Chapter 33
Negotiations
At first, Jon was just standing still, looking at the boy. Questions in his mind. How did he go past my awareness? How come I didn't hear him at all before that?
It was the same thing the first time he met Bao. The boy came from behind him, and Jon had not noticed him until he was in front of him. But that was not important right now. No, right now, a much more pressing matter was at hand.
Jon eyed the tousle-haired boy warily, debating his next move. Getting caught red-handed demonstrating his abilities was bad enough - but having a pint-sized witness from the village stumble across the scene? That ratcheted the stakes up several notches.
He needed to get a handle on this situation before it spiraled any further out of control. Kids could be unpredictable, but they also tended to be more...malleable when the right approach was taken.
"What are you doing out here in the forest at this hour, Bao?" he asked, pitching his tone into a blend of casual curiosity and gentle admonishment - the sort of lightly chiding cadence one might expect from a concerned uncle. "Don't your parents know where you've wandered off to?"
The redheaded youth flinched at the all-too-familiar reprimand, freckled cheeks flushing crimson. For a fleeting instant, Jon worried the boy might actually turn tail and flee before hastily backpedaling.
"I come here all the time," he tried again, more hesitant this time under Jon's steady regard. "No one else from the village comes to this part of the forest. I made it my treasure hide zone." he said, picking at his fingers, his nervousness evident.
Jon lifted one sardonic eyebrow at that. "And what kind of treasure do you hide here?"
Bao's cheeks flushed again, but this time there was a spark of pride in his eyes. "I came to hide the money I received earlier. I was about to leave anyway...."
Then, after a few seconds of silence, the boy splurted "Please, uncle Jon, don't tell Mom and Dad!"
Jon crossed his arms over his broad chest as he settled his weight into a relaxed slouch. He had the kid on the defensive now - time to start carefully untangling this hairy knot before it became a full-blown Gordian clusterfuck.
"Hmm, okay then," he murmured in a tone of indulgent placation, as if granting a small concession. Leaning forwards slightly, eyes glinted with careful scrutiny. "So...what exactly did you see out here today, kiddo?"
Bao visibly wilted beneath that piercing stare, gaze skittering away as he gnawed his lower lip. The delaying tactic of feigning ignorance made a token showing, as it so often did when wheedling information from the evasive.
"Uuh, nothing...?" The response emerged as more of a hesitant question than a statement of fact.
Jon simply arched one eloquent eyebrow higher, the beginnings of a tight smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"Was that a question or are you telling me?" he challenged mildly. The boy squirmed under that laser focus, fingers picking at a loose thread on his tunic.
"I-uuh, I didn't - I didn't see you do anything at all!" Bao sputtered out, voice cracking. "I didn't!"
He seemed to realize his mistake a heartbeat later, freckles standing out in stark relief against rapidly paling skin. Jon heaved an audible sigh, rolling his eyes skyward as one palm lifted to pinch the bridge of his nose.
The kid had seen everything. Or at least, more than enough to put two and two together about the comic book levels of superhuman flapdoodle transpiring out here. Which meant the game was officially up - he could either try doubling down on convoluted deceptions bound to unravel...or take a calculated risk and lay at least some of his cards out on the table.
Jon's mind raced through the options, dismissing each as quickly as it surfaced. Trying to scare Bao into silence was out; the kid would just run straight to his parents, and that would open up a whole other can of worms. He didn't have any memory-altering techniques at his disposal - even if he did, using them on a child was morally repugnant.
No, the best approach here was to treat Bao like a typical child. Children often responded well to incentives, and Bao seemed sharp enough to understand a straightforward deal. If he could frame it as a simple transaction, appealing to Bao's immediate interests -like money- might keep the situation contained. Besides, kids loved feeling important and getting rewarded.
Dammit, just once I'd like to catch a break around here instead of constantly back-pedaling deeper into this insane rabbit hole, he groused internally. Straightening his spine, Jon settled the errant youth with a look that managed to blend sternness and wry humor in equal measure.
"Alright, look kiddo..."
Jon let a sly grin tugging at the corner of his mouth as he eyed the tousle-haired youth warily. "How much?"
He knew Bao had seen enough. The game was up, so no point pissing into the wind with denials at this juncture.
To Jon's surprise, the boy didn't miss a beat - his childish features smoothing into an unnervingly stoic mask as he responded.
"One piece of gold," Bao stated flatly, all previous fear and uncertainty vanishing behind a facade of cold-eyed business acumen. "And I won't tell anyone what I witnessed you doing out here."
What the… this little rascal! So the scamp wanted to play hardball negotiator, did he? Jon bit back a bark of laughter at the sheer brazen gall. Fine by him - he could more than match wits with this pint-sized hustler.
He did not know the monetary system of this world, but one gold coin, by any standard, was probably a large sum, and although he did have actual gold ingots form the demonic cult, getting played so easily by a kid did not sit well with Jon.
Mirroring Bao's abrupt professionalism, he shrugged one broad shoulder in an indolent display of nonchalance. "Best I can do is five copper pieces. Take it or leave it - that's my final offer."
For a tense beat, the pair stared each other down in a silent battle of wills. Jon half-expected the tenacious kid to double down and call his bluff. Instead, those hazel eyes glinted with knowing calculation, one rust-colored brow arching in a fair approximation of the merchant's earlier sardonic expression.
"I think the service in question far outweighs price, Uncle Jon," Bao countered evenly, his manner of speech taking Jon by surprise.
The boy’s posture unconsciously mimicking Jon's folded-arm stance. "You’re pretty strong and fast for a merchant. Uncle. Jon."
The suggestive lilt underlying those words was unmistakable - a deft reminder that the upper hand here ultimately belonged to the party holding the most incriminating leverage. Ha..haha… Jon smothered another incredulous snort at the ballsy negotiating tactic.
This wasn't just a hustle anymore, he realized with reluctant respect. The little hellion was going full-tilt Gordon Gekko on his ass now!
"30 copper and we have a deal." Bao suggested with an air of judicious reasonability. A far cry from his previous one gold piece proposal.
At that, Jon couldn't help but chuckle at the unrepentant audacity radiating from the miniature con artist in front of him.
He leveled one finger at the unruffled boy with a look of scolding reproach quickly undercut by the twinkling emerald merriment in his eyes.
"You cheeky little bastard..." Another peal of laughter punctuated the words before he visibly reined himself in, mouth thinning to a tight line. "15 copper coins." he said.
“25. And we’re good.” Bao fought back.
“Haa, I can't wait to tell Qingshan that I saw his seven years old son in the forest so late at night. 20 and we’re good.” Jon said.
He could practically see the calculations flickering across Bao's expression as the kid weighed his precarious leverage. Jon squinted his eyes in silent challenge, daring him to overplay his hand.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
In the end, it took the boy all of five seconds to hedge his bets - his small shoulders sagging in visible resignation as pragmatism ultimately won out over youthful arrogance.
"Deal. 20 copper taels," Bao acquiesced through gritted teeth. Extending one palm, he shot Jon a look of defiant petulance that likely would have been endearing on anyone besides a brash young blackmail artist.
Clapping the smaller figure on the back with just a smidge too much avuncular force, he barked out another ragged chuckle at Bao's resulting stagger.
"You don’t tell anyone you saw me here and I’ll make you rich. We have an understanding, partner?" he declared in a carrying tone, extending one broad palm to cement the pact with an enthusiastic shake.
Bao maintained his scowling pout for all of three seconds before the last vestiges of childhood finally cracked through his precocious veneer.
"Here?" he echoed with naked indignation, lips twisting sourly. "I wasn't even here, Uncle Jon. I don’t know what you’re talking about."
Jon outright bellowed laughter at that, giving the boy's significantly smaller hand another enthusiastic shake.
"Attaboy." he crowed. "Now you're catching on quick - that's the kind of situational flexibility that'll serve you well in the years ahead!"
"When will you give me the money, Uncle Jon?" he piped up, hazel eyes alight with unabashed greed and curiosity.
Jon chuckled dryly, ruffling the boy's unruly curls with a casual fondness that belied their recent high-stakes negotiations. "I'll have it for you tomorrow, sport. You have my word on that."
The reassurance seemed to mollify the precocious youth, at least for the moment. Bao nodded in satisfaction before that familiar spark of innocent zeal rekindled behind his gaze.
Now that the deal was done, one thing lingered on Jon's mind, "Damn, who taught you to talk and bargain like this, kid?" he asked, shaking his head in amused disbelief.
Bao hesitated, his freckled cheeks flushing as he fidgeted with his fingers, the nervous habit giving away his momentary uncertainty. "Uncle Minghan," he finally mumbled, eyes darting up to gauge Jon's reaction. "He always talks like that at the marketplace."
Jon stiffened a bit, surprise playing across his features. "Minghan, huh? Figures." He ruffled Bao's unruly curls with a casual fondness. "Guess he's a good merchant after all."
Bao's tentative smile widened at the compliment, his earlier bravado giving way to a more childlike innocence. "Yeah, he's really good at it."
And after hesitating a bit "Can you teach me how to be a cultivator, Uncle Jon?" he blurted out, nearly vibrating with enthusiasm. "What other awesome tricks can you do? Oh! Oh! Can you ride swords like the Rising Dragon?!"
Jon's smile froze minutely at that innocent inquiry, heart sinking like a leaden weight in his chest. He should have seen this coming from a mile away - of course the awestruck boy would immediately latch onto the more fanciful aspects of cultivation now that the metaphorical cat was out of the proverbial bag.
If he had any experience with children at all, it was that most rarely grasped the importance of promises and secrets at that tender age. Sometimes they simply forgot the vow entirely in the thrall of unbridled curiosity and wonder.
What if the energetic scamp underestimated just how critical it was to keep his newly-acquired knowledge under lock and key? If this had been any other cultivator, the poor kid would likely already be worm food by now for having stumbled upon such forbidden revelations.
Steeling himself, Jon crouched down to meet Bao's wide-eyed stare head-on. One broad palm came to rest on the smaller figure's bony shoulder as he arrested that endless stream of breathless questions.
"Bao," he stated in a low, serious rasp that brooked no argument. "You understand this is deadly serious, right? You must not - under ANY circumstances - talk about what you saw here tonight with anyone else. Not your parents, not your friends...nobody. You got that?"
The stern lecture seemed to give the boy pause, smile faltering incrementally around the edges. "I can hold a secret, you know?" he stammered out in a small voice, lower lip jutting out in an endearingly petulant pout. "I'm not a little kid anymore!"
Jon arched one skeptical brow, gaze holding Bao's in an unwavering stare. "Oh yeah? Then what big secret are you supposedly keeping from everyone right now, huh?"
For a heartbeat, it seemed the diminutive figure might balk at revealing whatever juicy tidbit lurked beneath that mop of tousled curls. Just when Jon began mentally bracing for another round of dogged negotiating though, the floodgates abruptly burst open in a torrent of childish admissions.
"That-! Well, I...I know there are other cultivators besides just you and Chief Zhen Wu hiding out here!" Bao exclaimed in a hushed, conspiratorial rush. His freckled cheeks colored with embarrassment and smug pride at the revelation. "But I never told anyone about them, see? Not a single soul!"
Jon blinked slowly, struggling to fully process the weight of what had just been so casually dropped into his lap. Is he talking about Yulian? Or maybe that old man, what’s his name… Han? How in the Celestial Lord's name could this rambunctious rugrat possibly-
The sinking realization gradually dawned, bitter and acrid at the back of his throat. Of course...of COURSE the perceptive little boy would have picked up on the abnormal activities in the village if he was used to being outside so late at night.
Kids that age might not have the wisdom and experience to grasp deeper nuances...but their senses remained unburdened in a way most adults' simply weren't anymore. Most older people went through life essentially blind and deaf to the supernatural miasma persistently shrouding their reality.
But an intuitive child with even a faint spark of burgeoning awareness? One who frequently wandered the woods and streams surrounding their village without a single worry beyond idle curiosity and fantasy?
It was honestly a miracle Bao hadn't inadvertently stumbled upon far worse than a cultivator.
Jon dragged one hand down his stubbled jaw, fixing the innocently earnest youth with an inscrutable look from beneath the shadow of his furrowed brow.
"So you've known about our...unusual residents for a while now, huh kid?" he asked in a measured tone. A muscle ticked in his lean jaw as he processed the ramifications of that stray admission. "And I'm just supposed to trust that you haven't let anything slip to your buddies, or parents, or...?"
The question trailed off leadingly, silently inviting the boy to interject while Jon studied his reaction with hawkish intensity. For his part, Bao appeared almost wounded by the implied accusation, mouth parting in a small 'o' of indignation.
"I-I would never!" he sputtered out heatedly, small fists clenching at his sides. A sullen pout blossomed across his cherubic features, further reinforcing that earnest proclamation. "Why would I ruin the surprise by running my mouth off? Letting slip the secret that our village was home to REAL cultivators would just ruin all the fun and mystery!"
Jon held that vehement stare for another handful of heartbeats, searching Bao's expression for any hint of duplicity or evasion. When he finally found none beyond the superficial layers of childish impatience, his body unlocked from its coiled tension with a weary exhalation.
"Fair enough, squirt," he acknowledged in a softer rasp, allowing the severity to bleed out of his countenance. One broad hand resumed ruffling those wayward crimson curls as he regarded the boy with grudging fondness. "I'll take you at your word for now. Just...try not to go spilling the rest of that particular secret stash anytime soon, capisce? Some things are better off staying under lock and key."
Bracing both palms on his knees, Jon leveraged himself upright again with a soft grunt of exertion. As Bao watched with rapt attention, Jon favored him with one final pointed look - the weight of silent admonition lingering beneath the surface of his next words.
"Same goes for the show you stumbled across with yours truly a few minutes ago. Not a peep about ANY of it crosses these lips, got it?"
When Bao dutifully bobbed his head in vigorous confirmation, Jon finally allowed a sly grin to crease his whiskered features once more.
"That's my boy." One last affectionate tousle of the boy's mop ruffled a few loose strands. "What'd'ya say you stick around for a bit while your favorite uncle gives you a sneak peak of the full repertoire, huh?"
"Really?! Can you, can you do the dragon thingy with your fist?!" Bao exclaimed, eyes wide with unbridled excitement.
Jon chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. In truth, he knew next to nothing about manifesting one's qi into an elaborate visual display like a dragon fist technique. But the awestruck kid didn't need to know about the limitations of his cultivation just yet.
"Well...yeah, I can pull off that little party trick," he lied with a casual shrug, aiming for nonchalance. "But don't you think conjuring up a giant spirit dragon might attract a bit too much unwanted attention out here in the middle of the woods?"
Bao opened his mouth as if to protest, then seemed to reconsider at Jon's pointed look. With visible reluctance, the boy ultimately nodded in concession. "Yeah...I guess that does make sense. We wouldn't want anyone else stumbling across your super-cool cultivation secrets by accident!"
"Exactly," Jon agreed with an approving clap on Bao's thin shoulder. A sly grin tugged at the corner of his whiskered mouth as an alternate idea struck him.
"How about this instead, kiddo? Have you ever gotten to experience riding on the back of a genuine master cultivator before?"
The way Bao's hazel eyes almost bugged completely out of their sockets was answer enough. Jon barked out a raspy laugh, squeezing the boy's bony shoulder with his broad palm.
"Well then, get ready to have your world rocked!" He slanted Bao a roguish wink, muscles already coiling subtly in preparation. "I'm about to take you on a thrill ride through these woods at top spee—"
The rest of Jon's playful boast cut off in an abrupt, garbled shout of alarm. With his enhanced reflexes, he reacted purely on instinct - hurling himself into a blindingly fast pivot even as his free hand lashed out to seize Bao by the scruff of his tunic.
In one impossibly fluid motion, Jon hauled the smaller figure up and inwards - bodily shielding the stunned child just as an earthshattering detonation rocked the small forest clearing.
An immense, dense object slammed into the exact spot they'd occupied a fraction of a second prior with meteoric force.
The concussive shockwave tugged savagely at the pair's legs while upending soil and timber in a devastatingly wide radius.
Only Jon's cat-like agility preserved their narrow window of safety from being crushed beneath the impacting mass.
With Bao cradled tightly against his barrel chest, Jon half-crouched in the raging cyclone's eye - gaze narrowed to slits against the choking onslaught of debris while his tree-trunk legs remained splayed in anticipation of further evasion.
As the dust slowly settled, a battered figure became visible in the crater below - groaning and stirring amidst the splintered wreckage.
"-the fuck...?!" Jon immediately recognized the prone man despite his ragged, bloodied state.
"Bao. Are you alright?" he rasped down to the shell-shocked boy in his arms, one hand cupping the back of Bao's skull protectively.
Bao's stare was transfixed on the crater, eyes like saucers. When he finally found his voice, it emerged in a tremulous whisper of confused recognition.
"U-Uncle Minghan...?"
No sooner had the name left his lips than another voice cut through the stillness - rich with contemptuous amusement.
"Well, well...looks like we have ourselves a pair of unexpected spectators."
Jon's head whipped up just in time to pinpoint the source high above. There, silhouetted amidst the tangled canopy boughs with his entire weight balanced upon a single trembling tree limb, stood Xi Jianyu.
Despite the gravity of their predicament, Jon couldn't help the reflexive curse that slipped past his gritted teeth.
"Shit..."