Blood is thicker than Water

Chapter 1: Water of the Womb

If Shen Jiu could go back to when all of this went wrong, he would definitely not swear his loyalty to his Qi-ge and definitely not stick around the Qiu household waiting for said traitor. But alas, now is too late to regret.

Shen Jiu's most recent headache began with an invitation to one of Cang Qiong's subsidiary sect's ceremony for their new sect leader. Considering this particular sect provided a large portion of Cang Qiong's fire attribute raw ores, the appropriate peak lords should attend. This meant Wei Qingwei and Shen Qingqiu were selected to attend the ceremony. Wei Qingwei as he was the Wan Jian peak lord and Shen Qingqiu as he was second in command since Yue Qingyuan was unable to make it due to previous obligations. Anymore would be an overkill for such a sect.

Now if someone could tell Shen Qingqiu why Liu Qingge decided to ~get in the way~ tagged along, that would be phenomenal.

It is a miracle they even reached the location in one piece considering Wei Qingwei made no attempts to mediate between his Shixiong and Shidi. It was only through kicking Liu Qingge into Wei Qingwei's carriage and taking Shen Qingqiu's own carriage the moment the group set off, was there very little interactions between the three thus a peaceful ride into town.

After the, frankly, long and boring ceremony was done, the sun was just starting to touch the roofs of the buildings. While the three of them could head back to Cang Qiong and rest on the trip back, they decided to stay the night to rest before heading back to the sect. Thankfully, some of the visitors did not have the same idea as them and they were able to find an inn that still had rooms available and received the keys to three rooms.

"Immortal masters, this lowly one regrets to inform that the rooms will not be ready yet." The innkeeper shook in fear as he eyed the swords strapped to their waists. "If you would like, this one can bring you some tea and snacks while you wait."

"This master does not mind," Wei Qingwei answered for his martial siblings. He turned around only to find Shen Jiu had already walked away towards the front door of the inn.

"This shixiong will leave now. Wei-shidi and Liu-shidi can decide whether they would like to sit and wait themselves." Shen Jiu stated coldly before sweeping out of the inn and heading towards one of the teahouses nearby. His foot steps steady and sure as if he has walked this path a few dozen or more times.

"Shen-shixiong wait!"

Ignoring the faint call from behind the closed doors, Shen Jiu continued walking until he was stopped to the side of a familiar brothel that smelled faintly of jasmine and holly.

"Jiu-er?" A quiet soothing voice floated out of the building's balcony.

Shen Jiu's head snapped around to see a young lady leaning against the second-floor railing, a veil covering her lower face. She turned and disappeared through the balcony door. Shen Jiu immediately took out a fan from his belt, opened it to cover his lower face and went around to enter the brothel's front door.

He was warmly greeted by the matron of the brothel before the veiled girl appeared next to the matron.

"This one has finally found immortal master, please follow me."

She gently grabbed the edge of his sleeve and pulled him towards the back where there was a room for the women to relax in when they were not with a customer. Shen Jiu sunk down to his knees to sit at the low table in the middle of the room. On the other side of the table laid a bundle of soft fabrics in a basket and on the table laid a half-sewn child's garment. On top of the clothing, the veil that she had removed thrown carelessly.

"How are you?" The lady asked quietly, dropping all formal pretense, after she finished lighting the incense burner that was resting in the corner of the room. The fragrant smoke curled lazily upwards before being slowly sucked out through the crack in the balcony door.