"So that aside..." Chen Xi let her gaze drift to the stall, to its empty stretches and barren shelves. She'd noticed it earlier, the oddness of it, how most of the items Ma Yuanyuan usually sold weren't on display. "Are you closing for today?"
She gestured to the empty spaces, the gaps where spirit herbs, pills and talismans normally sat.
Ma Yuanyuan nodded.
"Yes."
"Is sothing going on? Isn't it a bit early?" Chen Xi peered inside the stall, her brow furrowing. "And your boss isn't even here?"
'Maybe the boss told her to close early,' Chen Xi thought. 'Maybe sothing ca up, so sect business—'
Ma Yuanyuan scoffed, shattering the theory.
"You know my boss rarely cos to the stall ever since I started working here."
Chen Xi chuckled, the sound low and knowing.
"Right. So what really happened?"
Ma Yuanyuan's expression shifted, her usual brightness dimming like a candle caught in a draft.
"Yesterday, I heard that so disciples didn't co back from a mission they went on." She paused, her fingers toying absently with the edge of her sleeve. "It wasn't anything new to , so I didn't pay much attention. Disciples go missing sotis. It happens."
She sighed, and the sound seed to carry more weight than Chen Xi was comfortable with.
"But then this morning, I received a ssage. I and so others were assigned to a mission. The task is to investigate the disappearance of those disciples."
Ma Yuanyuan's shoulders slumped, the posture of soone carrying a burden they hadn't asked for.
"So yeah. I'll be gone for a while. Don't know how long, but it won't be anyti soon." She offered a small, humorless chuckle. "I was actually about to send a jade slip to you to tell you about it, but then you showed up first."
Chen Xi studied her friend's face, noting the tension in her jaw, the faint crease between her brows.
"Did the sect tell you anything about the disappearance? Any details?"
"Not really." Ma Yuanyuan shrugged, a gesture that seed too casual for the weight of the conversation. "The senior leading us knows more than we do, but I don't even know where we're going yet. All I know is we're investigating missing disciples."
"When do you leave?"
"In a few hours. I need to finish storing everything first." She gestured vaguely at the stall's contents. "And then I'm off."
"Hmm." Chen Xi looked around, her eyes scanning the scattered items with an assessing gaze. Then, without warning, she reached out and picked up a small object, a jade container, if Ma Yuanyuan recalled correctly. "Then let's start."
Ma Yuanyuan blinked, caught off guard. Then, slowly, a smile blood across her face, warr than before, more genuine.
"Let's start."
"But when we're done with this," Chen Xi continued, her tone shifting to sothing far more calculating, "I want my Qi Gathering pills."
"Sure."
"With my discount."
Ma Yuanyuan's smile faltered.
"Huh?"
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Chen Xi pressed on, ignoring her.
"Since it's a fifty-percent discount, twenty-five percent for borrowing the book—"
Ma Yuanyuan's gaze drifted to the book in her hand, and her stomach dropped.
"—and another twenty-five percent for helping you store everything, which would make it all fifty percent, which you are obviously paying for."
Ma Yuanyuan's eyes slowly tracked back to Chen Xi's face, her expression one of dawning horror.
"So that leaves paying half the original amount," Chen Xi concluded, her smile bright and utterly rciless. "Right?"
"No—" Chen Xi said, "why don't you just pay every—"
"Wait!" Ma Yuanyuan held up a hand, cutting her off before she could finish. "What do you an pay everything? Do you want to leave a black hole in my savings?!"
Chen Xi sighed, the picture of magnanimous patience.
"True." She tilted her head, pretending to consider. "Okay, fine. You'll only pay fifty."
"That's still—!"
"Sister, you're very kind!"
"But I, I—"
Ma Yuanyuan stood frozen, her mouth opening and closing like a fish gasping for air. There was so much she wanted to say, so many argunts she wanted to make, but the words tangled in her throat, trapped by the sheer audacity of the woman before her.
In the end, she said nothing.
They finished storing everything in relative silence, the only sounds the rustle of fabric and the clink of jars. When they were done, Ma Yuanyuan pulled the stall's shutters closed, the tal screeching against its tracks in protest.
"Thank you!" Chen Xi said, her voice bright with enthusiasm as she accepted the pouch of Qi Gathering pills.
Ma Yuanyuan glared at her as she handed them over, her eyes blazing with the intensity of a thousand suns. If looks could burn, Chen Xi would have been reduced to ash on the spot.
But Chen Xi, being Chen Xi, was utterly immune.
She pressed the spirit stones into Ma Yuanyuan's palm, half the amount, of course, and Ma Yuanyuan's brow twitched violently as she stared down at the pathetic collection of stones in her hand.
"I'm leaving now." Chen Xi tucked the pills into her bag with practiced ease. "Wish you luck on your mission."
"Go already." Ma Yuanyuan shooed her away with a wave of her hand, her voice flat. "Just go."
Chen Xi waved happily, her steps light as she turned and walked away. Her figure grew smaller and smaller, swallowed by the bustling crowd of the market, until finally it disappeared entirely.
Ma Yuanyuan let out a long, shuddering exhale.
She stood there for a mont, the spirit stones still warm in her palm, watching the space where Chen Xi had been. The weight of exhaustion settled over her shoulders like a heavy cloak.
Across from her stall, the woman who owned the neighboring stand was also watching Chen Xi's retreating figure. Her eyes were narrowed, her lips pressed into a thin line.
Then, as if by so unspoken signal, their gazes t.
They stared at each other across the distance, a silent conversation passing between them, a shared understanding, a mutual recognition of suffering.
Slowly, deliberately, both won nodded.
She had found a comrade.
Soone else who had suffered at Chen Xi's hands.
---
The walk to the Tiger's Claw sect was a familiar one, the path worn smooth by countless feet over countless years. Ma Yuanyuan followed it on autopilot, her mind churning with thoughts of the mission ahead.
When she arrived, she spotted the male disciple who would be her companion waiting near the sect's eastern gate. He was lean, with sharp features and restless eyes that darted around as if expecting an ambush at any mont.
They exchanged greetings, brief, perfunctory, the kind of exchange that acknowledged each other's presence without inviting conversation. The senior leading them wasn't here yet, so they waited.
And waited.
Ma Yuanyuan tried to pry information from the male disciple, but he knew as little as she did, which was essentially nothing. Disciples had gone missing. They were going to investigate. That was the sum total of their knowledge.
It wasn't long before the senior arrived.
He was an older cultivator, his hair streaked with silver and his face etched with the lines of soone who had seen more than his fair share of the world's cruelties. He didn't waste ti on pleasantries, just a curt nod, a brief greeting, and then they were off.
The senior produced a flying artifact from his bag. They stepped onto it, and the world fell away beneath them as they rose into the sky.
The wind whipped at Ma Yuanyuan's face as they flew, cold and sharp. She watched the landscape blur beneath them, reduced to smudges of color from this height.
When they finally descended, Ma Yuanyuan felt her heart stutter in her chest.
She stared at the sprawling expanse of trees before them.
Lud Forest.
'Lud Forest.'
She turned to the senior, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Is this where the disciples who were sent disappeared?"
The other disciple, too, seed interested in the answer. His eyes flicked toward the trees with a curiosity that was far different from Ma Yuanyuan's own.
The senior nodded, his expression grim.
"Yes."
Ma Yuanyuan's eyes widened. Her mind raced, images flashing through her thoughts, a face, a voice, a laugh that echoed in her mory.
She had a friend who lived here.
"A few hours before total silence from the disciples," the senior continued, "the sect received a jade slip from one of them. It contained vital information."
Chen Xi's face swam before her eyes, sharp and clear.
"What information?" Ma Yuanyuan asked, her voice carefully controlled.
The senior's gaze swept across the forest, his eyes dark with sothing she couldn't quite na.
"There is a rising danger in Lud Forest."
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