"Hu QuenQui you look young, why are you out here on your own?" Muiye asked.
"Well yeah I'm seventeen so I haven't come of age yet. I ran away but even if I'm young it's quite easy to survive on my own."
"Ran away?....OHHH did you elope?!"
"What, no!"
'I just said I'm not at age?! How am I going to get married?'
Mo Muiye gasped and covered her mouth. "There was this kid in my hometown that ran away because he got his cousin pregnant."
'WHATTTTT?! Excuse me, do I look like the type of person to do that!? Why does this lady think of only weird things?'
"I would never do such a disgraceful thing!" He shouted out on accident. Mo Muiye was quiet after that. 'Did I shout too loud?'
But before he could apologize she continued, "Then did you-" Hu QuenQui cut her off
"I ran away because of my family constantly reminding me that I was weak and couldn't do anything myself."
Muiye couldn't hold in her shock, "Weak?! You pondered five men! You're not weak at all, even the gods would laugh after hearing that."
Hu QuenQui smiled at her remark, "Exactly, I'm not weak." He loved the sound of not being called weak.
"Look over there." He pointed in the direction ahead of them. "There's a village there so let's find a doctor and take care of your legs."
The village was massive and the number of people around was very crowded, especially the market part of it which they entered from.
"Hey, kid." A little boy was working a stand himself that looked up and saw Hu QuenQui carrying Mo Muiye on his back. Just by looking at them, he can tell what Hu QuenQui was gonna ask. "Information isn't free y'know. You should buy something from me at least."
The kid was selling necklaces that looked homemade so Hu QuenQui pointed at the first thing that caught his attention. It was a silver chain necklace with a blue orchid charm hanging from it. It wasn't a real flower but the detail on the charm made it look as if it was.
"I'll take that then."
"Great choice!" The boy grinned. "That will be two silver coins."
"That cheap?"
"No one's going to buy them anyways."
"The necklaces look quite decent though." The necklaces looked pretty in anyone else's eyes however Hu QuenQui didn't care for jewelry, but he wasn't that indifferent not to realize that it would go for at least five silver coins.
The kid pointed at a fat man a couple of blocks away, "You see that geezer over there? He's a lousy guy! Plucks the money out of every shop owner here by using excuses like rent money."
"He once robbed a man of all his belongings to his shop, down to undies just because he was getting a little too famous in the market."
Hu QuenQui was closing the drawstrings on his pouch and put it away to give the kid the coins. The kid accepted the money and tucked it in his robes.
"To be doing all that he must be guarded." Hu QuenQui asked.
"Yeah, he married the daughter of this village's chief so his father- in law would do anything to keep his reputation up and respected. No one can do anything about the geezers' behavior unless they want their hands and tongue cut off."
"That's terrible!" Exclaimed Mo Muiye. "A grown man like him committing such disgraceful acts such as stealing!"
"Right!? He doesn't even look twice at the poor people he does it to. Because of him..."
".....anyway I'll have to stop my stand so I'm just trying to get rid of everything quickly."
The kid glanced at Mo Muiye once again and hit his palm, "Oh yeah! You were going to ask for a doctor. Sorry, I took up your time and rambled on." The kid turned around and grabbed a brown glass jug. "Here take this. It's alcohol."
He grinned brightly as he handed the jug over to Hu QuenQui, "You're gonna need it." There was no need for an explanation since Hu QuenQui instinctively knew what it was going to be for. He shook his head sourly
'Are all doctors like this?'
****
"..."
"What is this..?" In front of a small wooden house, a huge sign above the door swung to the sides with the engraved words, "Go to h*ll!" Many other insulting things were written everywhere on the house either it was drawn or carved onto it.
"Who would do such a thing!" Mo Muiye rocked both of them backward in a fit of rage which nearly made them both fall back if it wasn't for Hu QuenQui's balance and pulling them forward.
"Sorry-"
"It's okay. The place looks shady but it's the only doctor here in the village that isn't held onto by the chief's son-in-law." The place where the kid said to go was in a dark part of the village where a lot of crimes get committed occasionally.
"I'll hate to be rescued and then killed not a day later." Mo Muiye whined but she then gasped immediately after finishing her words. "There's a skeleton!"
Where she was gazing was next to a wooden trash bin and something that looked disarranged with different sizes of bones was attached to strings. It was out in the open but whoever made it did a poor job because it looked like the strings were hardly keeping the bones together.
"Mo Muiye, you don't have to be so cautious. Those bones aren't human, they are mule bones." Hu QuenQui explained but he felt something slump down onto his shoulder and when he glanced back to find that Mo Muiye passed out.
'Clack click cluck' The cluttering noises of the bones ranged out and a man hopped out from behind them. Mo Muiye must've seen the supposed 'skeleton' move and was so spooked she fainted.
"Oh, is that lady alright? I couldn't help but overhear your conversation about my artwork."
Hu QuenQui raised an eyebrow, "Your artwork?"
"Don't be too quick to judge. This art here isn't even finished yet! I barely just got started today!"
'I didn't say I was judging- But I'm judging.' He didn't even think bones of the dead have anything to do with the artwork. It just looks like a clump of bones piled together.
"And what is it that you're making out of these bones?"
The stranger's eyes grew wide as if he just hit a jackpot and he began rambling on and on about how he was going to show off his skills to a place called 'The Festival of Blessing' but at first had no idea what to create until he saw a bear cub up in the forest chewing bones with no flesh attached anymore.
"The bones reminded me of when my mother used to make stew and would accidentally leave it boiling for too long. The meat would detach itself from the bone and with my bad luck I always got the bowl with no meat but bones."
The man picked up his work and brought them to Hu QuenQui's face to see closely. He intended to show that these bones were similar to what he used to get in his stew.
"It wasn't until I was old enough did I figure out that my mother was lying. We couldn't afford meat so she went to the streets to beg for food. They only gave her bones and if she was lucky enough they would throw her the spare change they had."
He looked down in thought but grinned before locking eyes with Hu QuenQui.
"Mother was a warm-hearted person. She never wanted us to live the life of beggars nor crawl around the streets like stray animals. Never once did she point out to us that we were poor so that we wouldn't think lowly of ourselves."
Hu QuenQui couldn't keep a straight face so with a grim face that the man couldn't see he looked away. "Your mother does sound like she cherishes you."
"Yes she 'did' but I suppose all mothers want to protect their children from the cruelness of this world."
"..."
"Li Han!" Yelled out a lady that came out of the wooden house and it seemed that Li Han was the man with Hu QuenQui. Li Han lifted his bones to cover his face but it was too late and the lady came over and grabbed him by the ear.
"What are you doing outside?! I told you to never come out without me by your side!"
Hu QuenQui felt a sense of Deja Vu. He also felt the eyes of the nearby villagers and could hear their whispers.
"That crazy man is playing with bones now..."
"Ew, he's disgusting."
"He doesn't know how to act properly."
"I thought he would be gone by now?" A guy in a crowd said to another. The other replied, "I'll make sure that his beating next time won't allow him to move one bit. Since he loves playing with bones like a freak he won't mind if all of his bones get crushed."
They both snickered and more people continued to bad mouth Li Han, 'The Crazy Man'.
"I'm sorry! OW! It hurts, let go!" screamed Li Han
"I can't even look away now can I? One moment you're there and the next you're out here with people you don't know."
"Miss?" Hu QuenQui interrupted them. "We're here to see a doctor."
She let an "oh" and released the ear of Li Han, "Is that so? I'm sorry I was on the edge so I didn't see the lady on your back." She glanced at the unconscious Mo Muiye whose head was almost going to fall off Hu QuenQui's shoulder."
"She's pale... Please come in!" She said as she led them into the wooden house, but she also made sure to grab Li Han as well to push him in. Inside was spacious, unlike the outside appearance. Hu QuenQui was told to place Mo Muiye on the Kang bed and so he sat on a seat next to it.
(Kang: A traditional firm bed used mainly in the northern part of China)
The doctor began treating Mo Muiye's legs almost immediately. "Her wounds are already infected. The white pus leaking out is the main sign of it. Luckily her wounds aren't that deep, but I am going to have to cut off the infected flesh. Is that alright?"
Hu QuenQui nodded.
'It's not that bad so it's fine. Mo Muiye can still walk but it can leave her with scars. It's either that or trying to clean the infectious flesh that could also just worsen and steal her ability to walk.'
He knew Muiye wouldn't like the scars since she was a female but being able to walk and run was something necessary for a human. Females can't have scars but a female that can't use her legs is much worse.