𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔽𝕚𝕣𝕖𝕗𝕝𝕪'𝕤 𝕎𝕚𝕤𝕙

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟙-𝕃𝕒𝕞𝕡𝕤 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕃𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕟𝕤

"Look. I bought you the Emperor's Smile last week. You owe me." A female in a traditional Red Hanfu sat at a table with her friends. "You said you'd pay me back twofold-coward-"

"Calm down. I'll buy it for you tomorrow. I did not bring my coin purse today." A Male said, wearing a white traditional Yishang. "Besides, we're not at my bar"

Another Female dressed in a casual blue Hanfu approached from behind them. "I beg to differ..." She said and held up two jars of Emperor's Smile, "drink to your heart's content. Im paying."
A-Cheng snatched the Jars out of her hands and popped one open. "You better not go back on that because I'm not paying tonight. This hobo over here still owes me." She said and pointed at the blue-clothed-Male. The Girl in the Blue hanfu sighed. "A-Cheng, Do you know that Li Yang never repays you correct? He at least owes you 100 jars of Emperor's Smile." She said as she took a seat at the table. Liu Cheng (A-Cheng) took a huge swig from the jar and wiped her mouth with her Hanfu sleeve. "Thanks for reminding me. You hear that Yang Yang? You better pay up."

Li Yang nodded. "I know, I know. Give me like a day and i'll repay you."

"100 Jars a day?! You know what's up! make it tomorrow."
"I didn't say in one day, I meant give me a day to get prepared."
"nope you said 100 Jars in a day. I'm holding you up on that chicken dick." 

The Girl in the blue hanfu (Yu Tong) slammed her hand down on the table. "Would you stop being loud hoboes for 5 minutes?!" Liu Cheng leaned back in her seat and finished off the rest of the wine, "look at who is being the loud one now? heh." "says the uneducated brat who just got kicked off her last job." Li Yang said and put his hands over his ears already prepared for the upcoming events.

"Excuse me, I will have to ask security to kick you three out of this restaurant if you do not quiet down." One of the waitresses said as she walked by their table to set down their food. Li Yang had a loud wriggling Liu Cheng in a choking position in order to calm her down. "deepest apologies KongMing." He said and let go of Liu Cheng. "Sit down you homeless rat and eat." Liu Cheng plopped down on her seat rubbing her neck. "oh yeah I'll eat alright..." She then snatched Li Yang's plate and poured it onto her own. "your food."

Li Yang barely had time to process what had happened that Liu Cheng already inhaled the entire plate.

As the Trio walked down the street, Yu Tong had to hold onto a wasted Li Yang's arm as he wobbled unsteadily along the street.
"A-Yang, you need to control your drinking habits. You aren't like Liu Cheng."
Yu Tong glanced at the still sober Liu Cheng who was still drinking from a jar of the emperor's smile. "A-Cheng, how many of those things have you drunk?"
Liu Cheng spun around and smiled. "I forgot. Maybe my tenth." She then took another swig and strayed off towards a food vendor's stall.

"A-Cheng, you plan to pay for that?"
Liu Cheng held up a coin pouch. "Thanks for the money mom~"
Yu Tong felt around her pockets to see where her coin pouch went. "LIU CHENG GIVE IT BACK-"

The three finally made it back to the inn they were staying at. "I'll go set Li Yang back in his room." Yu Tong said and pushed Liu Cheng back into her room. "and stay in."

Yu Tong dragged the drunk Li Yang to the end of the corridor and turned to the room at the end. "Li Gongzi. We're here."

Li Yang slowly raised his head and looked around. "Where are we- where is she?"
Yu Tong quirked her head to the side. "She? Are you talking about Liu Cheng?"
But instead of answering, Li Yang started sobbing, leaving Yu Tong no choice but to drag him straight into the room and place him on his bed.

Li Yang knocked out as soon as he hit the mattress.

Yu Tong made it back towards her and Liu Cheng's room. "A-Cheng, are you still awake?"
Liu Cheng was sitting at the table in the middle of the room.
"Sit down, good soldier." came a gruff voice. And Yu Tong felt a big hand shove her on the back.
Yu Tong spun around to see a man a little less than double her height, but definitely double her age. "My name is Yang Xiao and I have a job for you two."

Yu Tong poured three cups of tea and set them at the table.
"So what brings you here, Yang Xiao Gongzi?"

The man named Yang Xiao took a small drink from the tea cup and set it down as gently as he could. "I heard one of you is an informant and another is a mercenary. If so, I need someone eliminated."
Liu Cheng placed the empty jar of wine on the table. "I'm the mercenary you're looking for. and sorry, but I don't take random commissions from random people." She folded in her sleeves and yawned while standing up slowly. "Case closed."
Yang Xiao pulled out a huge sack of money and a stack of checks. "This could all be yours. Just do the job."
Liu Cheng sat down once again. "I'm listening..."

Yang Xiao eyed the money. "I run a Casino at the bottom of TongGuo Mountain Pass. Business has been good for the past decade, until recently some young man has been appearing almost every night."
Yu Tong adjusted her sitting position. "I do not see anything wrong with a faithful customer, Yang Xiao Gongzi."
Yang Xiao shook his head. "Very true, however, he must be cheating."

Liu Cheng squinted her eyes. "cheating?"
"yes、Cheating. He wins every game he plays. He bets insanely huge amounts of money, and wins every single time without fail."
Yu Tong's ears perked up. "And because of him, your casino, I presume, is running low on money?"
Yang Xiao nodded and placed his fingers on his nose bridge. "I'm afraid so."

Liu Cheng stood up. "I'll do it."
Yu Tong Quickly stood up with her. "A-Cheng, we musn't act so irrational-"
Liu Cheng grabbed Yu Tong's shoulders and pulled her close to her face. "Yu Tong、 listen. Something is fishy about this guy's story. I wanna get to the bottom of this."
Yu Tong nodded slowly. "I can agree with you, however don't you think it's too fishy to bet on?"

Liu Cheng shrugged. "Look. If he is just making a big deal out of it, we'll take the job, say we found the guy- i'll present him with a dead body-"
"How are you going to find a dead body-"
"I'm friends with the person who owns the funeral parlor. He gets shipments every other day. He probably won't mind me snatching a corpse."

Yu Tong reluctantly agreed. "I'm only going to help because I'm not going to watch you get yourself in trouble for the umpteenth time."

Liu Cheng chuckled. "It's a bet Xiao Tong~"

Yang Xiao bowed to both Yu Tong and Liu Cheng. "Thank you both for taking my commission." He then took out three slips of paper. "One has the address of my casino, and the other two are passes to get in."
Liu Cheng nodded and put them in her sleeve. "Thank You Yang Xiao Gongzi. We shall see you tomorrow night then."
Yang Xiao nodded and hurried off into the night.

Liu Cheng turned around, pulling the slip of paper back out of her sleeve. "Hey, Yu Tong, take a look at this."
Yu Tong leaned over and looked at the address on the sheet of paper.
"sounds familiar." She said and picked at her skin in thought.

"Yeah it's familiar alright." Liu Cheng said, taking the paper back and putting it in her sleeve. "It's near the location of that one buddhist temple where we had to get rid of the temple robbers three years ago."
Yu Tong snapped her fingers. "maybe they might be related somehow?"

Liu Cheng stepped over the threshold of the inn. "That's what I was thinking. Maybe this case might turn out to be more promising than just some kind of cheapskate cheating the money out of a casino..."

-Sayuki Chiku  さゆきちく