3 第3章：True Thoughts

Chaoyun entered the night market with them. As Feiyu looked around at the place, it was throughout the entire town. Not just a single location, but all the town had been so. All around town had been a place where they sold items. All sorts of trinkets had been on display since the early morning. As she slowly toured the area, for even if she had been here for a very long time.

There were always new additions, new changes to the place as time passed and things came and go. That it was never exactly the same each time she went. The travellers were their patrons, and often the ones who bought the most. Among the large variety here was an endless stream of all of them. Something that could not be avoided at least among them.

She looked around, slowly realising that this was almost the same. At least in this location, only few moved through the times. And it could be seen at the very least. That it was a place where many shifted in and out. Sometimes as travelers themselves or otherwise came and went. Some settled down here for their lives, some left after a few. While many decided to just go before they grew too attached to the place.

A reason why it could be seen to have changed rather than remain the same. Clear that it had been so rather than another, through how it seemed rather than anything else. She led them through it, slowly as the took the chance to look around. Qingshuang had been here before, but never explored it fully.

He went up to her. "Are you keen to stay up all night?"

"Fine, I have done that before." Qingshuang figured that she didn't exactly wanted to tell how and why she ended up doing this. Not at all, not when they were outside at the very least. Not when there was so much more to see, than say a story.

"That's interesting."

"She used to sell desserts then, in the market for cash. Only in recent years were we able to make enough to not do so." Chaoyun missed those desserts the most, as her mother used her to test fresh, new ideas. Now, it was rare that she will be able to. With age she had become less robust, able to run a restaurant but not a dessert stand in the night.

"She does make them, and I sell them. I keep a quarter of the sales while she takes the rest." She walked the night with familiarity, not wariness. Which was something that few girls was ever allowed to have.

But it helped to give her that certainty that nothing will happen to her. And nothing will be lost. That this was how things should have went. She relished in this place, as she knew all of them. Playing around with the old, interacting with the new. This had been so much of her, so important about her at the end of the day.

Feiyu could see that from afar, when it came to the girl. A certain difference from most of them. All because this was where she truly lived in. The location that mattered the most to her at the end.

The girl brought over a dessert, commonplace throughout all of China. Popularized in the Tang dynasty, as it was now normal to find it almost anywhere and everywhere. As she passed it into the hands of the woman. And another stick, to Qingshuang who took it with ease.

He ate it without much issues and problems as they passed through the first street. One which the girl exhibited her knowledge of it well, as she was able to even find the right place to look for the right kind of food.

She looked around, where some of the newer ones emerged.

Helping them as she went along her way through the place. Without ever thinking twice about the location as it was, while they went deeper and deeper into the place. Further from the place, which was east of the town. Near the town's gate before moving up north, which was a place that fewer went into. But there was certainly more variety there at the end of the day.

"Those aren't real." She shook her own head, confirming that truth. It most likely wasn't even real on any scale, and she fully could see that. Chaoyun agreed if she didn't rebuke her.

"How do you know?" She asked.

"It can be told. Once you've seen the real deal." Chaoyun leaned forward, although the woman didn't reveal anything at all.

"Well, guess it was a terrible idea to give that for a wedding present." Qingshuang looked to the side. Despite the fact that no one should even think about doing this for a wedding present in the first place. It made no sense and never fitted with the idea at all.

Well, whoever wanted to show their family's wealth probably had a rude shock the moment they saw this. As she looked to the side with nothing but absolute sympathy for him. While he shrugged it off, since his family had a year or even more to get over it. That he didn't mean it at all.

"That's kinda interesting." Feiyu mentioned, while sharing the same look.

"I can deal with it on my own. Besides, it's not as though it is normal for me."

"So, want to look at more fake goods?" She asked her already uncomfortable friend. Where he was glaring at her.

"Maybe we can look at something else?" Feiyu offered. "What about the West?"

"I propose the south." Chaoyun disagreed with them fully. Feiyu knew that despite her personality, she seemed to have real reasons as to why she will have chosen that path. Not out of teasing them, but for a real genuine reason.

"Well, most of the south is where all the men frequent." Which Qingshuang could easily see where it was heading towards, even for such a girl. That she had spent her days walking in the night for the most part. Yet, even she seemed to have remained away from it.

"The south it is." Perhaps Feiyu also had the same inkling as well, something unpleasant happened in the West of here. Common of any place, the capital city had many districts devoted to this. A place where men often spent their money on it. One where they were able to have a romance. Rare for both men and women.

But in women, it was known as shameful. In men, they were allowed to indulge in such passions whilst a girl could only dream to marry the man she loved.

Chaoyun brought them to the south, as quickly as they could follow. Where it seemed had been a place where all gathered to talk about anything and everything. A place for people to just talk, scholars who have not made it to the imperial exams took this place to learn. But it was to talk foremost.

To her, this must have been her favourite place.

"Wish I brought my guqin." He lamented seeing as musicians also took the chance to show their skill, which was a great place for him in the least. While the man turned over, giving him an even larger one than he played.

"Uh, thank you." As he then begun to play on it.

Chaoyun smiled before looking around, for a place to sit.

"This is the place that I remember the most." An open location, free to view the stars. Everyone came to seek their fortunes with a skilled astrologer who stopped by town.

As the astrologer looked to her first and foremost. Although Chaoyun had never been one for such things, but curiosity drew her in. "Child, you are able to see what others do not. What others see as proper, you see as stifling, What others see as fantasy, to you it is a possibility. You defy rules because it is your nature, but you should worry what you will draw to yourself."

She looked at the woman who was busy giving her advice, and wasn't even that interested in it. To her it didn't even mean anything. If it was true, then she will have faith that the gods will have taken care of her.

But she doesn't, of course. The girl has never believed that there were things that should be followed, or not tried. If not, she will not have sold desserts. She will not have continued to serve tables the way she did.

"Aren't you going to pay?" The next in line customer told her. The man himself kept quiet, not having any intentions to debunk it.

"Why do I pay if I'm not even certain what she says is the truth." She walked away, because many knew her as odd and strange. All at the same time, she never believed much other than what her eyes could see and her mind could fathom. "Besides, the signs says that those who do not think that it is the truth, they can afford not to."

And she never asked for it.

"Well, it isn't a reading. More of an advice from an old man who has been in your path before." She turned around, knowing that it wasn't all that much the truth.

"Do you ever believe in fortunes?" She asked Feiyu. The woman had simply sat down, not deciding to take part in anything else at all.

"Not much. Fortunes can have us meet and separate us, making us helpless to its whim. All my life, my fortune had been laid out to me. It was never that accurate." She gave her a wry smile. That this was the same for her. Not something that she needed to follow with certainty, but could be useful to have.

"So, take it both ways?"

"Think of it like that, simple as it can never be proven right or wrong until you know."

"But it isn't really all that important. It's not as though it makes lives more bearable by changing anything." It was just kind words which eased the pain, never solving anything in their way. Being able to bear with things was never a good idea, especially to her.

"Some prefer that, thinking that they can't change anything."

"They can." They had a choice, they could choose to do something they needed to. There always was another way. Never having a choice wasn't an excuse unless the world was at stake, which will have made sense then. But if the cost was their pride, what was there to lose? Trust if lost could also be earned if they were honest, not if they tried their hardest to make sure it remains a secret.

"Just that few will ever think of pursuing that because of the costs. Those who think that it is the best rarely have such considerations in the first place."

"Are you guys behaving like scholars because all of you want to?"

"Maybe." They both turned their heads and answered at the same time.

"What happened to the guqin?"

"The strings were in terrible condition, I couldn't even play a single good tune." He rolled his eyes.

Before the man came forward, with Chaoyun pretending he didn't exist. While Feiyu played the actor, who was trying to talk with another man this time around. About writing letters that she could carry.

"Thank you for letting me know. At least I know why I can't play this whenever I have a family gathering." He was speechless as the man carried it back, showing signs of wear and tear. "My name is Jincai."

Qingshuang tried to give a good smile, although he was not reassuring or sympathised with him in the least. Chaoyun was bursting in laughter.

"I think that must have went through three generations at the very least." Looking at how broken it seemed to the point that the strings were in terrible condition/

Although they knew that it was late, and they should just leave. That was how it is with them, at least for their first visit to the night market.