Chapter 41:

Chapter 41:

~~~~Tai Su~~~~

One person is intelligent, more often than not, but groups are rarely not dumb.

When a person enters a group or an organization then we all externalize our thinking to it to a certain extent. Its enemies become ours, its griefs and joys start being shared and when we act we do so thinking about how this affects others or about how it will make us seem in front of others.

This would normally be a good thing as it allows people to specialize and lifts people from having to worry about everything, but there is a dark part to it and that is the positions each of us take in the group. There are the leaders who guide the group and keep it cohesive, the nurturers who make sure the little things are smoothed out before the leaders notice, the warriors which will defend and fight and there is always an idiot.

Father described it to me like cards, there is a royal family with clear responsibilities, there are the numbers and then there is the Madman, the individual who’s always the greats risk to use as using it can either win you a game or lose it with no in-between.

Idiots are like that, they are the ones that take the greatest risk, that try the most deranged ideas out and that more often than not fail miserably at contributing much to a group as a whole, up until one of their gambles pays off. A new spice is discovered, a new source of food is added to the village, maybe one of the mushrooms everyone told them to not try is proven to work and sometimes they go try and steal from people outside of the community and it brings untold prosperity upon it, and then the village becomes a bandit village as they try to replicate what the idiot achieved.

I don’t know who the idiot is in Feng Shan’s group, I don’t know if they’ll try to do something stupid to us, but I know two things. One is that you must not count on the idiot to not act and two groups will always protect their own from outsiders and despite us helping them, we are outsiders to Feng Shan’s camp.

Better to nip any problems by preventing them.

“Everyone ready?” I asked.

My backpack was ready, my sheets and change of clothes were put in, my utensils and bowl was wrapped in, the cooking pot too and at my side was my spear, axe and new sling. The sling was one of two given to me by the civilians as payment for my group giving them so many supplies.

The others looked ready, our small camp was empty and all our belongings were placed where they should, but it didn’t hurt to check just in case something is missing.

Like my and Bao’s slings, which we should have taken and that yet I could not remember until today. There is no reason for us not to have taken any, and slings are the sort of things you don’t need to worry about taking space. They are pieces of rock and some rope, they can rest in a cooking pot or a small pouch.

I even distinctly remember her father making her a proper one and gifting it to her a few months ago, as opposed to the improvised one she now wore. I’ll have to talk with her if she can remember it, because I can’t even remember leaving with it and it took me a long time to even think of a sling.

I’ll do it once we finish the Trial, we don’t need distractions now, not when we’re so close to the finish line.

“Yes Tai.” Bao said with a roll of her eyes.

Everyone else followed suit and said they were ready, but I could see that they were unfocused and sleepy still. Yu Zong even yawned.

My friends and wife were far too sleepy to be going into danger and it was up to me to look after them.

I nodded with a smile that hid my thoughts and an idea wormed itself into my mind, an idea for a prank that is.

“Great, now anyone remembers which mountain we’re meant to be going to? The two look the same and I can’t tell.” I asked with as much seriousness as I could.

Their tiredness was gone and was quickly replaced with a brief panic as six out the seven individuals in front of me looked to the side in horror trying to remember which mountain was the correct one.

“It’s that one.” Mei Lin said in a deadpan and pointed her finger to one of the mountains.

She pointed to the wrong one and I could see everyone panic even further as it wasn’t the one they remembered and her tone did not clue them in to the fact she was helping me with my joke.

The two mountains are distinct in a pretty obvious way, the one near the outpost is taller than the one the sect is in. The one the sect is in is also wider, but that’s not as easily noticeable and easy to miss.

“Pfft. Thanks Mei Lin I think everyone is properly awake now. No, that’s not the mountain everyone, I just needed everyone alert and Mei Lin was kind enough to help.” I declared with a laugh.

The woman just gave me a smirk but otherwise remained silent and left me to handle everyone giving me an outraged look.

“Now, that everyone is properly awake we can leave, follow me.” I continued and ignored their angry looks and muttering.

I did not look back towards the civilians’ camp, we did not say goodbye, just left as the sun rose and before most of them could even notice. If they want to go take revenge then I will wish them well, but I have better things to do.

“Will we split at the base of the mountain?” Yu Zong asked from behind.

“No, The civilians said that the cherries are nearby, we are not splitting and giving them an easy fight.” I answered promptly.

“We should have joined the others to hunt the cherries.” Cheng Lin complained.

“My priority is getting all of us at the sect and becoming cultivators. You can have your revenge if you want it after you’re a proper cultivator in the sect if you feel so strongly about it, but until then you focus on surviving and winning. The cherries are getting what’s coming for them anyway.” I answered softly.

Huang was a bit of a wake-up call. While splitting was useful to cover more ground it left us too open to ambushes, as no matter how you split us, there’s no group of three of us that can fight off five or more cherries.

Three is the minimum size for a squad, but the first day of the trial showed me that everyone defaults to five or six and so did the Lins. I did not ask what happened to the other people they had with them, I didn’t want to know and I doubt they would have wanted to share if asked.

More importantly I didn’t care. I care little for the Lins, the reason I took them in was because I was curious about ice blooded and my curiosity earned me what I could charitably call a pet and uncharitably a science experiment on how cultivation affects the mind and how to find a way to stop my children from being as messed up as everyone else was when they do start cultivating.

Cheng Lin and Haoran Lin were her hangers on, individuals I decided to take in because they were attached to Mei Lin and she still wanted them by her side and I didn’t have any strong feelings on them.

They’ve been slowly growing on me, as they are good people and as my subordinates it’s my duty to help them, but it doesn’t change the fact that they are little more than friendly acquaintances for now.

“If you want revenge, we can always just be extra rough with any cherries we do find that think they can start something.” Da Xiu offered kindly.

“And if we do find whoever stole from you, we can beat them until you get your belongings back.” I continued with a smirk.

They are still my subordinates, and once my household will form properly, brothers-in-law. I have no reason to go hunt for whoever wronged them, but if the individuals that did so are kind enough to introduce themselves?

I am above all things a fair man and leader and what sort of man would I be if I didn’t help my brothers-in-law with their revenge?

That earned a laugh from both twins as they found my joke funny.

We all knew they are not getting back whatever it is that the cherries stole, nor are they the most important thing to consider if we’re unlucky and meet the cherries. Life is not about valuables or about logic or monetary things, it’s about the bonds we forged together.

~~~~Yu Zong~~~~

There are many things I was told I would have to face as the wife of a bannerman by my mother, those being infidelity, large appetites, night terrors from my husband or long deployments.

All of those were things, my love’s parents also warned me off too, except the infidelity, which was something both the men and women of the Xiu clan found abhorrent.

What the Xiu clan and my mother failed to warn me about is that lemon bannermen are slave drivers.

For the last few weeks the only thing I knew was training, foraging, cultivation, marching and sleep with little to no break.

I am used to harsh training, I am used to focusing for days at a time on a single thing, but the regime Tai Su implemented was beyond what I have experienced preparing myself for the Sect trials. This is so because it does not stop, Tai Su continues working the same a way a river continues flowing and the idea of rest is a distant thing on his mind.

What he cares for is work and you can’t even hold it against him because he is always the last to stop working and the first to start.

“My legs hurt.” I mumbled softly.

My mind can’t complain about the lemons setting up a pace of work I can barely match, but my legs can and I wasn’t the only one.

The Lins were silent about it, but I could see and hear their huffs, they were more tired than I even. Bao was little better than me in how she moved, but Da, Ya Xue and Tai Su looked like they could continue walking for twice as long with little issue.

‘Stupid banner families putting their children through unreasonable training and then expecting it out of everyone.’ I whined in the silence of my mind.

I trained, by the empress and the ancestors I trained, but there is a difference between my combat training and physical conditioning and whatever had them be able to just walk through a forest from sunrise until close to dawn without stopping except for relieving themselves.

I could hear the sigh coming from the front as Ya Xue gently nudged Tai Su and proved to me that she was nothing like her former kin. She actually had mercy for the rest of us.

“We’ll rest here for a bit, then see if we can’t reach the base of the mountain before the sun starts going past the horizon or we find a good place to camp. Da Xiu, you keep guard, Ya Xue and I will go look over the area to see if there’s anything useful nearby.” Tai Su said.

‘Even now he doesn’t stop.’ I thought in part awe and part annoyance.

I sat down near a tree and near Bao. For all the fact we did not get along, our husbands already decided that our families will be friends due to the fact both of them are bannermen and this made her an ideal ally.

When it came to the social arena, being allied by common interests and family bonds was far more important than liking one another. This was a lesson mother drilled in my head incessantly.

It was one of her friends, a woman she liked and considered a sister that managed to get so ostracized by her former community she had to become a dancer to make a living. It also didn't hurt that Da's aunts also corroborated her teachings.

“How are they unaffected by all of this?” Cheng Lin asked as he sat down and started pulling out his shoes.

I threw him some of the skin tincture which he caught without even looking as his siblings started doing the same.

“It’s the boots, they’re made specifically to be comfortable for both nature walks and long marches on the road. My and Bao’s aren’t as good ,as they weren’t made by professional cobblers with decades of experience making those exact boots, but they are still made for traveling through nature and yours seem designed specifically for the road.” I explained to the three who listened attentively.

A pair of boots was crucial for anything you planned to do, as they could make or break you depending on what you had and what you did with it.

The bannermen’s boots are something master cobblers spend decades learning how to do and are standard issue for all bannermen, because they are as good on the road as they are off it and are perfect for long treks. Anyone wearing them had to be connected to the banners or to be considered a part of them, because those shoes were a status symbol only they could wear.

It wasn’t an easy trek even without them, as my own boots weren’t much worse, but it was the reason my feet only hurt a bit but didn’t need the medicine to fix the skin unlike the Lins.

“I don’t understand why you refuse to tell Tai of this. He’d push us less if he knew you were hurting like this.” Bao remarked.

“We know we are a drain, the last thing we want is to be even more so. Tai Su does not strike me as someone that accepts waste and the medicine is enough to deal with hurt feet.” Haoran Lin answered as his flesh sizzled.

The Alchemical tincture was good, better than anything I’ve seen back home, but it wasn’t painless and even as it could mend flesh easily, it still delivered pain. I’ve read stories of miraculous alchemical tinctures and other strange things far north into the capital, stones that can turn lead into iron, formations that can drain seas of salt, incredibly elixirs that can make one younger and more. The tincture was not much compared to the stories I’ve heard about the capital, but it was still something that was far more valuable than a day or two of walking with hurt feet would require.

I also didn’t dare contradict them, Tai Su certainly didn’t seem like the type to accept laziness or a subpar performance.

“I promised not to tell him, but you really should, he won’t hold it against you. At best it will lead him to trying to find a solution like taking longer breaks and having you train or cultivate during it.” Bao however, dared to do so.

She was his wife after all, I imagined she might be trying to use her ability to actually get him to consider this as leverage over them, but I’ve grown to know her these past few weeks and despite us having radically different perspectives on life, I’ve grown to respect her and know that she wouldn’t do that. It wasn’t because she wasn’t capable of it, but because she thought that doing so to family simply wasn’t done.

Family was the one she should be doing the most to! If you can keep your family handled and properly leveraged then things won’t break when inheritances need to be split, or when disaster strikes and people turn into scum without virtue that would leave a pregnant woman alone to miscarry her child.

“We thank you for offering Bao, but the answer remains no. We’re already on thin ice with Tai Su due to the fact we eat as much as you but provide far less and despite you and Yu Zong being willing to cover for us, the last thing we want is for Tai Su to think we’re too much of a burden.” Mei Lin replied.

I sighed at that, yes I did take on the role of complaining when it seemed like the Lins would break down from tiredness or pain, and they were correct that what they feared was a real possibility but they failed to acknowledge reality due to their hang ups. It must be a city folk thing as little Ya thought the same from the way she looked at them.

Tai Su decided all of us belong to him. I can see it in the way he looks at us, because he does it the same way Granny La looks at her cooking pots.

To touch what’s hers is to forfeit your life and even if they weren’t the most useful or something she uses, she would defend them and be angry when you touch them.

She has a small pot I gifted her when I was ten at the prompting of my mother. It is a small and cheap thing that can barely be filled with enough stew for three servings and is probably worth more melted down than as a pot. One day some cousin of my husband found it and decided to piss in it like the small idiot that he was.

Using it for potty training a five years old was probably more use than that pot had seen in its life, but it didn’t matter because Granny La made the child and his parents bottoms red as she screamed at them for hours for letting the child touch what’s hers and Tai Su strikes me like the same sort of being.

I could see it in his eyes, the same possessive need, the same way he made sure we were ordered and doing what we needed to do when we had to. If I didn’t have Granny La I probably wouldn’t have seen it, but I did. What’s his is his, it doesn’t matter how useful it is, the fact he owns it makes it important and he’ll only part with what’s his when he’s dead.

“You won’t be left behind or told to leave, we don’t act like that.” Da Xiu interjected.

I winced.

I truly and deeply loved him, but the man had no tact. The three of them were already struggling, the last thing they needed was to have their insecurities and fears brought to the surface so plainly

“We’re not taking any chances.” Mei Lin replied curtly.

My husband just sighed. He and Ya were the ones to notice first what the Lins were going through and he got me to force them to show us their feet to apply medicine to them or try to convince them to just tell Tai Su. They refused to listen, even as they accepted the help.

“Why do you refuse to tell him?” I asked.

“The nails that stick out get hammered, we had too many experiences where that was the case and we didn’t catch out until we were little better than pariahs and that was when we were doing well. We’re not risking sticking out by being worse at something like walking than is expected.” Haoran Lin was the one to reply this time.

His flesh stopped sizzling and it looked as if new again. I don't think the novelty of flesh mending in seconds, when even with the best medicine back home would have taken hours, will ever get old.

“We’re close to the finish line, it won’t matter once we’re cultivators proper. The wounds are hurting less and less each day as our bodies strengthen from cultivation.” Cheng Lin continued.

That was true, cultivation made things easier. I could feel myself go out of breath less, things were sharper, the colors sometimes felt more vibrant and even as I felt tired, I could nonetheless go further than before I started cultivating.

It wasn’t up to us to bring it up, despite what we wanted to do and they were probably right. We certainly had enough medicine left to last us until the end of the Trial, it probably won’t matter, but it still felt wrong to hide this sort of thing.

I sighed, city dwellers are annoyingly complicated creatures that make things much harder than they need to be, but we’re in this together and until they learn to just admit to their problems then they’ll continue to suffer from them.