‘‘So why are you here?‘‘

Zhang Cai crept over the trash bag. He cast a wry smile to Li Bo, and the man answered in kind. Li Huan was not in sight, nor he thought she would be; in a cramped, dark alley like this full of trash and waste from the city-to-be. The child, even out there in the wild, had been clean and neat in appearance from tooth to nails.

‘‘Well...‘‘ He hesitated for a moment. Then the uncertain feeling went away. He was not one to lie frequently, nor one to hold back words. He just...said. Anything.

‘‘I don‘t have any kind of money I can pay for someplace like that. So I just ran away. But trust me, I swear I promised to pay you back!‘‘

Li Bo crouched beside him. The man did not mind the dirt nor the earth on the ground, and the rotten pieces of fruit and bread laying around. In that small dark alley they both seated, he took a deep breath of the foul stench and cast his eyes at Zhang Cai. As always, his eyes had been narrowed, brows a little furrowed, and a smile slightly apathetic faced him.

‘‘This place...how did you reach here?‘‘ he asked.

Zhang Cai glanced at his feet and shrugged. Though jumping down the window hurt for some time, he managed to stagger through the rest of the way.

‘‘Did it not hurt? Was it not hard?‘‘

‘‘It always hurts.‘‘ He replied. ‘‘And it is always hard. But what could I do? I can not go around, selling my master‘s martial arts...and not that I have anything else to pay with.‘‘

Li Bo crossed his legs and rested his chin on his left index finger. The clean nail, its flat end, pushed the fair skin up, stretching the nape in layers that seemed soft to the touch. Zhang Cai could not take his eyes away from that point. It seemed unnatural.

In that pondering pose he thought for a moment, and then their eyes met once more. Green. Not jade, nor emerald. A dark circle around a bright point of light.

‘‘For necessity, I do have to confirm this: junior brother, you know the meaning and the use of the map you hold, don‘t you?‘‘

‘‘I know.‘‘ A map that could be held by anyone, yet could not be seen by anyone other than him. First tool for the initiation quest.

‘‘And you do know of the consequences...what path you take?‘‘

‘‘I always knew.‘‘ He was not just chasing his master. He was chasing a dream, and his future as a disciple.

‘‘Is that why you are so frantic to leave?‘‘

‘‘I lost months of progress in that strange realm, Li Bro.‘‘ that should be a good way to adress him.

He looked at Li Bo, and he did nothing but smile. He seemed like a lantern on a dark night. His mere presence brightened up this cramped dark place Zhang Cai rested, and he made his heart lighter. The knot and the worries bearing upon his back weighed less by the second in this atmosphere. But they had not talked much, and had not said anything unsaid before. Why was this...?

A warm wind blew towards them. Zhang Cai continued.

‘‘I don‘t know where my master will stop. I don‘t know his sect‘s name, and when I heard it before I could not comprehend it. All I know is that the place is beyond the North and beyond the borders.‘‘

Li Bo nodded. ‘‘The new frontier...I can see why. Many secret sects lay there, while schools and noble families reside in the middle of the continent. That place is too dangerous to nurture new blood.‘‘

Zhang Cai nodded himself. He glanced up at the Sunlight trying to creep towards them through the laundry hung between buildings. A pair of underwear made him blush and turn his head down.

‘‘So I can‘t afford to lose more time. I need to go now. What would it mean if I just stayed here and rested while my master went away more and more? He said so himself—he would not care about what I encountered, be it hard or easy. All that matters is that I reach him before he settles for a month.‘‘

‘‘For a month?‘‘ Li Bo asked. ‘‘Is your goal not to find the sect in a year? That should be the true rite of initiation.‘‘

‘‘No. My master tasked me to chase him until he rests in the sect. And if I don‘t reach him in that month of rest, I will be dismissed...fired?- what is the word?‘‘

‘‘Expelled.‘‘

‘‘...the same thing.‘‘

Li Bo remained silent some more, but he hummed. The same song sung by Li Huan. A faint whistle at first, then a tongue click. And mutters of a language he did not hear before. Not of the Wahlidian, nor the Northern tongue. Was it a Xian song? Or a eastern plains‘ nomads‘? He had also heard the courtesan sing it aloud to a customer at night...

‘‘The money!‘‘ Zhang Cai remembered the core issue. ‘‘I am sorry, Li Bro. But I don‘t have anything to pay, and I can‘t stay here to work. I promise I will pay you back...or I can leave my Qi signature behind.‘‘

‘‘No.‘‘ Li Bo refused straight. He had no hesitation in that firm voice, but he had a sweet smile that Zhang Cai felt to be amused. ‘‘I did not rescue you for you to pay me back, junior brother. And it is only right for us to help each other out in this frontier. As for your signature...do not offer them to anyone.‘‘

‘‘Does it really matter?‘‘ Zhang Cai smirked. ‘‘If I can reach my master, I can just come back and repay my debt to erase it. If I can‘t...you know how it is.‘‘

‘‘So you leave us with a loss either way? How clever of you.‘‘

‘‘Oh, uh, I mean, not like that. You know...‘‘ Zhang cai peered at the man.

‘‘You are having fun?‘‘

Li Bo nodded again.

‘‘I did ask alot of personal things, and I must say your honesty about such important secrets is a bit worrying. You do not seem aware of the world, junior brother.‘‘

‘‘Oh I am aware, alright. It is a hard and dangerous place enough.‘‘

‘‘You are going towards a different world, junior brother. These worlds we talk about are not the same and one. But I will not spend time arguing about that. Here is my offer-‘‘

Li Bo got up and dusted his robe. He had no dirt or dust on them, and he did not smell. Weird, Zhang Cai thought, and the man reached out to him with a fair hand.

‘‘We will have a physician treat you, and since my sister took a liking to you, you can be her playmate on the way.‘‘

‘‘On the way? You mean you are coming along?‘‘

‘‘It is just that our paths are the same for now. Our Li Family is the first of the Southern noble families, and it is much closer to the frontier. Two or three month‘s journey. That should be the span of time we can accompany you.‘‘

‘‘That...‘‘

That would be great kindness. And kindness was a precious thing. How grateful he was, he could not tell it with words, so Zhang Cai did not utter them. He had no need to. He just had to accept it. And he did, he nodded. He, who was starved for human contact over and over, who braved through the wasteland of the exiled Xian and madmen roaming there, did no longer have the patience to remain alone. And in danger.

He lived enough under stress that his shoulders shivered at the thought of going alone...again.

And being a playmate was not some sort of a joke, it seemed. He saw, even back in his homeland and that rotten city, nobles who paid cultivators and artists and dancers to play and educate their children on refined matters. And some just for the fun of it, so they did not waste official work time.

‘‘Is that agreeable to you?‘‘

‘‘Of course it is!‘‘

Li Bo did not drop his smile. Though he dropped a hand down, and a gust of wind blew away the trash bags and unfurled some of the laundry hanging above. In a moment Sunlight bore down on his sorry figure, and he rose to the air.

‘‘Huh? Li Bro?‘‘

Grasped by one of his hands, carried on the shoulder by the other, Zhang Cai watched the ground recede away from him. In a second he found himself a dozen meters above the highest roof he could see.

‘‘Whaaaaaaaaaaa-‘‘

*********

They(Li Bo) swope down to the window and landed inside the second floor of the brothel. He laid Zhang Cai down and opened the door.

A courtesan and a wisely man of short stature came inside, and as Zhang Cai reeled from the shock they took out most of his clothes and bandages to inspect his body. They punctured him with needles and massaged his muscles, and squeezed and pinched his back and feet and toes. By the time his awareness came back, Zhang Cai saw the old man frown.

‘‘Hm...it is strange.‘‘

‘‘What is, Laoshi?‘‘

He took out the needles from the feet, which did not hurt one bit, then slapped them thrice. ‘‘These look horrendous but there is not much damage inside. I can feel a natural kind of Qi flowing as well. It is reinforcing his bones and muscles, but doesn‘t seem willing to be absorbed. Or I should say this boy‘s body doesn‘t accept the Qi flow. Probably because the wounded tissues...‘‘

The man went on a spiel full of terms and incomprehensible words, and Li Bo nodded alongside him. For a few minutes he listened them, and he stretched his toes and legs. A terrible pain struck, and a yelp came out of him.

‘‘You fool! Don‘t move yet! Do you not even know the basics of resting!?‘‘

‘‘Now, now, laoshi, do be calm.‘‘

Li Bo put one hand over Zhang Cai‘s shoulder and pushed a stream of Qi. He felt hot. As if in flames. A burn spread through his shoulders to his heels, warming both heart and lungs and belly, and the pain disappeared.

‘‘Don‘t make any movement.‘‘

It sounded more like a command, so Zhang Cai heeded it.

The duo‘s discussion ended a while later.

‘‘So the conclusion is, it is enough for him to cultivate?‘‘

‘‘Indeed.‘‘ the wiseman answered. ‘‘I can not estimate the grade of the healing pill he took, but it should be fourth, or even third grade. In that case, cultivating will help him absorb it and allow the pill to do its work.‘‘

The wrinkled face turned to Zhang Cai and swooped up and down. ‘‘A week will be enough for him to do heavy lifting. Complete recovery, around a month. Do not let him use any Inner Arts for two weeks.‘‘

‘‘I understand. Thank you Laoshi, my gratitude.‘‘

Zhang Cai blanked at the mysterious glance Li Bo gave. The physician cast him another look, then to Li Bo.

The courtesan beside Zhang Cai poked him and whispered to his ears.

‘‘Do thank the Laoshi!‘‘

‘‘Oh! Thank you very much Laoshi sir!‘‘

The old man stroked his beard with satisfaction and left. Li Bo cast Zhang Cai another mysterious glance, then led the man out of the establishment. The courtesan followed after them.

Now alone, and both the door and the window closed, Zhang Cai let out a bellow of curses.

‘‘Oh fuck, fuck, that was fucking embarrasing. How did I forget something like that? Fuuck...damn.‘‘

A courtesan peeked through the door. ‘‘The walls are thin here for the mood-‘‘

‘‘...?‘‘

She left giggling, bare feet and bare chested.

Zhang Cai fell back on the bed.