It was clear that this man had never set foot in this area.

The path they took, while most decidedly a short cut to the rolling hills, was also a sure way to be picked off by looters. It led out of the crowded market and off towards the small creek that was often polluted with the wriggling forms of children and their pets. It was a spot perfect for dining on the powdered sweets that they carried with them.

Jú Lì had no qualms with this way, as it was not often that she would be confronted with the stray thief that wanted nothing more than something to fill his stomach, but it was now a problem. Seeing in a light more open than the space of the market, she could spot jewels on his person that nearly glowed now. He would surely attract the eyes of the bolder thieves and robbers. She, however, could not do anything in the way of prevention save asking him to tuck them away in his cloak.

Her fears were never confirmed, as they managed the walk to the lake undisturbed by the desperate and greedy. Perhaps they had found some other victim to steal from. Whatever it may have been, surely they had been blessed by a deity.

Xiao Yǔ turned his overeager gaze her way, expectancy once again touching his face. She pondered only for a moment what he might have been waiting for before stifling the barest form of a giggle.

"Just sit," she instructed, "It's just grass."

"But, it's dirty," he protested, brows furrowing, "You'll muddy your clothes."

"Ah, but my clothes are already dirty," she stated with an air of wisdom, "No shame in it getting slightly dirtier."

"I see," he acquiesced, nodding.

Lowering herself onto the grass, she tipped her head back to watch the sun fade behind the horizon. She watched the colors in the sky drag behind it like a child dragged a blanket across the ground. She closed her eyes for a moment, opening them when she felt a nudge.

Xiao Yǔ had already begun to unceremoniously stuff his face with the pastries, as if they would grow feet and run away. A smile threatened to break out over her lips, a silent intruder in her solemn time of thought. She watched him for a moment longer before reaching into the opened package of cakes and taking one for herself.

As she nibbled absently on the spongey sweet, a thought did the same to her. It teemed at the back of her mind. What was the purpose of Xiao Yǔ's presence? She could not have merely gotten lucky in this man stumbling upon her, and yet she could have. It could have been a random turn of the wheel of fate that brought them to this very moment, but she understood no divine intervention would have fallen upon her.

His presence was a mystery she wanted and didn't want to solve.

But she was slowly coming to accept that the gods worked in mysterious ways, and that his identity in this movement of the gods would be revealed soon enough. A sigh ended her thoughts on the matter, chased away by the sweetness that filled her mouth. The cake had long since cooled, but just the warmth of knowing she had made a more than adequate profit for the day was enough. At last, she smiled. A true thing this time, as opposed to the fake she showed customers.

She felt eyes on her, and her smile disappeared. Her attention turned back to the man sitting at her left, staring at her as if she were some miracle. Crumbs littered his face and white powder was just at the tip of his nose. His jaw had gone slack and his eyes had widened; she doubted he had blinked in the last minute that he must have been staring at her.

"What is it," she inquired, a hand ghosting its way towards her face.

"You smiled," he murmured, words muffled around the cake still in his mouth.

"But I had smiled before," she replied. Hadn't she?

He swallowed before responding with, "You didn't; not really. This time it's more beautiful. Like—like the moon rising up just as it is now; radiant."

She could feel her cheeks heating up, a rosy pink spreading against the rough tan of her skin. Lips pursed, she looked back to her cake before getting to her feet abruptly.

"I must be getting home," she stated, turned on the balls of her feet and moving quickly away. She ignored each time he called out to her, and decided that gods didn't know what they were doing.

"How does anyone say something like that so easily," Jú Lì fumed, "and with someone he has only just met!"

Her younger sister simply looked up at her, expression blank. The young girl had been riveted by the tale of the man with much money to spend, and found her older sister lacking in the proper enthusiasm. Jú Lì paused in her story, observing her sister's expression. A beat passed between them, a message relaying between them as they only could with siblings.

"You think I should have stayed and let him flatter me," Jú Lì stated, plants her hands firmly on her hips.

Where romantic matters were concerned, Jú Lì had never been the greatest. Xiǎo Lì was no expert, either, but she claimed much more experience on the subject than Jú Lì cared to inquire about. A brow raised and a smirk lifting her lips, Xiǎo Lì proceeded to look upon her older sister with an air knowledge that could have been true or false.

"Why, yes, I do think you should have," she began, "Clearly, he finds you interesting in some way."

"Or he's an idiot."

"A rich idiot."

"Is that all you were really thinking about?"

"Yes, and no. I had been thinking about how mysterious he sounded."

"Yā, really, this girl," Jú Lì trailed off, shaking her head and looking away from her sister.

"Oh, come on. It's not like you weren't thinking it, either."

"I wasn't."

"You were!"

"I wasn't!"

"Stop all that yelling!" Both girls flinched at the intrusion of a third voice in their argumentative litany.

In their haste to best one another, they had woken a sleeping bear of sorts. Their mother, stout with the birth of two girls and a thick-boned boy with another on the way, was not one they wished to anger. It had been a while since they had last heard her raise her voice above their own, and this quiet had made them complacent. They had thought themselves impervious to her threats to place upon them further discipline than they were getting after their bouts of civil disagreement.

Swallowing, Jú Lì placed a finger on her lips, signaling a momentary truce.

Their battle forgotten in their fear of their mother, they finished the last preparation of food for the evening. Soft, succulent dumplings nearly bursting with the meat that Jú Lì had rushed back to the market to buy, and spices to thrill their tongues after a season without them.

Xiǎo Lì popped one into her mouth, a soft hum of pleasure rumbling through her. Jú Lì thought to chastise her, but then decided it would be better to join her before carrying the food out to the rest of the family.

The next morning passed much the same as the first. The old man had not returned, perhaps sulking about being bested. Flies buzzes around food, swatted away carelessly by idle hands with nothing more than that to do. Maybe Jú Lì would inquire about hiring a small boy to call out to people. Perhaps then the customers would be drawn in.

She shook her head, thinking it to be nothing more than overly satisfied thinking. She had, overnight, grown to think highly of herself. Shaking it from her mind, she busied herself with playing with the small chips in the wood that flaked with age. She had done so for long before a shadow blocked the sun.

"I have returned," Xiao Yǔ proclaimed, a grin splitting his face from ear to ear.

// y'all can't hate this chapter more than I do. please accept this horrid chapter. please correct if I messed anything up here, and votes are always appreciated. thanks so much for reading! cheers, rem