Ai continues speaking.

“While I was here, I was looking for alternative ways for Lin and I to grow or even heal ourselves. What I found is that, while rare in this area, there are some loose cultivators.”

She turns to me, “Oh, right. Loose cultivators are people who are practicing cultivation without the backing of a sect. To my knowledge, it is a double-edged sword. Everything they collect, do, or work on is solely their property and decision to make. However, there is no one to protect them, help them financially, and it is much more difficult to achieve gains. If Lin wasn’t accepted by the sect…”

Ai walks over to her room and with her back turned to us, suddenly begins pulling apart a bag she had previously brought in.

Lin, for her part, looks confused and doesn’t seem to understand what is going on.

After a minute of this, Lin gasps. She’s clearly figured something out that we haven’t.

It is not until Ai turns around, that I can see what she had realized.

In Ai’s cupped hand are 10 Big Silver coins.

Altogether, this is comparatively worth $10,000. With this, she could outright buy a small house and enough to allow them to live for a very long time.

“If she wasn’t accepted by the sect, I wanted to her to buy a home for herself and possibly learn cultivation at her own pace. This would be enough for her to live comfortably.”

Tears are filling Lin’s eyes.

“Jiejie, how did you?…”

Even Ai seems to get emotional. “Lin… I did what I had to, especially for my precious little sister.” They look at each other and quickly grasp each other’s hands.

After that touching moment, still with their hands clasped together, she speaks with strength.

“However, it looks like that will no longer be the case. We now are in a good place, maybe even safer than if we had bought something out there.”

Turning to me, “You may not know this, but those who don’t have power are frequently torn down and trampled underfoot. It takes a lot of time, effort, and careful connections to make sure you can live safely. Even if you have your own home, there are still different factions that can walk in and take everything from you.

Being able to live here, in such a large space, with essentially no enemies and people we can trust, allows us to plan and move easier.”

She pauses, holding a breath. She turns to the side, her arms crossed under her chest.

It would be easy to imagine her as a portrait. A proud woman, holding much more than herself together.

Her head raises to Gong, their eyes meeting and holding in place.

“You know… You never asked why we trusted you so easily.”

Lin speaks up, gaining a curious glance from Gong.

“I saw you once, when I was younger. You were so much smaller, basically the same size as a small child. Just a little bigger than Ai and I.”

Gong eyes squints, clearly trying to remember where she could have met them.

I wonder where Lin is going with this… what kind of history do they share, that Gong wouldn’t remember?

“One day, when Ai, I, and some other girls were out trying to scrounge up food for the night, some old man came and started harassing us. He began beating us, calling us ‘scum’ and ‘wastes of space’. A man that was going to kill us that night.”

Gong’s eyes widen as she speaks up.

“Wait, you couldn’t have bee…”

“Yeah. We were those girls you saved. We also saw how you were hurt by that man’s friends… We were always ashamed that we weren’t able to help you at that time and that you sacrificed yourself to protect us.”

“…”

“… Thank you. Because of us, you were harmed that day. Ai doesn’t remember that well, since she was still pretty young. However, I’ve never forgotten.”

Ai speaks up at that point, “It’s not only then though. We know that you protect these alleyways from the worst people. Those who are looking to just come to torture people like us.”

“Don’t deny it either, I’ve seen you scare away people who’ve followed me before, heading back on a run.” Lin’s voice is sure, confident of her experiences.

Gong softly says, her face red, “No… you’re wrong, I didn’t do that for you guys… I was, just trying to not let anyone in my territory. You guys simply lived near here.”

“Come on Gong. You can’t fool us. That was nowhere near your territory. And why did you offer us a new home? Don’t say it’s solely because of this guy here. You could have always waited until we split up to proposition him. But you didn’t. You turned to us first and then included him in the deal.”

Gong’s lips visibly tighten, her pale cheeks and ears showing the most color I’ve ever seen from her. Even quieter than before, I can hear her barely say, “I know what he was doing to you guys… I just sat there and did nothing.”

Wait, who is she… oh, she’s talking about the actual scum.

Lin freezes a little, but Ai remains there, with almost no emotion on her face. Stoic.

“You already know why you couldn’t. If you were ever to hurt a human like that again, let along Old Rong… the Old Rong? People in the area would hunt you down, assuming that you are truly dangerous. There’s only a few other people who would be able to take him on here.”

She looks over to me, “You wouldn’t know, but Old Rong was actually pretty decent at fighting, even while being as drunk as he was. You were likely only able to win, because of luck…” Lin’s eyes are distant and unfocused.

Ai seems to be nonchalant about it, but I can see her clenching her fist. I see her glance down at her hand, after seeing where I was looking. She unclenched it.

Giving a sigh, “Unfortunately, there was no way we could have done that normally. No matter how deserved it was.”

She looks to be moving on, before giving it a bit of thought.

“Actually, you showed a bit of skill, from what Lin told me. She wouldn’t have had the opening to stab his neck, if you hadn’t played that ‘fake attack’ trick. After that, he must have been in a panic from having a piece of pottery in his neck.”

She pauses.

“Knowing it was Lin… must have caused him not to try to hurt her as badly either.”

Lin’s eyes look down at that. Ai still looks steadfast, but even I can see the slight bit of pain in her eyes.

Damn… I guess not everything is as clear cut as it seems.

Interrupting my thoughts, Lin speaks up, “I can speak for the both of us… don’t feel bad about the way things ended. It… was for the best. There was no way he was going to let us go that day, if you hadn’t had stepped in.”

She pauses for a moment. “If not you, it would have been me, one day. Especially, after what he did to Ai that day.”

Silence.

There’s not much you can say after something like that. When they feel comfortable, they’ll continue on.

Surprisingly, Lin is the one to break the silence this time. Ai is still staring off into the distance, seemingly lost in her thoughts.

“Back to what we were discussing, though. For the past few days, Ai and I have been thinking about what could benefit you the most, until we can actually get you a cultivation manual.

“As you can probably guess, it is extremely expensive to get a cultivation manual. Not even with twice the amount we have here, could we buy a poor quality one. What we came up with for the interim, is getting you an alchemy manual.” Gong gasps.

This is exactly what she was talking about before. And if I’m not wrong, I believe using real alchemy requires having qi… so this is perfect for where she is now.

“What will allow you to buy this, will be this guy here.” They point over at me.

Wait, what?