Beware Of Chicken

It really was just a social visit; the topics meandered through the group, the tea was excellent… but most of all, Cai Xi Kong had a truly wonderful treasure.

“Ah, this was her first form in front of the Sect,” he said, smiling at the recording playing from his crystal.

“Ah, sheʼs so cute!” Meiling gushed, her eyes locked onto the little girl who was flowing through a martial arts form, a single blade floating behind her.

Xiulan’s cheeks were pink, and she was sitting as primly as possible while sipping her tea. Jin was grinning at the sight.

“Indeed, my daughter is a peerless beauty!” Xi Kong boasted. Xiulan’s flush deepened.

“Ah, thatʼs Elder Yi, isn’t it? I recognise some of your Elders from when I met them,” Jin said. “His style was certainly… interesting twenty years ago.”

Meiling squinted at the man, and his facial hair. His mustache formed into a giant, upwards curve that reached halfway to his eyes.

Xi Kong’s eyes twinkled. “He said all should embody the spirit of a Blade of Grass, and grow upwards. He had a theory about hair and Qi flow and, well… the results were inconclusive.”

“Didn’t Elder Xinling ask him if she could stick pieces of chicken on his mustache and then use him to grill it?” Xiulan asked.

“Yes,” Xi Kong said, before looking shifty. “Please do not tell Yi I showed you this…”

“Our lips are sealed,” Jin promised, his lips twitching, before he paused at catching sight of a woman. “Wait, is that…”

He trailed off, his finger directed to a woman with midnight black hair and a… well, a rather lush figure. A figure Meiling knew very well, and she realized those Storm Wings from Soaring Heaven’s Isle had been right. Meiling did know those boobies—they were a very comfortable pillow.

“Yes. That is my mother, Yangtze Liusei,” Xiulan said, her voice calm. Meiling studied the woman’s face—outside her figure, she looked nothing like Xiulan.

“No word back yet?” Jin asked, and Xiulan shook her head.

“Not as such, no,” she replied… and yet there was no bitterness in it. “If she wishes to speak with us again, we are here. But in the meantime, we have things to do.”

Meiling reached out and held Xiulan’s hand under the table. Her friend squeezed her hand back. Xiulan seemed relatively at peace with things at the moment.

“Blade of Grass! Blade of Grass!” Tigu’s boisterous voice interrupted. “We need another for the mahjong game! Are you prepared to be defeated?!”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Oho? You’re challenging me again? Very well, I shall oblige you all!” Xiulan said, rising and marching over to where Tigu was heckling her.

Xi Kong watched her go with a complex expression on his face, before he sighed and shook his head.

“Once, I said to Jin that I wished to entrust my daughter to him,” Xi Kong said to Meiling after a moment. “He responded that I should entrust her to herself. You truly do have a vision longer than mine.”

“I’m very glad we met her,” Meiling replied. “I don’t know where we would be without her.”

“Isn’t that the truth?” Jin said. Slowly, a smile came across Xi Kong’s face. It was one full of paternal pride.

“She is the greatest blessing of my life,” Xi Kong agreed.

==============================

“I still can’t believe he brought that recording crystal along,” Xiulan muttered to Jin and Meiling as they sat together on the couch of their room in the mountain. It was just the three of them for the moment; everyone else was out with Xiulan’s students, or had some more work to do.

It had been fun to just go out, have some tea, and take a break from politics. Her father facilitated it, and it had put everyone in a good mood… though if only he hadn’t had the ‘wondrous idea’ of showing her friends what she was like when she was young. She didn’t really mind it, but it had given Meiling entirely too much ammunition to use against her.

“Don’t be mad, Xiulan, you were absolutely adorable! I can only wish I have a daughter half as cute!” Meimei declared, pressing into Xiulan’s arm. Xiulan rolled her eyes, while pushing away the warm feeling in her stomach. Meiling’s compliments were entirely too much!

She had to strike back somehow!