Chapter 5: Pei's Inn
It was impossible to find a place where she could sleep out of sight in the middle of those open fields. She rode to the next village along the road. She had to take the chance and rest there.
There was no corral in sight, and she asked one of the villagers if there was a place where she could leave her horse. He pointed to one of the structures and told her that there was a corral behind it.
"That works out nicely. It's hidden," she muttered to Mushu.
She led Khan to the corral and made sure he had water and food. She brushed him, speaking softly to him and promising that she would brush him more thoroughly as soon as she had rested.
She wandered through the town until she found an inn. Once again she offered to work in exchange for food and a bed for the night. The innkeeper was agreeable to that. He was about to give her a task, then he took a close look at her and saw that she was going to fall down at any moment.
"I will lead you to your room. When you have rested I will put you to work."
She thanked him and followed him to her room. He left the room and she collapsed onto the bed.
"Cri-Kee will stay here and keep an eye on you, Mulan. I'll backtrack and see if there is anyone following you," Mushu told her.
"Okay," she mumbled and fell asleep.
Mushu took off.
xxxxxxx
The innkeeper told Mulan that his cook had just quit.
"Can you cook, young man?"
"Uh, sort of."
"Good. You can work in the kitchen in exchange for room and board tonight."
He led her to the kitchen and showed her where everything was.
"It's an odd time and there is no one here yet. This would be a good time for you to cook something for yourself. You look like you need it, kid."
Mulan thanked him and began to cook some rice for herself. She found meat and vegetables and prepared a meal. She ate ravenously. She couldn't remember when she had eaten last. Probably her meal at Gao-Rong's inn was the last meal she'd had before this. That was two days ago.
Mushu appeared as she was finishing her meal.
"You are being followed. And you're not going to like who it is."
She felt her heart sink but looked at him, waiting for him to continue.
"It's Shang."
"Of course it is," she sighed, rolling her eyes. "Who else would it be?"
"And Chi Fu is with him."
"I never thought of them as two peas in a pod," she muttered.
"Well, I'm not so sure that they are."
"How far behind are they?"
"Well, thanks to the fact that you didn't sleep for two days, they are a little over a day behind you."
"Would you keep an eye on them for me, Mushu? Come back and warn me as soon as they are within a few miles of this village."
"You got it, babe. Cri-Kee, you stay here and watch out for her."
The cricket chirped a response in his own mysterious language.
Mushu took off and Mulan cleaned the pans and things that she had used. The innkeeper appeared a few minutes later.
"We're starting to get a crowd. By the way, I'm Pei. I never introduced myself."
She struggled to think of another boy's name. "My name is Sheng-Li."
Sheng-Li had been the name of one of her father's friends. If Shang and Chi Fu were following her, they were probably asking about her in the villages. If they had spoken to Gao-Rong or the medic that treated her they most likely had heard about a stranger named 'Kai-Feng' that came through the village. And if she kept using that name she would be leaving a trail just as surely as if she had used the name Ping.
xxxxxxx
Apparently, Pei's inn was the gathering place for the gamblers in the town. Everyone came in at around midnight and stayed until the morning. Some of them were pretty scary looking. But they left her alone.
Mulan had been traveling during the night and resting in the early mornings or early evenings; she was used to being up nights now. So when Pei requested that she stay up in case the men needed anything she had no problem.
She didn't have to cook for them; no one was interested in eating. All she had to do was make sure that their Du Kang was refilled once they ran out. She hung out in the kitchen the rest of the night reading one of the books she'd found and listening to the men talk louder as they got drunker.
As their voices rose, she couldn't help but hear their conversation. She realized that none of them were talking about the game or money or anything that remotely had anything to do with those things.
They were plotting to kill someone.