Fighting to be Kind in a Cultivation World

As I got out from the entertainment district section, I rush over to the curtained area leading to the backstage district. Standing outside the curtain is a puzzled Shi.

OK, it looks like they did not notify her of the quick change that happened.

Quickly saying hi to her, her face brightens up and looks relieved.

We chatted for a quick period, but I rush her into the curtain area, so we can get moving. Mostly, so I don’t have to deal with the aftereffects of going into the entertainment section.

It doesn’t look like I can get away with it that easily, though.

I can sense spies now watching Shi and I traveling through the backstage area, moving through the crowds of women yet again. In particular, I can feel the steady, playful, and judging eyes of a certain woman.

I can hear one of the older women near me, excitedly speaking to a younger woman.

“We actually made quite a bit more money today than usual. We might need to do this more, since the reception for this was so good.”

The younger woman also says, “I can’t believe I made this much money, just from doing the same thing that we normally do after a request! Some men seemed to just go wild and just start bidding on me. Bidding!”

Somehow, some way, I can feel the growing smirk of a certain fake, ordinary looking woman, even though she has long left since left my perception.

I don’t even want to think about what this means for this society.

So, we continue on. Eventually, we get to the bathroom area that I had worked at before. The two women that had helped me with the treatments earlier are standing by the door there, bowing as I approach.

They both are dark-haired and attractive-looking women with subtle curves. They’re also both similarly sized and, if not paying attention, could be thought of as sisters.

These women are clearly younger than Shi or I, but are likely still in their early 20s.

“Hello Master…”

I can feel my back straighten ever so slightly and I can’t help but clear my throat at her ‘title’ for me.

As she continues on with their words, it’s clear all three women caught my reaction to her words. An eyebrow raises for the two women, whilst Shi’s lips turn up slightly.

With a bow of the head, one of the women says, “… If you are still willing, we have set up the area, so you can be free to continue assisting us for a short period of time. We know your time is valuable, so we have made sure that what transpired yesterday will not happen again. As you instructed us yesterday, we will only be showing unique issues to you.”

“That’s great. Thank you for your help with this.”

I take a glance at the sky, to look at what point of the day it is. From what I can tell the sun is still low to the horizon. Still plenty of time to get to the shops.

“I’m sure that Shi has already let you know, but I will only be able to stay long enough to allow me to get to the main portion of town by Midday.”

With a nod and grateful smiles towards Shi, the verify my words and that I should be able to make it in time.

Since that is out of the way, my mind turns the something else that I realized I haven’t done yet.

“Actually, what are your names? My apologies, I’d forgotten to ask earlier. We will be working together a lot more now, so I’ll need to know them.”

The other woman speaks up, saying, “You have no need to apologize to someone like us, Master! My name is Tai, and hers is Ping.”

Tai seems to have slightly thinner brows than Ping and consistently seems to smile. Ping looks a little more serious, from what I can gather.

Is it this point, that as we continue to have this conversation with them, I realized people were still moving around us. However, everyone seems to have slowed down a bit. We have quite a few listeners here.

It only makes sense, though. I’d be curious too. But, we should probably take this inside.

We hurry inside with my prompting. Things actually seem to go quickly from there, with them sending some people in and the issues being pretty simple to solve.

In fact, it seems like I’m in and out, with things moving very quickly. We can mostly credit this to the hard work they had done preparing things beforehand.

They already have the alchemy area set up with ingredients, heating implements, and other tools laid out. They also included a pill furnace, but I specifically stayed away from that to avoid any connotations that may come along with that. Every time I went near it, they seem to get a tiny bit excited, but then disappointed when I didn’t use it.

Just before I head out, I left the recipe for the aspirin concoction with the two women. I once again remind them to not have this be shared with anyone outside of the organization.

Once again, they confirm that this won’t be shared.

I feel pretty safe to head out and on my way.

Ha, that was easy.

…

Too easy…

Am I missing something?

But nothing else happens.

The jog to the main area is actually pretty quiet. Quickly, we reached the end of the Yellow Sashes territory. There, Shi lets me know she’s been allowed to accompany me (if I so wish) to the shopping area.

There doesn’t really seem to be a downside to this, other than them getting more knowledge on my beneficiary. If she comes along, I will then have a cultivator walking around with me. Particularly, one that seems to favor me.

Which should be quite useful. Especially considering that I don’t really have any defense, at this point, other than my abilities and running away.

With this in mind, I agree to have her tag along with me to the market. She seems pretty excited about it.

I’m sure this also furthers some of the Yellow Sashes goals, but for my purposes I don’t see any harm to it. Especially, with the way I’m planning on doing it.

We arrive quickly to the marketplace where I’d met the old man. Unfortunately, I don’t see any sign of him. It becomes even clearer that that must have been a one-time thing.

Since I wanted to be sure that the old man wasn’t just gone for a moment, we waited around for a few hours exploring the different areas and seeing what was available. During that time, Shi and I casually talked.

“I may be speaking out of place, but it might be smarter to establish yourself better and provide a gift matching what you valued his help as. That way, you’ll be providing gift above what he had given you, while also establishing a relationship between you and this master.”

Shi raises a good point.

This may be a blessing in disguise. While I was planning on asking if there is anything he needed help with alchemically, it likely would be a difficult ask, as he wouldn’t have context on my skill level. Thus, potentially leading to a poor impression.

There’s a way it could work, but unlikely.

Since it looks like there’s nothing to be done over here, I might as well head over near the shack area.

… To ‘take care of’ any loose ends.