Chapter 26: Chapter 24: Questionable Food in a Questionable City

“If only we had known!”

 

“You must forgive us, please!”

 

Li Baobao watched as Liu Xie finally came to a stop in front of them to turn to the officials that had trailed after him. “Enough, enough. What’s done is done. Don’t keep apologizing,” he said in irritation. “You have more pressing matters with the deserter and informing the family of that guard.”

 

“Master Liu,” Li Baobao spoke timidly, peeking around Bo to look at the taller man. “What is going on?”

 

Liu Xie moved back around to give them all a tired shrug, “an accident, to be honest.” His hand rested briefly on his covered sword. Li Baobao heard the sharp ‘clack-clack’ sound of Rui Yifu rapidly opening and closing his fan.

 

“What sort of accident?” Rui Yifu asked.

 

Li Baobao wondered just what had happened overnight. The last he saw of Liu Xie was him being led away by an ornery guard for possessing a weapon, and then he and Bo spent the rest of the night in a cell without food or water. It had been physically one of the roughest nights of his life and his mouth felt dry. At least he had his book!

 

Liu Xie shook his head, “I’ll explain when we get to the city nearby.”

 

“Oh, need time working on your story?” Rui Yifu snorted.

 

“Hey, don’t doubt him! I don’t want to stand around here for long anyway! The guards piss me off,” Bo crossed his arms and put on a tough face that immediately faded when Rui Yifu smacked the back of his head with his fan. “Ow! What the hell, that really hurt!”

 

“Next time it’ll be the front. Maybe I can rearrange that face of yours into something more pleasant?” Rui Yifu said. Li Baobao sensed tension brewing and quickly moved between the two, gently pushing the quiet Idony to Liu Xie.

 

“Look, look, lets calm down! We shouldn’t be fighting. We’ve all had a stressful night, and we’re at each other’s nerves a bit….” Li Baobao spoke quickly and was relieved to see the other two men calming down. He then turned back to Liu Xie, finding him with Idony sitting on his shoulders. Even she looked a bit confused by the abrupt change in height. “O-oh, Master Liu are you carrying her?”

 

“It’s far for a child to walk,” he said, pointing ahead towards the distance where some dark speck was the only thing that rose from the horizon.

 

“Oh!” Li Baobao smiled, “that’s nice! We can take turns carrying her and… wait we’re walking?”

 

Li Baobao wondered if he had turned into a ghost. By the time they had entered the city he could no longer feel his feet and the sky had turned a grim purple color, like a giant bruise.

The city itself was a Free City, and certainly looked ‘free’ in the form of being total chaos when it came to its architecture and roads. Narrow pathways exploded onto massive streets, dirty canals swam beneath stately stone bridges and rickety wood and rope ones.

 

The history books often said that the first Free Cities were founded as a way to try containing the ‘evil elements of society’, a compromise between the king and powerful criminal lords at the time. What was rarely mentioned were that these powerful criminal lords had also been the generals and war lords of his army that had originally helped him claim the throne in the first place. The Bridgewater Sage’s own book even mentioned being wary in dealings with people from Free Cities, who were all known to secretly hold the Headless God highest in their hearts.

 

In one area a statue of a scholarly looking man was being defaced, while in another area a new statue of a different man was being built. A brothel was squeezed rather painfully next to a Jade Temple. Street vendors of every sort lined every road wider than an ox. A gambling house had been built in what appeared to have once been an especially large ancestral shrine. Glaring young men in different ostentatious clothing swaggering about harassed passerbys, vendors, or each other. A strange dark temple full of ominous chanting had many bitter looking people coming in and out of it. Tittering groups of women in loose clothing hung on street corners and yet kept their pleasant expressions guarded.

 

Yet this barely registered to him at the moment, as exhausted as he was. He and Bo were leaning against one another with Baozi collapsing in front of them as Liu Xie finally came to a stop. He had moved Idony down so he was carrying her on his back, the small child having fallen asleep.

 

Rui Yifu and Liu Xie both looked unbothered, although Rui Yifu spared no breath in mourning how sweaty his clothing had become.

“I spent half a fortune on these cottons and silks and now they’re soaked in filth,” he wept, fanning himself.

 

“Sweaty and gross is a good look for you,” Bo managed a tired laugh. He did not even have the energy to dodge Rui Yifu’s fan hitting his head. “THAT HURT!”

 

“Get used to physical pain,” Liu Xie said. Liu Xie looked quite energetic despite having walked nonstop from dawn to dusk with a child on him. In fact Li Baobao thought there was something different from him that he could not quite place. As though his features had become cleaner, his presence was more dominating. His dark eyes seemed luminescent and his lips fixed in a strange small smile as though he had stumbled upon a good memory. Li Baobao thought he looked quite pretty.

 

“Saying ‘get used to it’ is much different from actually experiencing it! Have you been hit by that thing? It’s like a boulder!” Bo complained while Li Baobao comfortingly patted his shoulder.

 

“Lets find somewhere to rest,” Li Baobao suggested. He sensed tempers were at their end for at least two of his companions and wanted to stop any further arguments from happening. “Zhu Er is asleep, and I think we’ve all earned something to eat and some sleep for ourselves.”

 

“I hope we find somewhere with a bath, I prefer to be clean before I sleep, unlike dogs.”

 

“Can you lay off me, you hag?”

 

“Excuse me?!”

 

Liu Xie had already started walking, so Li Baobao went after him with the argument behind him following soon after. Liu Xie walked as though he knew the place like the back of his hand, following winding streets and thin vein like paths until they reached a relatively large and safe looking inn, where two large burly men stood on either side of the door and made the hairs on the back of Li Baobao’s neck stand from their imposing auras.

 

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Rather than go in with them however, Rui Yifu’s attention had been captured by a small jewelry and trinket shop and with the claim he would return shortly he immediately left.

 

Liu Xie himself only stayed long enough to ensure they all had a room and that Idony and her pig were safely sequestered away inside before leaving to ‘attend to something’, promising to return and explain more of what happened.

 

So this left Li Baobao and Bo alone inside the inn, enjoying some tea and stew with only somewhat suspicious chunks of meat in it while sitting at a dirty table. Li Baobao found himself trying to eat around the chunks, shuddering in faint disgust each time he accidentally swallowed one. It was not that it tasted bad, just that he was not used to eating something so… common. The inn’s first floor was fairly crowded with people supping on similar bowls of soup or on blackened bits of meat, eyes were constantly observing and narrowing at one another. Words buzzed lowly, frantic, and worried.

 

“I can’t believe it happened to his daughter, he’s one of the highest ranking members of-”

 

“I won’t even let my wife out to the market even with some hired guards. Who knows what could happen?”

 

“Did you hear about that altar they found? I’m certain that at least half of the disappearances are from kidnappers trying to find a way to appease it.”

 

“Maybe it has something to do with the chaos of the death of the king?”

 

“We don’t even know if he’s actually dead! Why would it harm us anyway? We’re a Free City, use your brain stupid!”

 

Bo looked at Li Baobao and spoke first, “I don’t like the sound of all this.”

 

Li Baobao drew in a breath through his nose and nodded, leaning over the table. “We should tell Master Liu and Rui as soon as they come back! Maybe we should leave the city at once?” He would actually feel good to be away from all of these underworld elements as soon as possible. He scanned over the crowd inside. Some of them looked like laborers in fields, others wore more upscale clothing. A slender woman with long golden hair and purple eyes sat in a corner, eating her meal with a shaky hand. The pallor of her face and distant gaze of her eyes reminded Li Baobao of the man from the cell.

 

Bo’s words snapped him from his observations. “Tell them what? We heard rumors in the inn about something we know nothing about? We should ask around a bit first.”

 

“They’re all talking about the same thing!”

 

Feeling a presence beside him, Li Baobao sat up straight backed and turned around to see a pleasant faced young man standing beside him with several large bags on his back and a bowl full of stew.

 

“Hello, I’m sorry but I’m very tired, I’ve been at the market all day buying seeds and I would really like to sit down…” he laughed awkwardly, but his eyes were pleading.

 

“Oh sure! Go ahead!” Bo said, patting the table.

 

“Thank you,” the young man sat down at the other end of the table, sighing deeply as he let the bags full of seeds slide off him and onto the ground. Li Baobao looked the man over. He looked to be around his and Bo’s age, in simple clothing of surprisingly fine make, hair cut short which wasn’t surprising given that he seemed to be a farmer. A well off farmer. “The markets were crazy today! I was getting jostled and tossed about.”

 

“You came here for the markets? This is a dangerous place,” Li Baobao asked in disbelief.

 

“Well if you want something good and hard to get, you go to a Free City right?” The man replied. “I’m not too worried about danger. People don’t usually bother me.”

 

“So you came here to buy… seeds? Seeds and that’s it?” Bo asked in curiosity. He looked over at the bags, “that’s a lot of seeds!”

 

The man nodded with a smile, “I’m buying seeds for my entire village. They can’t make the trip, so I do it for them. It’s better this way anyway, things are dangerous outside of it you know.” His friendly face took on a grave expression that did not quite match his cheery features. “Besides, this is the only place I know of where I can get honey millet!”

 

“Honey millet?” Bo tipped his head in curiosity.

 

“Oh,” Li Baobao nodded in recognition of the name. “Honey millet is a type of millet that grows in a few very secretive places. When you roast it and then mix it with water, it tastes a lot like honey!” Bo looked incredulous at the statement, and instead took to examining the liquid in his tea cup with a look of apprehension.

 

“You can also make really good biscuits with it! I love them! Some of the ladies make tons of them for me, they’re best when they’re warm so I eat them until I feel like I’m bursting!” The farmer laughed and then focused on his stew.

 

Li Baobao watched him for a moment before returning to his own stew, which was getting increasingly cold and slimy. As though to distract him from the inevitability of having to eat more of it, a thought occurred to him. Honey millet was expensive, and the farmer looked fairly well off. Yet he seemed to be alone, carrying heavy bags all by himself. “Sir, do you… uhm…”

 

The farmer looked back up at him, cocking his head in curiosity, “do I what?”

 

“Well, do you travel with guards? Honey millet is costly, especially in such large amounts even as seeds, and you look well off. This place is-” Li Baobao lowered his voice, “-not exactly very friendly.”

 

The farmer laughed, and the laughter eased Li Baobao’s heart somehow. “No, no, I’m here by myself. Nobody bothers me really, like I said. I keep my good luck charm with me, it’s practically part of me really!” His hand went down to something at his side and it was only then that Li Baobao noticed something hanging from the man’s belt.

 

A burnt dog’s head.

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