Chapter Six
Leander swept the house from top to bottom, opening every window.
Upstairs were two bedrooms, both much larger than would be normal in America, and each with a huge, functional fireplace and four beds set on low platforms. The ground floor had the main room with a large table, an old stove, wooden benches, and a storage room with a fully stocked refrigerator behind a locked door.
The main kitchen was on the back porch, which also had a door leading to a bathroom divided into two rooms, one with a shower and tub, another with the toilet and sink.
Shanlin had looked confused at the outdoor rooms, but when Leander handed him a bucket and brush, he had gone to work on the kitchen, scrubbing bird shit and decomposing leaves while Leander headed upstairs.
He took the mattresses outside and propped them against the wall before beating them until dust rose in clouds.
He moved furniture and scrubbed mouse droppings and choked on years of dirt.
Luckily, the refrigerator was new, as were the lamps placed beside each of the beds.
Something wriggled in Leander’s stomach at the idea of Heng buying things for the house and coming out to meet them.
It was a far warmer welcome than Leander had expected.
And if part of him wished Heng had taken a few days away from his studies to stay with them, well, Leander shoved those thoughts away and refused to let any bitterness spoil the moment.
He shoveled years of crap out of the downstairs fireplace, which had a broad platform above it with a metal plate for cooking. He was covered in ash when a female voice called out. “Boon Lian, qidi of Nie Heng, are you available?”
Leander wasn’t, but he couldn’t afford to make a poor impression on any visitors.
He brushed as much dirt off his pants as he could and stood.
The top half of the door was open, and an older woman with a simple blue robe over long sleeves trimmed with red stood with her arms around a stack of white fabric.
“Good morning, noble lady.” He opened the bottom half of the door and stepped back.
“I am no more noble than I am green. I’m Li Daiyu, Auntie Daiyu for you. Nei Heng told us his qidi was coming with his son, and I know that man has not a linen in the house. I come with sheets and towels and a scroll of auspicious magic users and their sayings.”
“Thank you, Auntie Daiyu. Shanlin is in back cleaning the kitchen. Let me fetch him.” He bowed, the old manners coming back to him.
“Did not Heng clean one thing?” She scoffed. “That boy lacks elegance.”
“Auntie knows best, but I am pleased with the provisions Heng has made.”
“Then your standards are low. Go, get your son so I can see the child of the qidi of Nei Heng.” She ran her fingers over the table, no doubt checking for dust, before putting the linens down.
Leander didn’t want anyone in the house.
The more he talked to others, the greater the chance he would make a mistake and offend someone horrifically .
If he could avoid human interaction, he could increase the odds of no one driving them out of town.
Outside, he found Shanlin sitting on the tiled porch, his hands in the bucket of cleaning solution as he scrubbed something. “We have a visitor,” Leander said.
“Who?”
“A woman who introduced herself as Li Daiyu, Auntie Daiyu. She came with sheets for the beds.”
Shanlin wiped his hands off on his shirt and stood. “Sheets sound good. I haven’t slept good in days.”
Leander had noticed the nightmares. “Come and be very polite.”
“Of course I will.” Shanlin rolled his eyes before heading into the house.
“Ah, and this is the young son, and a proper son, too. So handsome.” She said the last two words in English.
“Thank you, Auntie Daiyu.” Shanlin bowed.
She smiled and touched Shanlin’s curls before switching back into Mandarin. “So unique. I see hair like this only on television. He will be popular with all the parents of young girls.”
“He is far too young to be interested,” Leander rushed to say. Any family Daiyu introduced them to would be in danger from Druwolf if his enforcers tracked them. Besides, Leander didn’t even know what Shanlin’s preferences were–or if he had any yet, given his age.
“Of course, of course,” Daiyu said. Shanlin looked from one to the other. Maybe some instinct had warned him they were talking about him.
“Please, Auntie, sit,” Leander said. “I apologize that I have no food to offer, but I believe the refrigerator has an apple. It is a poor offering, but I offer it in the spirit of hospitality.” In some ways, this dance was easier than socializing in the United States.
He had official rules to follow, and Leander had always been better with rules than people.
“Do not be so formal,” she said as she dropped into a chair with a sigh. “My teeth ache when I eat apples, so thank you, but no. I prefer information. Many people are interested in the newest members of our community.”
“I hope only to make the town better.”
“At least you have better manners than Heng. Luo Zheng teaches several village children English. If Shanlin attends, his skills will shame the other children into improving their accents, and his teaching will have more value. In return for Shanlin’s presence, he will provide lunch and fifty yen per day. ”
Leander wasn’t the best at numbers, but he knew that was a bit over five dollars.
It wasn’t enough to qualify as pay, but it would give Shanlin some personal spending money.
That would allow Leander to keep his savings so they could live off it until he found a job.
He turned to Shanlin. “Auntie Daiyu said there is a school for children in town. The teacher would like you to help students with English, and he would give you a couple of dollars a day.”
Shanlin’s mouth fell open. “I would get paid to go to school?! Really?” His voice rose in childish glee.
Daiyu laughed. “I think Zheng has found his assistant,” she said in English.
“Yes, please!” Shanlin said.
Daiyu patted him on the head. “Good boy.” Shanlin’s expression soured, but she ignored his questionable manners.
“Do you know of anyone who might require my skills?” Leander asked. He would owe Auntie Daiyu a significant gift or a portion of his salary if she found him something, but these people would not employ a stranger and outsider if he lacked introductions.
“Heng said that outsiders do not cultivate magic, but that you have remarkable skills. He could not explain more than that. What can you do?”
“I am good with plants. I can make flowers bloom sooner or keep the blooms fresh longer or even make them larger if I touch the plants before they bud.” Given the colorful hillsides, Leander assumed these people would value that.
“I can also make harvests better and heal sick plants, assuming they aren’t at the end of their life cycle.
I can also kill plants that are unwanted.
” Leander knew he was phrasing all this awkwardly, but he had not spoken Chinese in far too long.
“How can magic make plants grow larger?” she asked.
“Because I only do one thing—magic with plants—I can do many things with nuance.” He grimaced. That was probably the wrong word. “I can push magic into the plant to direct it. I weave magic with the plant.”
Daiyu straightened so fast she startled Shanlin. “Your chi? You can add chi to plants?”
“Yes,” Leander agreed.
“You could add chi to the ingredients of a pill master?”
“I believe so,” Leander said carefully, unwilling to make any promises when it came to an important career like pill making.
“What is it?” Shanlin asked, clearly understanding something important was going on here.
Normally, Leander would scold him for getting involved in adult conversations.
These people would have very little patience with a child who forced himself into adult conversations, but even Leander could see the alarm and excitement on Daiyu’s face, and it likely worried Shanlin.
“One of the most valued magical professions is that of pill master. They have an innate magical fire that allows them to fire alchemic stoves to intense temperatures that distill magic into a potent form. A skilled pill master can make a pill that will allow you to live longer or will heal sickness or improve a person’s magic.
She asked if I could add magic–chi–to a pill master’s ingredients so his pills would be more potent. ”
“Yes,” Daiyu said in heavily accented English. “Pill makers strengthen body, shorten training. They change fate.”
“Wow,” Shanlin whispered.
It was an opportunity to make himself useful, but it was also a chance to offend a powerful person.
Leander hadn’t expected to find a pill maker here.
“I can only affect the plant while it grows,” he lied.
He would rather be in the field than next to one of those enormous alchemic stoves that twisted magic together until it felt like Leander’s soul was being yanked.
He’d only had one experience of being in a pill room, and he had fled.
“Good, good, you come.” She stood and moved to the door before looking back at him with anticipation.
“I’m not dressed well.” He wore dirty, western clothing that would humiliate him if he left the house. He had bought one set of Chinese clothes for himself and Shanlin, but even those weren’t formal or old-fashioned enough. However, they would be infinitely better than dirty jeans.
“Don’t care. Many say Americans are too arrogant to be good workers, so you come like that so he will see that you can offer good value.”
Leander was stuck. He didn’t want to offend Auntie Daiyu, but he didn’t want to offend a pill master.
“Ba?” Shanlin asked.
Leander nodded. “I will go meet the pill master. Shanlin, you must remain in the house.”
“Okay.”
Leander hated how he had given that answer with no thought. “I’m serious. You can’t leave for any reason.”
Shanlin rolled his eyes. “Got it.”