Ming Cheng almost let him slump in relief at what the Qi Qing had said to him.
When he heard the word 'initiation' he was expecting to do something such as stealing the money off a certain individual, or breaking into the homes of supposed enemies.
Those were the initiations that he was used to hearing about and seeing.
Catching frogs was practically a benign task, and it didn't particularly matter to him about the experiments that would happen on them. He was used to not asking questions to suspicious individuals.
Ming Cheng looked down and though about his next course of action.
He wasn't particularly hungry at the moment, his stomach familiar with being unfilled, and Ming Cheng wasn't particularly sure of the entire layout of the garden, any restricted areas, and where any potential frogs might be.
He didn't know how long it would take him, so it would be better for him to start early to finish as soon as possible.
Ming Cheng looked up at the faces of the other children and nodded to them.
"I'll catch the frogs," he declared to the rest of the trio sat in front of him.
Qi Qing nodded firmly while Qi Tao gaped with his mouth wide open in incredulous shock and disbelief.
Wang Yuan, however, began to look panicked, his eyes wide open and distress clear on his face. He clutched at Qi Qing's sleeve, turning to her for support, an expression of grief clear in his eyes.
She turned back to her companion and fixed a firm glare on him, leaning down to whisper something in his ear, before turning back to look at Ming Cheng.
Wang Yuan looked guiltily to the floor, his face almost blank, save for the slight traces of his remaining grief.
"Frogs like water," Qi Qing explained to Ming Cheng, "They also like damp and dark places, preferably warm ones too because they're not warm blooded... they don't warm up. They rely on touching warm things to feel warm."
Ming Cheng nodded to her, before standing up.
"I'm going to go catch them now," he announced to the group, turning towards the gardens to begin his first quest.
A hand shot out and grabbed Ming Cheng's wrist.
He immediately jerked his hand away, hearing an unexpected crash behind him.
He whirled around and looked downwards to the floor to see Qi Tao sprawled out in a messy heap, groaning and rubbing his head.
"Sorry. Sorry. I shouldn't have surprised you. It's just, don't you want to eat your lunch and catch the frogs in your free time later, at the end of the day," he asked Ming Cheng, a reassuring grin on his face, mussing up his hair further with the hand that wasn't supporting him up.
Ming Cheng looked over the arch of Qi Tao's body, easily learning that Ming Cheng had instinctively flung him to the side and the floor when his wrist had been grabbed.
Bowing down in an apology, Ming Cheng intoned," I'm sorry for throwing you to the floor. It won't happen again," before standing up once more.
"It would be easier if I caught the frogs now, rather than eating lunch. I do not have any free time. I am a full time worker of the Imperial Palace," Ming Cheng droned out, wincing at the dry tone of his own voice as he repeated back statements read out to him by one of the clerks at official employment office of the palace.
Ming Cheng did not mention that he only had this job because of Lan Chang's brother who had secured himself a deputy position and that Ming could easily ask for free time, but did not, too determined to not shirk his duties to avoid any reason for his employment contract to be terminated.
He was being paid for this, after all.
He wanted the money.
Money meant food and power.
And food and power meant survival.
Ming Cheng wanted to live, even if he had befriend these children on the orders of a potentially murderous ghost.
Marching off into the outside world, Ming Cheng looked around for any body of water that frogs would be lurking nearby to.
The well was the obvious first choice to investigate but Ming Cheng knew, after pulling up multiple buckets of water, that there were no frogs near it, the little animals probably repulsed by the human presence near that water supply.
Ming Cheng scanned the length of the garden, trying to spot any dark, damp locations.
The garden at this part of the garden consisted of a stretch of grass situated between the solid brick wall which surrounded the palace and the actual palace itself.
A weak façade of trees, bushes, and other shrubbery tried to conceal the wall, but the pattern of bricks was obvious from where Ming Cheng stood.
The area was certainly dark and looked as if it could be damp, leaving Ming Cheng satisfied enough.
He walked back to the palace and pulled out the pot of dirty water that had been used to wash the rice and threw the water out onto the grass, emptying the pot for all the potential frogs.
He creeped towards the wall, keeping his eyes firmly locked on to the ground and forced his body to stay completely still, as if he was hiding from the hungry, ravenous dogs that often liked to chase him and all the other children like him, or any of the particularly overzealous store owners who fancied themselves as righteous, upstanding members of society, determined to rid the street of the supposed vermin.
Ming Cheng didn't let himself even blink when he heard the uplifting tell tale croak of his first victim.
He let the frog peep out of the foliage.
He let the frog hop closer to him, lured and reeled in by the new presence that seemed to have arrived in front of its home.
He let the frog come closer and closer.
As soon as the frog came within grabbing distance, Ming Cheng forced his entire body to break free of his previous posture, diving to grab the frog with both of his hands, catching it when it jumped in surprise.
Ming Cheng quickly shoved it into the dark and wetness of the pot, and covered the ending with his arm, dooming the frog to its fate.