Qian Shanyi woke up buried under the bed covers, feeling entirely out of place. It took her a moment to figure out why: she had gotten so used to sleeping in a hammock in Wang Yonghao’s inner world, that a real bed felt unfamiliar, too flat and rigid. But on a ship, opening his inner world for more than a second was impossible: the entry portal was anchored in space, after all, and Qian Shanyi suspected it would cut through ship walls like a knife through butter.
The ship they were traveling on was not made to host passengers, but it still had a pair of cabins - for the captain, and for occasional inner disciples of the Northern Scarlet Stream sect that were accompanying the goods, for one reason or another. Jian Shizhe took one, while they were put up in the other - small, utilitarian rooms, with a decent bed to sleep on and not much else. It almost reminded her of her sect, in a way.
One bed, of course. There was no space left to put a second, though at least Qian Shanyi and Wang Yonghao got separate blankets and pillows.
It led to some…tensions, over how they would go to sleep. Wang Yonghao had insisted, with a degree of hysteria that was rare to see on him as of late, that he was not sleeping in the same bed as Qian Shanyi, and suggested instead that he would spend the night outside. Qian Shanyi logically pointed out he would get drenched by the moonsoon, freeze, catch pneumonia, and then probably fall overboard on top of it, and besides, the bed was plenty wide, and they even had separate blankets. She even acquiesced to sleeping in her robes instead of naked, even if the idea of putting a blanket over her dirty outerwear grated her.
In the end, she couldn’t convince him, but she was too tired to argue further, and went to sleep first, leaving the decision up to him. Her burned hands were just starting to heal, though without the dense spiritual energy of Wang Yonghao’s inner world, the process was slow: the sleep would help.
Sitting up, Qian Shanyi was glad to discover Wang Yonghao decided to at least stay inside - curled up on the floor, wrapped in his blanket and drooling over a pillow. She stared at him in confusion for a moment, before picking up a pillow of her own, reaching out, and poking him in the face.
“Yonghao, I know I called you an ignorant dog last night, but that’s no reason to sleep on the floor,” Qian Shanyi said with some concern, once the man groaned and opened his bleary eyes. “Surely you know I was simply being flippant?”
“Yeah, yeah, go on, laugh,” Wang Yonghao grumbled, getting up, with small bags under his eyes. “Get it out of your system.”
“Laugh?” Qian Shanyi frowned. “This is no laughing matter. What if you start to grow a tail as well? I’m the seamstress, I’d have to adjust all your robes!”
“I only wear one set,” Wang Yonghao said, cracking his back. “It’s even self-cleaning, so you don’t need to bother.”
“Perhaps we should make you chase a rabbit, just to see if some new instincts have already awoken within you,” Qian Shanyi said, getting up as well, and clipping her sword back to her belt. “Act quick while you still can, Yonghao! Take a nap like a real human being. The bed is all yours.”
Wang Yonghao yawned, giving the bed a longing look. “Is that really fine?”
“Sure,” Qian Shanyi said, kneeling down to recharge their noise muffling talismans. Without easy access to his inner world, just keeping the formation going all night was taking most of her spiritual energy. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
“I’m worried you’d get into trouble if I were to leave you alone. Again.”
Qian Shanyi glared at Wang Yonghao. “Do I hear cicadas complain of the noise?”
“Hey, don’t put this on me,” Wang Yonghao said, raising his hands. “You are the one who got into a duel and tried to scam a sect elder.”
“Succeeded in scamming a sect elder.”
“Yeah, see what I mean? ”
“I am stuck on a slow moving boat, Yonghao, and my hands are still so burned I can barely manage to hold a spoon. What kind of trouble do you expect me to get into?”
“I don’t know. That’s what worries me.”
Qian Shanyi rolled her eyes at him, slowly pulling off her gloves, and unwrapping the bandages. It was time to re-apply the curative paste. “All I am going to do today, Yonghao, is read a book, and relax in the sun,” she said. “We won’t even get to the border of Jian Wei’s influence until sunrise tomorrow. So unless you are worried about me cutting myself on the paper’s edge - you can safely go to sleep.”
The morning passed uneventfully.
This ship was not designed for speed, but cargo space. Going upstream, it would have been pulled by tame river dragons, or perhaps a pair of mules - but downstream, it simply let itself be carried by the current, which was quite slow. The landscape rolled on, forests and glades passing them by, and the weather was pleasant and sunny.
Qian Shanyi settled down on top of a ship railing, close to the ship’s bow, wrapping one leg around it to keep herself from falling over. She wanted to enjoy the sun and the great view while staying out of the way of sailors, and spend her day reading the book gifted to her by Liu Yufei.
It really was a curious read. At first, Qian Shanyi skipped the romance and only read the articles - but to her annoyance, soon realized the two were so tightly interwoven that she was missing context, and she had to go back to the beginning and force herself to endure the torture.
Her sour mood only grew worse from the audience. Jian Shizhe had been glaring at her from the right side of the ship ever since she settled down. She would have figured he would have gotten bored, left to drink tea or cultivate, but no. He was watching her like a hawk.
Once she realized that she had re-read the same paragraph four times in a row and still didn’t remember what it said, Qian Shanyi sighed, closed the book, and turned towards the pest. “Fellow cultivator Jian Shizhe, why do you darken my day?” she said quietly - but more than loud enough for him to hear. There was a sailor at the very front of the ship, watching for logs in the water, and she preferred to keep her talks reasonably private.
Jian Shizhe didn’t respond, only briefly smirking at her.
“Very well.” Qian Shanyi sighed again. “Then allow me the freedom of some conjecture. You want to deliver me into the hands of that spirit hunter, and so you do not want to let me out of your sight, lest I, what? Leap into the river and turn into a carp?”
“Where is that worm Wang Yonghao?” Jian Shizhe sneered, instead of answering straightforwardly. “He isn’t on the ship anymore.”
“Am I a shepherd of his?” Qian Shanyi asked curiously. “The man can walk on air, so perhaps he left on a stroll to clear his mind. We move so slowly he can catch up whenever he pleases.”
She knew exactly where Wang Yonghao was, of course. He went ahead of their path, to prepare the next step of their plan.
“Do you enjoy spending your time like this, keeping watch over me like a dog?” Qian Shanyi asked once it became clear Jian Shizhe wasn’t about to continue his side of the conversation. “What is your plan, and how do you think this ends?” She sighed again, in great frustration. “Sweet mercy, you really are just like your uncle.”
Jian Shizhe blinked at her in confusion. “What?” he said, the change of conversation throwing off his thinking. “I am nothing like him.”
Qian Shanyi looked away, tapping her closed book against her forehead. Did she want to bother explaining?
Well, it’s not like she had anything better to do. Reading more romance seemed even more excruciating.
“Ordinarily, I would have given your Elder some face, and kept my mouth shut,” she said, hopping off her railing. “But he had all but ran me out of his town, so perhaps I no longer care. Do you play mahjong?”
“Mahjong?” Jian Shizhe asked, growing even more confused.
“On paper, I am still your teacher, at least for another week - so if you want an explanation, I will offer it,” Qian Shanyi said, coming closer. “But I want something in return. You have two flunkies - that makes four people, so I want us to play mahjong. There’s bound to be a set somewhere on this ship.”
She turned to leave, already heading towards the stern to look for one, not waiting for Jian Shizhe’s agreement. “Besides,” she said over her shoulder, not bothering to stop. “If you want to keep track of me, surely it will be easier to do so while sitting at the same table?”
The captain did indeed have a set, and soon the four of them set up the table on the ship’s bow. They stuck to small bets, at Qian Shanyi’s insistence, even if Jian Shizhe was more than rich enough to afford a large loss. She just wanted to pass the time - with Wang Yonghao in the area, trying to make money off gambling was just asking for trouble.
She still made a little money. Jian Shizhe’s minions were nowhere near as good as she was, and Jian Shizhe himself had to be explained the rules before he could begin playing. Once midday had rolled around, they made a pause. The ship had reached another town, and while the sailors began to unload some of the cargo, the other two disciples left to find some good food out in port - leaving her and Jian Shizhe all alone.
“I suppose I promised you an explanation,” Qian Shanyi said, once everyone else was gone.
Jian Shizhe looked at her with open disdain. Frankly, he no longer seemed interested. Perhaps he simply dismissed her earlier words as something she said to rattle him - and not her speaking the truth.
“So, suppose that we get to Emerald Grace, where that spirit hunter is perhaps waiting for me,” she continued. “What then?”
Jian Shizhe sneered slightly. “I’ll cheer at watching the despair on your face.”
“Possible,” Qian Shanyi said, nodding towards him. “I understand your hatred of me. After the humiliation I inflicted on you, it is only reasonable to desire payback. But what if it goes differently? Suppose the spirit hunter is simply not there. What then? Will you keep following me for weeks, months, sending letters to him about my movements? Or will you make other disciples do so?”
“Wishes of a fool,” Jian Shizhe said, sneering again. “I saw him leave. I know exactly where he headed. I even sent letters ahead of our arrival - he will be there, and he will be waiting for you.”
“He could have turned around once he left your sight,” Qian Shanyi said. “Went upstream instead, where your letters would never reach him. It’s what I would have done, to fool myself into going there. There are only so many ways out of Glaze Ridge.” She made a vague gesture in the air. “It’s immaterial, in either case. My question is simpler. How much time and effort are you willing to spend on your revenge on me?”
“However much I want.”
“And that’s precisely what makes you exactly like your uncle,” Qian Shanyi said, grimacing. “All this pointless, self-absorbed vengeance.”
“What nonsense do you speak of?” Jian Shizhe sneered again, but there was a crease to his brow now. “My uncle had never once sought revenge in all his life. If he did, he would be… He wouldn’t be Jian Wei.”
“Not in ways you would, perhaps,” Qian Shanyi said, “but think of it like this: he could have warned you about me, before that meeting in the gardens. He surely knew it would infuriate you, seeing me there. So why didn’t he? Why make you humiliate yourself in front of the entire sect?”
This gave Jian Shizhe some pause. “Because -” he began, then frowned, and said nothing.
“I cannot read the mind of Jian Wei,” Qian Shanyi continued after a minute. “But I will say this: it had not been my decision to be made your teacher. I merely told Jian Wei you were a problem, which you were, and he agreed. It was Jian Wei’s decision to make me ‘solve’ it, to my - and yours - great misery. Perhaps you are looking for your vengeance in all the wrong places.”
Glancing over the ship’s deck, Qian Shanyi finally spotted Wang Yonghao, heading back to the ship, with a large crate on his shoulders. She rose from the table, bowing to Jian Shizhe. “Fellow cultivator Jian Shizhe, please excuse me,” she said, “I must speak with my partner. I will be back for our meal, and more mahjong.”
Jian Shizhe waved her off silently, but didn’t rise to follow her. Perhaps he was finally ready to do some thinking.
The evening came, but Jian Shizhe felt no better. A terrible melancholy had descended upon him, as he thought back on what he would find once he returned to the sect. What he would have to face, and perhaps do.
She is lying. I don’t know how, but the witch is lying.
Even he didn’t truly believe it anymore.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
He still kept watch of Qian Shanyi, if for no reason than to finish what he started. Once night fell, she had retired into her cabin, together with Wang Yonghao. He felt them vanish into their spiritual energy gathering formation, and not come out. With Cheng Shan watching their window from the deck above, and him near the door, there was no way for either of them to flee without being noticed - if perhaps not intercepted.
Hours passed in miserable silence, only broken by the piss of the moonsoon outside. He didn’t feel like meditating, and he couldn’t train, not without his sword. A complete waste of time.
Just like she said it would be.
Eventually Wen Xia, the other disciple he brought along, came over to relieve him. “Young master,” he said with a respectful bow, “it’s long past midnight. You should get some rest.”
Yesterday, he would have rejected the offer out of hand. He couldn’t trust anyone else to do this job competently. But he was feeling tired, and what did it even matter anymore? The spirit hunter might not even be there. So why was he staying awake while that worm Wang Yonghao and witch Qian Shanyi slept happily?
He fell into his bed without even taking off his robes, and slept without dreams.
Wen Xia shook him awake just before the crack of dawn. They’d arrived in Emerald Grace - and despite his doubts, that spirit hunter was here after all, requesting access to the ship.
Jian Shizhe almost told his disciples to just handle it themselves. But in the end, he was the one responsible, and so he got up.
The monsoon had thankfully come to an end, but the deck was still slick, the morning air chilling like graveyard wind. Jian Shizhe shivered, walking over to the gangway, and saw Fang Jiugui. He looked disgustingly in his element - that strange leather coat letting drops of rain roll right off it. This time, he came with a small spirit hunter dog that stood on his shoulder, ready for work.
With no real spirit, Jian Shizhe bowed to the building foundation cultivator. “Fellow cultivator Fang,” he said, already turning around. “Please follow me.”
Let’s get this over with.
The boat was small. He didn’t even need to tell the cultivator to follow - all the cabins led out into the same corridor, the captain’s where he slept just opposite of the one the other two cultivators took. Jian Shizhe stopped in front of their door, and knocked impatiently. “Fellow cultivator Qian Shanyi,” he started, “may I have a word?”
Silence answered him. In the depths of his soul, Jian Shizhe already knew the cabin would be empty.
He knocked again, and actually heard some movement, the soft shuffle of the blankets. “Ah, please wait!” called a muted female voice, “I’ll just - I just have to get dressed.”
Wrong voice. Too high for Qian Shanyi. He glanced at Fang Jiugui - but the older cultivator had leaned against a wall, seemingly already fast asleep. Jian Shizhe’s exhausted mind had felt a little jealous.
The door opened a couple minutes later, a young woman stepping out, dressed like a well-off commoner, her spiritual energy undoubtedly that of a completely ordinary person. Dimly, he thought he recognised her from somewhere.
”Honorable immortals, this one is Chu Lin,” the woman said, bowing almost to the floor, and stepped aside from the door. “Honorable immortal Qian told me you would want to inspect the room, and to deliver this letter to Jian Shizhe.”
Jian Shizhe glanced inside the room. It was so small that there was no place at all to hide, most of the empty space taken up by that large crate he saw Wang Yonghao bring in. Fang Jiugui had immediately stepped inside, letting his dog down on the ground, but he doubted there was a point in this.
She wouldn’t have left a thing for you to find.
Reaching out with his spiritual energy senses, he felt Cheng Shan above, still keeping watch over the window. So much for his watch. Perhaps they had some exotic technique to escape his notice or befuddle his mind, or even burrow through the floor, turn into smoke, even shatter void - or perhaps Cheng Shan was incompetent, simply looked away and let them escape. Jian Shizhe couldn’t even bring himself to go and berate him properly.
Turning back to Chu Lin, Jian Shizhe almost felt jealous at how excited her eyes looked. She reached into the front pocket of her clothes, and drew out a letter, handing it to him. Just a folded sheet of paper - not even an envelope.
He read the letter, before crumpling it into a ball and tossing it aside.
Whatever.
“Are you from Glaze Ridge?” he asked Chu Lin, not even caring about the answer.
“Yes, honorable immortal,” Chu Lin responded, bowing again. “I am but a humble waitress at one of the restaurants at the square.”
“Did that witch pay you to do this?”
“Yes,” Chu Lin nodded. “She also said I should freely tell you all I know -”
How much time and effort are you willing to spend on your revenge on me?
“Don’t bother,” Jian Shizhe cut her off. “Both of you, get off my ship.”
Even if he wanted to strangle Qian Shanyi, she was right in one thing. This whole excursion was purely for his benefit. His sect needed him, before Jian Wei ruined his people’s spirits entirely.
Chu Lin bowed, and hurried away. Fang Jiugui had turned around curiously, glancing at Jian Shizhe, and stayed put.
“Ah, honorable -” he began.
Why was he still here? Does he dare question me, now?!
“I said get off my ship, you worthless, pathetic worm!” Jian Shizhe burst out, whirling on the building foundation cultivator. The fury helped ease his melancholy, if only a fraction. “Clanless scum, I invited you here of my own free will, and I will banish you likewise! The place of dogs is in the kennels - now be gone, before I decide you are deserving of more than merely my disdain!”
Fang Jiugui held his gaze for a moment, but finally clicked his tongue, picked up his dirty mutt and left. Turning around, Jian Shizhe saw Wen Xia bowing so deeply to him that he couldn’t hope to meet his eyes.
If you want to grovel, then kowtow properly and kiss my boots.
“We are leaving,” Jian Shizhe said instead.
He was going to go back to Glaze Ridge, and find a way forward for himself - and for his sect. And then, with Heaven’s mercy, in a year’s time he could forget all about that witch.
“Are you sure you are okay with this?” Qian Shanyi asked Chu Lin one final time, the evening just before, when they were holed up in their cabin. “Jian Shizhe, for all his faults, is a good cultivator. You should be in no direct danger from him - but that does not mean no danger. Your father’s restaurant might face harassment, and so might you. If you don’t want to do this, we could get you out, and figure some other way.”
Their deception would be that much stronger, and hold on for longer, with her help - but not so much that Qian Shanyi would simply risk it without her knowledge.
“It’s really fine,” Chu Lin said with a smile. She was positively vibrating with excitement of finally being involved in one of those cultivator stories - it took them ten minutes just to calm her enough she could properly listen to instructions. “Maybe once I return, my father will finally let me take the imperial exams, just to get me away.”
Wang Yonghao had caught the waitress early in the morning, while Qian Shanyi had been busy searching for a ship. They hoped that she would, at most, let them borrow her imperial seal - but she instead agreed to do so much more.
They told her their plan - or at least parts of what they were pretending was their real plan. They had a way to flee the cabin on Jian Shizhe’s ship - but if they did so, someone might quickly notice the cabin was empty. What they needed was to hide when they fled the cabin, and so Chu Lin would pretend they were still inside - by opening or closing the window, moving a lantern around, and occasionally making a bit of noise just outside of the noise cancelling formation. By the time their deception was uncovered, they’d be long gone.
And so once they got her on board, Chu Lin pretended to fall sick, and, once her father agreed to let her take a day off, took the first ship downstream, to another town. Unlike Qian Shanyi and Wang Yonghao, who needed a ship with a cabin and an understanding captain, she was not so constrained. Then, once Jian Shizhe’s ship stopped in that town, Wang Yonghao brought her into their cabin by hiding her in a crate, covered with a spiritual gathering formation to obscure her presence.
“Well, if you are certain,” Qian Shanyi said, finally nodding. “Just give me a moment.”
She took out her writing set for the final time, still wincing a little at the pressure on her hands. She didn’t want to leave Jian Shizhe without any final words - and so she quickly put down a couple lines of hope and encouragement.
Fellow cultivator Jian Shizhe,
I hope my early departure does not cause you grief. I thank you for offering me the cabin on your ship, and I wish your path on the road of cultivation to be as free of trials and tribulations as it gets.
I have instructed Chu Lin to tell you everything she knows, which isn’t much. I hope you would not take out your frustrations with me on an innocent, ordinary person.
Fellow cultivator Qian Shanyi.
“Please hand this to Jian Shizhe,” Qian Shanyi said, folding up the small sheet of paper, and giving it to Chu Lin. “And don’t forget to gather our formation talismans before you leave the room. They are yours now, and will fetch a good price. But now, it’s time for us to vanish. We’ll have to use a secret technique that it would be best for you not to see - please cover your head with a blanket.”
Chu Lin nodded, and did as she was ordered. Qian Shanyi grabbed onto Wang Yonghao, who rose into the air, and then dropped, opening the entrance to his world fragment just below their feet, and closing it as soon as they passed through. The entrance, anchored to that point in space, vanished before the gentle speed of the ship could make it cut into the wall of the room; and then, three minutes after the ship had vanished beyond the turn of the river, it re-opened, and Qian Shanyi and Wang Yonghao stepped out over the empty, midnight river, two clouds of fiery fireflies supporting his feet up in the dark midnight air.
They vanished from within their room, without ever leaving the confines of their spiritual energy gathering formation. Chu Lin could, at best, say she heard some soft noises from their technique - far from enough to identify their method.
Their real escape plan began now. Back in Glaze Ridge, Qian Shanyi had reserved a spot on a faster ship that was setting off the very next morning. Once she had made her agreement with Jian Shizhe, she cancelled that reservation - only for Linghui Mei, shapeshifted into an elderly matron, to pick that cabin for herself. She even pickpocketed a seal from someone in town, to sign the ship manifest.
Pickpocketing a seal did not sit right with Qian Shanyi - it was a loophole, one that could in principle be investigated later, and a risky one at that - but Linghui Mei insisted she had done it many times before, and overall, it still seemed like the best option they had in front of them.
The second ship was faster than the one of Jian Shizhe, and even though it left Glaze Ridge a full nine hours later, had almost caught up with them. Wang Yonghao and Qian Shanyi only had to wait for half an hour out on the banks of the river, and snuck into Linghui Mei’s room through the window.
And then, they buried themselves under a pile of blankets, suppressed their spiritual energy, and settled in to wait.
The ship they were on was not supposed to stop in Emerald Grace at all, but would instead pass by, and head upstream along the Golden Snake river. Given Yonghao’s luck, it was practically a guarantee that Fang Jiugui would come aboard, and try to find them. But he was not an official, imperial spirit hunter. Nor did he have proof of her fugitive status. He couldn’t forcibly search a ship, let alone every ship on the river. At best, he could try to sense them, or look for clues of their presence.
Before Linghui Mei paid for this cabin, she came to the same merchant wearing a different face, and tried to ask him about Qian Shanyi - but he would say nothing, not even when she subtly tried to bribe him. It meant that the fact that Qian Shanyi talked to him was mostly safe, and his ship would not stand out among the two dozen others that would have passed through that day, not after a casual investigation.
At least, that was their hope.
With nothing to occupy her mind, and forced to stay completely silent, lest someone overhear - all Qian Shanyi had left was her anxiety. This was, ultimately, a gamble, one built on a variety of assumptions. That Fang Jiugui couldn’t hear their heartbeats or their breathing, that their scent would be washed off the window by the moonsoon, that he couldn’t sense the slight difference between a cultivator suppressing their spiritual energy and a patch of air through the wooden walls of the ship.
Minutes stretched into hours as the ship inched closer and closer to Emerald Grace. Was her theory correct, or was it false? Even if every individual step seemed solid enough - taken together, multiplied, it was still no more than an assumption.
Linghui Mei had, somehow, managed to fall asleep - her matron form picked deliberately for her loud snoring, helping cover up any of their errant noises. But Qian Shanyi and Wang Yonghao weren’t so lucky. A sleeping cultivator couldn’t suppress their spiritual energy, and if they let it slip when Fang Jiugui was nearby, it would be all over.
And then, suddenly, footsteps in the corridor. Voices. Fang Jiugui and the captain of the ship, passing through. They stopped in front of their door, and knocked lightly.
Qian Shanyi shivered. She heard Wang Yonghao talk about his luck, she even felt some of it on her own back - but this was something else. Intellectually, she knew Fang Jiugui would cross paths with them - but now that he was here, at their door, it was something else entirely.
He can’t possibly know we are here. Must be simply checking every cabin.
She could only count the moments, and hope the danger would pass. Surely the captain wouldn’t let him burst into the cabin of an elderly woman?
Another knock. More seconds ticking by.
And then, the footsteps receded. They heard him knock on the next cabin over, and Qian Shanyi breathed out the smallest fraction.
Five minutes later, the voices were gone entirely - but neither she nor Wang Yonghao had so much as stirred until three hours later. He was the first to crawl out from under the blankets, and she followed, slowly stretching to get blood flowing through her limbs again.
“Do you think we can release our spiritual energy yet?” Wang Yonghao asked quietly. “I feel naked without a spiritual shield.”
“Up to you,” Qian Shanyi said. “I wouldn’t risk it, but we will have to abandon this ship soon anyways. Best to change up our tracks.”
“You really think he’d still be around?”
“No,” Qian Shanyi said, poking Linghui Mei in the side to wake her up. “I am worried he might decide to come in for a second pass over the ships he already checked, and happen upon us by sheer coincidence.”
“You really think we still aren’t out of his grip?”
Qian Shanyi shrugged with one shoulder. “It’s all a question of numbers, at the end of it. We will never be completely free, not for as long as he is still out in the empire somewhere, looking for our trail. But where before he only had three routes to check - now he will have dozens of ships. Soon enough, it will be hundreds of towns, spread across thousands of square kilometers.”
“And then what?”
“Ultimately, the man is running a business,” Qian Shanyi continued. “My sect would only pay so much money for my capture, and his main advantage over us - his flying sword - will eat up his spiritual energy reserves quickly. He will need to consume spirit stones or waste time to replenish them naturally. Once it would cost him more to chase us than he would get for finding me, I hope he would move on to greener pastures - and then we would be free.”
She came over to the window, looking out between the blinds. The sun had started to rise already - and by now, they were many hours away from Emerald Grace, the forests making way for the farms and villages of the Golden Snake river.
“Unless he can catch your trail,” Linghui Mei said, in her scratchy elderly voice. “If he can catch on - then those hundreds of towns will become scores, then dozens, and soon, he will be at our door again.”
“Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen,” Qian Shanyi said. “Next time this ship stops - you will get off, to make sure we do not leave an obvious trail to follow. From there, we’ll have to continue on foot.”
