The cheerfully tittering birds outside his window deserved to be put in a cook pot. Their terrible song was irritating him in his morning ritual of brushing his long hair out and going through the several step process to style it as he usually did. Combing it out, then separating the sections, braiding the top half and then wrapping it into a low bun. Then he pulled the lower half into two loops that he fiddled and fussed with until he finally placed a few heavy pins into the bun. The loops hung down the nape of his neck until he pulled them forward over his shoulders. He held up the fancy imported hand mirror (so generously bought by Li Baobao!) to check the lengths of the loops and when finally satisfied he set the mirror down on the counter.

Excellence in personal grooming and good taste in clothing could bring anyone up a few steps in the eyes of society and Rui Yifu stuck to that principle rather firmly. He felt the skin on his face, which was supple and had been earlier cleaned with peony steeped water. Of course he believed it wasn’t his fault that the people he was surrounded by could not recognize good taste if it punched them in the jaw. Repeatedly. If wearing a gaudily colored dress encrusted with pearls containing the souls of Fish People was the height of fashion in the South Kingdom then Rui Yifu worried for its future.

The pearls. He could almost feel them in his hands. Such powerful artifacts. If he had them for himself… oh what the Li family lacked the intelligence to see! But no, he could wait a little while longer. Other things had come up...

He stood up and smoothed the gauzy fabric of his outermost skirt down, before checking his boots, which had a carefully sheathed set of knives hidden in them and he had a really brief itching to use them. But those sorts of itches no longer puppeted him. He had found other ways to deal with that lingering wound that had made itself a permanent fixture in his heart. Rui Yifu moved up his wide long blue sleeves to check the additional knives that held fast yet to his arms.

He had already told himself that it would be a nice day and wanted to be sure he could keep it as a nice day. He reminded himself of a thing the wise K'un said that the sort of day one has is partially determined by one's state of mind.

So he was determined to ensure the day would go well.

Grabbing his heavy fan, scarf, and a coin purse he quickly shoved into a small hidden pocket in his left sleeve, Rui Yifu left the large bedroom that Li Baobao had been so generous to give him and pressed his hand against the small unseen paper talisman he had laid between the door frame and the door itself. Ink warmed briefly beneath his touch and he shut the door then. Nobody would be getting in unless he wanted them too. There was something off in the compound that made him uneasy. Perhaps the poor location of furniture and style which had an eye of overwhelming the viewer with the wealth of its owners rather than looking tasteful.

He entered the hallway and began walking towards Li Baobao’s room, turning a corner to continue down a longer corridor. He slowed his pace as he heard voices drift towards him from another corridor.

Two dark clothed servant men walked out, one holding an empty basket while another carried books. Rui Yifu vaguely recognized one of them as one of the first he had ‘experienced a night with’ when he first arrived at the Li Family Compound.

“I can’t believe he would do that!” One servant hissed, “are you sure you didn’t mishear?”

“No, I was right outside. His father explicitly told him to stop gambling and to alert him of every change in finance and fortune, but that idiot thought he could get away with doing it under the table and lost six thousand at the very least. Can you imagine what this place would be like if he inherited it?”

Rui Yifu realized neither man had seen him, and they would soon walk into him so he moved to the side to let them continue their conversation and stroll while he happily listened to the family drama they were freely sharing.

“Sounds like he’ll be inheriting nothing. What about his wife?”

“She’s being punished too for not stopping him…”

“Ah so he’s that far gone. Maybe they should have married him to a lady from the Eastern Kingdom. Then he’d be whipped back into shape real fast!”

There was laughter from the men and Rui returned to walking to Li Baobao’s room. It was only a short few steps into the next hallway. Li Baobao’s room was obvious, given that his name was painted on it above a stylized painting of three entwining snakes. He announced himself politely by immediately opening the door to look into the room. Li Baobao leapt from his ledger covered table in shock. “Young Master Li Baobao,” Rui Yifu gave the pudgy young man a friendly smile, “I was going to ask if you wouldn’t mind accompanying me into town with our young guest.”

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“Ah! You uhm… came in so suddenly,” Li Baobao laughed nervously. “I thought I was about to get a lecture from one of my brothers.”

“Hm? No, I’m sorry that I distressed you,” he said.

“It’s fine,” Li Baobao shut a few of the ledgers he had been looking at and then turned around for a bit in his room to look for his shoes as he continued speaking, “I would love to come! But should we really be taking her outside the compound itself? It could be dangerous out there.”

“She’s been in her room for quite a few days now, almost twenty. Surely a bit of fresh air and the sights of your lovely town might brighten her spirits and help her recovery. Also I have clothes waiting for her.”

“Clothes?”

Rui Yifu nodded, “yes since she can’t have bedwear on forever!”

“I thought Master Liu Xie would be getting her something…”

“Well now she’ll have more,” Rui Yifu smiled and turned away to start walking down the hall again, Li Baobao quickly following his steps.

Up ahead the familiar scraggy form of Bo walked into view and he immediately turned his head to look at them with a frown.

“Where are you going? Hey!” Bo called out.

“Well we’re go-” Li Baobao began until Rui Yifu leaned towards Bo.

“It’s none of your business, puppy, stay with your master,” Rui Yifu replied while waving his fan as though warding off a particularly nasty bee. Watching Bo’s face puff up red and scowl was something Rui Yifu found particularly cute.

“He’s sunbathing again, you want me to sit next to him and sing him a lullaby or something?” Bo asked while gritting his teeth.

“Yes,” Rui Yifu answered. “Or you could be useful and clean the stables! As long as you cease bothering me. It’s a bit unnerving to hear a dog speak.”

Li Baobao shook his head, “there’s no dogs here,” he mumbled weakly. Rui Yifu wondered briefly if he was being purposefully dense.

“Are you blind?! I’m a human being, stop calling me a dog.”

“I’m deaf too,” Rui Yifu wrapped an arm around Li Baobao’s own to pull him along towards the bedroom the child had been largely sequestered in since she had arrived bleeding and with her intestines threatening to pour out from her body.

The memory made him feel a surge of guilty revulsion. He had watched her wander off and had been too paralyzed to follow. He knew that the face eater simply mimicked their faces and yet even after all this time they still remained like weights in his heart.

“...Rui?”

He pulled himself out of his thoughts. “Hm?” Rui Yifu placed his fan in his sash as he looked ahead at the door to the room they had walked to while he was thinking.

“Are you feeling alright?” Li Baobao’s soft face was full of concern, so Rui Yifu laughed and shook his head.

“I’m fine, but your worry is much appreciated Master,” he said while opening the door.

Inside the tiny girl was sitting by the window peering out while her little hands fussed with her knotted long red hair. Rui Yifu wished he remembered to bring his comb with him.

Li Baobao called out to her and she quickly turned around to face him, a piglet spilling out from her lap and oinking in slight indignation before it trotted over to curl up beside the bed. Rui Yifu listened as Li and the little girl spoke to each other. She got to her feet and nodded eagerly at something before she noticed Rui Yifu. He felt his heart grow light as she beamed a smile at him and briefly turned his head away only to feel a small hand tug at his sleeve. He looked back at her and saw her happily holding up the charm he had given her and saying something in that strange bouncy language she spoke.

“Oh, she said it’s pretty and thank you,” Li Baobao helpfully translated.

Rui Yifu couldn’t help but place a hand on her head affectionately. Her dark eyes stared up at him in confusion as she slowly reached up to place her hands on the one on her head. She seemed lost, alone even in some way that he could understand but not put into words. Did Liu Xie ever notice it? “Li, what is her name again?”

“Idony.”

He pursed his lips briefly. “Too inelegant. We must find a better name.” His fingers curled through the soft red hair on the child’s head. The piglet nearby oinked again, having already fallen back asleep and its little feet kicking at the air. “Hmm… Zhu'er will do for now.”

“Uh, with all due respect I don’t think you can just go around renaming children.”

Rui Yifu moved his hand off her head and quickly swept her into his arm, holding her on his hip as though she were his child and turning away from the room. “Lets go, Master Li Baobao! Before it gets too hot outside for a fragile flower like her and gentlemen like ourselves.” He declared.

“O-oh, alright!”