In a tavern, a hand slipped quietly toward a diner's coin pouch. Yun Bieqiu looked away. In the Jianghu, mindi…
In a tavern, a hand slipped quietly toward a diner's coin pouch.
Yun Bieqiu looked away. In the Jianghu, minding your own business was how you stayed alive.
Then she saw the victim, a thin, scholarly Guqin player, finish his meal and fumble through his robes, finding nothing. Color rushed to his face.
The waiter was already on his way. Yun Bieqiu hesitated, then rose with a piece of silver in hand. Fine. She'd save this frail musician one more time.
Before she could, he pushed her hand aside, hugged his Guqin to his chest, and climbed straight onto a table in the center of the tavern.
She stayed there for three days. Each day, the Guqin player performed on time. And with every melody, the sharp, violent air of the tavern thinned, little by little.
So... this was another way to settle things?
Yun Bieqiu glanced at the sword in her hand, then at the Guqin in his arms. When he finally packed up and bowed farewell to the innkeeper, she followed, with a blade at her side.
The Guqin player turned and greeted her with a proper salute. Yun Bieqiu froze, then fumbled an awkward return.
For the first time, a thought she'd never allowed herself crossed her mind, "If only I'd practiced the Guqin more seriously back then..."