25 A Tense Reunion

Hong Wu felt incredibly awkward. She stood off to the side, unsure what to do in this situation. Yan and Lan Cixi stood only ten paces from each other, but that distance acted as an uncrossable chasm.

It had taken less convincing on Yan's part than Hong Wu had initially thought. After explaining that Lan Cixi wanted to apologize for how her father had evicted her from city hall, Yan tensed up to resemble a statue of herself. Forcing the words through her clenched teeth, Yan interrogated, "What did she tell ya?"

Hong Wu felt the temperature in the air drop as Yan began to emit a violent presence. Hong Wu cautiously responded, "Quite a bit."

Yan's face became even darker, but to Hong Wu's surprise Yan did not attempt to argue. She simply hissed, "Tell er to meet here," as she stomped off into the forest.

Hong Wu brought the news back to Lan Cixi, much to Lan Cixi's excitement. The next day, Lan Cixi made sure that Hao Ru was engaged in a bout of secluded meditation, before slipping away in the morning mist to meet Hong Wu near the edge of the forest.

When Lan Cixi finally arrived at the camp though, her excitement was replaced with anxiety. Yan did not say a word as she stood rooted in place staring coldly at Lan Cixi. Lan Cixi nervously played with the belt of her robe, trying, and failing, to make eye-contact with Yan. Mustering her courage Lan Cixi looked straight at Yan and began, "Ren Yu, I-"

"Don't fuckin call me that. I am done with yer slave name."

Lan Cixi shrunk back. Looking at her feet now, she whispered, "I'm sorry Re-Yan; I wanted to come see you sooner, but my father, he…"

Lan Cixi trailed off before she could say anything else. Yan scowled, "Is that all ya have to say? It's yer father's fault, so I should jus go back to bowing an scraping for ya? Call ya Lady Lan and clean yer chamber pot? Ya wanna make a fool of the same street rat just for shits and giggles?"

Each question landed heavy blows upon Lan Cixi. Her eyes began to tear up as her composure broke completely. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, I can't imagine what those two years were like for you. I tried to leave to go looking for you. I beat my hands bloody banging on my door begging to see you! They wouldn't let me out!"

Now it was Yan's turn to lose her composure, "Sorry? Sorry does nothing for me. I was beaten half to death and left to die in the gutter. I had to survive off of eating rats raw! When I could finally walk, I had to steal everything I needed! Every time I went outside was another near death experience! I had to fake being a boy or the cutthroats of Heishan would have had their fun then gutted me! I went through hell!"

Yan stepped closer to Lan Cixi as she berated Lan Cixi. Yan's voice rose with each word until she was screaming right in Lan Cixi's face. Tears were streaming down Lan Cixi's cheeks now. Lan Cixi choked out her words through sobs, "I didn't know! Please, I never wanted any of this!"

Yan simply scoffed and turned to leave. She didn't get far before Lan Cixi lunged at her trying to hold Yan back from leaving. When Lan Cixi grabbed her wrist, Yan spun fiercely back towards Lan Cixi. At the same time Yan tapped her bag of holding and summoned her flying sword. The sword stopped twenty centimeters from Lan Cixi's forehead, hovering dangerously over the now terrified Lan Cixi. "Do you really hate me that much? Do you really want me dead?"

Shaking her wrist loose from Lan Cixi's grip, Yan put away the flying sword and once again turned to leave. Hope began to leave Lan Cixi's eyes as she wept. "Is there truly no way I can make it up to you?"

Hong Wu had been watching this scene like a house burning down, terrible to see but impossible to tear her eyes away. To her dismay, Lan Cixi was not content to have Hong Wu as a mere spectator. Lan Cixi looked imploringly at Hong Wu who was trying to edge away at this point. Making eye-contact, Hong Wu cursed herself for sticking around. Sighing, Hong Wu said, "We do need a way to get merit points Yan. I want to try out making some medicines before we go deeper into the forest. I can't take any jobs and you …"

Hong Wu didn't want to say it aloud, but Yan had tried to pick up a few harvesting jobs matching the plants Hong Wu had found. Yan went on two separate occasions to find the matching jobs, but came back with the wrong ones both times. Frustrated, she had thrown her arms up and exclaimed, "Who needs merit points anyways!? Screw the sect!"

Hong Wu did not push the issue at first because she didn't want to wound Yan's pride. Now someone with the means and the motivation was coming to them. "She could be helpful."

Hope sprouted again within Lan Cixi. "Yes, please let me help I will do anything!"

Lan Cixi and Hong Wu looked in Yan's direction. Yan stopped briefly without looking back. "You be the one to deal with her then," she clipped, then stalked off.

The light in Lan Cixi's eyes dimmed a bit at Yan's dismissive attitude, but a trace of contentment hid behind her defeated look. "She'll come around; she just needs time to burn off her anger. Give her some more time."

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Lan Cixi smiled. "Thank you Sister Hong. I will not let you down."

Hong Wu spent the next half hour giving Lan Cixi a detailed explanation of plant names and descriptions before sending her off. Once she was gone Hong Wu dumbly walked to her makeshift shelter to get some rest after such an exhausting day.