Good or Bad (2)

Splash!

Once the wave touched the ground, the water slowly seeped back in and the dirt was dry again. It was as if the large wave of water never happened, leaving only a small boy laid on the ground. His clothes and hair were soaked wet.

Zhou Xin ran to him.

Surprisingly, as she sat beside Chen Liang, he moved.

The boy struggled to push his weight off the ground, turned over, then coughed out a small amount of water that got into his mouth.

Wulan walked towards him.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

"Impressive," she congratulated.

The boy was breathing heavily, the expression on his face as he tried to look at Wulan seemed rather pitiful.

I was only trying to scare him off, and make him pass out to send him back to the residence. I didn't expect him to use a bit of land magic to block the water from entering his airways.

She then found that Zhou Xin was glaring at her.

"What? You didn't think I'd actually kill him, did you? I even made sure to control the impact so that it wouldn't hurt him."

Wulan smiled innocently as if she didn't just throw a huge wave at a young defenseless boy.

As she got closer, Wulan waved her hand towards Chen Liang's direction, and a gush of strong wind flew at him.

Whoosh!

His clothes and hair instantly dried.

After making sure Chen Liang was okay, Zhou Xin stood up.

The boy looked back at himself, his clothes, and rubbed the top of his head to feel his dry hair.

It was hard to believe what just happened, and Chen Liang started to wonder if the large wall of water he just saw was real at all.

But on the ground around him, there were wet paper talismans scattered all over.

Chen Liang asked carefully, "So… can I go with you?"

Wulan shrugged, "You can do what you want. But wouldn't your parents be worried or something?"

"...My parents are gone."

Wulan did a double take at how willingly this kid had stated it.

Not that it was emotionless, but he had answered it as if it was some regrettable news that he found on the streets rather than something he had experienced himself.

She realized that the boy also had a small build and looked quite young. He was definitely still a beginner in magic, far from Zhou Xin's level, but his skills were pretty commendable for his age.

"How old are you?" she asked.

"Twelve."

Just two years older than Zhou Xin. Great. It was another kid as her second crew member.

Not that it was a big problem. At the very least, the kid could carry his own weight based on his quick thinking and magic potential. With a consistent amount of practicing, he could hone his abilities much further in a short time.

It was also a good thing for Wulan that she didn't have to worry about his family looking for him. She didn't expect him to be an orphan, considering he was a disciple at Tan Academy. But it seemed like she was overlooking an important detail.

Wulan turned to Zhou Xin.

"You said his name was…?"

Zhou Xin answered, "Chen Liang."

Wulan had a bad feeling about this as she turned to ask him, "Are you from the Chen Clan?"

Chen Liang answered, "Yeah."

"Ugh, this is going to be troublesome," Wulan said as she touched her forehead.

Chen Rongguang was the current leader of Chen Clan. As far as Wulan knew, he had no siblings. His father, however, had three brothers. Chen Liang might be one of Chen Rongguang's cousins, or he could be a distant relative.

So far, Wulan had no trouble with powerful mages going after her. No matter how powerful they are, or how many people were ganging up on her. But if the Chen Clan themselves form a search group to retrieve Chen Liang, that would be a problem even for the Sea Witch.

It would cause too much commotion, and Wulan didn't really want to use more of her powers than necessary.

Wulan thought, if anyone from the clan comes for him, I'll just hand him over. If the kid is stubborn, I'll just give him up the next time I meet Minji-ya. She'll be able to return him without a hitch.

But it was weird that the Chen Clan, the most prestigious and powerful clan in the Southern Peninsula, sent one of their own to learn magic in the Tan Clan. Although the Tan Clan is known to be the best at their educational establishment, the Tan Academy, the Chen Clan still takes pride in their own magic techniques.

What does that say about Chen Liang then? Who decided to put him there?

"Alright."

Wulan decided to put those matters aside.

It'll just give me a headache if I think about it.

"Let's all go find lunch. I'm starving."

Wulan had stayed up all night combing the areas of the forest, and by morning, she had spent quite a long time in the spirit realm. Zhou Xin was baffled by the fact that Wulan could still talk at all.

The group of three headed to any place where they could find food, but everytime they reached a town, Wulan insisted on finding somewhere a little further than the Tan Residence. She said it was because the Tan Clan was investigating the matter of Xiao Xi village, so she wanted to avoid any encounters.

In reality, Wulan just didn't want to come across Shin Minji after their last interaction, as she thought it would be awkward.

By the time they settled at a restaurant, the sky had turned a bright orange color, although the sun was still a few lengths away from going down. And by then, both Zhou Xin and Chen Liang had gotten hungry as well.

Throughout their walk, Chen Liang had talked to Wulan a lot more in a few hours than Zhou Xin did in four days. He never seemed to run out of questions.

"Did you make Zhou Xin's charm? Why did you use a regular stone? Are you Zhou Xin's dad?"

"What's it like to be a pirate? Do you have a ship? Is it big?"

"Where did you get your sword? Can I have my own sword? Can you teach me how to fight with them?"

"Hey Zhou Xin, why did you decide to follow this guy? When did you two meet?"

"Why did you save our forest? What was that big array for? How did you know about Elder Yan and his grandson?"

In any case, Zhou Xin was glad that someone could ask the right questions. She could finally get the proper answers she wanted from Wulan.

However, Wulan would only answer in detail to questions she finds interesting.

"Oh the charm? Regular stone can be as powerful as a diamond if you enhance it with enough spiritual energy. Of course, you need to carve the right strokes to contain it."

"No, I'm not A-Xin's dad! Where did you even get that idea?"

"This sword? I stole it. If you want a sword, go get your own!"

"Why do you talk so much? You've asked more questions in an hour than there are spells in the world."

Zhou Xin thought it was funny that the same thing could be said about Wulan regarding her stories and useless facts.

And proving that, Wulan did ramble a lot when she answered the question about Lan Jing Forest. She told them almost everything from when she entered the spirit realm until letting the spirits possessed her body.

The only time Wulan and Chen Liang shut their mouths was when food was finally served on their table.

Roasted duck, all kinds of dumplings from the menu, a large bowl of noodles, and some stir-fried vegetables. Freshly cooked, the dishes had a layer of steam on top of it, and a mouthwatering aroma spread out.

Gulp!

Zhou Xin had never seen so much food in front of her, not when she had been living in her village, nor when she was under the care of the Jade House. Madam Su never held back in spoiling her with food, but she took account of Zhou Xin's size and appetite, and never overindulged either.

Her eyes twitched, eyebrows slightly frowning. Not sure if it was out of excitement or worry.

Can we really finish all this food?

She's incredibly hungry, but even then, the food on the table seemed almost too much. 

Conflicted, Zhou Xin mumbled, "Isn't this… too much?"

"A-Xin's right… there's only three of us!" Chen Liang agreed. Although he had a similar look on his face.

Wulan reached to grab a portion of the roasted duck. Without taking her eyes away from the food, she laughed, "Hahahaha! What are you talking about? Both of you are short and tiny, all the more reasons you should eat more!"

Then she devoured the food rapidly.

Without a second thought, Zhou Xin and Chen Liang also reached for the food and gorged down on them. 

The whole meal was finished in less than 10 minutes.

Zhou Xin didn't think all the dishes would end up empty without even a tiny drop of sauce left.

Right now, all three of them sat slumped on their chairs, groaning, as they were all too full to move a muscle.

"Ermm… best… meal… I've ever… had," Chen Liang mumbled with his cheek leaning on the table surface.

Zhou Xin was in a similar position, lazily nodding her head, "Kou… we should come here again… sometime."

The thief only laughed.

Clap!

"Alright, don't take a nap right here! I need you two to get up! Get up!"

Wulan lightly tapped on the table to urge the kids to sit properly, and the two complied with unmotivated looks on their faces.

Once they sat straight, Wulan pointed at their sleeves.

"Take out whatever you have. I want to see."

Zhou Xin turned sullen and grumbled as she fished out each of her sleeve pockets.

"Why do you need to know our stuff?"

On the table, she placed some paper talismans, herbs and medicines that Madam Su had given her, small wooden charms, and a coin pouch that didn't seem to have much in it.

Chen Liang pulled out similar items, but the paper talismans and charms he had were of higher quality, and his coin pouch looked much fuller and heavy.

Wulan glanced quickly to observe the items, before picking up Chen Liang's coin pouch.

She said, "Well, I have an idea of what you have, A-Xin. I probably need to modify some of your charms. I should also make some for A-Liang."

Wulan opened the coin pouch and poured some into her palm.

After she calculated the amount, she laughed.

"Hahahaha! This is great, A-Liang! You have about twenty copper coins, and three silver coins!"

Wulan placed the coins back into the pouch and handed them to Chen Liang.

"Now, you go and pay for the food!"

"What?! Why do I have to pay?"

"Because you have the most money out of all three of us."

Chen Liang was about to complain to Zhou Xin, but she was already collecting her stuff from the table and nodded to agree.

"That's not fair!" Chen Liang exclaimed. He glanced around to make sure no one was listening, then he whispered, "Why can't we just sneak out? I thought we're pirates!"

Wulan laughed, "Ha! If we get caught, it's too much trouble! Easier to just pay when we have the money. Also, I'm a thief, not a pirate!"

Chen Liang yelled out in disbelief, "What kind of thief are you?!"

Then he shoved his belongings back in his sleeve pockets, and stood up from his chair. As he was about to walk to the counter, the front door of the restaurant opened and three people came in.

Chen Liang gasped.

He stopped in his tracks, turned around, and sat back down on his chair.

Wulan leaned down, "What's wrong?"

Chen Liang brushed his hair forward to cover his face, and whispered, "Get down! They'll recognize you. They're from my clan."

Wulan put on her hat and leaned down as closely to the table, resting her arm in front of her face.

As Zhou Xin was the only one without any risk of being recognized, she turned to look at the three newcomers.

Other than the fact that all three were obviously mages, and each have their own swords, nothing stood out from them. They weren't wearing robes in the Chen Clan colors, nor have any visible clan crest anywhere.

If Chen Liang hadn't pointed out that they were from the Chen Clan, no one would've guessed. They were either people in the residence without any notable status, or off-duty guards.