“It will be interesting to work with you, Chen Xi."

"Yeah yeah, you say that because you know nothing yet." Rolling up his copy of the agreement, Wan Yu accepted Ye Xiyang's offered jade tube and stored the scroll. He handed it off to Quan Su as he said, "Hold on to this."

Frowning, she took it from him and put it away in the bag he'd given her. How safe would it be with her, she had no ability to protect herself... Still, she said nothing.

"We'll see how it goes, then," Ye Xiyang acquiesced. Seeing that Wan Yu didn't reply, he slowly pushed himself up. At that, Wan Yu did, too, as did Ru Ge. "Tomorrow is the Spring Festival. The gates will be closed then. It will reopen on the third day. That date, there will be a merchant cart going back to the nearest town, too, if you'd like to save yourself the walk down the mountain. You're not in such a hurry that you'd try to descend the mountain in one afternoon, are you?"

Wan Yu rolled his eyes. "I'm not that unreasonable."

He was curious about the festival too, though he wouldn't say that to Ye Xiyang. "Well, now that we're done with that, see you next time I suppose."

Ye Xiyang sent them off, chortling when Wan Yu made a detour to retrieve his staff, which had been picked up by someone and propped against the wall. As they walked down the stairs, at the gates someone had been waiting with a lacquered food box. Wan Yu took it, and they returned to the inn, where he left it on the table.

"I'll be off to the hot spring," he mentioned to Quan Su. "Do you wanna go with me, or do you want to stay here?"

Seated at the small dining table in the room, she was already poking open the food box. Inside were an assortment of snacks. It was pretty impressive how much snacks this sect seemed to make, she mused. "Later, maybe."

"All right." Grabbing his bag, Wan Yu waved at her. "If you need anything, just ask around, yeah?"

"I'm not a child," she bit back. Scowling, she made a kicking motion under the table. "Just go take a bath. You stink."

"Oof, fierce."

The hot spring was a place Wan Yu saw in passing as he walked around the inn, but he hadn't gone down that hallway at all. Miss Gui mentioned it too, as it was probably something people would want to visit given the weather. It seemed pretty quiet, though. He had no idea if it was because the inn itself didn’t have many guests or if it was the time. In any case, he was just here for a quick soak...

The smell of sulfur hit him as soon as he opened the door. Scrunching up his nose, he went to wash himself quickly before going into the main pool.

Ever since his shifu died, Wan Yu rarely indulged in things like soaking in a hot bath. Boiling that much water took a lot of time and firewood, both of which could be better spent elsewhere. He was healthy and not afraid of the cold. There were quicker ways to clean oneself. It felt good, though, even if Wan Yu hated this smell quite a bit. Relaxing into the hot water, Wan Yu regulated his breathing, feeling the air pressed against his chest.

It felt like it had been so long since he had the down time to experience existence as it was. He'd been busy, sure, or perhaps it was more he had busied himself. He'd been thinking a lot, too. But now he could relax for a bit. That spar was good, and that thing before that…

It was weird, actually. Now, Wan Yu thought about Frozen Dragon Sect, about the end of his life in a past-future, and he knew the gravity of it, yet he didn't feel that immediate drop into despair and hopelessness. The apprehension remained, as did his worries. But he felt surprisingly light when his mind wandered back to that sickroom.

Was this the power of closure? Such a claustrophobic place that made helplessness strangle him like a noose turned out to be such a normal, bare, boring room.

"What a day…"

Breathing wasn't that comfortable here, but Wan Yu could feel the way his muscles were loosening. Months at the inn had kept him decently fed, and his ribs no longer shadowed the planes of his chest. The weeks and weeks of travel had toned his legs more, though, and darkened his skin again. Wan Yu almost felt like he was taking stock of his own body now, reacquainting with a physique that almost felt wrong sometimes. He was twenty, and yet at the forefront of his mind were things he'd done and survived at age thirty six… The aches in his body made him feel decades older.

It was hard to imagine being twenty again. What did he do, in his previous lifetime? His memories of that time were patchy. For the most part, he only remembered his last few months, along with smatterings of scattered information. Maybe he ought to ask Ye Xiyang about that. He remembered that he had arrived at the foot of the Slumbering Dragon Mountains after leaving Jing country to the north. Someone there had given him shelter for months and months. It put them too much at a risk, though, so he left. And then there was Song Hua…

Wan Yu sank deeper into the water.

Breathe. Some matters, they were for when they finally leave this place. Funny, how his last prison now played as his temporary safe haven.

 

____

 

Wan Yu had a good night's sleep today, and woke up along with the sun. With the delayed start of a spring's day in this area, sunrise was quite late— Quan Su was sitting at the table, trying to read a book under the light of a dim lamp. Rolling off the bed, Wan Yu stretched and washed up before looking over her shoulder.

"You're up?" Quan Su said dully. He ruffled her hair.

"Okay, okay, Gege knows you're excited ah. Let's go get breakfast."

Breakfast was, unlike the more reasonable spread yesterday, massive— there was a long table made of smaller ones pushed end to end, and on it was a feast. Ducks, chicken, fish, meat, pots of soup kept hot with small stoves— it almost seemed like there was an individual dish for every single person currently in this inn. It was overwhelming, if he had to be honest. Miss Gui was all smiles as she rattled off the various dishes. As she served them, she explained, "Now that spring has arrived, the cured meats and such foods are being brought out to celebrate the survival of everyone for yet another year. Please eat to your hearts’ content, esteemed guests.”

Sweet wines were brought out, too, but Wan Yu only allowed Quan Su a small cup before taking it away. “You can’t indulge in this.”

“Who said I was gonna,” she murmured.

They ate well. This time, it was Quan Su who gave up first, reaching for the tea and tugging him away from the table— “Let’s go…”

Laughing, Wan Yu got up too. "Let's go see, then."

The streets were bustling, the myriad conventions taking place filling the air with levity. In this road that spanned maybe 5 feet, people were walking in lines of twos, threes, families moving about like flocks of herded ducks. There were twinkling sounds coming from all around, too. It didn't take long to see where they came from— it seemed that most people had iron bells on their person, either a small one tied on a rope to their waist or a bigger one in their hand. The sound felt cleansing. Wan Yu raised his eyebrows as he tucked away that information in his mind.

“Where to, young miss?”

Nowhere in particular, it turned out. Having taken a walk the other day, the two of them simply took the other direction. It was in the direction of the sect, but it seemed like a lot of people were heading there, too. Wan Yu suspected it was simply because there was a pretty expansive square around there, as though it was the town center. As they left this quieter street and entered the market streets, the road widened enough they weren’t tailing too close to this one family of six— exchanging a look, Wan Yu and Quan Su tacitly snuck ahead of them.

Stalls lined these market streets, the smell of cakes warmed on grill tops and savory snacks all intermingling. There were toys, too, and paper lanterns, colorful and in shapes that made it clear it wasn’t truly for lamps. Colorful fish, birds, a particularly impressive-looking dragon kite… What this place lacked in spring’s light, it made up in manmade cheer.

“Want anything?” Wan Yu asked, noticing that Quan Su was looking at the stalls as they walked. She shook her head.

“I just wanted to look… Any problems with that?”

Laughing, Wan Yu ruffled her hair, faking a howl when she whacked his arm back. When he turned his head, something caught his attention and he did a double take. Down the street, closer to the open gates of the sect, Ye Xiyang was walking with Ru Song. When Quan Su traced the line of his gaze, her eyebrows were raised high.

“Why are you looking at them?” she asked.

“Your tone is so confrontational,” he lamented. “I just happened to look. Any problems with that?”

Ye Xiyang had reverted back to his blue attire, rather than the black he’d been wearing since  he’d returned. It made him look more relaxed, especially coupled with that fan of his, flapping cold air at his face at the tail end of winter. Ru Song wore black, still, but draped over those robes was a patterned blue outer robe, bringing a bit of childish color to his small figure.

Maybe it was a cultivator’s keen senses. Ye Xiyang felt the gaze on him and turned, and their eyes met.

Wan Yu, “......”

Ye Xiyang didn’t make a move to walk over, though. Instead, he leaned closer to hear what Ru Song was saying and nodded, and they walked off. Wan Yu glanced at Quan Su again. She stared back with judgement.

“Please don’t stop in the middle of the streets…”

Startled, Wan Yu dragged Quan Su and they hurried away.

"Let's go get some snacks and browse the stalls proper," he told her. Quan Su shrugged, and so that was what they set out to do. They got melon seeds, and for Quan Su a tanghulu— with these in hand, they hit the streets.

"Is this all people do?"

Quan Su's words were muffled a bit by her tanghulu, and Wan Yu had to lean over a bit to hear. She didn't repeat, though, so he said, "I suppose so. Why?"

"I dunno. It always seemed like it'd be much more fun than… walking." She looked down at her candy. "I guess I haven't been missing out on much."

With a chuckle he bumped against her side and pulled her into a side hug. “I guess it is just walking, snacking and browsing. It’s not much about the activity, I suppose. Why, are you bored?”

“It’s just underwhelming,” she admitted.

The children around her were running around, often to the calling shouts of their parents. There was a boy around her age not too long ago who was giving his little sister a piggy-back ride as she furiously rang a metal bell with her chubby hand. Maybe she was missing something, but they seemed like they were having so much fun, and she didn’t get why. Walking with Wan Yu wasn’t really… bad, he wasn’t insufferable or a bore, but walking was just… walking. Browsing was just browsing. They did this on a regular basis. They did this two days ago.

Wan Yu could see why. As they browsed a stall that sold wooden trinkets, he mulled over things.

“Buying for your little sister, young sir?” the stall owner asked, a friendly smile on his old face. “Spring’s a good time, you’ve come to the right place ah. Our family’s been doing woodwork for generations, this stall, it’s the only time of the year we break away from our busy furniture-making schedule to make trinkets. For such a young girl… Let’s see, how about this comb? Peach blossoms look best on young faces.”

It did look pretty good. A simple comb, it had an equally simple line of three peach blossoms. But the wood was good; a warm red, the lacquer accentuated the color of the grain too. Wan Yu picked it up and mimed placing it on Quan Su’s hair. It didn’t look half bad, though her deepening frown and swatting might’ve contributed to that assessment. As the stall owner laughed at their antics, Wan Yu asked, “How much ah?”

“100 copper. Don’t you want to get some more? For mother at home perhaps?”

“Hey, this is luring now,” he joked. “But I can’t give her this. Don’t you have something more elegant? How about something that looks more local, so it doesn’t look like I’m just giving her something I bought 10 li away from our village?”

“What sort of village would produce a cultivator like you ah,” the old man said. “But if it's something specifically Slumbering Dragon Mountains, then it's this hairpin ah. Made with Lady Winter tree wood, this gradation to red isn't from any paint, this is how the wood naturally looks ah. And it's camellias. Isn't this beautiful? Here, there's another design."

It took Wan Yu a while, but he settled on three hair pieces. He splurged, he really did, but all three were made of the beautiful eggshell white and soft red wood. Camellia, orchid and a cluster of jasmine. After paying the tael of silver, he put the last one into Quan Su's hair and put away the rest, and they resumed walking.

"Why'd you buy three?" she asked as they walked. With one hand holding her snack, her other one kept sneaking up and back, as if she wanted to touch the comb. She kept faltering, though— the way she moved, it was as if she was embarrassed to be caught wanting to touch her new thing. Steering them to the sides of the street, Wan Yu pretended to rummage through his belongings for a bit.

"Huh? One is for my adoptive mother, the other for my adoptive sister ah."

"...Yun-jiejie?"

"No, my adoptive sister." Humming, Wan Yu explained, "Though I was picked up by Shifu as a baby, he couldn't take care of one. He had a woman in the village who recently had lost a baby raise me, and when I was five, he took me up the mountain. But I still keep in touch with them. They raised me after all."

Quan Su looked at her feet. Her hand lowered. "Oh."

He ruffled her hair before wiping her cheek of some smeared melted sugar. Putting his hand on her shoulder, he herded them back to the moving crowds. "About your earlier question. I don't really go to that many festivals either. The village was small and Shifu was not the type to go down the mountain much. But we went sometimes, and didn't really do much… We'd walk around. Sometimes I beg him to buy me a pancake. We lived together already, it's not like there was much to talk about. I think we just walked and commented on random things… It's the atmosphere, I guess. And the fact that I get to go there with him. It felt to me like, look, everyone's enjoying it, isn't it nice to see a day when a lot of problems can be ignored?" He laughed.

Perhaps it was just his nature to get swept away by emotions.

"Oh." She seemed to mull things over, though, so he let her. It was normal. All he did was keep a grip on her; though this city was not as crowded as Yueyang or even Qunan, he still didn't want to lose her in the streets.

It seemed like fate had it out for Wan Yu, though. Right as they entered this probably-Eastern Market square, two familiar figures had just come out of a massive residence: Ye Xiyang and Ru Song were on their way out as a man lingered behind, adding some last words before they left. After some more nods from Ru Song, finally the man let go and returned inside. Meanwhile, the boy all but ran several paces as if to physically distance himself from the house.

He paused when he spotted Wan Yu. After a glance at Ye Xiyang, though still hesitant with a touch of unwillingness, he greeted Wan Yu. "Uncle Wan."

Wan Yu, "......" Suddenly I feel incredibly old… My nephew is still a newborn...

"Good morning," he said.

Walking over, Ye Xiyang nodded in reply. "Good morning. How have you been finding the city?"

"Too cold to just stay still," Wan Yu said, waving a hand. "Need to move to make it bearable."

The clouds were whimsical today, and covered the sun whenever they felt like it. Every now and then they had the reprieve that was sunlight's warmth, but for the most part, it was just overcast and cold. Now was one of those overcast moments, and Quan Su was starting to tremble as she inched ever closer for warmth. It did not help. She did have a hand warmer, but she couldn't exactly stick it on her legs. 

Ye Xiyang sighed before reaching into his robes. He pulled out a small red stone and held it out toward her, saying, "I do not need this."

Quan Su turned to Wan Yu with furrowed eyebrows. It took him a second to realize her apprehension, and he sighed. "We'll return it before we part ways. Thanks."

Of course, someone like him would have something like a phoenix fire stone at hand. It was one of those things that was common to folks within sects, but harder to procure for wandering cultivators like him who didn't bunker down in wulin markets. It being a stone commonly used by fire-element cultivators didn't help; a lot of the best ones that would keep people from feeling the coldest winter had gone to rich sects, and the ones at the markets were often just coal-less hand braziers. Wan Yu remembered someone saying that its warmth was like sticking one's hand under a sitting chicken. He did not remember who said it, but he wished them the best.

Ye Xiyang started walking, and Wan Yu, not knowing what else to do, followed behind. The two kids exchanged a glance, but realizing that they didn’t even know each other, turned and tailed their respective adults instead. It seemed that even the Frozen Dragon Sect leader’s presence in the market streets was normal; at the very least, nobody did overt showcases of respect, and so they could walk in peace. At most, the stall owners didn’t holler.

“Went to visit home or what, kiddo?” Wan Yu asked Ru Song. The boy stared back at him blankly.

When seconds passed and there was no reply, Ye Xiyang sighed. “Yes. That was the Ru family residence. Now that it’s done, we don’t have any destination other than the sect. Are you heading anywhere?”

Wan Yu didn’t, not really, but he still put some thought into it. “Probably going to walk some more until lunch time, then find something to eat. Whatever comes up sounds good ba… Push comes to shove, I did see some of the kids play kites. Can try and see if Xiao Su will end up dragged off by the kite.”

Quan Su, “......”

Ye Xiyang hummed. “There will be a feast open for all at the center of the town at midday. It's free to the public, and there are spots near braziers if you need. Other than that, this might be all I'm afraid. You won't find games like you would at Yueyang."

Must be all the idle rich kids, really. Wan Yu recalled spending New Year's in Qunan once, which while wasn't as bustling as Yueyang, was still similar in spirit. They could hear and catch glimpses of fireworks from there. Yun Zisu had mentioned to him that the festivals often became where all the disciples' money went to die, as there were often shooting games, gambling wheels, battle arenas… and of course, bets associated with that. He couldn't for the life of him remember exactly when it was, though. It felt like he needed environmental reminders to jog his memory enough.

"If I want to be at Yueyang, I'd be at Yueyang," Wan Yu said lightly. "All right, if food and trinkets is what they have to offer, then food and trinkets it is."