Rin couldn’t believe it. He wanted to—oh, how he wanted to—believe that after all his failures trying to cultivate and prove that he was not lesser, as some might have said, a mundane. They might not have said it to his face or behind his back, but they saw it in their eyes—the pity. Rin hated it. But now, now there was hope. And with Young Master Ryuha coming personally today, he couldn’t help the butterflies dancing around in his stomach.
Still staring at the wooden post, he heard Mei say something.
“Well, at least that went well. I better tell Grandpa and the scripter that you didn’t blow off your arm,” she said as he pressed his lips into a thin line, taking a deep breath in through his nose. As mechanically as possible, he turned to her.
“Sorry, could you repeat that last part for me again?” he said in the lowest tone possible. And being only eight years old, he doubted it conveyed his annoyance.
“Oh yeah, the scripter said there would be like a seventy percent chance of that qi stone overloading and blowing off your arm—” she said but was swiftly cut off.
“Blown off!” he squeaked.
“Oh yeah, definitely. One of his assistants tried, and a little more than his arm blew off. But luckily, it seems that it is wor—” she tried to finish but was cut off once again.
“BLOWN OFF!” he yelled, sounding like a hungry lamb looking for its mother. She looked at him, scowling.
“Yes, blown off. Now could you please stop interrupting me? I am trying to explain. At least you didn’t get sucked into a qi vortex shredding you to pieces in the process,” she said. He blinked, horrified by the thought that he could have been shredded. He glowered at her. To her credit, she either didn’t see it or simply ignored it. She continued.
“As I was saying before you so rudely interrupted me, now we know it works, and you can do qi techniques. Well, almost. But who cares, right? So long as you can,” she beamed a smile at him, and just like that, a little bit of the anger started to seep away.
“Oh, and by the way, that bracelet is now bound to you forever,” she said, still beaming, and any anger that had seeped away rushed back. “What do you mean it's bound to me, Mei?”
“I don’t know; that’s what the Scripter said would happen, a safety mechanism or something. And besides, I prefer it this way,” she said. “Because I know you, and you would have probably thought that it would be best to give it back since it was too precious or something?” She looked at him, and for once, he didn’t have anything to say about the second part, but he did have something to say about almost having his hand blown off. “Mei, I could have lost my hand or worse. Do you know how hard it is to live with one hand?”
“No, I don’t. Do you?” she asked nervously.
“Uh, actually, no, I don’t. But I think it would not be pleasant. I mean, have you seen old man Shu? He has one leg, and he is always in a sour mood, and I don’t want to be like that.”
“No, old man Shu is in a sour mood every time he sees you for what you did to his cold radish field, remember?” Mei countered, and Rin winced as he recalled the memory. He had to agree, to some extent. How was he supposed to know that trying to ride a storm deer would be so difficult? Everyone else could do it, so he wanted to as well, but as soon as he tried to mount the beast from a tree, he misjudged and jumped too late, landing as the deer started to gallop away. With him not securely on the beast, it bucked this way and that, eventually leading it into the farming fields closest to the woods, where old man Shu grew his prize-winning cold radishes.
That always seemed like a lie because he never saw any competitions for vegetables, but the old man was adamant; they were. But that day, his cold radishes turned into cold radish chaff, as the damage a storm deer could do was extensive, and the small plants couldn’t survive the trampling. Now old man Shu regarded him as a menace, and his mother had tanned his hide profusely that night. He was sure his bottom created a whole new shade of blue and purple.
“Maybe,” he said. “Still, Mei, it’s my birthday. What would you have told my mom if you told her you gave me, of all people, an untested and unsafe qi technique?”
That got Mei’s eyes wide. “Well, at least that didn’t happen,” she said haughtily, but then deflated, and with a much more suppressed voice, she said, “I just didn’t want you to be sad today, Rin. And yes, it was a risk, but Grandpa said it should be fine, and I trusted him. I just didn’t want you to be sad today, Rin, that’s all.” Something warm raced to his cheeks as all he knew in that moment was that he never wanted to see Mei sad, even if… even if girls were gross.
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“Thanks,” was all Rin said. She nodded, wiping at her eyes where tears started to form. Rin didn’t know what to do, so they just stood there as a light wind rustled past. After a few more silent moments, Mei was the first to speak with more of her usual jovialness. “Want to spar?” she asked.
“I thought you would never ask,” he replied, smiling at her. “And no fireballs this time. My mom chews me out every time she has to get me new robes.”
“Then stop running face-first into them and try to dodge them,” she said as she started walking to one side of the courtyard while he took the opposite side. He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, like dodging a boulder-sized fireball is that easy.”
“Actually, it is. You just do it,” Mei answered, and he rolled his eyes once again.
He kicked off, dashing forward toward Mei, only to receive a fireball in the face that knocked him off his feet. He landed with a soft thud in the lightly snow-covered courtyard.
He heard Mei howling with squeaky laughter, but her mirth was cut short by the sound of another pair of voices. Curious, he craned his neck back and groaned at the sight of the Chu brothers walking toward him.
“What do you guys want?” Mei shouted, venom lacing her tone.
“Oh, come now, Mei Ling. We just wanted to congratulate young master Shin. It is his birthday, after all,” Wen Chu replied. He was tall for his age, having recently broken through to the bone and marrow refinement stage—the usual first step in one’s cultivation path. Mei had become more feminine and lithe, while the brothers had grown bulky and tall. If one didn’t know any better, they might think they looked like teenagers.
“It’s Young Mistress Ling to you oafs,” Yanmei Ling retorted.
“Oh, come off it, Yanmei Ling. We are all equals here; your grandfather isn’t here, so I have no obligation to treat you any differently. Besides, my father says he’s close to a breakthrough, and—”
“What do you want, Wan?” Rin interrupted the tall boy before he could launch into another tangent about his father’s supposed breakthrough. He had short black hair and a sharp face with so many angles that one might think he could cut stone with it. “As you can see, Mei and I are in the middle of something,” he continued, starting to extricate himself from the snow Mei had generously dumped on him.
“Oh, I can see that you’re lying on the ground, being beaten once again, are you? Had any luck with, you know, cultivation?” Wan sneered. Rin knew better than to rise to the bait, so he kept staring. Wan clicked his tongue, realizing Rin wouldn’t take the bait.
“Whatever,” he huffed, turning back to Mei, who was still glaring daggers at them. “Why the face, Mei Ling? You know if you keep it like that and the clock strikes twelve, it will stay like that, right?” he snickered. Before Mei could retort, his brother chimed in again. “Now, now, brother, it wouldn’t be good to tarnish the young Mistress Ling’s honor and beauty,” he said with a holier-than-thou tone that made Rin’s hair stand on end. That could only mean one thing—they were up to something, but Rin couldn’t see what.
“You know, Yanmei Ling, I was quite surprised to find out you turned down another suitor recently,” Wen said, eyeing Mei curiously.
“And what of it?” she shot back, glaring at the two boys.
“Well, ain’t that something, wouldn’t you say, brother?” Wen said to Wan.
“Indeed, brother. It seems our new friend was telling the truth,” Rin thought. The Chu brothers didn’t have any friends; it was always just them. “Such a shame to see such a young nobleman down in the dumps, wouldn’t you say, brother?”
“What are you guys on about?” Mei Ling snapped.
“Ah, yes. We met a young southern noble at one of the taverns in the cliff cities, and he told us he was rejected by the fairest of maidens,” Wan said, pointing to Mei Ling, whose eyes began to widen.
“So, my brother and I thought, with everything that happened with the man in the blue box and the impending doom supposedly coming our way, who were we to stand in the way of true love?” Wan finished, while his brother Wen picked up the thread.
“Wouldn’t you agree, Young Mistress Ling?” As he said the last words, both of them bowed as a third person came around the bend of the path from the front entrance that branched off into this courtyard. A young ash-haired youth with striking ruby eyes approached the brothers, eyeing them strangely as they remained bowed. “Ah, brothers Wen and Wan, I seem to have caught up to you.”
Rin could’ve imagined it, but he was sure Mei choked hearing this. The boy turned his gaze on her. “Ah, Young Mistress Mei Ling, you look as mesmerizing as ever. I hope you’ve been well these past few days,” he said, also bowing.
Mei Ling glanced between the Chu brothers and the newcomer before returning the bow. “I thank you, Young Master Hwei. I hope you, too, have been well,” she replied.
“Of course! It has been quite an adjustment with the temperature and all, but your sect is a marvel of architecture.”
Rin felt left out. What was this young master here for? The brothers were prattling on about love, a topic he didn’t quite grasp. He decided it was best to keep quiet and hope one of the house staff would notice them and intervene, though he wasn’t too hopeful on that front, considering most were busy preparing for the night’s celebrations.
Still observing the interaction between Mei and the newcomer, the Chu brothers decided it was time to make his presence known.
“And this, Young Master Hwei, is Young Master Rin Shin,” Wan introduced, while his brother chimed in.
“And this is Young Master Hwei of the Dragon Tail Sect,” Wen added.
The young man turned to Rin to greet him, but then noticed the bracelet on his arm. Suddenly, his qi flared, dousing the courtyard in searing heat.
“Oh, wonderful,” Rin muttered as he sensed the anger in the young man's eyes.