Muchen woke up the next morning with a throbbing headache. When he took into account how much booze he'd put away it was relatively mild, but it still wasn't a pleasant way to start the day. He forced himself to crawl out of his bedroll and step into the open air, noting in passing that his biological clock had woken him up with the dawn despite everything he'd done the previous night.

He paced around his tent, then jogged in place for a moment. Already, the headache had largely faded away. Muchen headed down to the stream the camp used a source of water and dunked his head in. The effort of the walk and the shock of the cold water dispelled the last lingering traces of sleepiness and the bulk of his hangover.

Muchen smiled. He didn't know if it was the benefit of a pre-modern lifestyle or yet another side effect of cultivation, but he was feeling a million times better than he had after a night of partying back on Earth.

He had also moved an important step closer to obtaining the bracelet Xinyi needed. Not to mention surviving a series of life and death battles and a brush with an impossibly powerful beast. Perhaps most importantly, he'd developed loyal customers for life for his nascent distillery operation, judging by how Sunchang and his friends had taken to the stuff.

Muchen brushed his damp hair out of his eyes and headed for the cookfires. His body needed food after all the work it had put in overnight purging the alcohol from his bloodstream. Muchen secured a bowl of rice porridge and then headed for his real target. Xiaomei, carrying a pair of buckets down to the stream he had just left.

He fell into step beside her. She glared at him, but Muchen let the irritation roll off his back without saying anything. As long as she wasn't actively trying to drive him away, he had a chance.

He waited until she set her load down by the side of the stream to speak. "I don't think Sunchang is as gung ho about his engagement as you thought."

She glared at him. "Why should I care what you think?"

"At least, if he had his whole heart set on marrying Zihan," Muchen said, "I don't think he'd be acting so protective of another woman."

Her eyes widened. "What did you do?"

Muchen grinned, waving his hands in a shushing gesture. "Relax, I can be subtle when I want to be."

She scoffed. "I've never seen it."

"Like I said," Muchen replied, "when I want to be."

She didn't reply, instead turning her attention to the buckets in her hands. She filled the first before setting it down on the ground with a little more force than needed. Some water slopped over the edge. Muchen decided it was best not to point that out.

Muchen waited until she'd filled the second bucket before he spoke again. "What if he's as interested in you as you are of him?"

"He would have said something already," she replied.

"Not if he thought you weren't interested," Muchen said.

He could have laughed if it weren't such a serious situation. Two oblivious childhood friends, circling around and hiding their crushes from each other. It would have been more amusing if the Qianzhan Continent wasn't the kind of place where people got into fatal duels over outsiders messing around with engagements.

"If you don't talk to him, he's just going to go along with his family obligations," Muchen said. "If you do, well, there's a big difference between being engaged and being married."

She grumbled in response, but her tone didn't have the same bite to it. She was at least considering what he said. That was probably the best Muchen could hope for.

"Why do you care?" she asked.

"Maybe I'm just a hopeless romantic," Muchen said. "Wouldn't the world be a better place if a loveless marriage can be avoided?"

She just glared at him. Muchen shrugged.

"Anyway, I just felt like helping out," he said. "Look, sometimes you can make your life a lot easier if you just talk to somebody instead of hiding your feelings."

She clicked her tongue in irritation, then picked up her buckets and walked away. Muchen stayed where he was and enjoyed his breakfast. His cold rice porridge wasn't much of a delicacy, but he was in a good enough mood that he ate it with a smile anyway.

ooOoo

The rest of the hunt passed uneventfully. Relatively speaking. Every day of the five day trip would have been something Muchen considered eventful under ordinary circumstances, but his many brushes with death on the first day had set a high bar in that regard. After that they only ever fought individual monsters, two or three a day.

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It was dangerous, to be sure. A moment of inattention or misfortune could easily have led to serious injury or death. But never again was Muchen put into the kind of peril he'd experienced on that first day.

Not that he had any complaints. They had earned more than enough on that first wild day to cover the cost of signing up for the excursion and more besides. Also, Xiaomei cornered Sunchang at some point after the second day's hunt and before the third for that conversation. Muchen didn't see it happen, but he could see the result. The two had enough of a sense of propriety not to act all lovey dovey in public, but the way they avoided each other was almost more conspicuous.

With both of the parties to the marriage ready to back out of it, his work was half done. Once the hunting party returned to town, Muchen headed straight to the bar.

He'd been hoping to arrange a meeting with Zihan, but he was fortunate enough to catch her already present. Or maybe it wasn't so much good luck as just statistical probability on his side, considering how much she'd had to drink.

The bartender greeted him with a smile. "If it isn't my favorite merchant."

Muchen grinned. "I see I'm moving up in the world."

"Can you get me more jugs of that stuff?" she asked. "I'm already just about out."

Muchen nodded. "I kept one more in reserve. Any more, I'll have to go back to Jiulu City to get it."

It only took a moment to finalize the sale and set up her future shipment. The state of technology being what it was, Muchen couldn't make any specific promises about the delivery date, so the contract was of necessity pretty open ended. Basically, as long as he kept sending wagons of booze to Jiaoqu Town, she'd keep buying them at the same price.

Of course he wouldn't be able to hold her to it if he started trying to send impossible quantities of the stuff, but even adhering to the spirit of the bargain it would bring in a veritable river of silver. Muchen felt a warm glow of satisfaction at securing his first long term customer.

He decided to keep going with the positive momentum and headed over to Zihan's table. "Could I have a moment of your time?"

She looked up from her intense study of her half empty glass. Muchen could see the word "no" forming on her lips until they made eye contact, a spark of recognition showing on her face. "You! You brought my favorite drink."

Muchen took that as an invitation and took a seat at her table. "I'm glad you like it."

"Yeah," she said, looking back down at the cup, "yeah, it really takes the edge off."

Muchen hid his wince. Getting into the alcohol business meant he'd be fueling unhealthy behavior. He'd known that when he got into it, and had largely made his peace with it. After all, alcoholic drinks had been around for a long time. Even if he was packaging it in a novel form, it wouldn't take that long for the average drinker to adjust.

Most of the people who drank to excess would be people who were already in the habit of getting drunk on rice wine. He'd just made the process a bit more efficient. Besides, for somebody really chasing a high, the Qianzhan Continent had much more hair raising things to offer than mere alcohol.

Still, it was one thing to run through all those arguments in his head while he put his production line together, and quite another to encounter a young woman whose life was in shambles and who was choosing to deal with it by drinking an unhealthy amount of the liquor that he'd made.

At least in this case their goals aligned. Muchen pushed down the feeling of guilt and brought the discussion around to the key point. "Shuchang has another woman he'd rather marry."

He was presenting speculation as settled fact, but sometimes you needed a bit of spin to get things moving in the right direction. Zihan's reaction didn't disappoint. She sat bolt upright, her eyes widening with shock. Then things took a turn, as she pounded the table hard enough that her row of empty glasses jumped up into the air.

"That bastard!" she said. "I'll kill him!"

It was only her state of inebriation that let Muchen sit calmly at the table instead of creating distance or drawing his own weapon to defend himself. In the state she was in, Zihan would be lucky to charge out the door without stumbling to the ground, let alone storm the Gao family compound in a murderous rage.

"You've done nothing but complain about your betrothal," Muchen said.

"That doesn't mean I'll tolerate my fiance's wandering eye!"

Muchen gave her an evaluating look. He'd assumed their interests were aligned. That deep down, Zihan wanted nothing more than for her betrothal to come to an end. If she was actually just engaged in some kind of theater, publicly playing hard to get, his plans would have to change.

"You do want out of this betrothal?"

His serious tone was enough to penetrate Zihan's drunken rage. She blinked at him blearily, then took a deep breath, placing her free hand down on the table to steady herself.

"Why do you care?" she asked.

"Don't worry about that," Muchen said, doing his best to put on a reassuring smile. "Just tell me: do you want out of this betrothal?"

"Of course I do," she said. A lot of the anger had drained out of her by now, but she sounded no less certain about her goal. That was a relief.

"If you don't want the marriage, and Shuchang doesn't want the marriage," Muchen said, "then what obstacles are left?"

His question was only half rhetorical. He had an idea of the remaining problems, but he wanted to hear Zihan's take on it.

"Nothing much," she said, "just my father and his family elders."

One problem at a time.

"Why is your father so set on marrying you to him?" Muchen asked.

"He thinks I can form a golden core some day," Zihan said, "but only if I cultivate a proper scripture."

"Don't you want to reach those heights?" Muchen asked.

"Yes, but I want to do it as Chun Zihan!" she said. "Not as Shuchang's wife!"

"All right," Muchen said. "What about the Gao family elders?"

"What about them?" Zihan asked, snorting. "Those stubborn old pricks won't do anything that might make the family look bad."

Muchen tapped his fingers on the table as he thought. He had wanted to stay in the background and arrange things to his liking from the shadows, but it looked like he would have to change his plans. In order to settle everything and make everybody happy, he'd need to take a more active role.

"Your father cares for your future, the Gao family elders for their face," he said. "It shouldn't be impossible."

Zihan gave him a blank look.

"Meet back here tomorrow at noon," Muchen said, "and we can solve all of your problems."