Chương 18: Meetings

The morning after Zichen's break in, Shen Yue noticed a distinct lack of noise in the house at eight in the morning. An hour and a half later, she grew increasingly more concerned, as Lin Che had not left his room and was indeed late for work. She knocked on his door. No response. She knocked two more times, and, following the lack of response from the other end, entered the room to the sight of a sleeping Lin Che. This was not surprising.

What was surprising was what she noticed when she stepped into the room and the ambient Qi of the space reached her: a steady current flowed into the unconscious person before her. He was circulating the Liuhe Breathing Method in his sleep. All six harmonies ran continuously without any apparent conscious direction, and they had been doing so for several hours. She looked at him for a moment, this time channelling Qi into her vision to get a better grasp of the shape and flow of things.

It reminded her of the Sleeping River Technique — another, more specialised, foundation technique which could be learnt following Liuhe completion, but which required deep understanding of one's own energy flow during an unconscious state. Usually, disciples would tranquilise themselves or consume sleeping tablets whilst meditating for months on end to gain comprehension into the technique. What Lin Che had done, apparently, was have an exhausting fight, go to sleep, and arrive at it from first principles.

She picked up his phone from the nightstand, which caused him to move slightly in his sleep. Shen Yue pressed Lin Che's finger to the screen to unlock the phone, before navigating to his work contacts. She found the right number and stepped into the hallway. She gave his name, employee number, and gave a vague description of symptoms which were plausible enough to permit missing work for a day. The person on the other end said they hoped he felt better soon, to which she said thank you and ended the call.

She returned his phone to the nightstand and left the room. Two minutes later, she returned; this time with a stick of incense — one meant for her rather than the weakened version she provided him at the start of his cultivation — and a ceramic holder. She lit the stick and set it on the nightstand beside the phone, before taking in the view. The incense began to thread its smoke into the air, which arced and curved through the air like a ribbon dancer before feeding into Lin Che's mouth and nostrils.

She pulled the door closed and went to make tea.

By the time Lin Che woke up, his phone spoke to him in PM, which brought a mini shock to the system. There was a bowl of soup beside him and the faint smell of incense in the house, although there was no stick or holder to be found. He sat himself up in his bed and placed the bowl of soup in the little pocket of blanket held together in tension by his two knees before bringing a spoon to mouth and savouring the warmth as it travelled down his throat.

He thought back to the fight last night — the reason for the hangover-like symptoms he was currently feeling. Zichen had come in through the window, and Lin Che had been awake. He made the decision to engage rather than feign sleep, which Shen Yue clearly disapproved of. She was right, however, as he'd had no reliable way to end the encounter cleanly — it only ended like that because she'd walked in and ended it for him. But there was a version of events in which she didn't walk in.

He thought about that version, where Zichen would have kicked him somewhere else whilst on the floor — either his throat, stomach, or balls — leaving Lin Che on the floor with blood in his mouth and unable to get up. He would have then escaped, injured, but better off than Lin Che. Strength hadn't been the problem, but, every time the fight had moved beyond raw physical contact, and Zichen managed to free up space, Zichen had the advantage.

What he specifically needed was technique: something that worked when strength was the foundation but couldn't be the only tool. His mind first went to the channel, but all the videos were unlisted and only available when Shen Yue shared them. And she would obviously be against him learning martial techniques, lest he go around picking fights with everyone to practice them. He decided to go to his only other point of contact in the cultivation world.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. He brought the bowl to his mouth and finished the last of his soup, before putting on his jacket and going to the pharmacy.

"You look unwell," said Hu Baolin in lieu of a greeting.

"What do you need?" Lin Che sat down on the stool at the end of the counter, which was usually tucked away and unused, but remained there in case a queue built up and people wished to rest their legs.

"Martial techniques," he said.

"Specifically something for close quarters." Hu Baolin simply sighed.

"I know you can't give me techniques without a formal relationship," said Lin Che.

"I'm not asking for that — I'm asking for advice on where to look and who to ask."

"The Shen clan would be your best bet."

"I'm still waiting for formal introductions," he replied.

"And besides," he said, bringing himself into a whisper despite the lack of customers in the pharmacy, "I'm not sure I can trust them regardless." Hu Baolin leaned in closer towards Lin Che.

"So I take it that the Shen clan is responsible for your slightly swollen jaw?" Lin Che simply nodded, slowly. Hu Baolin shifted back into his original position and spoke again at a normal volume.

"Just take it as a simple introduction to your new family. If they really meant to hurt you, you and I wouldn't be having a conversation right now," he laughed.

"So you're not going to help me?" asked Lin Che.

"There's an ointment in the storage cupboard on the left if you'd like. I won't charge you because I need your face healed by your next shift." Lin Che went to the back. After a weekend of working at the pharmacy, Lin Che had got more-or-less used to the property-based logic used to organise the shelves, which meant the topical compounds were exactly where he expected them to be.

There was a small amber jar with a handwritten label that said Bruising, soft tissue, external application only in Hu Baolin's handwriting, and Lin Che was reading the instructions when the bell above the front door rang. He heard Hu Baolin greet someone. Then: "Lin Che, whilst you're back there — there should be a prescription bag for Yang Zichen. Paper bag in the box with the rest of them." Lin Che stood very still for a moment in the storage cupboard.

He picked up the paper bag and looked inside, purely out of curiosity, he justified. Same amber jar with the exact same label. He came back out to the front, where Zichen was standing at the counter. He was in different clothes to last night, which was to be expected, and was, if one looked very carefully, distributing his weight very slightly away from his left leg. Their eyes met. Lin Che set the prescription bag on the counter, neither of them saying anything.

Hu Baolin looked at the prescription bag and the two other people in his pharmacy. He looked at Lin Che's jaw, and then at Zichen's left leg, putting two and two together.

"Good," he said, stamping something in his ledger.

"The usual application instructions," he said.

"Twice daily and don't bandage over it. Don't use the affected body part during the healing process, though I know that last part is difficult given your line of work." Zichen took the bag.

"Thank you," he replied.

"Mm." Hu Baolin picked up his cup and drank from it.

"And you—" He looked at Lin Che and pointed at the pocket where he'd put the ointment.

"Same instructions: external application twice daily." He paused for a brief moment, before breaking the silence once more.

"Anything else for either of you?" Neither of them answered.

"Right then," said Hu Baolin.

"Get out of my shop; you'll scare off all the customers."

On the other side of town, right where all the gated communities were located, deep inside the Shen clan residence, two figures sat opposite one another in an antique living room, each on a sofa chair in somewhat dim lighting. A folder was open on the table between them.

"The eastern section mapping is complete," said Elder Mao.

"The third ingredient is confirmed, found in the secondary chamber. The concentration is high enough that extraction shouldn't harm future growth."

"And the central chamber?" Elder Mao's finger moved to a page in the folder.

"Still sealed. The composition of the barrier is different to what we expected. It's not a standard array you would see in "newer" hidden realms, which means we're not looking for a key of sorts, but rather a condition."

"What condition?

"Unknown." He closed the folder.

"My four month estimate stands. Elder Shou is being optimistic."

"Elder Shou's team found the third chamber in half the time you projected," said Shen Bowen.

"The third chamber wasn't sealed."

"The Yang Harmony Pill… if the fourth ingredient is in the central chamber—""Then we need the chamber open before we can complete the pill." Elder Mao spoke flatly.

"Which is why four months is the responsible estimate."

"Four months may be four months too long." Elder Mao leaned further back in his seat.

"The girl's condition is slow and stable. Four months will not—""I know what four months will and won't do," said Shen Bowen, quietly.

"Push the team on the barrier condition. I want weekly updates rather than monthly, and I want the extraction team staged and ready so that the moment the chamber opens, we're not waiting on logistics."

"Understood." A knock at the door. Both men looked at it.

"Come in," said Shen Bowen. The door opened, and Shen Yue stepped into the room.