Chapter 1
The rain was heavy and thunderous, coming suddenly and streaking down in heavy torrents. Xie Lian knew that it would rain sometime today with how cloudy it was but he was still caught off guard when the sky cracked thunderously and split open all in one moment.
By the time he found a small tea shop, he was soaked through, and had managed to trip over nothing and hit his face on a rock, his cheek throbbing and feeling tender. His robes were sticking to him uncomfortably and left him feeling very much chilled from the unseasonably cold rain. He felt the temperature difference immediately after he gently brushed aside the beads in the doorway.
The tea shop was small and only had two tables to sit at, one being used to hold items that the owner was deep cleaning and the other holding a person calmly drinking from a cup.
He took a moment to sit his basket of scraps off to the side of the door to not track any more water in than necessary and wrung his sleeves a bit to get the water off. He smile apologetically towards the shop owner as he spoke, "Just some tea if you would, sorry to track the water in."
"It's no problem. Please make yourself comfortable." The old worker waved him forward and left to go grab him a cup and a pot of tea.
That left him to glance over at the only available table, the person sitting there having turned to him as well and gave a polite friendly smile, waving towards the spot across from them, "By all means, some company would be nice if you're in the mood to talk!"
Xie Lian hesitated a moment, taken aback at the friendliness directed at him and took a moment to look them over. They were perhaps eighteen or nineteen, the young master seeming a little damp themselves but seemed to have gotten out of the worst of the storm, their robes grey and darkened from the moisture.
His damp hair was pulled into a simple bun that wasn't bothered to contain all it's length, the excess falling down to their neck in damp waves and curls. His eyes were warm and brown, and not showing a speck of disinterest or disdain which... was nice.
Xie Lian felt a small answering smile crawl on his lips as he joined the other, flinching slightly at the wet squelch his robes made when he sat down, "Thank you, may this one know the kind stranger's name?"
The younger gave another sip of the steaming tea and let the smile drop into something softer, friendly, " This one is called Lin Shuo, courtesy Xidao. May this young master know Shifu’s name?"
Xie Lian could only blame himself for his thoughtless answer managing to only stumble over the beginning and get out, "Lian!" He froze slightly, he meant to give an alias, he never introduced himself much anymore and the most he introduced himself these past three hundred years was as Guoshi of Yong’an or General Hua and…
“Li An? No courtesy? Well An-Shifu, thank you for having this young master for company! This one does not have much opportunity to sit and chat.” They seemed amiable enough and Xie Lian let out a sigh of relief, they thought he meant Li An and not Lian, taking it as his surname and given name.
“Ah, no, this one does not have a courtesy, but does Lin Shuo not have many friends, they seem friendly enough!” He paused a moment before backtracking, “Oh that was terribly rude of me, I’m sorry, I-” Gosh he was such a wreck, not conversing with people made him somewhat forget his manners and here he was being overly familiar, with someone nice enough to chat with him. He felt like slapping himself in the forehead, even ruffians knew to refer to people with their courtesy names and not just walk all over manners, when had he become so shameless?
“ Mm it’s okay, it's… nice to hear my given name, so no offense taken, so don’t worry yourself too much over it, although I’ll have to call you A-An just to be fair!” The younger gave a mischievous smile that made the tension leak out from Xie Lian’s shoulders,” But this one does not stay in one place long, I travel from place to place, I know many people but I would not call them friends. A farmer here or merchant there, people I have met on my journeys.” He felt a bit of trepetition melt off of him, the young master wasn’t offended and even referred to him with an endearment, it made him feel a bit warm inside, when was the last time someone did so? He couldn’t remember.
“Why does Lin Shuo travel so much then, surely they have a home to go to!”
Their conversation was an interesting one to be sure, Lin Shuo was a cultivator (Rouge cultivator they had insisted, such a strange term) that traveled around outside of the main influence of kingdoms and seemed to take it as a personal mission to subdue or disperse ghosts and demonic creatures that plague any towns they go through, ‘Night Hunts’ they called them.
They spoke of a few funny or memorable hunts that they had been on, one with a ghost that mostly just scared passers-by, wailing so loud that it left Shuo’s ears ringing as they tried to talk the ghost out of the tree it was clinging to. Another story of some poor person wrongfully accused of murdering his mother and was taking his resentment out on the actual culprit, his father, his ghost trying desperately to kill the man only to have terrible luck doing so, a rock falling from the roof simply missing by a few inches, a trip down a hill ending in some nice soft hay instead of a cliff three feet to the side.
Xie Lian returned with a few stories of his own where his own bad luck went boarding on funny even if it was misfortunate. The younger didn’t seem very knowledgeable in the local area or even history, cocking their head to the side in confusion at some of the things he spoke of, the younger motioning him on to speak more of it, listening about kingdoms long since gone or famous battles with rapt attention.
Then it was Xie Lian’s turn to listen in rapt attention as Lin Shuo spoke about paper talismans and arrays like no one he’s ever heard of, the ideas and understanding displayed were a bit overwhelming, they seemed to really enjoy the challenge of having a goal for a set talisman and working to get the outcome… like the compass, they showed him, apparently, it could track large amounts of demonic energy (for some reason they called it resentful like it was the proper term and he was a bit confused about that).
It had been such a long time since he had a pleasant conversation just for the purpose of conversing, a very, very long time and Xie Lian felt almost fit to burst. Like he was a starving man finally given something to eat and it made him feel like he was being spoiled like it was too much and he didn’t deserve it but he couldn’t pull himself away from the easy conversation and genuinely nice person in front of him.
His luck usually never permitted things like this to happen and he felt like his face was hurting from how much he was smiling as they both sipped at their tea. He felt fit to burst, having been starved of social interaction for so long.
He almost wept when the rain let up, knowing that their time was coming to an end and that his new friend (they were friends now right? It’s been so long since he had one, even if he didn’t really deserve to have one…) paid for both their drinks, waving him off when he tried to argue, a smile on their pretty face, dark brown eyes warm and twinkling as they leaned over and had their hand drift over the side of his face, not touching just hovering above the side…and then a strange warmth, a sense of comfort and safety, something he hadn’t felt in so long that it clogged his throat and made his eyes burn at the feeling, spiritual energy tingling as Lin Shuo’s face screw up in concentration and… oh… oh Shuo healed his bruised face.
“Well this young master must be going, thank you for listening to this one ramble.”
“I very much enjoyed it! I hope we can speak again in the future!"
“If our paths cross again, safe travels A-An”
“Hopefully, thank you Lin Shuo.”
