Chapter 119 — Before the Road

CHAPTER 119

Before the Road

“You're leaving customers behind?” Yan Meizhen asked.

“I'm leaving the capital,” Shi Feng replied. “The customers can stay.”

The Bone Refinement buyer sat in Gao Yuan's yard with her own chair. Her latest order rested between them. She checked the seals while he put away the last of his tools.

“You could stay and earn,” Yan Meizhen said. “Hunters don't stop getting injured because there's a tournament somewhere.”

“Then buy from somebody else until I return,” Shi Feng replied.

Yan Meizhen looked offended by the suggestion. She also looked as if she'd already made a list of other suppliers.

He didn't mind. Their business worked because his medicine was useful and she paid for it. Neither needed to pretend that a few completed orders made them sworn friends.

“If your prices rise after you join a sect, I'll complain,” Yan Meizhen said.

“You've been practicing,” Shi Feng replied.

She laughed and counted out the balance. Then she picked up the largest container and shook it lightly.

“All here?” Yan Meizhen asked.

“Open it,” Shi Feng said.

“I trust you,” Yan Meizhen replied.

She opened it anyway.

Shi Feng finished tying his tools while she counted. No hidden yield, missing pills, or promised stock remained between them when she left.

Gao Yuan arrived as the gate closed. He examined the cleared workbench with growing alarm.

“Master Shen, you aren't taking the room with you, are you?” Gao Yuan asked.

“Would you charge for carrying it?” Shi Feng replied.

“Naturally,” Gao Yuan said, then stopped. “That's not the point!”

Shi Feng showed him the final paid booking. He'd finish the remaining sessions before the reporting deadline. After that, Gao Yuan could rent the room to someone else.

The landlord tried to look relieved. His early promises of a grateful long-term tenant hadn't survived Shi Feng's habit of checking the furnace. Still, a tenant who paid on time was useful.

“I can hold it,” Gao Yuan offered. “For a small fee.”

“Rent it,” Shi Feng replied.

“You might come back,” Gao Yuan said.

“Then I'll knock,” Shi Feng replied.

Gao Yuan sighed as if someone had stolen a season's rent from his pocket.

Ling Qingzhu had the route map open when Shi Feng returned. A folded letter lay beside it, marked with her clan's seal. She glanced up at his empty carrying frame.

“Finished?” Ling Qingzhu asked.

“The larger orders,” Shi Feng said. “A few collections remain.”

“Then you can rest a little,” Ling Qingzhu said.

He sat across from her. The map showed the road toward Qingyun City and several smaller towns along the way. A note marked the final reporting day.

“Thirty days,” Ling Qingzhu said, touching the note. “We shouldn't leave everything until the last morning.”

“I wasn't going to,” Shi Feng replied.

“You say that while carrying three bundles at once,” Ling Qingzhu said.

“They're herbs,” Shi Feng replied. “They won't complain about the road.”

“You would hear them if they did,” Ling Qingzhu said.

He smiled and took the map. The ordinary caravan road was longer than the path he could travel alone. There was no reason to spend every remaining day sitting in a carriage.

“I'll finish my work, then go separately,” Shi Feng said.

Her fingers stopped on the edge of the letter.

“Separately?” Ling Qingzhu asked.

“That's permitted,” Shi Feng replied.

“I know it's permitted,” Ling Qingzhu said. “I meant from me.”

He looked up. Her question pleased him more than the map deserved.

“Do you want to come with me?” Shi Feng asked.

Ling Qingzhu glanced away first. She could've answered simply. Instead, she straightened the letter and moved her cup onto its saucer.

“My clan has arrangements,” Ling Qingzhu said. “There are people to meet before we leave. They expect us to appear together.”

“Before we leave,” Shi Feng repeated.

“And when we arrive,” Ling Qingzhu added.

He set the map down. That wasn't quite the answer he expected. He'd asked about traveling with her, not about arriving at a gate in front of people who needed convincing.

Still, she looked more embarrassed than calculating.

Shi Feng thought, She makes asking for company harder than challenging a ranked candidate.

“If you want company, ask,” Shi Feng said.

“I'm asking,” Ling Qingzhu replied quickly.

“You're discussing arrangements,” Shi Feng said.

She looked at him, then at the map again. A faint flush reached her ears.

“Can't both be true?” Ling Qingzhu asked.

That answer made him soften. He wanted them to be true. He wanted the shared evenings and the quiet care in this courtyard to mean more than a convenient public marriage.

“They can,” Shi Feng said.

Ling Qingzhu looked relieved. She drew the clan's letter closer and started explaining the first gathering.

He listened. There was no reason to spoil a pleasant afternoon over a question she found difficult to answer.

She asked which towns had decent inns. He knew two from his earlier travels and marked them on the map.

“Not every room needs a view,” Shi Feng said.

“It needs a roof,” Ling Qingzhu replied.

“That tiler from the ferry road could travel ahead of us,” Shi Feng suggested.

She laughed at the memory of their dripping room, then examined the little marks he'd drawn. One road passed close to the river.

“That way,” Ling Qingzhu said. “If there's time.”

“There's time if we leave early enough,” Shi Feng replied.

She nodded and kept the map open between them. For a little while, he let himself imagine the journey as something they'd enjoy together, without anyone waiting to judge their marriage at the next gate.

Later, Shi Feng checked the supplies he intended to carry. Medicine for his own cultivation went into separate containers from the last customer orders. He checked the seals and left the open ones for immediate use.

His physique still accepted every useful pill without resistance. Weeks of steady intake strengthened his early Foundation Establishment cultivation, but his foundation demanded far more medicine than an ordinary one.

He wasn't going to call that a defect. A foundation capable of supporting greater strength should need more to fill it.

The ring made carrying supplies easy. Finishing every promise before leaving took more care.

Ling Qingzhu sat on the bed with a list of her own. She crossed out two lines, added another, then watched him wrap his sword cloth.

“You don't have to make every decision alone,” Ling Qingzhu said.

“Neither do you,” Shi Feng replied.

She nodded, apparently satisfied, and set the red clan invitation beside his work ledger without opening it yet. Shi Feng put the final medicine container away, glad to have one last stretch of unhurried work before the Ling residence called on them both.

The room was small enough for him to hear her turn the page of her book. He set the blue cloak on top of his traveling bag.

“Wake me before you go out tomorrow,” Ling Qingzhu said.

“Another invitation?” Shi Feng asked.

“No,” Ling Qingzhu replied. “I want to eat with you.”

He looked up from his bag. She was already turning another page, but she hadn't read the one before it.

His bedding stayed rolled in its familiar corner.