Chapter Ten - Cultural Exchange

Cai Bingtian

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The next morning, Cai Bingtian woke bright and early, just in time to meet Nie Ruyi and her little shadow at the training grounds. Unfortunately, they weren't there to spar. Instead, he got to see Nie Ruyi dressed up all pretty like she had been the first time he'd seen her. A beautiful maiden dressed in lilacs and light blues, her green eyes ashimmer with them. Song Fengling stood beside her, and he wondered if the boy had chosen her robes specifically to match the robins' egg blue of his own. Admittedly, that was pretty sneaky.

"Good morning, Nie-Shimei, Song-Shidi." Cai Bingtian was kind of glad Song Fengling was there. Meant no one could make a fuss over him besmirching Nie Ruyi's maidenly virtue. She had a chaperone, after all. "You two ready?"

"Certainly, Cai-shixiong. Thank you for guiding us today." Nie Ruyi answered, that soft tone to her voice bringing out his smile.

"Any time. Now, what are we looking for exactly?"

Nie Ruyi pulls out a little book, bound with a twist of intriguing metal wire, on which is written the smallest characters he'd ever seen. She must have used a brush with only three hairs in it to get them that thin! "I need more clothes since two sets is a bit ridiculous. I don't know how to do laundry in this world, so it can't be helped. I also need books. I'm about to finish the only one I brought with me. I'd also like to see their market place, to see if there's anything I need that I'm forgetting about."

"A solid plan. Alright." Cai Bingtian got the lead out, beginning the hike down the mountain and towards the little town at the bottom. The path was still being built, mostly worked on by errant disciples who needed the discipline of putting rock into earth. Song Fengling hopped along beside the young woman, keeping pace with her, even as Cai Bingtian stayed a few steps behind the two of them. This gave him a wonderful view of their faces as they turned to each other to chat.

"-and I'll need to learn how toothcare is done here, too. Eventually, I'll run out of toothpaste, and I doubt you all have mint here?" It was a question that made no sense. What was toothpaste?

"We have mint. It's a medicinal herb," Song Fengling answered, as if it wasn't strange at all that she ask such a question. "I can show it to you, when we get back to the compound. Why would you need mint though?"

"When crushed, mint can freshen the breath. That, combined with a mild abrasive, like baking soda or salt, can clean teeth really well." She responded.

"Baking Soda?" Song Fengling asked, raising an eyebrow. "I've never heard of that. We usually use frayed twigs from aromatic trees."

"Oh, it might not exist yet. It's a type of powder that when used helps baked goods bake more evenly, I think." She shook her head, "I don't know how it's made though."

"That's weird." Song Fengling laughed, shaking his head, "What else?"

"How am I supposed to know what I'll need help with?" Nie Ruyi huffed, closing her eyes and turning back to face the path. "I most likely won't know until I run into something. It'd be nice if I could find a book on etiquette while I'm here. I doubt anything I know is polite enough for a society this repressed."

"What do you mean, repressed?" Cai Bingtian asked, unable to hold his curiousity back now. When she glanced back at him, he found himself grinning ruefully. "The KuRong empire is one of the most peaceful and liberal countries in the world. I find it strange that you think us repressed."

"...For example," She said, raising an eyebrow. The set of her lips told him she'd taken this as a challenge, "In my country, those of opposite sex could marry. Marriages were not settled by parents, and dowries no longer existed. There were carriages that could drive themselves, and trains that moved so fast they crossed an entire country in under an hour. Marriages could be ended in a day, with no repercussions for either party, and education was a right for all, and free to those who couldn't afford to pay."

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Song Fengling's face reflected the awed disbelief he shared. Cai Bingtian couldn't help the startled laugh as he shook his head. "What a wonderland you lived in. And I suppose you'll tell me next there's no war, and food is so abundant that no one goes hungry."

Her face darkened and she looked away, "I didn't say that. Wars still happen. People are still taken advantage of. Hunger still takes people, and exposure. My world isn't perfect, Cai-shixiong. It's just... different. I said repressed because if this world is as I think it is... My world had a time period similar. I hope that this world proves to be different, since that time period was a horrible one to live in for everyone but the richest men. However, so far... I have seen little to say it is."

"And what was this time period like, for those who lived in it?" Cai Bingtian asked, helpless against the curiosity tugging at his chest.

She pursed her soft, painted lips, and tilted her head just a bit to the left. It was an adorable expression, "Well... for the poor, it was a time of starvation, death and disease. People died because of corrupt officials, keeping back the needed food out of greed. In the upper reaches of society, nepotism and corruption run rampant. Talented people are killed or exiled because they threaten someone in power.

"Women and children, especially were treated foully in that time. Women had no true self-reliance. A woman's property was the property of her husband or father or brothers or sons, and unless she was a widow, she was under someone else's control her entire life. She could be sold off to a brothel at any time, with no say so on her own part. Men were allowed harems but if women were so much as implied as having an affair, they could be killed horrifically. Often they weren't educated at all beyond being able to write their own names."

Cai Bingtian was surprised by the amount of words she had for this subject, and she wasn't done.

"Women were pitted against each other in harems, to keep the attention of a man who didn't deserve any of them. Children were pitted against each other by the mothers, in hopes that they would bring the attention of the man to them, and it's a joke! No one wins in that situation. The man doesn't even win, because how can he be sure any of the women truly love him and the children they bore him if they're constantly forced to spend their attention fending off attacks by others who are jealous for his attentions too?! And what's worse, it completely erases the fact that these people could have a healthy, safe polyamorous relationship, if they'd just communicate with each other, and be willing to make compromises!

"It leaves those who don't fit into the heteronormative narrative even worse off! Gay men often ended up having to hide their relationships, pretending just to be Sworn Brothers, or close friends, instead of being able to safely and happily marry those that they love. And gay women were wiped out of existence, never to be acknowledged. Those that fit in neither role, as man or woman, were either reviled, destroyed, ignored, or forced to fit into the mould."

She was breathing heavily at this point, clearly upset, and even Song Fengling looked overwhelmed by what she was saying. Cai Bingtian lifted a hand, settling it gently on her shoulder. "Are... you alright?" He managed to keep his own voice gentled and calm, despite that her words had struck some chords in him that made him want to pry more, want to ask about these other people, and about these situations she was describing.

"I'm fine." She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and stared impassively at him. "My point is, the time period that resembles this world, the one I know of, is full of death, corruption, and pain for all involved. We had moved past quite a bit of what I described and into a society with its own faults and issues, certainly, but one that at least learned from its mistakes."

"I see." Cai Bingtian's head was abuzz, unable to parse through most of what she said. "It must be frightening for you, to be here."

"..." She gaped at him, green eyes wide and mouth ajar. "I...no? Maybe? It's... not frightening, really... just..." He hadn't moved his hand from her shoulder, and she seemed to shrink, to curl into the comforting touch. "Everything is so uncertain now. I'm told I'll never go home, and that I have to get used to living here... but how am I supposed to do that? If this world is anything like the one I described... How do I just... live here?"

A heavy sort of silence fell over the three of them, their steps and breath the only sounds. He slowly removed his hand, and she turned away, facing down the path and towards the now-visible town-limits. It was Song Fengling who broke the silence, jumping ahead of them and turning to stand in Nie Ruyi's path. She stopped, startled, and Cai Bingtian stopped next to her.

The boy's face had a rueful determination on it, and he picked up her hand, holding it to his chest with both of his. Cai Bingtian's eyebrows shot up, surprised by this sudden boldness. "Don't worry, Nie-Shijie! I'll help you feel at home here, and we'll make a good life for you here!"

Cai Bingtian bit back a laugh by turning it into a startled cough, turning away from the two of them and cough-laughing into his hand. This boy! A proposal, so quickly! Ah, to be young again.

Nie Ruyi smiled, and ruffled his hair, which must have been frustrating for the young cultivator. "Thank you, Song-shidi. You're incredibly sweet. I'm sure with a friend like you by my side, I'll be able to live here happily."

Oof. Cai Bingtian could see her gentle reframing of his declaration work on the young boy. His face fell, and then mustered itself back into hopeful determination and a nod. "Mn."

His agreement made Cai Bingtian chuckle again, and the three of them walked into the sparsely crowded streets of Guojian town.

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