Yong sat at a table with three other people. Or rather two people, and one rat. Admittedly the rat had the most noble bearing of the group. The young man that sat across from him wore silk robes with embroidery and looked as though he was made from porcelain. The other was tall and thin with an iron fan, but he seemed to be even more intimidated than Yong himself.

Yong tried to control his breathing. He had been asked to have breakfast with his investors but he was suddenly realizing that he might be in much deeper water than he had thought.

The rat stood at the edge of the table in what passed for a meeting room in the inn Yong now owned. He nearly flinched just thinking about it. He would need a proper room in the future for such things.

“Thank you all for coming here today.” The rat stood at the end of the table. His immaculate fur almost glistened. He unfurled a scroll and began to read.

“I am planning to compile all merchant business in this village under the control of my company. You will be adequately reimbursed and Mr. Yong.” He flinched as the rat called him by name.

“You will be able to continue running the businesses you have for a reasonable salary.” He laid the scroll out in the middle of the long table they were seated at so all three of the men could read. Yong was having trouble making heads or tails of the situation.

The paper seemed to have an outline of a business proposal that included wine exports and rare mineral reserves. Everything from Yong’s new inn to the smithy had a detailed plan attached to it. Yong was flabbergasted by the sheer scale of it.

“Um… Excuse me.” The thin man was getting more fearful by the second.

“Why am I here?” He asked.

“I am in need of an errand boy.” The rat did not elaborate further.

_____________________________________________

Andre was still trembling a bit but it had gotten better since Min Ryong left. If she hadn't I probably wouldn't have gotten a name from him. I poured out another cup of coffee for myself and sat down with him in our living room area. That wasn’t the right way to describe it I don’t think. It was a large open room that had a small table and a sitting area. So maybe calling it the living room was correct. I shrugged off my thoughts and turned back to the person sitting across from me.

“Feeling any better?” I tried to be as nice as possible. I had asked for Min to leave him here. He was the closest thing to a lead about what happened to me that I had found. I hadn’t really expected there to be anything more to it. Well that might be a lie. Maybe I hoped I was here for a reason.

“Yeah, thanks.” He kept his eyes down.

“So you're a champion too?” He finally looked up at me.

“A what now?” I scratched my head in confusion. His eyes went wide for a moment before he continued.

“Weren’t you one of the people from the white room?” He seemed confused. So was I.

What white room?

“Nah, I just woke up in the woods around here.” I shrugged and his mouth started to move but no noise was coming out of it.

“Wait, then what blessing did you get?” that statement caused a strange emotion to bubble up inside of me. I felt so left out. This guy got some sort of blessing and here I am without a damn thing. I tamped down on my jealousy. I really was lucky to be where I am. No point in being jealous of other people's luck.

“No blessings.” I shook my head and he seemed unable to come back from his confusion. I ended up leaving him to his thoughts when someone had arrived.

Zhou was pacing in front of our house until I called out to him and he finally seemed to be able to notice what was around him.

"Henry! Please help me!" He was almost shouting.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Can you make jewelry?" He seemed distraught. I hadn't ever tried. We usually only made farm tools. I couldn't help but nod because of him shaking me back and forth.

"Oh thank the heavens, I need someone to make me a pig necklace." I nearly choked at his statement. What the hell is a pig necklace. I led him inside and sat him next to the other trembling man. They hardly seemed to notice each other.

"I'm sorry to ask like this but I've already spent all of my money on other preparations and the next batch of wine won't be ready for at least another few months." Zhou was already pleading and I still wasn't sure what he was talking about.

"Maybe start from the beginning?" I tried to get him to explain what he was asking.

"I-I've proposed to Xue, and she agreed." He nearly jumped from his seat as he spoke.

"We're preparing our wedding as soon as we can and I suddenly realized I never bought her jewelry. It's a bit of a superstition but a golden pig necklace represents prosperity. I really want to make sure I do everything I can to make her happy going forward even if it's just superstition." He was fiddling his hands as he spoke. He seemed like some kid talking about his first crush.

"The problem is I've already spent all my money I had saved, so I was hoping you could help me and I would repay you once the wine is sold." His head fell as he said the last part.

I scratched my small beard and contemplated. I didn't know about jewelry. Old long probably did though.

"Zhou..." I looked the man in the eyes. He flinched a bit at my expression.

"What makes you think I would charge you for a wedding gift? More importantly, why the hell didn't you tell me you were getting married?" I had to hold back the slight jealousy again. He seemed stunned for a moment before he began to cry.

"You- you would really do th-that?" He barely got out his words between the sobs. I was never good with displays of emotion other than laughter so I was scared he might cry even harder if I said the wrong thing.

I sighed.

"She'll probably need more than just a necklace right?" I patted Zhou on the shoulder. Then suddenly I noticed Andre doing his best to hold back sobs of his own.

"Why are you crying?" I couldn't handle more than one grown man crying at a time.

"I'm stressed out, a-and now he's crying so..." I did my best to escape the two sobbing men and went to the back courtyard where the forge was located. I shivered a bit and found Long Fa at his usual little seat.

Long was staring into the distance as I got closer. He seemed to be out of sorts without any work to occupy him.

"Were you able to figure anything out?" He didn't turn to me while speaking.

"Just enough to confuse myself." I took a seat on the bench that rested along the wall. He nodded at that.

"But more importantly I need to learn how to make pig necklace, whatever that is." Long Fa looked at me strangely after I spoke. He seemed to contemplate for a moment then looked towards the house with a strange anger in his eyes. He stood up before I could explain and marched into the house. When he returned he was holding Zhou by his ear shouting about how he didn't even ask for his blessing or do any proper preparations. Zhou gave me a pleading look but it's not like I know a damn thing about traditions around here.

"You don't have any proper gifts and you want to get married to the girl I helped raise?" Long almost tossed him into the workspace before returning to his seat. He crossed his arms and stared at the young man imperiously. Zhou wasn't able to say anything in response and simply kneeled in front of the small chair that Long sat in.

Long continued to stare at him. He seemed to expect Zhou to explain himself in some way. Zhou bowed so low that his forehead touched the ground. I pretended to organize some tools along the workbench and continued to watch.

"Please, bless our union and help me provide proper gifts for my future wife." Zhou didn't lift his head. Long still seemed irate but he didn't respond at first. Then he grumbled loudly and went to grab his materials.

Andre stepped out of the building as well and once he did a sort of fear seemed to grip him. Long turned back and snapped his finger.

"I don't know what that was but don't ever do it in my shop again." Andre had stumbled backwards nodding at his words.

"And you." Long pointed at me. In my confusion I also pointed at myself.

"Start carving a pig." He tossed me a chunk of wood before shooing away the two other men.

There were a few pigs in the village now so I would at least have a reference if I needed it but pigs were also quite difficult to forget. Long began to prepare containers filled with a sort of sandy clay and was deftly carving some sort of design into them. I hadn't done any casting but I was still pretty sure the large molds he was making wouldn't likely hold the designs well. By the time I had finished carving the cartoonish pig Long was already pouring molten gold into what he had made. right after he took the wooden pig and made another mold with it.

Hu returned from the river with a few noticeable bruises and a dejected expression. It seemed that he lost all of his spars against the doctors apprentice. He suddenly turned bright again as he noticed what we were working on and was doing his best to memorize every part of the process.

Once they were cooled down Long removed the clay and pulled out a pair of bracelets. They needed a bit of filing and fixing but they were obviously adorned with mythical beasts. One was a dragon and the other a phoenix. The beautiful carvings almost seemed alive. Then he revealed the pig. Somehow the cartoonish expression I had given it came through but that was probably the best thing I could say about the pig shaped pendant that was about the size of my palm. Long pulled out his small tools and began to fix the details of the jewelry.

Hu and I were both watching closely as he finished bringing the creatures on the bracelets to life. He placed a strange intricate design inside of them. He also did something similar to the golden pig. Long then went inside and came back with a small leather bag. He produced several gemstones from the container and set each of them into the jewelry. The dragon now had topaz eyes, the phoenix had rubies, and the pig had emeralds.

They were probably some of the gaudiest pieces of jewelry I had ever seen but they were so nice I wasn't really thinking about that. I was just hoping that Zhou and Xue would like them.