Wine was drained like so much water in a bathtub, disappearing down Xiao Fan's gullet relentlessly. Enough wine to fill a whole barrel... But not enough to drown the fears and anxieties in her heart. She wished she had the strength to get moving again - to get up on her feet, to march out the door, to head straight back to Tian Lei and try to find Hao Ning. She wished she had the willpower to simply keep herself from guzzling more wine, at the least... but that didn't seem to be happening.

She sighed before tearing the lid off of the eighth jar of wine, nearly the last one. This one wasn't so much chugged as it was sipped at, in the same way one cuts green onions with a jian. That is to say... Her sips were gulps, but to her, it was restraint. It was a start. She palmed at the wall like a drunk or an infirm elder, struggling to get to a stand from where she awkwardly lay. A few seconds later, and more than a little wine spilled on her tangzhuang, she was standing. The doorway was the next hurdle for her; one that she found herself barely inconvenienced by, to her own surprise.

She toddled out, over to the dining room - Chen Mengyao and Zhichao Tingfeng were gone, the lights all out, the house steeped in silence. It was eerie, frankly; Xiao Fan had never entered such a big house. The tavern back in Er Xin had been the biggest building she'd ever personally went inside of... And here, now, being in such a large home? A home that seemed devoid of all life? It wasn't comforting; it was creepy. At least back at the grand hall of the Tian Lei sect, she could escape the incense tree by slipping into a side room. She couldn't just duck out of this unfamiliar house into an unfamiliar room.

It was fine, though - she wouldn't be staying here long, anyways. Not if she could help it. She made her way to the front door and found it unlocked - with a gorgeous crimson cheongsam before it, folded on a chair. A small note laid thereon was from Chen Mengyao: "Hello, meimei! You were in there for hours, so I took the liberty of getting you something new to wear. The feast is down at the town hall." That was all the explanation she was to be given, it seemed. That was fine, though... She just needed to check on something first.

In between swigs of wine, she doffed her garments. She had never expected to find herself fully nude within a stranger's home before, but she had also never imagined herself a martial artist. Or a killer. Or dead. It turned out that life has a way of throwing curveballs at you. The cheongsam took some time to don, actually - so unfamiliar were such pieces of finery, wearing it was more akin to wrestling it. Eventually, however, it was filled out with her tepid form. She took a moment to consider herself.

Her legs looked great. Years of working the paddy had lent themselves to toning her calves and thighs, and she had spent so much time outdoors and walking about. Her arms, too, were visibly toned - at least, what parts of them were still there. She had saved herself a great deal of pain when it came to the structural integrity of her arms... But her right hand? She was bitter that she had forgotten to grab the other half of it... Some dog was probably chewing on it right now.

Ew. Perhaps Hao Ning could heal it? That was something to consider when the Tian Lei sect was a little closer; right now, she had a feast to attend. No footwear had been provided to go with the cheongsam, and frankly, she thought her boots looked ridiculous with the dress itself. She couldn't feel her feet most of the time, anyways... So she took an extra moment to set down her nearly-finished wine, so that she could pull off her boots.

To hell with her old clothes. They weren't even truly old, just something that Zhichao Tingfeng had dressed her in when he had been assuming she was a corpse. She still was a corpse; he hadn't been wrong about that aspect. She had only just begun to grow fond of the white tangzhuang, the black plum tree embroideries... She had only just started to care about the actual scenes depicted on her own outfit. It would bring her peace of mind to know that there was nothing like that on the dress.

Thinking of 'her own outfit', as far as it was even hers and not Zhichao Tingfeng's, made her look back down at herself again. She couldn't see the front-to-back punctures in her sternum and her stomach... But she could feel them. She could sense them, a line of warmth straight through her body. Each of these lines of warmth brought further unease now that they were covered up; it felt like she was interfering with her own healing. Just habits from being alive, though, surely.

It wouldn't be an issue; not right now, anyways. She'd just get someone with a thread and needle to sew her up if it came down to it. Hell, she would just sew herself up if need be; she wasn't squeamish, apparently. The gore in her hair reminded her of that much. Sure, her torso and limbs were mostly clean, but maybe a quick rinse near the town well... Eh. She'd see if it was on the way to the town hall. Otherwise, the partygoers may need to just deal with the bits of bone and brain and blood on her face.

Pushing past the front door, she was greeted with the darkness of a deep summer evening. The moon's silver glow lit the land below, and all the fields of grass had grown more relaxed. The wind that blew now was gentle and warm; less of a buffeting gale, and more of a comforting mid-year breeze. She allowed herself a moment to get caught up in it, shutting her eyes. The sensation was dull, sure, but it was still present. Sometimes, that's all that mattered.

After a deep breath in, she set out. Down the hill she went, catching sight nearly immediately of the long, squat building that was surely the town hall. It was enormous, one of the biggest buildings in town. It was made of wood, like everything else; thick planks were rough-shod but effective, and they kept the clay shingles aloft. Windows were sparse, and small - paper-paned affairs that seemed more apt for allowing light in than wind. Or, in this case, allowing light out - every single one of them was illuminated now, and a great many people milled about outside the building.

As Xiao Fan made her way down the hill, getting used to moving in the dress she took note of something: it was evening, sure, but it was only early evening. And yet, the only place in town with any lights on seemed to be the town hall. Oh, heavens and gods, anyone and everything... It was going to be a big party, then? Fine. She would just... suffer through it, she supposed. The concept of being surrounded by throngs of judgmental strangers, while also being encouraged to gorge yourself on their food, didn't sit great with Xiao Fan.

Still, footfall after footfall, one after the next. As she drew nearer to the hub of the evening's affairs, one partygoer saw her and immediately began to point - rather than fear, his face was plastered with excitement. "Oh! Oh, miss ghost! Miss Xiao, we thought you fell asleep! Please, come in; they're all waiting for you!" From the joy on his face, it seemed that she hadn't managed to bring down the mood at all with her tardiness. That was good, at least.

She waved to him and opened her mouth to speak, but by time she had begun, he was already inside - going to tell the others, she was sure. From the gasps and exclamations coming from within, either they were as excited to see her as he had been, or they were aghast. It was becoming harder and harder for her to tell, with the regularity with which both occurred.

By the time she made it to the foot of the hill, and the town hall was close, a crowd had begun to gather. People holding one another, holding food or drink, holding gifts... they cheered when they saw her. Two young boys, nearly young men, rushed over to Xiao Fan; they put themselves under either of her arms and helped her take some weight off of her own feet. It was a lot quicker to make her way into the hall with attendees, she had to admit... And some part of herself liked getting attended to like this.

The door to the hall was held open for her and her newfound assistants. Within, it was a larger version of the standard sort of parties that came and went in these rural villages. A long singular table was laid with an abundance of food so profuse as to be nearly offensive. Rather than wine made of plums, one could smell the strong tone of baiju wafting through the air. Roasted meats of all sorts were laid out... Fresh fish, too, and enough rice to build a house.

It was overwhelming in all the best ways. She didn't notice the warmth in her body start to melt away immediately, but she did hear the way the crowd gushed towards her with compliments: telling her how strong she was, thanking her for her work to save their village, offering this or that or the other thing... She was gripped once again by the hunger that seemed to be now intrinsic to her very existence. She sat down at a pillow set near the center of the table; someone gestured to it, so it must've been hers.

As soon as she sat down, various people - youths and children, and even a few young adults - jockeyed to try and serve her rice for her. She chuckled softly, trying to make it sound genuine. Some part of her did think they were funny, their enthusiasm to show respect to her causing them to stumble over themselves... but their antics didn't have priority over the food now immediately at her disposal.

Utensils were eschewed; she didn't even wait to see if anyone else was eating, but between mouthfuls of whatever she could grab, she found she wasn't alone. As soon as she had taken her first handful of the feast, all the villagers rushed to join in - not necessarily to join her. However, from the way they all began to dig in with nearly as much gusto as Xiao Fan was displaying, it was pretty apparent that they weren't trying to match her zeal purposefully. A long day of preparing a feast makes one hungry enough to eat a whole feast.

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After two bowls of rice and three drumsticks of fried chicken, along with myriad fruits, Xiao Fan felt a hand tap her left shoulder. She turned to see who it was with a mouth full of chicken meat, a little scrap of fried flesh hanging from her lips by a single stray sinew. She snapped it up into her mouth, dragging it back in with her tongue. Her eyes fell upon Zhichao Tingfeng; he couldn't help but smile and shake his head upon seeing her, their vision meeting for but a moment.

Zhichao was seated beside her - he had been all evening, apparently, not that Xiao Fan would really know. She had been blinded wholly by the presence of fresh, hot food that she was told she could veritably assault; her sifu would come around at some point, anyways. Better to focus on the banquet hall laden to the edges with home-cooked food, rather than spend her time biting her nails and wringing her hands. Anywho; her master had been speaking for a few moments already by time she tuned in and stopped justifying her unusual laxness to herself.

"-formidable force, led by your target. We're a long way away at this point; he had a boat waiting for him to take him down the river, or so my sources tell me. Still... I think we go home to the sect, practice a few more days, and then head on out. What do you say to that, simei?" He reached over across her lap with his right arm, snatching a fried chicken wing that he promptly began to tear away at. He was, apparently, unperturbed by the crispy bits of skin that fell onto his beautiful robes.

Xiao Fan nodded - unlike before, her zeal was measured but strong. A single, firm bob of the head, eyes shut as she did - when they reopened, they focused on Zhichao Tingfeng's. "Yes, sifu. We... Anything to get to him, really. Anything to win. Anything to... To see her again." When her eyes met Zhichao Tingfeng's, she was shocked to realize she wasn't hungry. Well, not that she couldn't eat - she still could, that was certain - but she had stopped feeling so ravenous. She was full... She felt good, in fact. So much better than before.

Had they put something in her food? No, she was dead; poison wouldn't work, nor would drugs. Xinmeijin didn't seem like the kind of village to grow opium, anyways. Perhaps there was something to her hunger... Some reason for it, a source of her desire to consume. Hungry ghosts usually ate because they had received no offerings; they ate because they were hungry from lack of given offerings from family and friends. They were starving up until their descendants and close friends gave them something to eat. So...

She looked around at the great feast, and only now did she smell the incense in the air. The censers were full, each burning three sticks of incense; someone was burning single sheets of joss paper in the least-crowded corner of the building. Everyone kept looking at her; they kept fucking eyeing her over, as if they expected her to evaporate. That's probably exactly what they assumed would happen. She finished her plate of food quickly, now - not so much as to be done with it, as much as to be able to leave the table.

"Alright, sifu. I'll meet you on the road outside of town... I'm feeling much better now, honestly. Good enough to go... Go train. Go fight. Go see what can be done about the mistakes I made earlier... I'm sorry again, sifu. I let myself get out of control. I won't allow it to ha-" Once again, her master raised his hand, palm facing her - and once again, she pressed her lips together and was silent. Zhichao Tingfeng began then, shaking his head from side-to-side as he did.

"No, simei. You still have so much to learn... You are entering a new world that you've never even had to consider before; you're walking into the jianghu. These things can take time to learn. In the meantime, we must train further; time's of the essence, but time won't matter at all if you get killed in the process." He nodded, then directing her off to follow through on her part of this plan. She nodded in affirmation and stood, then, slipping past partygoers who would rather not touch her. It wasn't hard for her to get back to the entrance; in fact, while it was a party in her honor, no one even tried to keep her there.

Once she was out of the tavern, however, her expression soured - she looked down the path to consider beginning her endeavor, only to decide it wasn't worth the trouble, nor the heartbreak. She would wait for him, she resolved. Of course she was going to... but this was a new sort of conviction. It was as he had said - she still had so much to learn. Rushing off would only end in pain for all involved, herself included; it would end in tragedy. An effort hastily made is rarely made skillfully, and all that. A deep breath filled her lacerated lungs, exhaled raggedly, the coarseness of it due to half of the exhale just exiting her chest. Lukewarm breath filtered through the fabric of her dress, bringing with it a light spatter of blood.

A tugging came upon the back cloth of her cheongsam, gentle but insistent. She turned back, looking down to see a young girl, her hair long and black like Xiao Fan's, her skin rough from outdoor labor. She stared up at Xiao Fan with wide brown eyes, face the image of innocence - and Xiao Fan couldn't help but think that she looked a bit lost. The little girl spoke up after a moment of staring and blinking, going to hug Xiao Fan's leg as she did.

"Xiaojie! Xiaojie, thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you... You saved my papa from those nasty men... I saw it; I was hiding in my house. Mama told me not to look, but I peeked thru the gap in the wall... I saw you! You were so impressive, xiaojie! My papa is still here because of you... Thank you..." The little girl fell away to silence then, her embrace around Xiao Fan's leg only tightening. Xiao Fan let herself be caught in it; swept up in the moment, as much as she could. Her body smiled, though her heart couldn't truly feel the joy or the pride.

"Oh? Is that so, xiaomei? I'm happy I was able to step in and help... Those nasty men will never forget what happened to them. They'll never threaten your mama or papa again. I... I'll make sure of it." Xiao Fan's smile wavered as she said the words, but the little girl wasn't even looking up at her; her face was nestled into the revenant's thigh. Xiao Fan put her good hand down to pat the child on the head, silently lamenting the ineffectual nature of her other one - oh?

She raised her right hand, and was shocked by what she saw. Her flesh had grown, somewhat - bone and tendons extended far past where they once had. Her fingers were still gone, saying nothing of the rest of her palm, but there was certainly more than before. She stood in silence with the little girl hugging her leg, having completely pushed the child out of her mind. She had more pressing matters to attend to.

The feast. Goodwill, remembrance... Honoring the dead, who could not fill their own stomachs. Feeding the dead, whose throats had grown long and their bodies malformed from starvation. They hadn't meant to fix her; at least, they probably hadn't. But now... Where disgust had once resonated like distant birdsong in her heart and mind, she now only felt relief. They had no idea that this 'feast' was fixing her, did they? She could have laughed aloud, if mirth didn't hide behind that wall of ice. She instead decided to simply pat the little girl's head again.

"Xiaomei, you are so cute, so precious... Thank you for cheering me up. It's late, though, and growing girls like you should get plenty of sleep. If you live a healthy life, eat lots of rice and meat, maybe you'll be strong like me someday." Another false smile - this one made more convincing by the sudden clarity she felt. Even if her fingers never grew back, she was simply amazed that anything had come back at all... Or perhaps it wasn't the feast at all. Maybe it was just the fact that she had been condemned to this body at all?

Things to think of for another time. The little girl gave Xiao Fan's leg a tight squeeze in response, not saying anything - but then she was done, little sandals over little feet, making little footprints in the dirt. Xiao Fan watched her go; only once she disappeared into a house further down the way did the dead woman turn back to the road. Her face and body were motionless as she saw that Zhichao Tingfeng was standing there silently, watching her watch the child go; she didn't say anything, but he had startled her a bit. As much as she could be startled in this state, at least.

He smirked at her, his torso turning with his legs as he made a full-body gesture down the road. "Shall we then, simei? Time is of the essence, after all... And I would be ill pleased to delay any longer. Unless you want to mingle with the townsfolk some more?" He nearly laughed at that, lips twitching, giving him away. Xiao Fan rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, beginning to walk down the path. "No, sifu, nothing like that. I doubt most of them want me around, anyways."

He gave pause at that, following behind but his smile breaking momentarily. A hand went over to clap on Xiao Fan's shoulder. "Ahhh... Why do you think that? They thought a feast would be the best way to show reverence to a hungry ghost. It's not like you asked for money or women or land. You wanted a good meal to celebrate; that's something easily given. I promise, their intentions were good." He squeezed her shoulder with his hand, then patted her on the back. She shrugged.

She doubted Zhichao Tingfeng would lie to her, especially about something so trivial. And maybe she was being too sensitive... Maybe. Whatever. They had to go back to Tian Lei and train some more; there was no time to worry about the intentions of townsfolk she'd never meet again. Besides, there was someone else she wanted to see, someone that could do far more for her than the people of Xinmeijin ever could: Hao Ning.

She only hoped Hao Ning could heal her internal injuries; they didn't feel as warm anymore, but they hadn't simply gone away. The limp that Xiao Fan was working off was proof of that; besides, someone needed to sew up her chest. And her stomach. And anything else? She had forgotten what all was injured on her own body; being unable to feel it, only a vague warmth approximating the injury, did little to help with injury analysis.

They walked in silence, now simply passing through the grasses rather than skirting the labyrinth path within. The passage to the forest was much more expedient this way; they were beneath the canopies in under an hour, if she had to figure. Now, though, came the rest of a long and boring walk. There was much to think about... But not much to discuss.

She didn't even feel hungry anymore; the plums in the treetops were left to ripen. Maybe next time.