Chapter 9 - Two Roads Diverged into a Wood
A heavenly scent wafted to Yang Xiu’s nose. Her stomach rumbled. “Am I hallucinating or is someone cooking a pig?”
Ru’er sniffed the air and immediately stopped walking. “You’re not imagining things.”
She started forward and made it several steps before she noted that her brother hadn’t moved. “What are you waiting for? Maybe they have enough to share.”
“It’s a trap. It must be.”
“Or… it’s the second miracle.” Yang Xiu grinned back at him. “Come on, silly. Let’s go.”
They exchanged glances. Ru’er’s said that she was being foolhardy, rushing into danger. Xiu’s told him she’d prefer to die in ambush than to slowly waste away due to starvation. Besides, she refused to give up on her belief that there were still good people in the world.
He sighed. “Fine.”
With the smell of a campfire and cooking propelling her onward, the trees and bushes on either side of the trail seemed to fly by, and when she finally rounded the last bend hiding the food from her, it exceeded her expectations by far. A full boar was roasting over a fire with, of all things, an apple in its mouth. A pot of rice cooked to the side.
Yang Xiu froze. Either her second miracle truly was being delivered by the heavens or someone had heard her earlier comments. In the quiet of her mind, she admitted she sometimes indulged in flights of fancy, but the current circumstances went way beyond the bounds of her credulity.
Her eyes darted about, landing on a figure standing still and quiet beside a tree. The cultivator.
She immediately cupped her hands and bowed low. Beside her, Ru’er did the same thing. To do anything else, risked death.
For a moment, no one spoke until, finally, she said, “This lowly one greets Esteemed Master Cultivator.”