MIN GROUP

Yi-Wen looked between Jia and Shu for a moment. He was not sure if this is just how they were normally or if something had changed or even if it was because of him. Whatever the reason the two were different. By the time he woke up the two were acting strange, constantly whispering and sweeping the trees with their eyes. He began to worry that they were weighing their option on helping him; changing their mind about taking on the whole of Chengchun for his sake.

After packing camp in an awkward silence, the three had been walking at a moderate pace. Occasionally, Yi-Wen would attempt to start conversation, but it would die out as soon as he realized he couldn’t maintain it himself. Finding something in common with the siblings was difficult when all he could think about was palace gossip. It was becoming abundantly clear that talking around cultivation and music was going to leave him with little in the way of topics. He was hoping that they would snap out of their distraction and Shu would work some of the magic he had the night before on the woman on the bun shop.

“We need to talk about our next stop.” Jia slowed her walk to fallback with Yi-Wen.

“Oh, your errand?” Yi-Wen tried to sound bored and speed the conversation along; possibly along to his own errand.

“No, the next town. We are still some ways out from what we have to get done, and we have to play in the next town tonight.”

“Tonight?! But-”

“We need the money to keep traveling. Especially with you on board.”

Yi-Wen bit his tongue. He had an idea of the items and things he would need in order to move about Chengchun, but he also thought he understood how vast the country was, only to end up being told he severely underestimated his navigation skills. Yi-Wen looked to Shu who had been watching them over his shoulder and he slowed down to match their pace, walking on the opposite side of Yi-Wen.

“What she means is, now is a good time to teach you how to earn money while you move around the country. Without a sect, having a skill to use to earn money both feeds you and gives you a reason to be roaming around aimlessly.”

“I have an aim. Why would I need a skill to earn money?” Yi-Wen scrunched up his nose at Shu.

The traveling cultivator smiled and slowly formed his next sentence in his mind.

“Because we don’t want people to know that you have an aim...you fool.”

“And here I thought you were taking a second to think before you insulted him.” Jia huffed.

“Jia-er his response was really foolish. There was nothing I could say without mocking him. He is the least suited person for a stealth mission.”

Ignoring Shu, she continued. “Noble Cultivator, how old are you?”

“Why does that-”

“So, that we can make-up a good fake name for you and know how to address you when we are around other people.”

“Oh…”

“Did you hear that Jia-er? ‘Oh’. The reason should have been obvious.” Shu crossed his arms.

Yi-wen ignored him as well. “I am twenty-three summers.”

“Summers?”

“I was born in the summer?”

“It is just not something normal citizens would say.” She clarified.

“Jia and I just state our ages.” Shu added.

“Which are?”

“Twenty-five and twenty-six years.” Shu pointed to Jia and then himself.

“Oh. You are older than I thought.” Yi-Wen squinted at Shu.

“How am I the only one who seems older?”

“I meant-! I meant two things really.” He crossed his arms. “I thought you two were the same age and….well younger than me.”

Shu leaned over Yi-wen for a moment. “Well, you were wrong.”

“Can I just say how absolutely tired I am of you?”

“Of me?!”

Jia watched exasperated as the two went at it again. The cycle of pleasant conversation devolving into insult matches was tiresome, but unavoidable. If she had her brother’s spirit, Jia would be just as openly annoyed. Instead, she let Shu get in a few good jabs and then thought about interjecting.

Along the road, place markers were beginning to appear. They couldn’t be very far from the next venue now. Faintly Jia heard an old drinking song, as if it was just floating around her on the wind. Shu sighed loudly and Jia rolled her eyes at him. Yi-Wen looked between the two of them and began to open is his mouth.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“It is a sibling thing.” Jia cut him off with a dismissive wave of her hand.

Dejected, he shut his mouth and crossed his arms. Looking past him she could see Linghe floating in from the horizon. She had never seen a ghost in such a hurry that they chose to fly, but giving how late he was to rejoin the group it was the best option. Shu traced her sight line back to the ghostly visage of Linghe quickly approaching them. He quickly looked forward again, adjusting his bags and instrument on his back.

“Perhaps, we should start again.” Shu began without even looking in Yi-Wen’s direction.

“Perhaps, we should.”

“Perhaps, both of you should act like the men that you are and stop exhausting my patience.”

All three of them were silent again. Yi-Wen sulked, but adjusted his attitude in his silence. Linghe landed behind them, still humming the drinking song and smiling at Jia and Shu as if he had been there all along.

“Well, go ahead.” Prompting Shu, Jia slowed pace again to let them walk ahead while Linghe stopped humming for a moment to acknowledge her with a small nod.

Shu looked thoughtful for a moment before speaking. “There are a few ways to earn traveling money for yourself. You, like us, also have the ability to hunt ghosts and the like with will make you even more sought after. Which is good for making money, but bad for staying hidden. We will need to be more cautious about which cases you take.”

“You and Miss Jia hunt ghosts?”

“Noble Cultivator did you not just assume we were wandering cultivators last night?”

“Yes, but walking around reading texts and actually going on night hunts are two different things.”

“...Yes, we both read and apply ourselves. Hunting is what we do in addition to providing music.” Shu gave Yi-Wen a pass for now and tried not to think about the pointlessness of reading cultivation texts just to read them.

“Fascinating...Do you two have license to do so?”

“Only sects can afford to buy license to do night hunts and powerful cleanses.”

“Wait, but you just said-”

“Most of the people who need us don’t have the money to hand over to large sects that are too busy to attend to them anyway.”

“But the licenses aren’t that expensive.”

Shu simply shut-up and held his tongue for a while. If Yi-Wen was going to argue every point, he was never going to get to what he needed to say, and the royal cultivator would be sleeping in the street for the night. Yi-Wen took Shu’s silence for submission and smiled to himself. Behind them another conversation picked up. Jia tilted her head to use her wide hat to block the sun from falling on her face before grabbing the rim with her sleeved hand. Her face and mouth fully blocked she looked to her right and Linghe took this as his cue.

“Did much happen in my absence?” He smiled as usual.

“Shu and I were much confused by your absence this morning teacher Chao, but knew that we could not stay to wait for you if we were to reach the next destination in time. My apologies teacher, we shall plan for flexible arrangements in the future.”

“Nonsense, it is best that you moved on ahead. I was lost after venturing too far the night before. Once I found the empty camp it was easy enough to follow where you had gone from there.”

“I am glad to hear the that finding us was not too arduous for teacher.” Jia left it at that and let go of her hat, looking up to see Yi-Wen staring at her for a moment before looking away quickly.

“Young Jiaxia is not curious as to what this teacher found to do last night?” He smirked. She motioned fanning herself with her hand before actually reaching back to remove a fan from her pack to use.

“This disciple is respectful and has no intention of offending teacher by asking after his nighttime affairs.” Turning to appear to be observing the forest by the side of the path, she smiled at the disappointment that flashed on his face. Shu also stifled a laugh after looking back to Linghe to see his expression.

“Ah, both of you wound me with your lack of enthusiasm to let this teacher entertain you with his skills of revelry.” Linghe was actually relieved to not have to put forth the ridiculous cover story he had been formulating on the way to them. In actuality, after talking at length with his retainers he had settled himself for a nap and lost track of time. He was tired of napping and surprisingly, longed for a full night’s sleep. He wasn’t sure why, but lately whenever he closed his eyes it felt like he was falling into a deep dark soft pit and climbing back out every hour or two. It was beyond annoying.

There were several things he had underestimated when deciding to be a ghost. Normal ghosts don’t need to sleep and many don’t need to eat. He needed to do both and increasingly so in recent years. Hiding it from the eternally awake Min siblings was impossible sometimes. One of them was always awake at some point. On nights where they played, he would sneak around as a human and try to make friends at the taverns. Twice he jumped out of his buzzed skin because the they walked in the same tavern as himself after a show. There never seemed to be a good time to just pretend to eat with them, he was always showing up after they had eaten or before they went on a fast.

“Has our honored guest eaten yet?” Linghe was suddenly struck with the idea of using Yi-Wen as an excuse to eat. How could he sit there and do nothing while watching the living go about eating. It would be cruelty. Shu gave the idea some thought.

“Noble cultivator, if I may speak without being interrupted…” He waited, but Yi-Wen simply made a big show of opening and then closing his mouth.

“Progress.” Jia murmured.

“As I mentioned earlier, we need to both make more money to travel with and conceal your purpose. Now, Jia and I have a sleeping arrangement for the night, however, we will need to raise some money in order to secure lodging for you. The theatre would have only provided barely enough room for two musicians.”

Yi-Wen nodded and finally looked to Shu as he spoke.

“There are some houses prone to becoming infested along the outskirts of town. Jia and I have not found why this is so, but in the meantime if you can do a few purges and make more than enough money for tonight. If you have time you might even locate the cause. Understand?”

“May I speak?”

“...Yes, please do.”

“Is this not something an actual sect can handle?”

“It is something that the people of this town cannot afford to go to an official sect for.”

“Fine.” Worry knitted Yi-wen’s eyebrows.

“You have done this sort of thing before, right?” With a flip of his hand Shu stated the question as if the answer was obvious.

“Of course, it was just a bit different. Usually, people just bring me where I need to go and I go and do the ceremony with a few fellow cultivators.”

“Let me guess. Everything is set up by the time you arrive.”

“Yes.” Yi-wen looked towards the ground.

“That is perfectly fine.” Leaving Linghe’s side, Jia rejoined the two men.

“We ensured you that we would help you along by showing you the skills you would need.” He began.

“And this is just a part of that, so please try to listen instead of arguing as we explain how to go about being a roaming cultivator.” The sister finished where the brother began. To his credit, Yi-wen finally acquiesced and let them teach him without excessive questions, until afterwards when Jia finally asked him if he had any. Then the sheltered official opened the floodgates on all kinds of questions.