Bai Feng stood with her arms crossed underneath the shade of a tree by the riverside, glaring at Lu Jia who stood across from her and was staring out and to the river. They weren't too far from the lecture hall but it was a mostly private place with only a few other disciples around who were currently trying to pretend the both of them weren't there. She didn't particularly care about them at the moment though and whatever they thought. Right now all her attention and ire was on Lu Jia and now that she no longer had the elder's lesson to pay attention to take her focus there was nothing that was going to stop her.

She was going to get her damn answers on why in the hells he'd done what he did.

Lu Jia after a moment sighed before turning to face her and... raising his fists? "Come on then, if we're going to fight let's make this quick. I know-"

"What in the hells are ya goin' on about?" Bai Feng stared at him with incredulity clear on her face. "Ya know the rules as clearly as I. We're not to fight, at all. En' as much as I want to beat the ever livin' daylights out of ya right now, I'm not breakin' the truce to do so."

Lu Jia stared at her with wide eyes as he slowly lowered his fists. "Wait, you're not here to fight? Then why?"

Bai Feng snorted as her anger surged back with a vengeance and her glare intensified on him once more, stalking forward towards him until she was right in front of him and had to glare upwards at the taller boy. "Why? Ya are askin' me why? Let me tell ya why. I want some damn answers on what in the name of the spirits that shit you pulled was! Ya betrayed me 'en the gang to the guards in Qizuishan for some reason 'en I want to know why the fuck ya decided to do that."

For his part, Lu Jia barely flinched at it and stood his ground as his face took on a complicated look, torn between something. "I...Well..."

Bai Feng seeing him struggle to explain anything pounced. "I, well, what?! What in the world made ya decide that after we helped support ya 'en your family after ya joined us that it was time to just drop us 'en an attempt to get all cushy with the guards. I managed to distract 'em from the sneaks 'en the boys pulling distraction were already outta there but I got caught to pull that off. Just because it all somehow worked out 'en I'm here now as well as ya apparently, does not change any of that. So answer the damn question."

Lu Jia was glaring back at her now. "Do you really think I wanted to turn you all in and bring the guards down on you all? That was the last thing I wanted to do."

"The last thing ya wanted to do? "En yet, ya still went 'en did it so obviously it wasn't the last thing ya wanted to do!" Bai Feng could feel her blood beginning to boil as she restrained herself from slugging him right then and there. "So what was it huh? Money? Someone promise ya somethin'? Were ya tryin' to-"

"My family." Lu Jia's voice put her tirade to a halt.

Bai Feng's eyes narrowed at him. "What about your family?"

Lu Jia shot her a look full of a strange mix of guilt and determination before taking a deep breath. "You know how me and my family lost our home nearly a year ago? Well between me and my pops we finally managed to scrounge up enough coin to get a cheap place and hold onto it. But the spot we managed to snag, it, well, it was in shiner territory and I didn't realize until it was too late. And they recognized me too as one of yours."

He and his family had not only managed to get a place and he hadn't told her, but they had also managed to get it in shiner territory of all places. They were right old bastards made up of older men who basically ran the part of the slums they controlled. Who'd made her life in her first years on the streets as shit as possible. She didn't like where this was going. "En' what then?"

Stolen novel; please report.

Lu Jia sighed as he continued. " And then... they threatened me. I didn't care too much about what they said they'd do to me, suppose I got used to hearing stuff like that after hanging out with you for so long and it working out. But... they threatened my family too." He turned his gaze towards the river. "Said they'd make their life as terrible as possible before forcing us right back to the streets. Threatened to kidnap my little sis, Lu Jun. Threatened all sorts of terrible stuff unless I... Unless I helped them deal with you all and joined them."

"And so I did. As I said, it wasn't something I wanted to do. But I couldn't let that happen to my family. I didn't tell them where the base was before you start worrying about that. Said we slept somewhere different each night instead and said I'd get you all caught which they begrudgingly accepted. The heist of that merchant just happened to be the perfect time to do it. So I informed the guards about what was happening and led them there. I certainly didn't expect you to assault that merchant though when the guards started to come and get assault added to your list of charges though, nor did I think you'd be the only one they caught. Afterward, they took me in as well to question how I knew about what had happened when Sir Zheng came by. Just came up and stared at me before stabbing me with something and proclaiming me to have some sort of cultivator talent. And the rest is history." He took a deep breath as he finished.

Bai Feng stared at him with a frown on her face. She still wanted to be angry, furious even. He had betrayed them after all and that pain was very much still fresh. But she couldn't. Not when she could so easily understand why he'd done it even if she'd have done completely different herself. "Ya could have told me 'en everyone else what happened ya know. We'd have fought tooth 'en nail to keep the shiners away from your family. We don't abandon our own jus' cause of a little trouble."

They would have too, unlike other gangs whose leaders ruled with threats and violence Bai Feng had always worked with her people. Who took what they needed only from those who looked like they could afford it and supported one another so that they could all survive. It didn't make them suddenly better than people like the shiners. They still fought other gangs and stole from others after all. But it was how if she was going to live in a gang how she wanted to do things. How her boys and girls, the majority of which were older than her, had wanted to do things like that but thought it impossible until she showed them how it was with her own gang

Lu Jia continued to stare across the river. "I know. I thought about it but... the shiners are older, bigger, and far more numerous. I know that wouldn't have scared you, and the rest in turn, away and that it was going to be bloody. Especially since to do so you all would've had to in essence fight them over territory they already claimed. Something far different than just holding our own territory and making ourselves such a nuisance from the alleys we knew and they didn't that they'd either have to leave or take a fight they'd be almost certain to lose. And even if we succeed that'd invite other gangs to hit. Maybe that makes me a coward but I didn't want to put you all through that as well as my family.

He was right. It stung to admit but if they had to fight the shiners it was almost certain to end in disaster. And yet they'd do it all the same if they had to, and she'd like to think she'd find some other solution to dealing with them. What use were the few principles they had after all if when the going got rough they cut away even them. "Ya still should've told us. We would've found a way to make it work, even if we had to pull some crazy shit to pull ya 'en your family through we would've."

Lu Jia looked back towards her, an unreadable look on his face. "Maybe. But I didn't and now we've somehow both ended up here."

Bai Feng looked him in the eye."That we are. I understand now why ya did what ya did but don't think I'm just going to forgive you now for it. When the truce ends, ya better be ready cause I'm goin' to beat the shit out of ya the day it does. Ya still betrayed us 'en I'm not goin' to forget that."

Lu Jia sighed but nodded. "I suppose I do deserve that at least. For what little it's worth I am sorry."

Bai Feng simply snorted as she turned and began to walk away, trying her best to ignore the complicated set of emotions she was feeling now and focus her thoughts on the future and not on the boy behind her.