It was midday by the time Shun and Rya reached the Central district of Shangri-La…was what he would have liked to say. Instead, they were totally lost in the middle of a massive paddy field—which frankly was a glorified way of saying ‘nowhere’. And it was the result of Rya’s insistence to take the road less travelled for an “authentic sightseeing experience”.
“Experiencing the scenery on foot, my ass,” he murmured as he shielded his eyes from the blazing sunlight. There was zero shade and it was hot. So hot that he was sure his skin would melt if they stayed outside any longer.
It was obvious that the blistering heat was starting to get to Rya too, but still she gave him a defiant smile. “This is an unforgettable experience, isn’t it? You will be thanking me for giving you such a memory in the future.”
He wheezed, not knowing whether to laugh or to cry. “What memory—!”
The ball of mud that Rya hurled at him landed squarely on his face with a loud, wet ‘splat’.
“This memory,” she said, giggling harder than she should when he met her gaze.
“Oh-hoh, now you’ve done it!” He bent down and dug up a fistful of mud before running after her.
“S-st-stop! Don’t come here!!” she screamed in between fits of laughter. She tried to escape, but he caught up with her easily.
“Got you!” He raised the lump of mud in his hand and was about to hurl it when he suddenly lost his balance.
“No, I got you!” Rya wrapped her arms around his waist and they both fell backwards into the mud.
“T-that’s…” He spat out the disgusting muck and wiped at his mouth furiously. “...cheating!”
“You just don’t want to admit you fell right for my trap.” She tried to remove the large clumps of mud out of her hair, but the mud just seemed to smear around her arms and face instead.
Shun stood up and helped her to her feet. From the looks of it, they were both drenched from head to toe in thick brown mud. “See? Now what are we gonna do—” He was suddenly interrupted by a piercing shout from behind.
“What are you two youngsters doing in my field?” an old man sitting at the front of a horse cart hollered at the top of his voice.
“S-sorry!!”
***
On the veranda of a straw hut built into the hillside overlooking the paddy field, the old man carefully poured iced tea from a bronze kettle into three china teacups.
“Thank you,” Shun said gratefully when the old man passed him one of the three teacups. Rya also followed suit with a polite bow as he handed her her drink.
The old man sat down on a wooden stool in the corner of the veranda, quietly sipping at his teacup. “Your clothes have already been washed, but it’ll take them some time to dry. Sorry about that.”
“No, no, it’s okay, really. We have plenty of time anyways,” Rya hurriedly said.
He coughed dryly before asking, “Where are you two youngsters heading to? It’s rare for there to be visitors going through this area.”
“Ugh…we were trying to go to the Central District,” she explained, a sheepish smile appearing on her face. “We just came to Shangri-La yesterday, so we thought we should do some sightseeing around the city. But somehow or other, we ended up here instead.”
“Central, you say?” The old man laughed and shook his head. “You two have already long passed the Central District. If you had continued heading in the same direction, you would have ended up in the South District. And that would have been bad, wouldn’t it?”
“Bad?” Shun asked. “Why do you say so?”
“You two never heard of what happened in that district?” He paused and furrowed his brows. “Oh, that might be because you two are new here…”
Shun and Rya exchanged concerned glances before she said, “We only heard that the South District is apparently abandoned and sealed off from the rest of Shangri-La, but we don’t know why.”
“I see…” The old man sighed and drank the rest of his tea in one big gulp. “I used to live in the South District. One night, some masked men came and forcefully chased me out and burnt my house to the ground. A lot of people lost their homes in the same manner. We were practically forced out of the South District.”
“...then, do you know the reason why everyone was forced out?” Shun asked quietly.
“Who knows? They never made the reason known to the public.” The old man shrugged his shoulders. “I heard rumours that the entire district had been designated as a ‘quarantine zone’ or something because of a new disease.”
New disease? Hold up, I’ve heard this before…
His jaw dropped in shock. D-don’t tell me the Black Plague is also here?! HOW???
The old man, seemingly oblivious to his reaction, glanced up at the sky. “Looks like it’s going to rain soon…it’ll be hard for you two to go back if it rains. Get your clothes, I’ll bring you two to Central.”
Shun also looked at the sky, and sure enough, there were grey rain clouds rolling in over the hill. The old man went to retrieve his horse cart while he and Rya went to grab their clothes which were hung on a clothesline.
“Wear this.” The old man tossed them each a cloak made from oiled fabric once they clambered on board the rickety cart. “It should help keep you mostly dry from the rain.”
“O-oh.” Sitting at the edge of the cart, he sighed as he put on the flimsy cloak. “I’m going to get carsick like this…”
Rya sat down on the opposite edge, humming a cheery tune. “Hmm? What’s ‘carsick’?”
