While Mei was willing to overlook it for Ash’s sake, as were Moira and Tala, Yue seemed determined to keep Jia away from him to one degree or another.
“She didn’t know what she wanted,” Ash countered. He’d been defending Jia since they’d had a talk about it. He imagined he’d be doing that for a while yet.
“Foolish girl,” grumbled Yue.
“Yes, foolish,” Ash agreed. “And very apologetic. I expect you to work at forgiving it, Yue. Not to actually forgive her, not yet, but to at least work at it.”
“Ashley, she—”
“Made a mistake,” Ash said with a smile, catching Yue’s eyes with his own. “For me, Yue? Just work at it?”
Yue’s cheeks slowly reddened as she held his gaze.
“Okay, Ashley,” she murmured, nodding her head minutely. “For you.”
“Speaking of Jia. She’s not far away. I think she’s waiting for you to separate from the group, or for Yue to leave.”
“Now. You’ll need to forgive me, but I do need to go track down Jia,” Ash said, turning to Mei. “I’ll need my arm back for that.”
“No, you won’t. I’ll go with you,” Mei said, her fingers still clamped tight to him. “You’ll need to keep me around for a bit anyway. Who knows what Zi Xin might do?”
“I’ll go clean your home and make sure it’s tidy, Master Sheng,” Na said. She didn’t bow, but it was clear she wanted to do so. Then she turned and left immediately.
“I’ll go get the paperwork started,” Yue said, still gazing at Ash. Her infatuation with him was showing right now, but he did press her somewhat directly when he asked her to do it for him.
Her body turned to leave long before her head followed suit, her eyes locked to Ash for several steps before she truly left.
“Spar?” Moira asked Tala.
“Yes. I’m afraid your idiot lover violated my elegant self,” Tala growled. “I’ll need to work off the shame and filth of him.”
“You violated Tala?” Mei asked, her tone tight and pinched.
Give me an arrow to Jia?
Immediately an arrow appeared and pointed off to one side of the assembly area.
“Kissed her,” Ash said, dragging Mei along with him. “I kissed her. She was demanding that I rub her back and shoulders and kiss her cheek. So I kissed her on the mouth and refused to rub her back.”
“Oh. Hm,” Mei mused. “That’s not very kind of you. That is a form of violation, my Ashley. You should apologize to her later for it.”
“Uh-huh,” he replied. He had no intention of doing that.
Then he spotted Jia. She was wearing a very pretty blue dress, her hands clutched together as she watched him approach.
The dress flattered her slim, athletic figure and made her midnight black hair and black eyes all the darker.
“I hate that I’m envious of her figure and that she can wear blue so well,” Mei grumbled.
“And I think you’re beautiful just the way you are,” Ash disagreed. “So leave it be. Jia’s in a bad place right now.”
“Oh. Well… thank you, Ashley,” Mei said, her fingers immediately starting to stroke the back of his arm again.
“Good afternoon, Ash, Mei,” Jia said, as the two stopped in front of her.
“Afternoon, Jia,” Ash said with a smile. Since she’d dropped the bomb on him that her brother was coming, she’d been considerably warmer with him. Including asking him to dinner several nights in the last week.
“Jia,” Mei said. Then she disentangled herself from Ash and walked over to the other woman. Wrapping her arms around her, she hugged her. “It’ll be well. Ash defends you and asks everyone to give you the chance to earn your place again. Just a bit longer. It’s really just Yue now. Tala is just… Tala.”
Jia sucked in a slow breath, her arms tightening around Mei.
Then she let out a soft sob.
“Okay. Thank you, Mei,” Jia murmured, turning her face into Mei’s hair.
“Of course. I understand what you’re going through,” said Mei, lightly stroking Jia’s back.
Ash stood there, not really sure how to proceed or what to do.
He was happy that it seemed Mei was willing to go beyond just letting Jia work her way back into the group.
Then again, knowing how Mei’s mind worked, she might be doing it for Ash’s benefit.
Four
“You,” said a voice from Ash’s right.
Looking over, he saw a young man with a number of people behind him.
Ash knew none of them.
Ignoring them, he looked back at Jia and Mei who were talking quietly to one another. They were still hugging each other.
“You dare ignore me? Such lack of face!” shouted the same voice.
Again, Ash looked at the speaker. He realized at that point that the man was talking to him.
“Look,” Ash said, not wanting to deal with this. “You can just… go away. I don’t know you, I don’t want to know you, and realistically… I just want to go home and take a nap.”
He’d briefly considered making a comment about wanting to watch two girls hug, but he didn’t feel like making the attempt at humor.
It’d go unappreciated and only he would probably find it funny.
“My name is—”
“Something I won’t remember,” Ash said, interrupting the young man. “So there’s no point in telling me. I’m not going to accept a challenge to fight, I won’t take a wager, there’s nothing you have that I want, and I don’t care what you or others think about me.
“So… just go find someone else. Kay? Kay.”
I swear. It’s like everyone wants to fight just to fight. It’s stupid.
“Many wish to experience the challenge of adversity. Others just want to grind people under their boots. He could be either.”
Ash looked back to Mei and Jia. The two women were still holding one another, but now they were both looking at the young man and the other newcomers.
“What?! How dare you!” shouted the young man.
Sighing, rolling his eyes, and tilting his head back, Ash faced the heavens.
“Oh, my fuck. I don’t want to deal with you. Please just go away,” Ash said.
“Fine, maybe I can just borrow your women there and—”
Ash instantly felt a red-hot flame of anger leap up from the pit of his stomach.
Activating Spring Step, then turning and dashing toward the young man, Ash appeared to practically materialize in front of him.
Grabbing him around the throat, Ash lifted him off the ground and glared into the man’s face.
Growling, Ash said nothing at first and merely held the fool off the ground.
Everyone around them had either taken a step back, fallen on their ass, or stood frozen.
“What was that?” Ash ground out.
The young man croaked something that Ash couldn’t make out.
Feeling like he couldn’t hold the idiot up for much longer, he put the young man back down on his feet.
“Speak, dog, or I’ll show you why you can call me your father after I beat you black and blue and take everything you own,” Ash hissed.
“Sorry, I’m sorry,” gurgled the idiot, both of his hands desperately holding onto Ash’s wrist.
“Fine, you can all pay a tax to me now for bothering me. Everyone take out something worth at least five spirit stones,” Ash commanded. “If you have nothing to give me, you’ll be coming back with me to Sheng Street.”
Everyone immediately began digging into their pockets, bags, and spatially-hidden storage spaces.
A small pile began to form next to Ash’s foot.
“I… I don’t have anything. I’m sorry. Please, forgive me,” said a young woman with light brown hair, and ghostly white irises and pupils. Her eyes were moving everywhere but him, and she clearly didn’t want to meet Ash’s eyes.
“Report to Sheng Street, house number one, tonight. You can earn your forgiveness,” Ash said bet
ween his teeth. Then he lightly pushed the idiot away from himself. “The rest of you can leave.”
The gang of ten people broke apart and went scurrying off in almost every direction.
Shaking his head, Ash didn’t really understand what the point of that had been. Bending down at the waist, he started collecting everything that they’d thrown down for him.
Most of it turned out to be fairly worthless or not that useful.
Whatever. Yue can just sell it all.
Dumping it all into his ring, he figured he’d sort it out later.
Or have Yue do it. She’d already said she wanted to go digging around in everything they’d stolen from the Deng family and catalog it.
“That happened with far more speed than I was expecting,” Jia said from his left.
“What, that they called you my woman? Blame that on Mei and the fact that she was hugging you. She had me do something stupid and then didn’t correct it,” Ash grumbled.
“But I am your woman, Ash,” Mei said lightly with a laugh. “So there was no reason to correct it. And no, she means what just happened. With the Deng family… gone… there’s a bit of a power vacuum.”
“Huh,” Ash grunted. He vaguely understood what she meant, but he didn’t quite see the connection here.
Mei stepped up to Ash’s right side, and slid her arm around his hips, pulling him close against her side.
It was a decidedly different way to hold him than she’d ever done previously. Then she grabbed his right arm and wound it over her shoulders.
“Now, listen to me as I’ll be your older sister in this,” Mei said, after letting go of his arm and pulling back the arm she’d put around his hips. Turning, she began guiding him back toward their homes. “I am a little older after all.
“Now, this is a very simple matter. With the Deng family no longer existing, there’s going to be a mad grab for power. Someone has to be at the top, after all. There’s going to be a large number of people—new and existing alliances, new groups, and new gangs—all stepping forward to try and claim their piece. Their own power.”
“And that means attacking anyone and everyone they deem as a target,” Jia finished. “I did not know anyone in that group, nor had I even seen them before. They might be some of the new recruits.”
“That’s just stupid,” Ash muttered, contemplating withdrawing his arm from Mei’s shoulders. Except, he didn’t actually want to. She felt really good at his side.
Warm and soft in all the right ways.
His thoughts were getting slowed down by her presence and it felt like they were starting to drag through mud. After a few seconds of walking along fighting it, Ash gave up.
“I’m afraid this is partly because of you being an Outlander,” Mei said, her hands clasped in front of herself. “This makes perfect sense to me, as I’m sure it does to Jia and Yue.”
“Yes, it makes sense,” Jia agreed. “More so for them attacking Ash. As you yourself stated, he is an Outlander.”
Ash wasn’t listening to them very much anymore. He was thinking about Mei and what she wanted from him. Wondering if maybe he’d been running away for no reason.
He’d find out eventually if Mei wanted to be with him for him, or for being a Fated One. There wasn’t really a reason to not move forward with her, other than fear.
And he was done being afraid of such a lovely woman.
Somewhat brazenly, he curled his arm around Mei and laid his hand against her neckline. His thumb lightly brushed against her throat.
Mei didn’t pull away. She kept walking along beside him as if nothing had changed at all.
“That’s a good point,” Mei said. “He probably looked like an easy target.”
Then she turned her head toward him and gave him a wide smile, showing off her teeth. Slowly, to clearly make sure he saw it, she reached up and laid her hand atop his. As if to let him know she knew where his hand was, and liked it.
“Suppose we’ll see what happens with that woman he told to visit. We can pump her for information,” said Mei, returning her eyes to the front and letting her hand fall back to her side.
The fear of what Mei wanted was gone. He’d cross that bridge when he got there, and he realized that maybe he didn’t care anyway.
Although now, he had a different fear.
Ash’s heart was pounding because Mei was a really pretty woman, and she had liked when he put his hand on her.
***
“Master Sheng, a young woman is here,” called Na from his front door.
Sighing, Ash leaned forward and put his face in his hands.
“Moira, do you think Mei would care if I put Na in the Hall and left her there?” Ash asked. “Forever?”
“I think… she deliberately distanced herself from Na in public. However, I have seen her speak with her cousin several times in private before today,” Moira said. She’d been sitting with him at the table, quietly reading a book. “I had the impression she was trying to help Na without letting on that she was. If I had to guess, she was eventually going to get you to help her.”
“She was,” Tala grumbled. She sat on the other side of the room, as far from Ash as she could be while still being in the room with him. Her anger at him hadn’t cooled one bit. “Na wanted to present herself to you days ago, but Mei told her repeatedly to wait. She was concerned it’d be too obvious and she didn’t want you to think she was using you.”
“Damn,” Ash mumbled against his palms.
Jia had left sooner than he expected on their way back home, claiming that she needed to pick up a few things at Yue’s place.
Mei had insisted they walk around for a while. Ash had no reason to decline, and so they spent the better part of an hour simply wandering around the sect.
Ash had kept his arm around Mei, and Mei had chattered the entire time about anything and everything. It’d felt a lot like a date.
“I thought things went well with Mei during your walk,” Tala offered. “She’d forgive you for getting rid of her cousin.”
Apparently, he was far more obvious than he thought he was.
“Send her in, Na. Then go home for the night,” Ash said, turning around in his seat to face the door.
“You will address him as Master Sheng,” Na said in a low voice outside the door. Ash almost didn’t hear it, but with everything that was changing with his body, his hearing was quite good now. “If you show him disrespect, I’ll batter you until your teeth fall out, then bury you in a pit. Speak when spoken to, and do not open your mouth otherwise. Do what you’re told. If he tells you to get in his bed to pleasure him, get in his bed and pleasure him until he’s satisfied. If he tells you to die, then die. Understand?”
“I’m sorry. This is all a mi—”
“Shut your mouth. Do you understand? Do what he tells you, no matter what it is,” Na hissed, interrupting the other party.
“Yes, I understand. He is Master Sheng. Do what I’m told,” mumbled the woman. “No… no matter what it is.”
“Mm, never mind. I like Na. She understands strength. You must keep her,” Tala whispered, leaning toward Ash. “You will consider that your apology for assaulting my elegant self.”
“Fine, but I might assault you again later,” Ash said, throwing a dismissive hand gesture at Tala.
“Hmph. I might strike you next time,” Tala countered.
Moira only chuckled at that, not looking up from her book.
“—really? I didn’t realize. Fine. Now close your mouth and remain silent,” Na finished. Then the door opened and she stepped inside. Pulling a second woman inside by her wrist, Na then pushed her forward. “Master Sheng, this is Chunhua Liu, previously of the Ice Maiden School. She’s here at your leisure.”
Chunhua hadn’t changed her clothes from when he saw her earlier, though they were cleaner now. The robes clearly had been washed and dried in a hurry.
Her brown hair was also pulled back in a small braid. Once again, her ghostly white eye
s were moving everywhere but Ash.
“I personally evicted everyone from houses five through ten, Master Sheng,” Na murmured softly, putting her hands together. He could practically see her need to bow to him. “I will retire to house ten and act as the sentry. Goodnight, Master Sheng.”
She did what now?
“Did what I would have recommended you to have done if I thought about it. I’ve gone ahead and put together a workup for Na, as well. We should put some time into her. And then maybe something else into her.”
Stepping outside, Na closed the door.
Chunhua stood there, her fingers clawing into one another, looking at the ground.
“Good evening, Chunhua,” Ash said, deciding to play this one slow and gentle.
“Good evening, Master Sheng,” Chunhua said, then bowed deeply to him at the waist for several seconds. “I’m… I’m here to service you as you may wish.”
Scan her. I want to know everything you can tell me.
“Long since done, Chosen One,” Locke said smugly. “She isn’t a cultivator in the same way you and everyone else is. She’s more akin to a sorceress and is best addressed as that. My understanding is that it’s roughly the same, but they use spells to attack, rather than anything based in martial arts.
“Tomato, tomahto, potato, potahto, unemployed, job seeker.”
Okay. But what about her? Any talent? Any uses? Is she an idiot?
“I have no idea about the last two, but I can tell you she has far and away an above-average talent. More so than even Jia or Mei. If she were at the height of her strength, she’d probably beat you at yours. Her abilities don’t match her capabilities however, nor does her cultivation,” Locke explained. “Consider it as such—she’s a formula one racing car with a scooter engine.”
Oof. Alright.
We’ll just… yeet her skills into orbit or something and start over.
“Your vocabulary is always so… interesting. But… yes. We can change her skills, correct her cultivation, and carve a rune into her back that will bring her up to a power level equivalent to Mei’s. The same rune would, of course, bind her to you but that’d be the trade-off.
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