that way! I was just very curious because very few people from Norwen have been in the Southern Kingdom in recent years outside of the influx of fortune seekers and-”

 

“I love her mother,” Liu Xie answered simply even though the words broke something in him. If only he had begged, pulling her back when she left. “I made a vow that I would come if anything happened. So I did.”

 

Li Baobao’s eyes widened a bit, “that’s… that’s very loyal and kind of you.”

 

“Is it?” He rested his chin in his hand. How loyal was he really? She had died, in pain, far away. “How is your brother doing?”

 

“He’s been asked to stay in his room since the dinner incident. I don’t know if he’s even been made aware of hi… his wife’s… mu…fate. Her fate.”

 

Liu Xie was quietly amused that this young man could barely bring himself to say murder, having to find a roundabout to refer to it. He sipped his tea again. “So when someone is sent to be punished in your family, they’re made to stay in their room?”

 

“Yes. Nobody is allowed to talk to them. Food is given through the window in the morning and waste is disposed of at night through the window,” Li Baobao detailed while he fiddled with a loose thread on his clothes. “It’s not very often it happens, but when it does the seclusion can be quite long. My father says he was once made to stay in his room for a year by his own father.”

 

“Did he ever say why?”

 

“Uhm, no. I never thought to ask. It seems out of place for me to do that as his son,” Li Baobao answered quietly. Then he took a deep breath and got up from the bench. His hands reached for the tray but Liu Xie gently pushed them away.

 

“I’ll be sitting out here for a little while longer, thank you though,” he said, and poured more tea for himself.

 

“I wish you a good night then.”

 

“Mmm,” Liu Xie’s attention fixated upon the still waters of the pond, his fingers now fiddling with the ribbon at the bottom of his long hair. It was somewhat coarse and the blue dye had faded but he could still feel the effort and love she had put in. Li Baobao’s steps crunched over dirt and plants before striking wood, gradually receding into the distance. Once he was sure he was alone he reached into his sleeve before he stopped himself. He had, besides his sword, quite a few artifacts tossed at him to help him in his journey during absolute emergencies. The most important were three mirrors for communicating with his family.

 

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But why should he contact them now, when they would likely lecture or mock him? Not just them. They all mocked him. A headless god with nothing to him besides the cast of dregs. His face twisted and he moved his hand back out of his sleeve to instead finish off the tea and stood back up with the tray.

 

After he returned it to the kitchen he walked quietly through the compound, counting the doors he crossed. Those which the Li family called their rooms had their names inscribed on it, while the guest rooms were simply inscribed with the word… ‘guest’. Most of the doors were closed. He passed by one labeled Li Zhongshu and got close to the door, pressing his hand to the door. There was utter silence. No sound of shifting, or sutras, or crying.

 

Even without expanding his senses further around him or straining his ear he could hear the quick steps of someone approaching. He frowned and straightened up, stepping away from the door.

 

Liu Xie turned around to see the old man making his way up the hall from around a corner. The old man’s eyes widened slightly as he noticed he was not alone before a frown graced his discolored lips. He then leaned against the wall, changing his steps to more slow unsteady toddering. “Young man, you would do well to show respect to your elders.”

 

“My apologies sir,” Liu Xie said blandly, while adding a slight bow. “I wanted to ask your son how he is doing after what became of his wife.”

 

The old man shook his head and Liu Xie was slightly surprised the sagging skin did not fall off from the mildly vigorous activity. “Ah, it’s you, our guest. I am sorry, I did not recognize you at first. It is my eyesight you see, not what it used to be.” He stopped leaning against the wall to hold his hands behind himself. “Your sympathy is appreciated, but my wayward son is bound to remain confined for the next two months. If we told him of his wife’s death then it would drive him to madness.”

 

Liu Xie glanced back at the door. “There’s no one in there, is there?”

 

There was a slight twitch in the old man’s mouth. “That is… correct, he is currently in the family shrine. Once he finishes praying, he will return to his room to continue his punishment.”

 

“I understand,” Liu Xie said. “Then I will ask your permission to leave your presence, I need to go check on my ward.”

 

The old man nodded, “you have my permission. I hope the events have not scarred her too much and if so you have my deepest apologies.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

Liu Xie walked past the old man and continued down the hallway to the guest room Idony had been set in since they first arrived. It was one of the smallest rooms but he figured a roof and a blanket were enough to satisfy her regardless.

 

She was on the bed, sprawled out asleep with her bed clothes ruffled enough to expose the bandages wrapped around her waist. Some of her messy red hair was in her open mouth. Baozi slept at the foot of the bed, softly oinking in its sleep. There was a small table nearby where clean cups had been left along with a small clay jug of water.

 

He pulled up his sleeves on his right arm and undid the wrapping around it, revealing the pale flesh beneath. He pushed the thumb of his left hand against the thin skin on his wrist, harder and harder until there was a sharp ‘crack’ like splintered bark, his thumb popping through the skin and shape beneath into a hollow where thin red sap slowly flowed out. He held his wrist over the cup and watched the liquid fall into it until it was halfway full. Then he quickly wrapped his wrist back up as the skin grew back over the hole. He poured water into the cup and walked over to the bed, shaking Idony’s arm.

 

Her eyes blearily opened up, unfocused as they swept over him and then to the cup. Her little face turned into a frown and she rolled over.

 

“Idony-”

 

“No.”

 

Liu Xie shook her gently again. “If you drink this, I’ll find you something to eat.”

 

She sat up with a look of deep thought on her face as she struggled with the decision of choosing to force herself to drink what she termed as 'gross leaf juice' in order to be fed, or simply spend the rest of the dimming day and the entire night without food.

 

“I heard you saw a monster today,” he sat down on the bed next to her, making her take the cup in her small hands. He rested his head in his palm again while looking at her expectantly.

 

Idony nodded slowly, shuddering as the color drained from her face. She did not even bring the cup close to her mouth, instead her fingers tightened around it while her gaze fixed on something only she could see.

 

He frowned and realized belatedly bringing that back up likely was not the best subject. He scratched his head as he thought of something else. “Your mother killed a monster once. I had the honor of watching her do it.”

 

The child’s eyes intensely focused on him. “Really?”

 

“Yes. It was a wicked parasite that ate its way into a raven spirit. It was bigger than you, and had twenty eyes and…”

 

“And?” She leaned forward, unblinking and enraptured by his words.

 

“And I’ll tell you the rest when you have your medicine!”

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