Chapter 24 - Unexpected Company

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It was night and windy, a strong wind making the shutters of the windows rattle and groan. Rain pattered against the wood. The heavens seemed to howl in agony as one thunder after another growled across the skies of Jianzghen.

Lei paced back and forth in the kitchen, trying to keep his mind clear. He’d sliced the buns and fried the needles, and managed a smile even as the kids threw questions at him. He’d told them to eat their food and get back to their beds. He’d kept the front until they were deep in their sleep.

It was now just the cat and him in the house. He and the cat, and the eerie air that took hold of the whole place. Its round eyes never left him as Lei kept pacing around, waiting for Fatty Lou to bring him the good news."

Surely Master Li had taken them to his side after a day’s work. They would be tired after carrying all those flour sacks, and there was a furious storm. Small wonder why those two didn’t come back. They would be sleeping now, just like their brothers and sisters, dreaming under Master Li’s roof.

That man could be a mean father to Fatty Lou, but he’d always had a soft spot for children, especially orphans. Probably why he’d asked half the price for Lei’s bread. No matter how many times Lei told him that he didn’t need it, the famed Master Li wouldn’t budge, saying that helping those kids was a form of redemption for raising a good-for-nothing son like Fatty Lou.

And a few minutes from now, Fatty Lou would come back from that door to tell him that Stone and Snake were sleeping sound. He would then start his tirade about how Master Li said this and that again.

But it had been more than two hours, and the door had stayed closed. Lei didn’t want to go outside. There was a feeling crawling just under his skin that told him stepping away from the house would somehow confirm the fear clouding his thoughts

So he waited, and the cat stayed with him.

It was good company, the cat. Even when Little Mei tried to take it upstairs, it remained rooted on the spot, refusing to look anywhere but into Lei’s eyes, as if somehow it’d seen his heart, and saw there a growing pain.

I don’t know what are you doing, but it’s not working.

Lei took a couple of steps and reached for the door handle. The wood was cold against his skin. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Just when he was about to open the damned thing and step outside, the handle moved on its own, dragging his fingers down with it.

The door clicked open as Lei stepped back. Fatty Lou barged inside, wet hair plastered around his face, drops of rain dripping down his robe. He peered around and stared up at Lei, holding his gaze for a long second before shaking his head.

Lei grabbed him by the collar, yanked him close, and held him hard. “Where are the kids?”

“I don’t know.” Fatty Lou clutched Lei’s arm and looked him in the eye. “I couldn’t find them at my old man’s place.”

“What do you mean you couldn’t find them? They should be there! They worked the whole day for Master Li, right?” Lei’s hold around the collar tightened. “If not there, then where the hell have those two vanished without saying a word to me?”

“Father told me he hadn’t seen them for hours,” Fatty Lou said, wiping his face with the back of his hand. “After they were done with the sacks, they never came back. He thought the kids went to your place after work.”

Lei shouldered past him, bounded out the door, and stared around. The cold wind splashed across his face, stealing the breath from his lungs. He wheezed through his lips and rubbed his arms as he tried to find anything but old wood and stone around the alley.

The street was dead and empty, the sky a pit of nothingness. Not even the stars showed their faces tonight, and the lanterns swinging in the wind were about to break.

“Snake! Stone!” Lei called for them, his voice reverberating off the dark walls.

“We should call the guards,” came Fatty Lou’s voice from behind.

Lei scowled back at him as drops of rain slithered around his robe and down his chest, making his skin crawl. “For what? You think they’ll give a shit about them?”

“Anything’s better than searching blindly,” Fatty Lou muttered, frowning out into the dark skies.

“Ruins,” Lei said, suddenly hopeful. “They could’ve gone back to the ruins. The city’s been hard on Snake. Perhaps he dragged Stone with him, too. They must’ve gone there, and when the storm started they decided to spend the night in my old house.”

“You think after those thugs attacked they would do such a thing?” Fatty Lou looked doubtful.

“I don’t know,” Lei said, shaking his head. “But I can’t think of any other explanation. You go fetch the guards, and I’ll search the ruins. And don’t leave the kids alone for too long.”

“You sure you—“

“Now, go, Brother Lou! This storm is getting worse!”

Thunder crackled as Lei opened the door to the house, and dashed in, taking his spiritual ladle before clasping it tight in his hand. Looking at the staircase, he nodded to himself and made for the ruins.

He sloshed through the streets, hair dripping wet, breaths hard and heavy in his chest. From left and right the stone walls peered down at him, cold and lifeless. Not a single soul was out in the streets, shutters of the windows closed shut. Past the square, the Library, and the damp stalls, he finally crossed the line that marked the ruins.

It was dark here. He couldn’t see his hands. It was dark and damp, rats squeaking, his feet stumbling in and out of the muddy puddles. All around him, the old wreckage loomed as his eyes searched every hole. He called their names, his voice bouncing off the broken walls.

His mind reeled, as if an axe had caught him by the scalp, and got stuck there, tinkering with his thoughts. All kinds of possibilities, yet they all coalesced into a single one — something bad happened. The realization slowly sank deep into his mind even as he tried to shake it off.

Then light glinted from beyond a half-collapsed roof, flickering under the rain like a candle bearing a strong breeze. Lei lumbered around the old ruins of the house and came out on the other side, one hand clenched tight around the ladle.

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An old man glanced up at him from under the half-collapsed roof, sitting cross-legged in meditation, chest bare and gray hair dancing in the wind. The candle flickered right between his legs, its flame touching the man’s legs, but he didn’t seem aware.

“O-Old Ji,” Lei sputtered as he leaned on a wooden plank, his breath slowly catching up to him. “What are you doing here?”

“The Heavens are weeping,” Old Ji said, his voice oddly deep as he slowly looked up from between the cracks in the roof to the skies and let out a long sigh. “I wanted to bear witness to their pain. It’s an old tradition.”

“What?” Lei scowled at him. “Have you seen the kids around here?”

Old Ji slowly took the candle in his hand and raised himself, glancing at Lei. “Didn’t you tell me you were going to take those kids with you? I might be old, but I still remember certain things. I surely remember telling you not to pamper them too much. You can’t always be there for them. Eventually, they’ll have to face the harsh truths that govern this world. Can’t escape them.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Lei was about to take him by the hand and give him a shake, for the old man seemed he was still in a deep state of meditation from his muddy eyes.

“Can’t escape them,” Old Ji said, swayed back, and grabbed a wooden plank, standing barely on his feet like a drunkard.

“Did you take something?” Lei helped him sit back on the ground, fearing that if he’d left the man alone he might get himself drilled by the wooden planks hanging from the roof like makeshift spears. “Lay here, and don’t move. I have to go.”

Lei left him there under the roof, blending once again into the dark of the ruins. The place was full of stones and wood, the ground littered with old toys and crumbled pieces of someone’s past, everything reeked with a desolate air of emptiness. The place was full of stones and wood, but underneath their skin, there was no trail of the kids, nor their passing.

………

Hours turned into grains of molten rock slowly searing Lei’s skin. Dawn broke through the storm, but the sprinkling sunlight only made matters worse as crowds of townsfolk started pouring into the streets. Searching around, picking faces, asking questions, and trying to describe the appearances of the two kids only to get back silent nods and apologetic shrugs had dwindled the little hope Lei had that the kids were safe.

He’d picked the [Spiritual Sensitivity], hoping to get something out of it—perhaps a trail that’d give him some clues—but it was useless other than making his skin crawl with the brooding feeling he’d gotten in the ruins.

The guards would search the city. At least that was what they told Fatty Lou. There was no trust in those fools, not after they’d let that thug walk away from the station with a smile on his face. Seemed nobody knew his name or his face, as all the questions Lei had asked about the man had been left unanswered.

They said he was banished with his men from the city, never to return again. They hanged the one with the mole as people watched with great excitement as his face turned purple and dark. Grudges, Fatty Lou had told him at the time. Lei had refused to believe any man could be this inhuman.

There was no other option. If they couldn’t find the kids in the city, then they had to keep searching for them elsewhere.

Lei sighed, pulled the straps of the pack tight around his back, checked the spiritual ladle, and weighted it on his hand. He then made sure they’d have enough food to last them for a week before tucking the wok over into the pack. He watched Fatty Lou checking his meat cleaver on the right side before he caught sight of a banner poking slightly out from behind the couch, the red embroidery making him pause.

Clean, and wrinkled, as if left there just this morning. It reminded him of the day Fatty Lou played one of his tricks, getting all those women round the stall and making a scene that allowed him to sell the kebabs like hotcakes. That was before the thugs attacked them, deep in the night and on their way back home.

Shaking his head, he walked over to Fatty Lou and clapped him on the back. “You don’t have to do this.”

Fatty Lou gave him a side-eyed glance and snorted. “We’ve already sent the kids to my old man’s place. He’ll be staying there with Granny Xu… Something about him having no experience with the kids, that woman told me. But I’m guessing there is some heat between those two.”

“That can’t be true.” Lei cringed just at the thought of it. Granny Xu was his old boss, a grizzly and wrinkled old woman who knew how to work scores of men with a blink of her eyes. The Iron Mistress, they’d called her behind her back. He never thought the famed baker of the town would have the hots for that iron lady.

“Old age,” Fatty Lou said as he hauled his own pack, filled with all sorts of knives and arrows. There was a bow strapped to his back as well, an antique piece from the days when Master Li used to go hunting. “I’m afraid it starts messing with your mind. After a certain point you should stop trying, and let that old and wrinkly skin go loose on a rocking chair, but… This isn’t too bad, I guess. Will take some weight off my shoulders, no doubt.”

Lei chuckled silently. He knew his brother was trying to lighten the mood after the night they’d spent out searching for the kids. And it was working, sort of. You have to keep your head up, Lei’s father had told him once when life had become too heavy to bear alone. Keep your head up and eyes on the path. Battering yourself with all sorts of questions was meaningless.

“Right then,” Lei said, turning to the door. “We should go.”

Sharing a solemn glance, they were about to go out when a knock halted their steps, a gentle bump on the wood after which the door creaked slowly open, a small face peering sheepishly from behind it.

Long, brown hair danced lazily in the morning breeze, a pair of curious eyes peering round the living room before finally focusing on Lei. Then she flinched, frowned, and stumbled into the house, pulled her leg back to shake off a little squirrel trying to bite a large chunk from her calf.

“Stop… it!” she screamed, her eyes flickering back to Lei and Fatty Lou as shame reddened her face. She immediately cleared her throat and bowed her head, glaring down at the squirrel as if to say ‘Be quiet!’.

“Err… Can we help you?” Lei had to ask as the woman kept her head down like a housemaid about to see her Master off. The strange thing was that the squirrel followed her example, clasping its claws together and bowing its head, which was oddly human and strangely cute at the same time.

“Forgive me for barging in like this, but I was wondering if this is the residence of the Honorable Spirit Chef,” the woman said, raising her head. “I was hoping to ask for a favor—“

“Favor?” Fatty Lou asked.

“Spirit Chef?” Lei blurted out.

“Oh!” The woman stepped back, shaking, eyes trembling as she sputtered, “N-Not that kind of a favor, oh, no! I will pay richly if that Honorable Chef would be kind enough to cook me those dishes--” The squirrel pulled at her robe, which made her stiffen. “Not richly, oh, I don’t have any money… But I can get those spiritual herbs. Yes! You see, I’m a herbalist, an apothecary in the making. I’ve recorded over ten thousand herbs in the past two years of my venture, plucked them all by myself! And my spiritual beast here, Little Yao, has the sharpest nose across the Eastern Continent!”

The squirrel stepped forward, looking greatly proud of itself as it stretched a claw out and bowed once again, making Lei question who was in charge between these two.

“Where did you get this information?” Fatty Lou asked, glaring into the woman’s face. It was only then that it dawned on Lei that they were compromised.

“I-I’m terribly ashamed, but as I’ve said, my spiritual beast has a sharp nose,” the woman said, scratching the back of her head. “We tried to ask... but, well, she just trailed the smell of the food.”

“That squirrel can do that?” Fatty Lou said as they shared a shocked glance with Lei.

“Yes, she can!” The woman seemed like she had finally found the courage to keep her head straight. “There is no scent that she can’t trail. Browntails used to be the best hunting beasts, but because of their, err, unreasonable demands, people stopped using them. They often devoured the game right away.”

As much as he was amused by the sight of them, Lei shook his head. They didn’t have the time to entertain this woman, not when Snake and Stone could be in danger.

“I’m afraid there has been a misunderstanding,” Lei said with a sigh. “There is no Spirit Chef here—“

“You’ve just come to the right place!” Fatty Lou roared in laughter, slapping his knee. When Lei snapped his head at him, Fatty Lou pointed with his eyes at the squirrel, stretched out a hand, and pulled Lei before him as though showing a great art piece to a master dealer. “Here is our most Honorable Spiritual Chef, the King of Flavors himself! Chef Lei!”

“Ohh!” The woman’s eyes sparkled like stars as she stared at Lei. But someone else was staring into his face, with a gaze full of passion and reverence. Its cheeks swollen and furry tail shaking madly, the squirrel seemed like a ticking bomb about to go off.

What the hell is happening?

…….