[Young Master Xian]—❈—50:: "The Capital Will Eat You Alive"

The doctor Meng Yi went to get, Doctor Lei, turns out to be a woman. A woman who seems personally offended by my good health.

Not in the ‘I wish you were dead’ way, thankfully, but more in the ‘you are making me question and doubt everything I know and that’s really pissing me off’ way.

She runs her numerous checks on me with a scowl on her face, muttering and grumbling under her breath the entire time.

I catch some snippets with a little bit of focus. “Makes no sense…” “Foundation Realm…” “Should be dead…” It’s enough.

Guess I’ve gone and done yet another impossible thing.

Doctor Lei isn’t the only one in the room with me.

There’s seven of us, all told. Meng Yi, myself, Doctor Lei and her two assistants, Xiuying, and Pan Cai, who’d congratulated me with a short, respectable bow before perching in a corner of the huge room to observe silently.

I decide not to focus on the obvious implications of that for now.

Xiuying had hugged me when she came in, staring at me with a whole lot of joy and relief.

I suppose the last few days couldn’t have been easy for her and Meng Yi, could they?

That’s the problem with doing dangerous, half insane things; it’s the people who love you that have to watch and marinate in their fear that they may never see you again.

Doctor Lei’s tests carry on for many minutes. The woman seems determined to run every last one that she can think of, and I begin to wonder just when it will end.

The door to my bedroom opens and two people walk in, a woman and a man.

To my qi sense, the woman is the most powerful cultivator I’ve ever met, a title held by Doctor Lei until she walked in, and the man… well, according to my qi sense, the man does not exist.

Okay, that is not creepy at all.

The woman’s presence is noticed by all, and everyone shows her clear deference, bowing low as she walks in.

I do not know this woman, but I have a good guess who she is.

Meng Yi had given me a short summary of my older sister’s presence and how she came to be here, and I’ll bet my vault of gold that this super powerful cultivator who even Pan Cai is bowing to is her.

The eyes of the woman I suspect is my sister focus exclusively on me as she enters the room.

I note a scowl on her features, like she finds, not me particularly, but this entire situation an annoyance to deal with.

“Is he well?” she asks Doctor Lei. The question sounds perfunctory.

“There are some more tests I would like to perform, Young Mistress, but, yes, he is well,” Doctor Lei says.

“Submit your reports to my ship, the family doctor will handle everything else when we reach the capital,” the Young Mistress who I’m near certain is my sister commands.

“So, you’re taking me back then?” I ask, drawing her attention back to me.

“Yes, Mother wants to see you,” she says, confirming her position as my sister.

I sigh.

I knew this was coming. I have for some time now. I hoped it wouldn’t happen, but I always knew it would.

I sigh again. “When do we leave?”

“Can you walk?” Weiju asks.

The question draws a frown from me. “Yes?”

“Then now,” Weiju says, turning around to march out of the room.

“Uh, no, that doesn’t work, actually,” I call out, causing the woman to stop in her tracks.

All eyes turn to me.

“What?” Weiju asks.

“I can’t just leave now,” I say. “I need at least—” I run some quick mental maths “—two days.”

“What do you need two days for?”

“It’s not for me, it’s for Meng Yi, and Xiuying,” I say. “They have family here, friends, I can’t just spirit them away to the capital without giving them a chance to say their goodbyes. Not when I’m pretty sure I’m not coming back.”

And isn’t that the truth?

Qigang was only sent out here because he was a useless embarrassment. I’m neither of those things.

I’m about to start getting all the attention that that shit stain always craved. Which sucks, because all I wish is that my family would pretend I don’t exist like they did with him.

How messed up is life?

“So, you’re saying that you want our mother waiting two more days, because your servants need to say goodbye to their families?” Weiju asks slowly, almost like she thinks spelling it out for me would make me see how insane the request is.

It doesn’t. Because, seriously, what kind of jerk would ask people to just uproot their lives and move somewhere else without even the opportunity to see their families for what might be the last time in years?

“You make it sound like a ridiculous request,” I say. “But this isn’t an emergency, and besides, it’s only two days. Our mother is over two hundred years old; two days of waiting won’t kill her.”

I hear an audible gasp roll across the room.

Crap, I think I may have let my frustration with the whole situation slip out for a second.

Weiju snorts, then she bursts into laughter. Deep, genuine laughter too.

It takes a moment for Weiju’s mirth to settle, and when it does, she says to Pan Cai, who I’d honestly forgotten was present, “Well, you heard him, he wants two days so his servants can say goodbye to their families.”

Pan Cai nods simply.

Weiju’s stare returns to me, an expression like I’m the strangest, most amusing thing she’s ever seen, on her face.

“Maybe it’s a good thing that Celestial Plums are so rare,” she muses out loud, before turning and leaving, the qi signatureless man following quietly behind her.

As soon as Weiju and her companion leave, Pan Cai walks up to me.

“I shall take my leave now, Young Master Xian,” she says, dipping her head.

“Um, yeah, take care,” I say.

As Pan Cai leaves, Doctor Lei says, “Since your departure is delayed, there are a few more tests I think we should…”

“Um, let’s just… Thank you for your care, but I really should see to other matters now,” I say.

The woman stares at me, looking almost like she wants to disagree, and it’s only now I realise that I may actually not have the authority to dismiss her. I certainly don’t have the physical power to do so.

Finally though, she nods and says, “As you wish, Young Master Xian.”

Without needing to be told, her assistants pack up their equipment, vanishing everything into their storage rings, and without a bye or a bow, they exit.

“You know you’re crazy, right?” Xiuying asks as soon as we’re alone in the room. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love it, but you know you’re crazy, right?”

I sigh.

“You can’t do things like that, Qigang,” Mend Yi says, clear signs of worry in her eyes. “You can’t just decide not to answer your mother’s summon.”

“That’s not what I did,” I say.

“But that’s how it can be interpreted,” she says. “Your mother holds a lot of power, Qigang. Power over you. You need her on our side, not against us. We need every ally we can get.”

I stare at her steadily, then I ask a simple question. “Is there any way I can talk you or Xiuying out of coming with me?”

“I would literally need to die first,” Xiuying says casually.

I stare at her, more than a little freaked out by the words. Xiuying smiles back at me, eyes daring me to argue.

I sigh again and pinch the bridge of my nose.

“I may never return here, Meng Yi,” I say. “Not for a long time at least. Which means you may not return here for a long time. Do you really want your goodbyes with your family to be with a letter? If my mother can’t appreciate something that simple then—” I shrug “—best we get it out of the way now.”

Meng Yi stares at me for a long moment, then finally, she sighs. “The Capital will eat you alive,” she says, staring at me with a tenderness in her gaze.

“That’s why we’re going with him,” Xiuying says.

“I place myself in your care,” I say, bowing formally to both women.

The moment of levity passes, and Meng Yi says to Xiuying, “If you’re coming with us to The Capital, you’re going to need to sign a Contract of Servitude to Qigang.”

Xiuying’s eyes widen. “Oh, true. I would be deserting my post if I don’t,” she says.

“Wait, what? Contract? Of servitude?” I don’t like the sound of that.

“The contract is necessary, Qigang. I signed it. Without it, she won’t be afforded any of the protections that an official servant would be,” Meng Yi says. “Also, she’s a soldier. She already has a binding contract to serve The Empire. You’ll have to buy that out so she can sign one with you. Do you know how much your contract is worth now?” she asks Xiuying.

The soldier shrugs apologetically.

“I planned to serve for life, so I never really checked,” she said. “Besides, I know I don’t make anywhere near enough to buy it out by myself.”

“Wait, you can’t leave The Army unless someone buys you from them?” I ask.

Xiuying shrugs. “The Army sponsored my cultivation,” she says. “That’s the bargain.”

“And then they don’t pay you enough to buy out the contract yourself,” I say. “Meaning the only way you can leave is to indebt yourself to someone else. And this is legal?”

“Well, it’s the government doing it so, yes,” Xiuying says.

“I told you, Qigang,” Meng Yi says, “cultivation is the greatest wealth.”

“For many it’s their only wealth,” Xiuying says.

I frown, upset by how messed up this is.

“How do we buy out her contract?” I ask Meng Yi.

“We need to go to The Magistrate’s Office,” she says.

“Will they be able to help us, seeing as there isn’t a Magistrate yet?” I ask.

“There is,” Meng Yi says. “Magistrate Qin’s replacement arrived some days ago. It appears the process was rushed due to the recent… incident.”

“You mean the giant wave of Wild Qi that almost wiped out the Bloody Fangs?” Xiuying asks.

Meng Yi doesn’t dignify the question with a response.

“Do you think the new Magistrate will have time to help us with everything going on?” I ask.

Both women stare at me with something like fond exasperation.

“What?” I ask.

“Qigang, I’m pretty sure you could summon the man and he’ll be here within the hour,” Xiuying says.

I blink. “What?”

“Qigang, you singlehandedly averted the worst disaster in recent memory,” Xiuying says. “You’re a living legend right now.

“But I didn’t do it singlehandedly,” I say. “Meng Yi said so; that the Suppression Division showed up and handled things.”

Xiuying sighs and turns to Meng Yi.

“You’re right,” she says. “The Capital will eat him alive.”

“That’s why we’re going with him,” Meng Yi says back.

I do my best to smite both women with my eyes.

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Thanks for reading.

Next chapter: Saying Goodbyes.