Chapter 22: Chapter 20: The Next Step

A dark pall had fallen upon the Li Family, or what remained of it. Bo could not help but feel sympathy for Li Baobao. After finding out the horrible truth of his family’s wealth, and having his brothers and father turn on him after nearly killing his mother… Bo’s heart trembled just thinking about it.

 

Liu Xie had been found unconscious under some rubble from a collapsed section of pathway into the town proper two days after having fallen down the shaft with the Li Family patron. Even after teams of men had been sent into the shaft and the section of tunnel Liu Xie had been found in (and after Rui Yifu pushed Bo into helping), still nothing could be found of the Li Family’s head. Too many sections had caved in, even the hole that had formed in the shallow pool in the family’s shrine had been swallowed up by stone. There had been a vast amount of pottery shards found along with hundreds of bones along with the jars of crudely termed ‘infant wine’, which had certainly put the family reputation in shambles.

 

Several long days had gone by of what seemed to be an endless procession of priests, monks, and nuns from both Amber and Black temples who were ensuring nothing tainted remained. He had even heard investigators straight from the queen’s Bureau of the Hidden Eyes were on their way. There would be few people to question, most of the Li wives had gone missing.

 

Bo had no idea who they were but he assumed not anyone particularly nice.

 

Li Zhongshu was the head of the family now since no one else was left besides Li Baobao, and had rebuilt the family shrine to account for the many sacrificed daughters and sisters and wives of the Li family, including erecting a tablet for his wife, the Li family matriarch still lived yet secluded in her room to pray. It all had to be a cold comfort to Li Baobao that he still had any family at all.

 

Bo had woken up early in the morning to check on Liu Xie, who was already sitting up while grumbling about back pain and had bound Bo’s hands and made him run three laps around the compound before untying him and directing him to find Idony.

 

So Bo resigned himself to the task of fetching the feral child-creature. He slunk over to her room, Baozi sleeping outside like some fat and lazy guard dog, and paused just before his hand rested on the door. Inside a soft stuttering voice sleepily repeated, “little rabbit, little rabbit, hu-...hurry up and... ope...n the-the... d-doooor…”

 

The tentative clumsy voice, with its faltering words, sent an unpleasant shiver up Bo’s spine even though he knew exactly who it was. It was just too strange to hear Idony speak a real language!

 

“Very good, very good!” Another voice, low and warm, replied.

 

Bo blanched at the second voice. He immediately opened the door and stepped inside, “Rui Yifu! What the hells are you doing here!?” He demanded, finding the man sitting on the ground with Idony resting her head in his lap and his hands busy with sewing something into her outer jacket.

 

The entire scene looked very strange to him. It reminded him of a mother doing her day’s work while her child slept in her lap except Rui Yifu was no lady and Bo still had trouble believing Idony was a human and not some animal pretending to be one.

 

“What a dog you are! Can’t even knock,” Rui Yifu scowled at Bo as he continued to sew the design into the fabric. “Why does it matter what I’m doing?”

 

“I don’t know, it’s just weird finding some crossdressing cutsleeve sitting around doing women’s work-” Bo cut himself off the moment he saw Idony jump onto her feet and lunge for him, grabbing his leg for a moment to sink her teeth into his calf briefly before he yanked it away. The adult darted for a nearby wardrobe, climbing on top quickly where Idony could not reach him. “No! No! You stay there! You fucking animal! Don’t bite me again!”

 

“Come here, Zhu Er, come here, don’t bite him he’ll make you sick,” Rui Yifu said. When Idony did not move, he set his needle down to get up and bring her into his arms. She continued glaring at Bo for a bit before relaxing in Rui Yifu’s arms and he went to sit down again and go back to the needlework. “Why are you here anyway? Did your master ask you to fetch her?”

 

“Yeah, so tell her it’s not nap time,” Bo said as he hesitantly climbed down from his perch.

 

“Xie can come here himself, he can walk. I saw him walking around yesterday afternoon.”

 

“Well he told me to come get her,” Bo insisted, “so I’m gonna get her.”

 

Rui Yifu chuckled, “how are you going to do that when you flee when she gets close?”

 

“She bit me!”

 

Rui Yifu shrugged. Bo refused to move from his spot but did not go any closer, more wary of Idony than he’d like to admit to himself. After a few moments passed it seemed Rui Yifu realized he was not going to leave so he sighed loudly and got to his feet, pulling Idony into his arms. “Lets go.”

 

Bo celebrated internally as he left the room with Rui Yifu to walk down the quiet despondent hallways to Liu Xie’s room. Occasionally he would look over at Rui Yifu and Idony. Rui Yifu walked with the smooth confidence of a patient mother with a fussy child, arms fastened firmly yet comfortingly around Idony as she grumbled in her strange gibberish.

 

“How do you do that?”

 

“Do what?” Rui Yifu cast a brief glance over to Bo.

 

“Get her to not attack you!” Bo hissed in reply.

 

Rui Yifu shrugged lightly, “I’m good with children, I’ve raised some of my own.”

 

“How does a cutsleeve have kids?”

You are reading story Vow of the Willow Tree at novel35.com

 

“By getting married,” Rui Yifu’s voice was suddenly far more terse and cold. His face became as still as the moon. Bo had the feeling he should not pry any further. Rui Yifu stopped at Liu Xie’s door and looked at Bo expectantly.

 

Bo stared back at him, “you have two hands.”

“I’m holding a child. You open it. Be a good boy,” Rui Yifu said, despite placing one hand on his own hip as the other continued to support Idony on the other.

 

With his ears and cheeks turning red, Bo opened the door to the room. Liu Xie sat on his bed with his sword leaning against his leg and a jar of alcohol sitting in his lap. Li Baobao sat beside him in roughspun hempen clothes, although it seemed whoever made it couldn’t help but embellish it so that it still looked like the fancy clothes of a rich person.

 

“Why are you drinking?” Was Rui Yifu’s first statement. Bo himself was a bit unnerved by the sight of the familiar jar. After what happened he was not sure if he was ready to drink any time soon… or ever again.

 

“Because I can,” Liu Xie answered, then he immediately took a swing from the jar and then set it back on his lap to address Idony. Bo thought about asking if anyone was hungry when Idony snapped something in response to Liu Xie which made Li Baobao’s eyes widen, then the girl tightened her grip on Rui Yifu.

 

“Ah, ah, Master Liu, surely he can come as well?” Li Baobao asked anxiously, eyeing Rui Yifu and Liu Xie.

 

Bo looked at Rui Yifu too, “no he can’t. We don’t need him with us!” Then he reconsidered Li Baobao’s words. “...Wait, are you coming with us?” He asked the pudgy and increasingly nervous man.

 

“Uh, well, see, I… uh… I want to go… to the First Palace, or at least get past the Silent Mountains and maybe settle in one of the old temples I hear are still standing…” he looked down at his lap, his fingers working the fabric of his clothing into wrinkled bundles. “For… I need to do something. I… I feel like I should have known better, I should have asked and-”

 

“Oh well if Master Li Baobao is going then of course I’ll be going too!” Rui Yifu said, pulling out his fan to begin creating a gentle breeze for both himself and Idony. “I really won’t accept a ‘no’, Master Li needs to be in good hands after all.”

 

“You can’t just declare you’re coming with us! You weren’t invited! What good will you be?” Bo said, stomping his feet and ignoring the fact that Rui Yifu was at the very least some sort of strange scholar-thing. He did not like remembering what happened during the fight in the shrine, mostly because it made his head hurt recalling all the lights and the sound of flesh sizzling. He looked at Liu Xie for some verbal support but the other man seemed more interested in drinking his alcohol.

 

“Perhaps not much help to you,” Rui Yifu spoke snidely while using his fan to cover the lower part of his face. “But as for Master Li and her, I think I’ll be far more help than a mangy dog.”

 

“Ple….please don’t fight,” Li Baobao whimpered.

 

Liu Xie apparently ran out of alcohol to occupy his mouth with because he finally spoke, “the hag is coming too. I need to know what sort of charm he uses to get Idony to behave… and also Baobao insisted he come as well.”

 

Bo felt betrayed. He looked at Li Baobao, who studiously avoided looking back at him. Then he looked at Liu Xie who also seemed displeased but too resigned to say anything about it. Then he looked back at Rui Yifu. Even with half his face obscured Bo could see the sneering expression just fine.

 

He huffed, turning back towards Liu Xie. Liu Xie looked at him then shrugged, “we’re leaving in two days. Li Zhongshu was nice enough to offer to pay for passage up to the Western Kingdom’s border.”

 

“Oh we’re going through there? What about its instability?” Rui Yifu asked as though he had some authority over matters.

 

“We’ll be following the pilgrim’s path and going through many of the Free Cities, so I think we’ll be able to avoid the worst,” Liu Xie replied.

 

“Free Cities?” Li Baobao looked at Liu Xie in shock. “Aren’t those full of criminals!?”

 

“They’re only criminals if they leave the cities,” Liu Xie answered. “It’s not as bad as most people think. I’ve been in a few before.”

“Why would they be any safer though?”

 

“Because their defenses are not tied to the king’s armies. When their clans and groups are not trying to overcome one another, they’ll swarm to their city’s defense like hornets,” Liu Xie leaned back on the bed somewhat before wincing.

 

Rui Yifu snapped his fan shut, “clever though, isn’t it? You give your troublemakers an illusion of power somewhere and they’ll happily contend with each other over whatever scraps are there.” He tapped his chin with his fan, “of course, when your own rule falls apart it appears that the illusion becomes closer to reality. How fun, how fun, how fun...”

 

Li Baobao had turned pale, lips quivering. “It doesn’t sound very fun…”

 

Rui Yifu laughed, “oh just think about it! We might find you a nice girl so you can be prepared for a future wife…” then he cast a glance at Bo. “And maybe a bitch for you.”

 

“What!?”

You can find story with these keywords: Vow of the Willow Tree, Read Vow of the Willow Tree, Vow of the Willow Tree novel, Vow of the Willow Tree book, Vow of the Willow Tree story, Vow of the Willow Tree full, Vow of the Willow Tree Latest Chapter