Blood of Deception [ON HOLD]

Chapter Two

Xinlei navigated through the town, pulling the rickshaw with him with sheer horsepower. His first customer was a granny living nearby his house whom he called upon. She told him he was a generous boy when he offered to take her to the market without needing to pay because he was heading there anyway.

Xinlei slowed at uneven grounds, careful not to shake the carriage too much and disrupt the elder woman's ride. When reaching the market packed with people, he helped her down the rickshaw and denied the small favor she gave him. After a few attempts, he accepted the coins anyway and told her he could pick her up everyday. The granny was delighted as she disappeared among the swarm of the sales.

After that Xinlei carefully pulled his carriage out of the market square and parked it at an unoccupied spot beside a resident's gate wall before going in search of breakfast.

Smoke from the market clouded the air as he went from sales to sales, smiling at the calls from most of the food vendors. He approached a booth with steaming buns, and chose a flavor. "I'd like three of these," he told the seller, pointing to the plump meat buns.

"That'd be three li, sir," the seller said and handed him the packed food. Xinlei reached for the coins when he heard like a shout from somewhere nearby. It was almost muffled by the noise of all the activities going all around and nobody seemed to heed. He paid the seller and saw that he also heard it.

"Children," the vendor said and shook his head in dismissal. Xinlei took the buns and made his way back to where he parked his vehicle. He kept one bun in his mouth and kept the rest of the pack on the seat. Then he went to the other side of the street.

Chewing his breakfast, Xinlei padded along the unruffled road, looking around for a sign of anything that might give out the shout he unmistakably heard. There were no children about. A few walking sellers were starting to pour out from the other side, stopping for interested guests. There wasn't anything unusual.

He decided to shrug it off and finished the bun. There was a man he saw then who just came out of a resident, probably wanting a ride. Xinlei waved and jogged to him, but happened to step on something hard.

He bent down to retrieve it.

It was a beautiful piece of hairpin. He turned it, surprised to have found something like that. Judging from the decorative stones engraved to the stick, it didn't belong to a normal commoner. And he had a suspicious idea that the shining metal wasn't at all metal but silver.

Smiling, he put the hair ornament tucked safely in his pocket before resuming his call for the customer.

Later that noon, Zhonghong was cleaning up after the last table and brought the used dishes to be cleaned at the kitchen. It was supper time so the dishwasher was gathering around with the rest of the crew, having a short meal now that there were no customers. Since Zhonghong wasn't particularly hungry, she didn't mind doing the washing.

She was leaving the dishes to dry when someone came to the kitchen and said to her, "Zhonghong, your boyfriend is here to see you."

The crew did a hushed whoop behind her. "Hua-jie," Zhonghong groaned, turning to the speaker. "I don't have a boyfriend."

Her coworker chuckled and said to her, "Well, he's in front of the shop, and asked me to get you."

Zhonghong sighed. "Alright," she said and wiped her hands. It seemed like she was already regretting that she didn't eat when she had the chance.

She made her way out of the restaurant, into the heating sun of midday, and found Xinlei waiting for her just outside the entrance. It wasn't often for him to visit her during her work, if the owner knew Zhonghong wouldn't want to imagine what would happen, and she felt slightly discomforted at the reminder of Hua-jie's tease. She thought that it must be something she needed to know. Maybe Yuzhe told him to come.