Accompanying the Phoenix

3

Ginseng(参) is a homophone for body(身) in Chinese.

A night in March is long. It wasn’t yet light when the crow of the rooster woke Shen Li with a start. She sensed the faint sound of footsteps and opened her eyes, only to discover that she was covered by a piece of cloth. She panicked; she must have been captured in the Demon Emperor’s Bag of Cosmos!

After a frenzied fit of fighting, her head was finally free. She took a gulp of the outside air. The Demon Emperor wasn’t here, neither were the pursuing soldiers. She still was laying under the grapevines, still a naked chicken.
The air was hazy and dew-laden.
There were muffled noises out front. Shen Li proceeded cautiously towards the front yard.

The courtyard gate was ajar; outside was bustling with activity. Shen Li peeked through the crack: two wagons were parked in the torchlit alley. The plain girl from yesterday stood beside her mother while her father and brothers were loading the wagon along with Xing Yun. After everything was loaded on, everyone but the mother and daughter got onto the wagons.

“Xing Yun. Your parents passed away early, and I’m ashamed we couldn’t help much as your neighbors. I’m afraid we won’t be seeing each other again, so please, take good care of yourself.”

“Don’t worry ma’am, I will,” he smiled back. The matron was very emotional. She sighed and covered her face and got back on the bus, leaving only the girl and Xing Yun facing each other.

The girl bowed her head wordlessly. Her eyes shone wetly in the flickering torchlight.

“There will be other loves in the south.” Xing Yun looked out the alley. He abruptly whispered, “I am not a good man.” The faint words were heavy. Shen Li jerked up to look at him. In the soft light, there was a poignant beauty to his profile. His eyes were placid. He wasn’t heartless, simply indifferent.
Shen Li gazed at him dazedly. She suddenly thought, that perhaps this man was much more complicated than she’d thought.

The girl heard his words. Her eyes reddened, twin tears dashing down. She bowed deeply in farewell. “Take care, Brother Xing Yun.”

There was no returning once she left. They would never cross paths again.
Shen Li sighed out as Xing Yun watched the wagons rattle into the distance.

Couldn’t the rattling wheels mask her escape?

Shen Li’s eyes gleamed. She looked left and right. There was no one here but Xing Yun, who was watching his former neighbors depart. Shen Li squeezed through the ajar door, and made madly for the alleyway entrance.

]She came out onto the street, where peddles were setting up for the morning. Shen Li looked behind her, but Xing Yun hadn’t followed. She heaved a sigh of relief. This Xing Yun was too strange: he could understand her, but he wasn’t at all afraid of her. She was heavily injured right now and had to hide from the forces of the Demon Realm; she didn’t have time to deal with him.
Hold on… Heavily injured? Shen Li opened her wings in bewilderment. How’d she have the strength to rush out madly like that?

She thought back carefully. It’d been like this yesterday morning when she woke up too. Her strength was recovering extremely quickly.
Was it something Xing Yun did? Or was it in the food? Shen Li remembered those abnormally delicious steamed buns and that amazingly aromatic bowl of rice and veggies yesterday. She swallowed her drool painfully.

“What’s with this weird chicken!” A boorish voice rang behind her. “Did you come here to be my dinner?”

She swiveled her head and saw a burly man bearing down on her. Like Shen Li’d allow caught the same way again; she whipped around and pecked the outstretched hand.
The man screeched in pain. “Chicken! I’ll snap your neck!” he threatened.