Chapter 4 - Don't Let Go

The days passed one by one. Business at grandpa Liu's bun shop was better than ever. Over the past two weeks, the shop went from selling forty to fifty buns daily to two to three hundred. Most of those orders were deliveries. Grandpa Liu's bun shop had become something of a hot item in the area. Customers couldn't be happier as they consistently received their lunch and dinner deliveries on time. Despite being located on the north-eastern bridge, grandpa Liu's bun shop deliveries never once failed to arrive on time- even at the furthest south-west district.

As the sun peeks over the horizon, a young man sits beneath a large banyan tree in a meditative pose. He opens his eyes and looks to his right. A small girl, no older than six or seven, was curled up beside him. She had long, dark, scruffy hair with bangs that covered her eyes, much like Sun. He reaches his hands under her head and lifts her upright.

"Hey, wake up," he whispers as he gently brushes her hair aside and nudges her nose.

The tiny girl rubs her eyes with her dirty balled up fist. Half-way through her yawn, she sneezes.

"The nights are quite cold, aren't they?"

The girl didn't reply. She stares at the ground with her large dark eyes and simply nods. She clutches her arms around her stomach as it lets out a sad growl.

"Wait here, I'll go get you something to eat. Which one do you want today?" Sun asks. Speaking slowly, he continues, "Pork…? Beef…? V-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the little girl nodded.

"Beef it is."

Sun smiles as he pats her head. He stands up from his cross-legged pose and disappears. Such a scene would cause anyone, even a well-trained martial master, to lose their mind. Yet, the little girl didn't even blink. She continues to clutch her belly tightly, staring at the ground beneath her.

***

Moments later, Sun appears in front of grandpa Liu's bun shop.

"GAH!"

Sun's sudden appearance startles her. Despite experiencing the same events day after day, she still found it difficult to stomach. Lia had only heard stories about martial masters being able to move so fast that it seems like they can disappear and appear out of thin air. Until she met Sun, she had never actually seen it happen.

"Morning Lia," Sun beams a gentle smile as Lia slaps his shoulders in anger. "Two beef buns please."

"What buns, esteemed dummy? We don't have ingredients yet. Here's a n-"

Before she could finish, Sun had already disappeared.

"WAIT DUMMY!" she screams.

"Hmm?" Sun's figure flickers back into existence before her, scaring the rosiness straight from her face. "We need ingredients, right? I'll go pick them up."

"N-new li-" she breathes heavily, trying to calm her racing heart. "New shopping list. Too many buns. Need more. Ingredients."

Sun gently pulls the note from her stiff hands. His brows furrow as he tries to read the note.

Twenty kee-low fuh-low-er… One kee-low yeah-eats…

"Hey, esteemed dummy, twenty kilos of flour, one kilo of yeast." Having calmed her breathing, Lia took the opportunity to tease him. "Five ki- you know what? Nevermind. Just hand the note to the usual shops and bring back what they give you."

"Ten kilos of flour, two kilos of yeast, five kilos of 'you know what', 'nevermind', and 'hand the note over to the usual shops and bring back what they give you'." Sun reiterates her jokingly. "How many kilos of 'nevermind'?" He sneers as his figure flickers out of sight.

Since when did the esteemed dummy learn to tease?

Lia chuckles. Brushing off her clothes, she picks up the broom to tidy up before breakfast. After a few minutes of sweeping, Sun's figure appears in front of the shop with multiple sacks of ingredients, stacked above his head and shoulders. He carefully sets each item down on the shelfs before dusting himself off.

"Not today, dummy. The old man doesn't want you destroying the ingredients again like last week. Just go take a walk or something. Maybe stop by the bathhouse too while you're at it. You smell."

Sun lifts his arm and lightly sniffs his armpit. Lia was right. He did smell.

"That's strange..." he mutters to himself. "I don't really sweat much."

"Just freshen up! Esteemed smelly dum-"

Once again, before she could finish, Sun had disappeared.

What's up with you lately, smelly dummy?

She sighs as she thinks about how absent Sun had been lately.

He seems to be in a hurry every morning. Every night too, now that I think about it.

***

The little girl was drawing lines in the dirt when Sun suddenly appeared beside her. Sun observes the lines on the ground. He counts twenty-one lines. He thinks about it for a moment before realizing that each line represents a minute, causing him to smile.

"Sorry I was gone for so long. Something came up." Sun patted her head. "Next time, I'll be sure to come back in less than ten lines."

The little girl, though normally absent, stuck her tiny hand out. She balled it into a fist, leaving her pinky pointing at Sun.

"I promise," he says as he wraps his pinky around hers. "By the way, breakfast will have to wait a bit. Meanwhile, how about we get you some new clothes? It's cold at night, so maybe we can get you something warm as well?"

Sun waits patiently for the answer to his proposal. After a moment, the little girl nods. She sticks her finger into the dirt, drawing a tall triangle with little waves at the bottom. Sun observes her drawing.

"I'll get you a dress too, okay?"

The little girl stares at her dirt drawing, biting her lower lip and nodding her head. Sun picks her up gently by the waist, supporting her from below with his left arm and wrapping his right arm around her back.

"Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. And don't let go."

The girl listens. She tightens her eyes shut, inhales a deep breath, and wraps her skinny arms around his neck. Sun encases her in a thin layer of his aura, still holding her tightly against his chest. Their figures blur for a split moment before disappearing into thin air.