Wan Yu watched as his elegant Shizun turned to answer his fellow disciple. Those gray robes fluttered in his view, as he walked away, waving. Lin An and Meng Xiao were clearly frustrated with his Shizun’s decision, to Wan Yu’s displeasure. But hadn’t Shizun made himself clear? The task seems simple. We were supposed to find information in the village by ourselves, Wan Yu huffed, not knowing what about the job seemed so difficult.

Meng Xiao watched in annoyance as Fu Ran vanished along with Tian Han. “How are we supposed to find the graveyard on our own? Ugh, Shizun comes up with the worst training sometimes. Only Lin An cares enough to be good at talking to people,” he complained. His angry words grated on Wan Yu’s ears. With furrowed brows, Wan Yu placed his palms over his ears, protecting from the intrusion of sound. Missions were always harder with more people, and right now he couldn’t even focus enough to think. With Lin An’s sobbing, and Meng Xiao’s complaining, would they be able to find any information?

Wan Yu stared up at the sky inspecting the placement of the sun and the moon. It began to grow darker now, and showed signs of nighttime approaching. From the current deeper hues, he discerned that there would be about 5 hours until their meeting time. Wan Yu also tried to factor in the time it would take to locate the Shrine, so maybe they only had four hours. We should be able to locate the grave site easily in the time allotted by Shizun. So for now we should gather intel. Wan Yu did believe he should share his thoughts with the other two, but the words were so difficult to come from his mouth.

“Wan Yu, what do you think we should do?” Wan Yu’s lips twitched, as he was suddenly being hugged by Lin An. She practically towered over him at her age, being about a full eight inches taller.

Meng Xiao scoffed, “Lin An? Why are you asking the baby?” Baby? Wan Yu was annoyed, he didn’t like that word. It wasn't a good description at all, because he definitely was not an infant incapable of protecting himself. Meng Xiao continued to throw some angry words as he started walking further away from the other two. “Well, if we have to do this, then we might as well have some fun and see who finished first. I am not gonna lose.” He slowly disappeared into one of the alleyways of the small village Bei Zangli. Lin An was left crying and holding onto Wan Yu’s arm. Wan Yu’s lips were drawn into a pout. It wasn’t that he wanted to feel like he had control over the situation, but he did want things to work out smoothly. Right now, things were not going smoothly at all. A few minutes into being left on their own and Wan Yu could had already lost sight of a fellow disciple.

It was clear what Meng Xiao had decided to do, and Lin An was still following him, so for now it was just two of them. “Where should we go first?” Wan Yu asked Lin An.

She smiled when it seemed like Wan Yu valued her opinion, “perhaps we should go to a shop? I see a small grocery that looks open. Too many of these stalls actually look quite empty.” His eyes locked onto a building disconnected from the others near its sides. The building waved a bright blue sign over the top of the awning room. It was far from inviting, but the rest of the shops looked dead. Wan Yu nodded and followed after Lin An.

Dust assaulted his nose when wandering into the grocer. There were boxes of food and supplies which had been cleaned recently, but anything that didn’t seem edible would have been far too dusty to sell in this condition. What caught his attention most were little trinkets made of red maple leaves, or carved wooden statuettes. The two disciples couldn’t resist the pull towards the corner shelving.

“Wow, Wan Yu look at this!” Lin An picked up a thin wooden square covered in lacquer. The coating caused it to shimmer under the faint lights of the shop. The edges and indents were hand carved and inlaid into the wood was a single red leaf. The craftsmanship was good. Wan Yu touched the leaf with a single finger, but it was deeply encased so he only felt a cool smoothness.

“It’s pretty,” Wan Yu said.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She looked overjoyed at his response, but Wan Yu was already moving onto the next item. Stacked high shelving was filled with statuettes. Some were buildings that even had little cutouts for windows. Wan Yu tried opening the door, and let out a small gasp when it moved! It had little hinges so that the door could function.

He enjoyed opening the windows and doors on the miniature homes until he came across one building larger than the rest. It was the auction house in Jinan, and it was nearly a one-to-one replica on the outside. He grimaced at the perfect detailing. It even had the stairs leading up to it. Too bulky and gaudy, he thought.

Instead when he turned his head to the second set of shelving, his interest was back. There were bright red trees that mirrored the ones on the mountain side. The trees were also glazed in the hard protective coating. Though unlike the square trinket from earlier, the leaves were not whole. They had been broken into smaller pieces, and stuck on the tree’s branches to make them appear full and lively. He wanted to touch this too. Wan Yu was a little shocked that it felt so bumpy and sharp. Lin An stepped closer to him and moved her hand to touch the spiky leaves too.

She giggled. “I think you just like plants, Wan Yu.”

He did.

He opened his mouth to respond, but the door in the back of the shop opened up. An elderly woman was heard. “Oh what cuties, are you two from one of those big fancy Sects? Do you need anything, little ones?” The granny seemed to smile big and wide. She seemed like the type who liked to talk. Wan Yu slightly turned his gaze away from the granny to think about his words for a minute.

Lin An clapped her hands together. “Granny! Perfect timing! We are looking into weird rumors, so if you have heard any, can you tell us?” Wan Yu jumped when he heard Lin An casually start a conversation. Lin An’s hips swayed back and forth, and her hands moved to lock behind her back. The elderly woman seemed to immediately take to a caring personality when the cute behavior came out. Lin An even got a gentle ruffle of her hair.

Not dropping her smile, she stood rigid, her eyebrow twitching. “Rumors? Now what kind of rumors would interest two little cultivators?”

“Anything at all. It could be about ghosts, demons, or strange occurrences. By order of An Xian Yun Peak, we are to look into, and deal with any troubles here.” Lin An seemed unbothered, or perhaps she didn’t notice, but Wan Yu saw the elderly woman drop her smile. This action did not stop Lin An from proudly placing her hands on her hips and puffing up her chest. “You can rely on us to protect you, Granny. Just let us know if anything had bothered you lately.”

“No, dear, I can’t say I have heard anything like that,” the granny said, in a somber tone.

“Oh? Nothing at all?”

“I am terribly sorry sweetie. But Bei Zangli doesn’t have any problems, and it would be smart not to try and dig them up.” Old wrinkled features were cut into nearly a threat, but Lin An was too kind to notice the danger.

Instead she turned to Wan Yu with a look of defeat, before she said, “We might have to go somewhere else to look for more clues.” Upon seeing Wan Yu give no response, she faked a big bright smile. “But that’s no problem, right? We have a few hours left!”

Her words were comforting and gentle, to Wan Yu’s preference, but when she turned her back to the older woman, he saw more strange movements. With Lin An’s back turned, the woman gently picked up a small statuette in her hand, as if trying to silence any sounds of her action. The way she held it in hand was off putting, like she wasn’t holding it to show off the handiwork. She held it like one would if they had intended to use it as a weapon.

Wan Yu’s heart skipped a beat at the small statuette being lifted high into the air over Lin An’s form. She didn’t see it. She didn’t see how it caught a glimmer of sunset from the uncovered front window. “Shijie,” Wan Yu called, his words quiet and soft, despite his internal panic. His fingers wrapped around her wrist, and with a yank she crumbled to her knees, sounding off a hard knock as bone slammed into dark hardwood.

Studden, she raised her voice. “Wan Yu?!” Lin An looked troubled and she cried, “why did you do that?!” Her neck twisted towards the granny, and she willed up the most apologetic look she could. “Granny, I am so sorry. Wan Yu doesn’t usually do that. He didn’t mean it, at all. Wan Yu, you have to apologize!”

“I…” Wan Yu whimpered at the chaste commands.

“Now, now. There is no need for apologies. I just wanted to show you children the wares here,” the granny changed her expression back to normal before Lin An could see how it had twisted before, and she now held the statuette like normal. Lin An looked uncomfortable as she stood up and dusted off her robes. She gave a long deep bow, even though Wan Yu didn’t want her to.

With another clasp of his hand, Wan Yu took Lin An’s wrist again and gave a firm glare to the older woman. “Were… not interested. Shijie, can we leave?” The face of his fellow disciple looked full of confusion and despair, but she nodded.