Helang blinked at the scenery before him, the padded floors and reinforced windows of a room with high ceilings. He could've sworn he was in his desk chair a moment ago, but now he was staring at some brat in training robes.
"A lowly concubine's son and a Joseon mutt," the teenager before him was sneering. "Birds of a feather really do flock together!"
"The Joseon dog didn't even come today," the boy behind him said mockingly.
Helang frowned slowly in confusion, the world strangely fuzzy and warm around him.
'Am I dreaming?' He pinched his own cheek and felt nothing. 'Definitely dreaming.' Helang looked at the faces he only barely recognized. This must be the shaman training grounds in his hometown in Shanxi province, he realized belatedly, back from when he was only a guy who picked fights and Taeyun a kid who skipped classes.
"Good, the mutt must've learned his place," the teenager said, snapping Helang out of his thoughts. Helang looked at the kids contemplatively before giving in to the familiar anger bubbling up in his blood.
"Fuck you," Helang said, and promptly punched the teenager in the face. At the surprised squawk of the other brat, Helang punched him too.
"Stupid brats," Helang snarled, punching each of them again for good measure. He ignored the shocked people in the background and stepped outside.
The street looked too much like Canton, but Helang decided not to bother with the details. He wasn't going to nitpick a dream unless it was supposed to be a prophecy or an omen or something of the sort, and this definitely wasn't either one of those.
The streets actually started looking more like his hometown's as Helang turned onto path a familiar path. It was the only street Helang was willing to properly remember.
At its very end, there was an ancient tree with an unbelievably gnarled trunk that could scare children shitless at night. It was the perfect hangout spot because no one wanted to go near it. Back in the days of endless humiliation, the tree was the only refuge they'd had.
"Taeyun," Helang called out before even spotting his friend. In the same gesture Taeyun had used for decades, the shaman poked his head out from behind the trunk.
"Helang," Taeyun called, looking ridiculously young. "You have blood on your knuckles."
Helang looked down at his hands and back at Taeyun again, strangely at a loss for words.
"Did the idiots piss you off again?" Taeyun asked.
"Yeah, like the classics say, talk shit get hit," Helang replied. Taeyun tilted his head back and laughed.
"You should just ignore them. Why waste energy on those idiots?" Taeyun said, patting Helang's shoulder fondly. With a start, Helang realized what the dream was about, but his mouth kept running on autopilot.
"They were insulting us," Helang replied. "Insults from them aren't worth shit, they're just idiots who only care about family names and reputations," Taeyun said.
"I'm also an idiot who cares about family names and reputations. Guess you're the only wise one then. We must all seem pretty stupid to you, ha?!" Helang snapped. Taeyun turned towards him with blazing eyes.
"Not you, Helang. You're different from them," Taeyun said. "You're my friend."
"That's not worth much," Helang replied. Taeyun laughed again before giving Helang a meaningful look.
"Oh, you'll see if you stick around," Taeyun said. "Be patient."
Taeyun fondly slapped a hand on Helang's shoulder fondly. The hand landed loudly and continued slapping at his shoulder.
"What the fuck," Helang sputtered. He woke up with an irritated snarl, swatting at the hand slapping his shoulder. "What the fuck?!"
Pania drew her hand back sheepishly, standing before Helang's desk with a phone in hand. "Sorry, Vice-Chair," she said. "Chairman's called an emergency meeting."
Helang rubbed at his face and stood up slowly. He checked his phone. There were thirty unread messages in the group chat, 7 missed calls from Pania, and 3 unread texts from Taeyun.
"Holy shit, I was only asleep for thirty minutes," Helang said in horror.
"Yeah," Pania winced. "Shit went down."
Helang quickly opened Taeyun's text messages.
'An insignia appeared on my hand while I was sleeping.'
'I think it's the White Tiger's insignia. Keep this quiet.'
'Did you hear about Feng Yuxiang.'
"Oh shit," Helang hissed, clicking open the group chat after sending Taeyun an emoticon. "Did Feng Yuxiang join up with Jia Xu?"
"Yeah," Pania said with another wince.
"Fucker! Betray Wu Peifu all you want but at least don't join the Shaman Council!" Helang snarled. "And he just ignored the gifts I sent him!"
"The bribes? Yeah, I guess they bribed him more," Pania said. She gave an apologetic smile when Helang shot her a glare. Helang sighed and pushed back the stray hairs on his forehead.
"Emergency meeting," Helang said. He followed Pania to the meeting room, scrolling through the outraged reactions in the group chat.
'Taeyun, which hand was it?' Helang sent. He didn't know why that could be relevant, but better safe than sorry. The message was marked as read but Taeyun didn't reply. It was easy to see why after entering the meeting room. Every high ranking member who had joined the Expedition was there, and already arguing.
Taeyun caught his eye from across the room and gave a crooked smile. Helang patted Pania on the shoulder with a sigh and went to his seat next to Taeyun, patting the top of Luco's head as he passed. Taeyun and Helang shared a meaningful look and a small nod before turning their attention to the room.
"Silence!" Helang shouted. The room fell silent.
"Thank you all for gathering here on such short notice," Taeyun said calmly, a small smile on his face. He didn't look anything like a man who was losing to his rival. "As you all know, Wu Peifu's subordinate General Feng Yuxiang has defected to join the Shaman Council."
"Chairman! We have to do something about this!" Chief of Staff Lanhui shouted, tossing her hair over her shoulder in an irate gesture.
"We can't do anything about General Feng now that Jia Xu's gobbled him up, but we need to start taking the initiative here," Provost Marshal Zuojian said in agreement.
There was a chorus of agreements and a few randomly shouted expletives for emphasis.
"Let Jia Xu incorporate as many soldiers as she likes, they evidently prefer her to me," Taeyun said. "As you all know, I have reached out to both Li Zongren and Feng Yuxiang. They just happened not to choose me."
"Chairman! We can't just let them do that!" Lanhui spearheaded another wave of protests that had Pania and Luco looking at Taeyun and Helang with expectant eyes. Helang pretended he hadn't seen anything.
"What do you all propose then, killing them?" Helang cut in, sarcasm dripping from his voice like mascara down a crying face. One brave soul responded with a yes and was quickly shut up by the person next to him.
Assassinating a military leader during a joint expedition was the best way to have an internal bloodbath, and it had been one of the major causes of the First Northern Expedition's failure. No one in their right minds would propose something that had all but annihilated the last army that tried.
"But Chairman, Jia Xu's gotten a head start already, we have to at least step up our recruiting efforts!" Luco said in a tone that straddled the line between pleading and whining.
"And what? Threaten them into cooperation? Like what Jia Xu's doing?" Taeyun asked in an earnest tone that meant he was being anything but earnest. Helang sighed as Luco frowned in confusion.
"It's not exactly a good idea to coerce soldiers who have a long history of being very trigger-happy," Helang said.
"At this rate, we really won't get anything after Nanjing," Zuojian warned him. "Except for maybe Canton, but that'll just be their leftovers."
Everyone looked suitably appalled at this, but Taeyun only smiled calmly.
"It's fine," Taeyun said. "Do nothing."
The room erupted into cacophony, but Helang wasn't surprised at all. Taeyun may make bad decisions at times, but he was one to think of things in the long run. The most important thing was that Taeyun could be patient.
Taeyun had been patient for twenty years before he'd made his debut and came to Canton, and had been patient for ten more years after that. A few more years were nothing to him.
"I will become someone who does not need to lower his head," Taeyun had said the night before they'd first arrived in Canton. "And so will you."
Helang let out a small sigh, determinedly not meeting Taeyun's expectant glance. Everyone continued to argue and protest.
"I agree with the Chairman," Helang said loudly. The room fell silent again as people shrank away from his glare.
"What do you think is more important? Gaining a large territory the second you get a chance, or slowly eating up your enemy until you're the victor?" Helang asked.
A look of realization dawned on Zuojian and Lanhui's faces right away. Helang nodded in satisfaction. As was expected of people who had been with Taeyun for ten years. They at least knew what their boss was aiming for.
"So Jia Xu is definitely threatening people?" Pania asked in a flat tone. Taeyun smiled cryptically.
"Who's to say? That's the Shaman Council's internal affairs. Our primary goal, for now, is to gain complete control over Canton and Hokkien. Anything that the other factions do is not our problem," Taeyun said. Helang nodded at them.
"You all have your orders. Keep your mouths shut and do your jobs right," Helang said. "We take what we can and ignore what we can't until the time is right. Don't start shit."
"Please continue to put your faith in me," Taeyun said, a somber look on his face. "If you do, you most certainly will get to see something great."
"Yes, Chairman!"
Helang looked around the room at everyone's faces, satisfied to see their determination. Much more so than the fast-paced, glory-hounding acts, patience was what really took willpower.
And all things considered, they'd need a lot of that.