A Wen in Hiding

[drqingmedwoman]

She'd tried to get rid of the beasts herself, but couldn't risk drawing attention to herself. The subtle talismans and wards she'd tried had been noticed already and there were questions already floating around the village. Of course, those weren't the priority yet with the ghosts still plaguing this area. She knows when the ghosts are gone, if anyone here survives, there will be questions she won't be able to answer.

They only knew her as 'Qing' and that she was a doctor. She'd left and started anew several times in the last decade seeking a place she could live in peace, away from the eyes of the main clans. There had been times she'd thought about turning herself in just so her grief could finally end and the constant fear of being discovered over. However, she couldn't let her brother's sacrifice go to waste like that. She owed it to him and so much more.

Wen Qing mentally shakes herself out of her thoughts and puts another stalk of lavender in the basket next to her. There were a few townsfolk sitting nearby gossiping on this sunny hillside, but they'd long since gotten used to leaving the quiet doctor alone.

She sensed them before she saw him. It was a skilled she'd honed since being on the run. Looking up, her heart leaps into her throat as she recognizes a man in white. Well, not him specifically, but there's no missing what clan he's from based on the ribbon around his head. Drawing the hood of her cloak up over her head, she tries to look as unimportant as possible. She's just a woman in a dusty, gray wool robe picking herbs near the town well. No one worth noticing.

Comments

[notaturnip]

Sizhui is using every inch of everything his father - fathers - had ever taught him, but mostly he's using it so he doesn't give away how nervous he is. He's faced so many terrifying things, but he's always had Hanguang Jun, or Wei-qianbei, or his friends, he's always had someone at his side.

This is an important part of becoming a fully fledged cultivator, he knows, the final step to becoming a senior, but that doesn't make it any less daunting. Hanguang Jun and Wei-qianbei had filled him with encouagement and advice - some of it even good - but they couldn't be with him now. He resists the urge to pull the little paper butterfly out from where he has it carefully tucked away - just knowing it's there is comforting, even if he can't hold it in his hands right now.

The ghosts plaguing this village had been just one of the options the graduating juniors had been offered for their solo night hunt, and Sizhui had jumped at the chance - not because he particularly wanted to deal with it, as such, but because he wanted to make sure Jingyi didn't end up with it. He knew how his dearest friend felt about ghosts.

He approaches the people gathered on the hillside and bows to them with a friendly, open smile.

"Good afternoon, I am Lan Sizhui. I have been sent here from Gusu to aid your village, I hear that you have been having issues with ghosts?" He explains. He's mostly talking to the group, but his eyes keep straying to the woman nearby picking herbs. He can't explain what it is about her that catches his attention, but it's something.