Women Hold Up Half the Sky

“There were three points,” Cangse held up three fingers in response to the teahouse owner’s question about how they saw through his ruse.

Lan Yi gave a nod of agreement. “First of all, there weren’t supposed to be any other cultivators. When we arrived in the city, the Lookout Tower was empty. The cultivators assigned on watch were already low on manpower because of the Phoenix Mountain hunt. The few left had been lured away by an apparent major incident on the outskirts. It was too coincidental.”

Cangse put down one finger.

Yu Ziyuan continued with the reasoning, her tone increasingly venomous with each sentence, “Second, the lack of yin energy. The energy-sensing talisman didn’t burn, and we couldn’t detect anything. At first we thought someone had sealed it, but once we saw the poorly drawn, completely useless array, our conjectures were confirmed – there wasn’t even a ghost in the first place!”

Looking as though she was trying hard to suppress a laugh, Cangse put another finger down. Holding it up in the air, she placed her right hand at her back and circled the centre of the teahouse with deliberate steps. “Finally… the setup was all wrong. Too convenient. Too much like a show. Why was it at this particular timing? Why not later at night? Why not earlier in the day? Wasn’t it so a crowd would gather to help with your argument? Wasn’t it so the darkness could make it more convincing? And you let the ‘ghost’ smash just the right amount of things to look threatening?”

Seated on one of the low stools because his legs still felt weak, Owner Hong stroked his beard and nodded slowly. “So that’s how it was…” Through the haze of his shock at the evening’s bizarre events, he wondered what his servant girl’s role was. Unfortunately, she had passed out the moment Zhao Weijun had revealed his true intentions and was still lying unconscious on the floor where they had laid her after untying her. That question would have to wait.

Now bound to a pillar and muted by Lan Yi’s Silencing Spell, Zhao Weijun could only glare at her out of the one eye that wasn’t swollen from the fall.

“You’re too much! How could you try to steal from an old man right under everyone’s noses! Do you have no morals? You don’t deserve to call yourself a cultivator! You’re just a bully and a lowly thief!” Mianmian burst out, unable to hold in her indignation anymore.

The crowd of onlookers had not dispersed yet despite their earlier fright, and immediately started agreeing with her.

“Well said, well said!”

“He’s nothing but a liar!”

“Throw him in prison!”

“Break his hands so he never steals again!”

“That’s right, bring him to justice!”

Cangse went over to Yanli and rested her chin on Yanli’s shoulder with a ‘mn’ – as she often did when she was tired and bored – and started whining, “We’re done here right? Is it dinnertime yet? Can we go rest somewhere already? I’m hungry… I’m going to die of hunger…”

Yanli smiled and patted Cangse’s head. “Shijie, you’re exaggerating again, you won’t die so easily. We’re in a big city tonight so there’ll definitely be lots to eat.”

Cangse beamed, but it quickly became a pained expression as she yelped out. “Yu Ziyuan! You’re so violent! What was that slap for?!”

Yu Ziyuan scoffed and slapped Cangse’s arm again, prompting another ‘ah!’ from the latter. “Stop acting like a child! Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?”

“Yanli! Look at this Yu Ziyuan, always picking on me. Don’t give her any dinner tonight!” Cangse made an ugly face at Yu Ziyuan, then nimbly dodged aside and hid behind Yanli.

Yanli laughed lightly and put out her hands to stop both of them. “There, there, that’s enough.”

Qin Su came over at this moment. “Ziyuan jie, Cangse jie – Dajie and Erjie said they will take care of the rest of the things here. They told us to go ahead and get rooms first at the Jasmine Inn we passed by earlier.”

Cangse’s face lit up. She linked her arms through Yanli’s and Qin Su’s, dragging them out of the teahouse while calling to the rest, “Come, children, let’s go! It’s none of our business here anymore!”

Rolling her eyes, Yu Ziyuan waved Mianmian, A-Qing and Wen Qing over and herded them out the door. She paused at the threshold and turned around, as though to make sure she really was not needed. Baoshan saw her hesitation and, giving her a smile of assurance, nodded to indicate that Yu Ziyuan should go with the rest.

They soon found Jasmine Inn, a pleasant, well-kept place that brought sighs of relief all around. It wasn’t that they were averse to hardship, but rather that they had been travelling through difficult terrains with little rest for many days.

While Wen Qing went to settle their rooms, Cangse led the way to two tables in a corner and was happily ordering dishes even before anyone else had sat down.

They were contented to let her choose. During the first few months one of them would always have to intervene, otherwise all the dishes would be bright red and completely inedible for those with milder palates, like Lan Yi, Baoshan and Qin Su. But after over four years together, everyone had grown familiar with one another’s tastes, and Cangse eventually adjusted to ordering the right combination of dishes.

Yu Ziyuan had taken the seat at the other table which was furthest from where Cangse sat. After the worker taking the orders left, she glared at Cangse, “Aren’t we waiting for shijie?”

Unbothered, Cangse propped up her arm on the table and rested her chin on her hand, replying lazily, “Don’t be so mean, the children are all starving. We’ll just order again when they come.”

By ‘children’, she meant Yanli, Wen Qing, Mianmian, Qin Su and A-Qing, who were quite some years younger. Although Cangse was the same age as Yu Ziyuan, which made them the third oldest, only Cangse was in the habit of calling the juniors her children.

Sitting next to Yu Ziyuan, A-Qing laughed and shot back, “We’re starving? More like Cangse jie is the one who can’t wait any longer!”

Cangse just grinned.

In any case, the dishes were already ordered. Though she didn’t want to admit it, Yu Ziyuan was hungry as well. Trying to distract herself, she changed the subject, “What a waste of time it was earlier, catching that filthy liar. It’s because of rubbish like him that people get the wrong impression of cultivators. As if we don’t already have enough with evil creatures!”

Reminded of the injustice that had almost occurred, Mianmian’s temper flared again. She clenched her fist and hit the floor next to her. “Burn in hell!”

Having settled the rooms, Wen Qing returned at this moment. As she sat down beside Yu Ziyuan, she said evenly, “Well, it’s thanks to our ‘wasted time’ that we get to have this dinner and to be able to stay here for a few nights.”

It turned out that the owner of Jasmine Inn was the teahouse owner’s sister. Not only had the teahouse owner passed Wen Qing a small sum of money in gratitude, after hearing that they planned to stay in Langya City for a few days, he had also made arrangements so they could enjoy the hospitality of Jasmine Inn during their stay. No wonder the inn workers had been so friendly to them!

“So we’ll be making enquiries about the Vermillion Bird here?” A-Qing asked in a lowered voice.

Wen Qing nodded. “I’m not sure what Lan Yi jie found out from the teahouse owner, but it made her confident that we’ll be able to find useful information here. I’m sure she’ll explain everything when they return.”

The food arrived. Without another word, they fell to eating.