Fate's Attendant 1.14

Auntie Ling lost patience when Hong Fei was on his fourth cup of tea. She summoned herself to the courtyard and appeared under the cherry tree, one of the petals landing by happenstance on her nose. Shaking it away, she found a comfortable spot in the shade. Moments later, the qi in the air flowed toward her.

Seeing her diligence, Hong Fei decided that he’d done enough thinking. He set down the tea and walked to the weapons rack to pick up a training sword.

The Hong family tended toward earth, wood, and water alignments, and Hong Fei had practiced the styles associated with each when he was growing up. It wasn’t until he’d arrived at the Qi-Gathering mid-realm that he’d learned of his inclination toward wood.

Since then, Hong Fei focused heavily on that portion of the family arts, though he continued to keep up his skills in the other elements. The three tended to naturally support each other, which was the genius behind the family’s style, the reason why its members survived so many battlefields.

Hong Fei found a spot where he wouldn’t disturb Auntie Ling and used the characteristics of wood as a guide to his practice: Growth, flexibility, and vibrancy.

His attacks started simply. They were seeds barely worth mentioning, but hidden under the soil were roots that were already strong. The strikes came one after the other. They expanded the range of motion like a vine reaching for new places to grasp. The multiplication continued and became complicated by the addition of feet, knees, elbows, palms, and fists.

A hook turned into a joint lock. A foot sweep downed the enemy upon a waiting thorn—an imaginary caltrop; the weapon was part of the water-style’s forms.

His torso contorted in an impossible back-hand… and he felt his back tweak.

Hong Fei’s body was healed, but it hadn’t regained its former flexibility, so he gently eased away from the previous strike and slowed the pace of his practice until he caught his breath, which was another issue. He was already winded after training for only half a handspan of the sun’s travel. Most wood styles tested one’s endurance.

Still, he felt tired in a good way, hot but not scalded. Throughout his practice, he’d focused on driving the essence out of his marrow and kidneys, circulating the energy throughout the rest of his body and letting it bathe his lower cauldron.

For half a handspan, he meditated under the cherry tree and afterward went back to training. Back and forth the cycle continued.

###

Hong Fei and Auntie Ling were sharing a grand-sized bowl of pork stew when they heard the patter of feet running toward their courtyard. The giant badger disappeared in a flutter of pink petals, while Hong Fei stood to greet the visitor.

Mei Hua breathlessly appeared at the door a moment later. She ran toward him and daringly grabbed him by the shoulders. “Why didn’t you wait?”

“I didn’t know you wanted to join me for lunch,” he replied.

“No, not that!” Mei Hua said, shaking him. “The gambling ring! Everyone’s talking about it, but no one who actually knows anything. Everyone involved is hiding from me, and the xiàowèi and the shízhǎngs refuse to say a word.” She deepened her voice and waggled her head ponderously. “This one cannot comment on an investigation currently underway.” She slapped Hong Fei’s shoulder in anger before grabbing hold again. “Ridiculous! It’ll all be told eventually. Why couldn’t I hear the news first!”

Yu Ning entered the courtyard at a hurried-but-still-stately pace. “Mei Hua, you forget your manners. Let the dūtóu go.”

Mei Hua pouted as she released Hong Fei. “I’m wroth with you.”

“It seems so,” he replied mildly.

“You really should’ve come to me before anyone else,” Mei Hua said. “I could’ve told you all about the people involved, saved you so much time.”

“She really is the queen of spiders,” Yu Ning added, walking up beside them. “Everyone goes to her with their stories.”

Mei Hua proudly raised her nose in the air. “Do you hear that? A queen, she called me.”

“Of spiders,” Hong Fei noted. “Creatures with eight eyes and eight hairy legs.”

The young woman didn’t know whether to laugh or grow angry again, her expression shifting from one to the other and back. Yu Ning, on the other hand, had no such problem; she sputtered in laughter.

“Come now, dear heart,” Yu Ning told her companion, “everyone admires your beauty and calls you fairy, so leave the poor dūtóu alone. He is clearly teasing you, because you’ve disturbed his lunch, which…”

Yu Ning gasped at seeing the size of the bowl on the ground. “How in the heavens do you eat so much?”

Mei Hua was still deciding on how to respond to Hong Fei, but she couldn’t help following her companion’s gaze and be just as shocked. The bowl was three or four times the size of the ones normally used, and there was only a small portion of stew left inside.

Anger forgotten, she reached down to measure the width her hands, then she compared the size to Hong Fei’s waist. There was no way that amount of food could fit, not without his belly bulging.

“Were you starved as a child?” she asked.

“Mei Hua!” Yu Ning protested. “The Hongs are an honorable family. Their reputation is well known throughout the empire. They don’t starve their children.”

“Actually, they do,” Hong Fei said.

The two young women turned to face him. By wordless agreement, they quickly retrieved the cushions they kept stored in his courtyard for lectures and sat down.

“Go on,” Mei Hua said. “Tell the story, and this queen will forgive you for your prior mistakes.”

“Yes, please do,” Yu Ning added.

“There’s not much to tell,” Hong Fei said, shrugging. “When I turned eight-years old, the family sent me out into the wilderness with only a spear and a knife for company. I had to manage to survive on my own for five days.”

“All by yourself?” Yu Ning asked.

“I thought so at the time, but learned later that an uncle watched over me.” Hong Fei smiled at the memory. He’d had quite a few adventures over those five days. “All the children undergo this training; it happens annually with the stakes rising from year to year.”

“Did you have to kill a tiger or a bear?” Mei Hua asked.

“As a matter of fact, yes,” Hong Fei said. “It was a bear, a small one who’d come nosing around my camp for a rabbit I was roasting. But that was happenstance. What I mean by the stakes rising is that we, the children, were eventually set upon each other. We competed in racing, in hunting animals, and eventually in hunting each other.”

“Not bloodsport!” Yu Ning objected.

Hong Fei scowled at the flight of imagination. “Of course not. The weapons we used were dulled, and we were always watched in case of injuries.” He thought a moment. “If we’re discussing starvation, there was also the siege training.”

“How to attack a fortification?” Yu Ning asked.

“That, and how to survive whilst under siege,” Hong Fei clarified. “We trained for a month while short on sleep and food. At the end, they gave us rats to kill and cook.”

Yu Ning blanched, while Mei Hua simply nodded, accepting it for the necessity that it was.

“Otherwise, my family never sent me to bed hungry,” Hong Fei said, continuing. “That was never a punishment; food is too important in the development of a growing child. A good warrior starts from a solid foundation.”

Mei Hua raised her hand. “What about someone who isn’t a warrior but needs to fight anyway? Do they need a good foundation, too?”

“All a person needs to fight is the will to do so,” Hong Fei clarified, “and that applies to everyone. A warrior is simply someone specifically trained for certain kinds of fighting. For them, a good foundation improves their chances for coming away from those engagements victorious.”

That gave both young women something to ponder, which they appeared to do, each in their own way. Quietly, he left them to it, carrying the mostly eaten stew to his courtyard’s kitchen. Once he was out of sight, Hong Fei swallowed down the last of the broth. Auntie Ling had eaten almost all of the pork, and he was still feeling peckish as a result.

###

At the next noon bell, Hong Fei gathered at the house’s main courtyard along with the other soldiers working for the Yu family. Heavy clouds overwhelmed the sky, casting a gray cloak over the land. It had rained earlier, so all the petals on the ground were sodden. Crushed, too, from the booted feet marching over them.

Chen Wenbin stood at the forefront and glared murder at the assembled crowd. His voice carried as he rebuked them. “You’ve heard the rumors, and they’re true. Some among us have broken the regulations against gambling and money lending, neglecting their duties in the process. They’ve introduced strife when unity is needed most. They’ve undermined morale and broken the trust of their leaders.” His eyes swept across the crowd. “A sword is solid throughout. The smallest fracture, and it risks breaking. Today, we will reforge ourselves through discipline. Shízhǎngs, come forward!”

The six leaders of the patrols stepped forward to join Chen Wenbin at the front. His expression was icy when he instructed, “Bring forth the guilty.”

Everyone knew who they were; the soldiers had been placed to the side as one big group, their faces worried and anxious, some more than others. One by one, their names were called, and they walked out to stand in front of their shízhǎngs.

The list began with the least guilty, the ones who participated only a few times, and it continued onward to the worst of the offenders, those who gambled three or four times a week and, of course, the Yang brothers.

Chen Wenbin gestured to the adjacent shrine. “The eyes of the Yu ancestors watch over us. Mete out the discipline!”

The right to administer the punishment had at first been offered to Hong Fei, but he’d refused. Instead, the soldiers had drawn lots, with the “winner” joining those at the front. He carried a leather whip with him.

Everyone who’d gambled exposed their backs. They took wooden dowels from their pockets and inserted them between their teeth. They’d already embarrassed the house enough; they wouldn’t cry out, too.

The least of the offenders received a single lash. The gambling ring’s regulars received five lashes, their backs turning an angry, throbbing red. Ma Mo was counted among their number, and he bore the punishment as well as the others.

Likely, his cousin had threatened him to make sure he didn’t lose his dignity. That, or he was anxious about his employment. Among the frequent gamblers, he was the only one reassigned to one of the family businesses in the city.

The Yang brothers were whipped twenty times each. They were also expelled from their positions with the Yu family and told to leave Ruby Swift City entirely.

Then came the part of the proceedings Hong Fei strongly objected to. He’d argued with Chen Wenbin about it until almost hoarse, but the xiàowèi had been determined.

“A soldier is only as good as the leader above them,” Chen Wenbin told the crowd. “A failure below reflects a failure above.”

He nodded to the shízhǎngs, and they responded by exposing their backs to the whip. The soldier administering the punishments looked like he’d seen ghost, but the xiàowèi’s glare meant he wouldn’t go easy on them.

The whip rose and fell five times each, after which Chen Wenbin exposed his own back and took the five blows with a stoic face, not even resisting the damage being done with his cultivation. His skin burned as brightly red as all the others.

Afterward, he tugged down the hem of his clothes and stood proudly at the front of the massed soldiers. “Let none say that those who serve this house stray from their duty. The troops are dismissed.”

Hong Fong stood like an island among the throng as they dispersed. They were already muttering about what they’d just witnessed, and the soldiers cast sidelong glances at him as they passed. He’d been the one to initiate these events.

The shízhǎngs gazed at him with cold expressions, even the few who had been warming up to him. If not for Hong Fei, they wouldn’t have been disgraced so publicly. The xiàowèi surely wasn’t to blame. He’d accepted the same punishment as the rest of them.

There was a sneer on Chen Wenbin’s face when no one else was looking, and a fury in his eyes too. Hong Fei had hoped the man would find a way to accept an independent command alongside him. After today, that hope was as crushed as the petals underfoot.

Hong Fei knew that he’d lost a battle.

-----

ToC | Next Chapter > 

Cast in this Chapter

• Yu Ning, Duke Yu's granddaughter

• Mei Hua, Yu Ning's companion

• Chen Wenbin, the commander of Duke Yu's troops.