Ten Months On

Chapter 12: The Quarry Village

A/N: for those who missed out on my previous post, I've uploaded Chapter 11 yesterday due to my error of publishing a blank chapter.

Here is the daily upload of the chapters. So far, I'm managing good time with tbe uploads! The votes really do encourage me! Thank you!

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Su Chen sneezed. For her, the weather was neither too cold nor too warm, yet inadverdently she was afflicted with bouts of sneezes once in a while.

Her co-worker and "mentor", Old Lu said it was the symptoms of a hated person. Many people were probably talking bad about her. She sniffed in disdain. Hmmph! She snorted as she stirred the huge iron pot before her. What if people were simply praising her to the skies? Have you thought about that Old Lu?

Yet as she looked around her, she felt far away from the person she used to be. In those ten months, she had always kept a gentle smile to war against the rude and blunt Sun Rui. Even before, at the Sun Residence, she felt bound to the role she had to play. But now, away from it all, she felt... Free.

Around her, a mix of children, stocky middle-aged women and grumpy elderly were moving about busily at the quarry. The children were running around happily, playing along with each other as they chased one another. The elderly around them were either smoking pipe and chatting or playing go.

Some of the ladies were busy washing their laundry while the other ladies were doing their best to dry the produce they had gathered under the sun. A mish mash of the old and young toiling made for an odd scene under the beautiful sunset in the twilight sky.

Su Chen has been living here for the past month or so. After searching through North Wind and narrowing down her choices, this village hidden in the quarry was the most probable place to find the man that stole her medallion.

It took a while for her to gain the trust of the villagers but her short stature (finally) helped her for once. Mistaken for a young girl who was missing her parents, many people came to help her settle down.

It was too bad that it was a farce she had to come up with. She prayed that the villagers forgive her of her lies as she quickly scooped a little more porridge for the people that were starting to queue in the meal line.

Su Chen was biding her time at Yín Village. She had managed to earn her place as assistant chef to the toady cook of the village that seemed less like a village and more like a welfare home for the poor, weak and homeless.

But she knew better than to believe in its outer facade. Su Chen vowed that she would exact her revenge on that pervert that had dared call her a pipsqueak after peeking at her. This lady's youthful body is not for you to look at for free. She smirked evilly. She doesn't think that that man realised how much compensation she would be exacting from him.

Once she found him.

"Lass! Lass! Stop dreaming!! You're spilling precious porridge off the bowl!!" Old Lu shouted.

At his shout, Su Chen quickly ladled off the excess and dripped the porridge back into the huge pot.

The toady old cook behind them glared at her as she continued scooping sheepishly for the people in line.

Once a day, the Silver Wolf Sect would dole out porridge to the widowed, orphaned, elderly and homeless that resided in the village. In Su Chen's eyes, such charity was probably hiding something deeper and darker within. Everyone knew that the sects in the jianghu were not as simple and benevolent as how Silver Wolf portrayed itself. Even entering the sect was something quite difficult to do.