Qingshan was a large farming village that boasted terraced rice fields that shimmered like emeralds in the golden sun. A harmonious blend of bamboo huts adorned with intricately carved wooden beams and vibrant gardens filled with chrysanthemums and lotus flowers, Qingshan looked seemingly undisturbed by any mad elderly women riding in on a stolen mule.

The early morning air was crisp and cool as Chen Yun tied the reins of his ox to a tree directly outside of the village. Liu Ying, who had grown fond of its gentle temper, scratched it behind the ears thoughtfully as he took in his surroundings. They had left the shrine just before daybreak and kept their eyes out for any other unusual signs of unhinged passerby, but the road to Qingshan was very quiet. Chen Yun had thankfully not touched on the subject of conversation they had the previous evening, and frankly acted as though it never happened. He made other small, light-hearted comments, insisted on driving the ox, and provided him with more impeccably ripe fruit to eat from his bamboo basket – all in a peace offering? Liu Ying wasn’t upset about the awkward ending to the day, merely confused.

People had been curious about him before during his travels, mostly men or women who were also interested in giving him a tour of their bedrooms – none of which he entertained. The interest that Chen Yun was showing was different. There was an intention behind it, a pursuit of knowledge that he was trying to comb past the surface to compel. To what end? What did it all matter? He racked his brain for theories but they were all too far-fetched and lacking in any evidence to put much stake into them.

In silence, they made their way into the village, which had already begun stirring. People were making their way out to the fields, faces tired but good-natured, bearing tools and chatting amongst each other. They stared as they passed, namely at Chen Yun. He stood out from commoners like a sore thumb, although he barely seemed to notice the attention he was getting.

“We’ll need to source some information on Duan Baozhai’s son if nothing seems amiss,” Liu Ying said, “His surname should be Yao…”

“Might be easier to ask around and see if anyone noticed a strange woman with a mule.”

Thus, Liu Ying and Chen Yun spent time looking around Qingshan, peeking into passageways and into open windows as discreetly as possible. Once the overview of the village proved to be unfruitful besides catching an eyeful of something in one home that left Chen Yun speechless and red in the face, they resorted to finding a little near-empty teahouse. A pair of elderly women were lounging at one of the tables and gossiping heavily, but neither of them were Duan Baozhai. Their conversation was promptly paused when they watched the two men enter the teahouse, and they immediately fell back into hushed whispers and crackled laughter.

Liu Ying took a seat closest to the teahouse owner, who was wiping down the counter with a sullied cloth. He asked them what they would like, and as Liu Ying was about to request just a warm cup of water, Chen Yun interrupted him and ordered two cups of barley tea, placing a bronze coin down on the counter.

Hmph. It’s hard to tell if he’s trying to be polite or if he’s being presumptuous again. I can afford a cup of tea… even two.

The barley tea was bittersweet and had a dry aftertaste but it was wonderfully light and soothing. Liu Ying sipped it and cast a glance over at Chen Yun, who, despite ordering it, didn’t seem to have much interest in the tea. Instead, he looked distracted and cumbered by something, brows furrowed.

“Boss,” Liu Ying said to the shop owner, “This tea tastes excellent. Do you use barley grown in the village?”

“Ah, yes. My wife and I grow everything used to make our teas – that’s why the selection is seasonal… Excuse me for asking, but neither of you are local, correct? Or you probably would have known.”

Liu Ying nodded, “We hail from northern Ludong, moving our way further inland. I’m glad we’ve stopped here in Qingshan – what an abundant village.”

“The soil here is very fertile, yes. We don’t do much crop trading with outsiders despite it, which is why I was surprised to see two cultivators walk into my humble teashop. There are two spare rooms above this shop if you happen to need it, but this village is without an inn.”

“Hm… Qingshan is quite out of the way for anyone traveling, I suppose. So, you don’t get many outsiders at all? Travelers nor migrants?”

The shop owner looked thoughtful and scratched his head. “...No, not that I recall. Occasionally, we’ll have a merchant come through to try and trade before arriving at the next town over, but as a whole, we aren’t partial to that type. Qingshan is self-sufficient and everyone in the region knows it so they don’t waste their time. As far as migrants go, we did have one that arrived last year looking for work, but he was only here for about six months before he took his own life just outside the village. It was a really unfortunate thing – we didn’t know much at all about the fellow; he mostly just worked the fields and spent his free time alone, but he seemed kind.”

Liu Ying and Chen Yun exchanged a look before Liu Ying said, “Ah… What a shock. Did any of his relatives come to collect the body?”

“No, not a single one. We had to bury him in one of the earthen pits outside the village, a little further out from the rice fields. Poor bastard. I suppose that just enforced the locals’ wariness to strangers. Don’t let that shorten your stay, though. Cultivators in the name of preservation are highly regarded around these parts despite all the Goddess of Harvest altars you’ll find if you keep heading inland.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Hm? Is this shared land?”

Before the man could speak, Chen Yun cut in, “Yes. The land as a whole belongs to the God of Preservation but places such as this depend heavily on the grace of the Harvest Goddess, and so she’ll descend yearly to collect her offerings, and then… just leave.”

Not picking up on the snark in his tone, the shop owner agreed contentedly, “We have a grand festival for it every year. You’ll miss it by a month if you intend to leave soon, but it’s wonderful fun.”

Of course, Liu Ying knew of the Harvest Goddess but their paths hadn’t crossed more than a time or two during celebratory events in the Heavenly Realm. She very rarely went on missions or procured tasks to develop her spiritual powers – instead, she spent a lot of her time in her own palace, only ever leaving to collect her offerings and to check on the progress of her most abundant places of worship, which gartered her plenty of criticism over the years that she apparently paid no mind to. Kang Zhenzhen was, after all, not the only god to sow little and reap large.

Just then, the door to the teahouse was suddenly slammed open, startling all within it.

A fiery-looking woman around the age of the shop owner, with a hoe balanced on her shoulder, stepped into the shop looking furious.

“Our scallions and leeks have been ravaged!”

The man frowned deeply. “What are you talking about, dear? What happened?”

“I just returned from our fields and it looks like someone has been helping themselves to handfuls of crops up the eastern village border. The neighbor had clumps of their ginger taken too! We all thought it was an animal at first, but they were so neatly dug out that it couldn’t have been. An animal would have made a right mess of things.”

The couple continued to exchange concerns while Liu Ying turned to Chen Yun with a knowing look on his face. He downed the rest of his tea before motioning the cultivator to follow him outside, and soon, they were gathering once again beneath the gentle sunlight.

“It appears Duan Baozhai didn’t stop in Qingshan at all, and picked up a few snacks on the way. Let’s go follow the eastern border of the village – we’re bound to catch up to her if we leave now.”

He began to take a step, but Chen Yun reached out and stopped him with a hand around his elbow. “Let’s stay.”

Liu Ying looked at him curiously. “Huh? Didn’t you just hear the conversation inside? No one here has seen a strange lady with a mule or it would have been the talk of the teahouse. She obviously slipped right past Qingshan. I don’t know where she’s headed, but we’re so close –”

“Xiao Fan,” Chen Yun said, tight-lipped and unsmiling, “I think it’s best if we stayed. At least for another few hours.”

Liu Ying faltered. “I don’t understand. Why?”

“If we came and went with such haste, wouldn’t that put us in a suspicious light amongst the villagers? They might blame us for taking their crops.” Something about how Chen Yun said this was unconvincing and frankly, quite flimsy, as though he pulled the first probable explanation for his request out of his head.

Liu Ying studied him closely. His shoulders were squared and tense, and there was something clearly more grave going on in his mind.

“If you can provide me with a sincere answer, I’ll earnestly listen to your reasoning, but I won’t listen to bullshit.”

Chen Yun frowned deeply. “I’m asking you to trust me.”

“You’re clearly hiding something, and you’re asking me to trust you? On what basis? I didn’t get this far putting blind faith in things. You’ll have to give me something more substantial than that,” Liu Ying said.

“I thought you were only around because I was getting you out of Ludong. Does it matter how I choose to approach this? You’re just along for the ride.”

“It matters now that you’re suddenly being secretive! I wouldn’t have cared otherwise.”

“Xiao Fan –”

“I didn’t come along to be yanked back and forth. Either you want this woman arrested and held accountable for the murder of a family, or you have other intentions.”

Chen Yun was silent for a moment, slowly releasing an audible breath to calm himself.

“What I hide is of no detriment to you – that, I can promise you.”

Liu Ying took a step backwards, scoffing, “So you do have other intentions... May I ask what the real reason that you asked me to join you on this task is? Can you answer that, at least?” When Chen Yun shook his head slowly, Liu Ying mimicked it. “I’m sorry, but I won’t pliantly allow a killer to escape like this from right under our noses. Even though I wasn’t driven to come for that reason, we’ve come this far and I’ll see this through to completion. I’ll return with her, and you can take care of the rest. We’ll end this there.”

With that, Liu Ying turned around and began to walk away, ignoring Chen Yun’s yelling at him to come back.