Kia Min awoke to the dancing scent of steamed rice and meaty buns. Her stomach growled at her in response, demanding that the meals she took from Wayfarer Wei the day before were insufficient and that she needed to cough up the little silver she had and eat whatever was out there. She could hardly blame the merchant; the goods he had carried with him were to be sold, not given away, even to someone who saved his life.
As she sat up, she took a quick inventory of the room around her. The bedroom was the second of two rooms in the small hut the merchant called home, and there were only two beds for what had appeared to Kia Min a four person family. Wei shared with his wife the bigger of the two, and his children shared the second. Kia Min had taken the floor, as Wei had whispered his insistence that she wait until morning to continue to One Stone. Now the beds were unoccupied, and she heard murmuring in the other room.
Her staff stood vigil in the corner of the room, and after she quickly and carefully folded the blankets Wei had given her she grabbed the weapon and approached the door. Wei had given her enough hospitality, and it was time to go home. She would buy her breakfast on her way out of town.
"I'll figure something out," Kia Min heard Wei's voice hiss. "Don't worry, Xiang."
"I worry," a woman's voice--his wife, Kia Min presumed--came through much clearer. "Yao Hong will not give you another extension. He will take her."
"This was a circumstance beyond my control! Surely he must understand."
"That does not matter and you know it." A pause. And then, slowly, the woman continued, "That girl you brought home with you... perhaps she--"
"No, Xiang." Wei's voice was firm, and suddenly angry, and though she only knew the merchant for a day this startled Kia Min.
"But she--"
Wei raised his voice. "I will not disgrace our ancestors. I'll find another way."
The woman--Xiang--sighed, and there was a clatter of pans clanking over a stove. "You will disgrace our ancestors no matter what you do. There is no other way. It's either Little Qing or the Two Rivers girl. Your daughter or your rescuer. Which will you be able to live with easier?"
Wei did not respond, and the woman did not continue. There was only the hiss of steam. Kia Min gripped her staff and held her breath and slowly pushed open the door. The shades were lifted here, and the sunlight streamed through liberally. Xiang stood in cotton robes over a stove and stirred a pot with a wooden spoon, her other hand in a fist nestled at her waist. Wei sat at a small table in the center of the room, his concentrated stare into his rice bowl disturbed by the sound of Kia Min entering the room.
He grinned at her uncomfortably and waved a hand at the seat in front of him. "Good morning, Kia Min," he said. "Please, have some breakfast. You should be well-fed before the rest of your journey."
Kia Min lifted a hand to politely decline, but Xiang looked over her should with a wry smile. "And well-rested. Please, feel free to stay as long as you like. Surely a wagon ride would not have given you a good sleep, nor our floor."
Wei shot a glare at Xiang, but she did not seem to notice. Kia Min shook her head. "No, thank you, but I feel I've imposed on you enough. I can just be on my way..."
"Nonsense," said Xiang. "Children are strong, they can sleep on the floor. And we have plenty of food to spare. Please, stay. I insist."
Kia Min sighed. She was now obliged to stay for breakfast, and she could see no easily polite way to squirm out of it. So she sat down across the table from Wei, who turned his eyes away and licked his lips as he twirled his chopsticks in his fingers. Xiang paraded to Kia Min with a bowl of rice and a bun, and she placed the food in front of her with a hurried insistence to eat.
"Thank you," Kia Min murmured with a bow.
Xiang replied with a strange smile, and a dangerous glint in her eyes to Wei, before she tottered to the entrance of the house to call in her children from the fields just outside. Kia Min did not immediately pick up her chopsticks to eat. Something was very, very wrong, and she could not decide if she needed to flee--and fast--or stay put.
Wei leaned forward and quietly confirmed this to her, "You must leave this town. Today. As soon as you've finished eating. I cannot let my wife do this."
Xiang called for the children again, more urgently this time. Kia Min thought she heard a young boy's voice protest, and so she had time before Xiang turned her attention back to her and Wei.
"Do what?" she hissed. "What's going on?"
"You cannot stay here. I will not allow it." He sat back and glanced towards his wife. "Trust me. Please, eat. Quickly."
This did not satisfy Kia Min, and she crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. "Wayfarer Wei, I appreciate all you've done for me, but the very least you could do before sending me off on my way is to be honest with me." She stopped short of pointing out the fact that she had, in fact, saved his life on top of making sure he arrived home safely.
The giggles of children rushed closer to the house, and Wei shifted and said hurriedly, "Please believe me when I say that this is not your concern, and you should allow us to worry about our own problems."
Kia Min frowned, and as she heard Xiang usher the children into the house, she knew exactly how to corner Wei into telling her what she needed to know.
"From what I overheard earlier, this is my concern, and my problem. Mine," she turned to look at a little girl with pigtails, staring at her with fascinated curiosity, "and Little Qing's."
A frozen silence penetrated the room. The girl, Little Qing, clutched a ragged and dirty doll to her chest as she gaped at Kia Min part puzzled and part afraid. The boy, just a little bit older than his sister, clenched his fists but had fear in his eyes as well. Xiang shot an accusing glare at her husband, and Wei sighed.
"Children, take your breakfast and go eat outside," he said. Little Qing and the boy did as he asked and grabbed a bun each from the kitchen and ran outside. Wei watched them scamper towards a lone tree, and then said, "You heard that, did you. How much did you hear?"
"Enough," said Kia Min. "Enough to know that if I stay here, I'm in trouble, but if I leave, your daughter is in trouble. But I don't know why, and I'd like to."
Xiang crossed her arms. "You cannot help us."
"I never said I could. But I deserve to know why you're so intent on keeping me, and you--" Kia Min looked back at Wei. "--are so intent on driving me out of town. I meant it, that I've imposed on you enough, because I feel like Wei has repaid me sufficiently for my services already." She waved a hand at the uneaten food in front of her. "I feel like this breakfast would tip the scales of debt in your favor, and I want to know what kind of payment you'd be expecting from me."
Neither of them spoke. Husband and wife looked at each other, studying each other's faces, making decisions that Kia Min wished they would consider aloud. Finally, Xiang made her way into the kitchen muttering, "You doom our family. Nothing good will come of this."
Wei shook his head. "I have to apologize, Kia Min. I never meant for you to get caught up in this. I was only hoping to be charitable, but my wife, well, she means well, you have to understand. She's only trying to protect our children."
"I gathered that."
Despite her deadpan, Wei smiled. "You really are a clever one, aren't you?" he said softly. "Maybe you can help..."
But before he could continue further, Xiang swore under her breath, and Kia Min saw her gaze directed towards the front of the house. She followed, and an ornate palanquin had stopped and a round man in blue and yellow silks stepped out of the litter as the two servants in straw hats gently set the vehicle down. He adjusted the sash around his waist, and he turned his piercing gaze towards the inside of the house.
"Wayfarer Wei! I know you're in there! My men saw your cart return last night."
Wei shot up and hurried to the door, but the man burst in before Wei could get close. Xiang hurried to her husband's side, and they both bowed to the man as he made his way through their small quarters.
"How were your business ventures in Two Rivers?" he drawled. "Very profitable, I'd imagine, for you to have returned so quickly." That was when he noticed Kia Min, and shivers crawled down her spine as he smirked at her. "And who's this? I was unaware Two Rivers was trading peasant girls."
Kia Min very slowly reached for the staff she had set beside her, keeping her eyes steady on this man. He licked his lips, and she found the cool touch of the polished bamboo and tightened her fingers around it. It would be quite bad if he touched her; she would not allow it, despite his status.
"Y-Yao Hong," stammered Wei, "I have some terrible news to report on Two Rivers. This affects us all. Please listen, and believe me. This girl was a student there, and she was the one who brought me the news--"
The man, Yao Hong, narrowed his eyes and turned his attention dangerously back to Wei. "Get to the point, you fool."
Kia Min cut in. "Two Rivers was destroyed a couple of days ago," she said firmly. "I am one of three survivors."
With a wicked grin, Yao Hong walked towards Kia Min as Wei and Xiang ceased their groveling stance. "Straightforward and blunt. I like that. Girl, do you mean to tell me that some disaster has befallen your town, and so Wayfarer Wei was unable to do business?"
"Yes," she said slowly, and she remembered Wei's reaction to the news in the swamp. By the heavens, was there something about trade in Two Rivers that ensured the safety of his family from this horrible man?
To her surprise, a contemplative look replaced Yao Hong's smirk, and his nose flared. "You do realize," he said quietly, almost mournfully, "that I cannot grant you another extension in spite of this, don't you, Wei?"
"Y-yes, but--"
Yao Hong lifted a hand and snapped his fingers. The two servants outside hurried to the door, stoic and biting their lips. He said nothing, but merely pointed out the door, towards the tree where the children were watching the palanquin carefully, and the servants quickly ran to them.
"No!" Xiang cried, and Kia Min hopped to her feet, staff in hand. It would not have mattered; the men had already grabbed Little Qing with the boy vainly kicking at their calves to let her go as they made their way back to the palanquin.
"Yao Hong, what do you think you are doing?" Kia Min demanded, though now she understood. "What do you want with the girl?"
"This is none of your concern, outsider," said Yao Hong as he stormed out the door. "I'd have gladly taken you, but I know your uniform and I know your school. You are a warrior and hardly worth the effort. Leave Hehua, and never return."
As he climbed into the palanquin, Xiang fell to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. Wei ran out the door to pull back the boy, and Little Qing within wailed and screamed for her father. The servants picked up the palanquin and trotted off, and Kia Min watched the broken family before her, feeling more helpless than she did during her wild search in the ruins of Two Rivers.
Slowly, she approached Wei, who was holding his son as the boy cried and cried. Wei looked up at her, and he sighed.
"... you were never supposed to see that. I thought I had at least another day, and you would have been on your way..."
"Wei," said Kia Min softly, "I need to know what just happened here."
Wei was silent for a moment, and then he ushered the boy inside to his mother and stood. "I suppose I have no choice now. Let's talk a walk, Kia Min. I'll explain everything to you."