Letting go of self-restraint 5 - Great happiness in a small package

Chapter 45

Jiang Yanli was heading towards her room with hastened steps. She had just been having dinner with Jin Zixuan in the restaurant at the inn when they had seen a signal flare being fired from somewhere just outside the building. They had only heard it and by the time they had looked out of the window, and then run out of the building, it had already disappeared from the sky. It had scared both of them and her husband had immediately told her to go make sure Jin Ling was fine. He himself went to investigate what was happening outside.

Jiang Yanli had never been too involved in the cultivation world due to her weak golden core, she had however still received proper education. She knew what a signal flare meant: a cultivator or a group of them was in danger and needed help. What was scaring her more however, was the fact that if someone needed help this close, there must also be a danger nearby, a danger which could also affect Jin Ling.

She hastened her steps still, not being able to keep her innermost worries completely at bay: "I hope nothing serious happened. A-Xuan had run right off, possibly fighting some resentful monster right about now. The flare had been fired so close to the inn too. I hope Jin Ling is fine. The noise must have woken him up for sure, I wonder if I will have any luck calming him down. When he gets to it, he can be quite persistent...

But why was it so close? Surely, it cannot be that someone from the inn had used the flare? What could have happened? Had a night hunt gone wrong and the creature someone has been fighting made it all the way to Yiling? After all, the Burial Mounds are so close to here, there could be any number of dangerous beasts and ghosts hiding out there... While the area as such is not hostile and usually calm, I can imagine something sinister appearing. That we had never encountered any problems during our travels with A-Xuan and A-Ling does not mean that they could not have started right now. Anything can happen, I have already seen many more less probable scenarios.

And neither I nor A-Xuan had seen which sect the flare belonged to. It could have also been used just to lure out cultivators who are ready to help and ambush them. There have been such stories going around lately... I hope A-Xuan will be fine..."

She was running by this point, worried not only for her child but also for her husband. She knew she had a tendency to overthink everything and imagine more danger than there actually was. However, there were too many unknowns right now that she could not tell what was happening. And what kind of danger Jin Ling could be in.

They had put him to sleep together with Jin Zixuan with difficulty. He had been grumpy because they would not have let him play for longer as he had wanted. Jiang Yanli had been secretly relishing in the start of a 'no' period in his life, the period when he would always say no and ask the exact opposite of what his parents told him to do. It was a very new experience for her, albeit exhausting at times.

She loved those puffed out pouty cheeks though. She always wanted to kiss them and then give in to any of the child' demands. She resisted only with difficulty, after all, it was her job as a parent to educate Jin Ling and show him the correct way. She was not supposed to spoil him, at least not too much. She wanted him to grow up into a respectable man and cultivator, and that meant to have inner discipline and be able to tell that he could not have everything he wanted.

Even this evening, she had spent more than one hour coaxing him to sleep, only to have him probably woken up by the signal flare. She wondered how long it would take her to calm him down this time. At least she could stay with him now that her dinner with her husband had been cut short.

Jiang Yanli was gasping for breath and trying to think about anything else but the possibility that she could find Jin Ling not only grumpy and crying, but hurt. She still had no idea what was going on and it terrified her to the point where she was feeling her limbs failing to follow her commands. Luckily, she had already almost reached the door to her and her family's room. She was glad she had insisted to get one on the ground floor, she did not have to fight any steps now.

Completely out of breath and out of her mind with worries for her son, she finally stopped in front of the correct door. She did not barge in immediately, she figured that she would only scare her son if she looked dishevelled and distressed. Children tended to read their parents' mood on the best of days, and Jin Ling was no exception. He would only get more agitated if she did not come in composed and reassuring.

"Then what would I do to calm him down? I will not even be able to explain what is happening outside or where A-Ling's dad had gone off to. I want those answers as well... No, I must look like always, just going in and checking if he is sleeping. And if not, I will try to read him that bed times story he has been interested in latterly, although he insists that he does not want me to read it to him anymore. I can still tell he likes it from how his eyes sparkle when he sees the book."

Suddenly, breath hitched in Jiang Yanli's chest. She stopped and listened. She felt like something was very wrong, even though she could not quite tell why she had that feeling. It only hit her a second later: the silence.

She had expected Jin Ling to be awake and pretty vocal and unhappy about it. She was prepared for crying, screaming even, and a lot of grumpiness and shouted 'no!'s. However, no sound was coming from inside the room she and Jin Zixuan were renting. That was what pushed her worried over the edge. She could not wait anymore, no matter how not calm she was, she had to see that Jin Ling was unharmed.

She opened the door with more force than she had wanted to use and run inside the room. She had not been expecting to be met with the scene she was currently seeing. She fell to her knees in shock.