Chương 41: Chapter 40 — Drinking Games

Lin Che sat in the passenger seat of the minivan and stared at the road ahead, his mind running laps thinking about what he had just done. He had, in the span of an hour, convinced his best friend and two other people — one of whom was a Shen Clan operative which he had gagged and wardrobed — to believe that they had been personally selected for a secret special operations unit, all using a notebook and a very confident tone of voice.

The terrifying part wasn't that it had worked on Xu Fang and Guo Mingzhe, no, that was explicable. After all, he was their introduction to the entire cultivation world, so of course they'd believe everything he said like gospel after showing just a little proof. The terrifying part was Chen Wei. He was sitting in the back of the minivan and currently watching the road with contentment scribbled over his face.

He had accepted the entire situation without asking a single probing question, assumedly filling in the gaps in the story all by himself. He had looked at Lin Che's story and immediately decided it was a promotion. There were three potential explanations for this. One: Chen Wei was being genuine and excited to join them. Two: Chen Wei had seen through it entirely and was playing along for reasons of his own, which was considerably more alarming.

And three: he wanted so badly to believe it that his analytical instincts had simply gone offline. None of these were fully reassuring.

In a small briefing room in the Shen Clan compound, Elder Fang and Shen Bowen sat opposite one another, a projector between them beaming a report from one of Elder Fang's subordinates onto the wall.

"His phone has been off since approximately two in the morning," she said.

"His wife contacted the clan at seven when he failed to return or send word. Given that his location data stopped near the rough coordinates we sent him to—""It means he must have been taken down or is in hiding," finished off Shen Bowen, fiddling with his fingers for lack of tea cup to hold.

"So he is currently uncontactable, and his last known location traces back to that IP address cluster in Hebei." Shen Bowen was quiet for a moment. Chen Wei was not, by any measure, a pushover. That was the key bit of information that made all this rather unsettling. On paper he was a mid-rank operative and not especially distinguished in terms of raw cultivation level, but his sound arts were deeply unorthodox, which led to disproportionate difficulty for people who had never encountered it before.

For someone to have neutralised him without him having a chance to call for backup of any sorts, in the middle of the night in a public area without drawing any attention — that required either considerable skill or considerable luck. Bowen picked up a pen and began scribbling on the clipboard on the table in front of him.

"Revise the threat assessment," he said. Elder Fang looked at him and typed on her laptop.

"Take him up two tiers," he said.

"Unknown cultivation level, possibly concealed. Treat any field contact as high risk until we know more."

"We'll keep direct contact with Chen Wei's wife in case his location data comes back suddenly. I don't have high hopes," sighed Elder Fang.

"We don't know what Lin Che is like… we'd best prepare bereavement compensation just in case."

The town was mid-sized and rather unremarkable, serving primarily as a logistical node between more interesting places. Just off the river, there was a main high street with mostly defunct businesses. Some ways away from this high street was a shop with a green painted door and no sign. Lin Che had half-remembered this address from a passing reference in Hu Baolin's records, but wasn't too sure that he had had the correct place. Thankfully, Chen Wei was much more familiar with this location.

He pushed the door open. The inside of the shop had a scent Lin Che now understood was not unique to Hu Baolin's pharmacy. It was a dry and complex scent with a faint mineral undertone that got stronger the closer you got to certain jars. A long wooden counter ran the length of the far wall, and behind it, a woman in her fifties was reading something on a tablet. She looked up as they came in and took in the four of them with a short glance.

"Can I help you?" she asked. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"I have a list," said Lin Che, setting his notebook on the counter and spinning it around towards her. She put on her glasses to read the text, which Lin Che suspected was purely for performative reasons given her vast quantity of Qi he could sense within her. Her name was Qiu Renying, and she had been running this shop for twenty three years, first with her husband, and then, for the past nine years, alone.

In that time she had supplied ingredients to everyone from provincial clan juniors buying their first basic tonics to senior practitioners whose deeds she had heard faint rumours of. She had a reliable sense for what a list revealed about the person who had written it. She read Lin Che's list twice.

"Where did you train?" she asked.

"Nowhere," said Lin Che. She looked at him again.

"This is a modified breath-opening blend."

"Yes."

"The modification here—" she pointed to the third item on the list "—reduces the clearing effect but extends the absorption window. That's not a standard substitution."

"The standard formulation is designed for practitioners consolidating an existing foundation having been raised in a Qi-dense environment. These two," Lin Che said, indicating to Mingzhe and Xu Fang, "are building from scratch. A slower absorption window reduces the shock to the meridian pathways and makes the early stages of the Liuhe method significantly more comfortable." Qiu Renying set the notebook down.

"And the binding agent?"

"Neutralises the bitterness enough to be tolerable, but doesn't affect the active compounds."

"It affects the onset time."

"By about twenty minutes, yes, but that is fine for our purposes." Behind Lin Che, Chen Wei was standing with wide eyes. He had been to this shop before and handed over lists before. Qiu Renying had never asked him where he had trained.

"The substitution at the bottom," she said.

"River sedge instead of standard grass, I mean, I haven't seen that combination in about fifteen years."

"I understand it's difficult to stock, but given the location, I imagine you should have some." Qiu Renying turned around and began moving along the drawers with efficient, almost machine-like movements.

"I have everything you need, even the river sedge. You'll need to prepare the third and fourth compounds together—""Yes, I know. Thank you," Lin Che interrupted, rather rudely. In truth, he was just exasperated after quoting lines he'd said to Hu Baolin a countless number of times, and he just wanted to get this interaction over with. She assembled the ingredients, wrapping each one in paper and labelling it. When she set the final package on the counter, she looked at Lin Che one more time.

"Whoever taught you the practical side of this knew what they were doing." Lin Che paid and gathered the packages. Chen Wei fell into step beside him as they moved towards the door, and the other two followed closely behind.

"How long have you been doing this?" he asked Lin Che.

"A while," he replied.

They used Lin Che's room again, taking out the gas burner and pans from the back of the minivan and hiding them in boxes to get past reception without any questioning. Guo Mingzhe grabbed a chair to reach the fire alarm on the ceiling and removed its batteries. The process itself took just a couple of minutes, with Lin Che working through each stage at an unhurried pace. Mingzhe watched with sustained, focussed attention, whilst Xu Fang watched with growing unease.

By the time the blend was finished, the room smelt like the bottom of a pond that had been boiled with something medicinal and left to stew in its own rot. Lin Che decanted it into two cups and set them on the desk. Both cups were the colour of strong river sediment, and a faint steam rose from each of them. Xu Fang looked at the cup.

"I always imagined potions to taste sweet," he gulped.

"It smells like a drain."

"The binding agent handles most of the bitterness," said Lin Che.

"The smell is just the river sedge. It's mostly cosmetic."

"When you say cosmetic—""I mean the smell is not the worst part." Xu Fang looked at Mingzhe, who had already picked up his cup and drank it in three even swallows. His expression remained almost entirely steady, save for a very slight tightening of his eyes and wincing of his mouth right at the finish.

"Okay," he said, after a moment.

"Okay?" said Xu Fang.

"I've had worse."

"What could you possibly have had that was worse than what just came out of that cup?"

"There was a tonic my first teacher used to make for joint conditioning," said Mingzhe, shivering as the memories bubbled back up. Xu Fang followed suit, downing it in one go thanks to the practice he'd had in his college years. The drink nearly came out just as quickly as it went in, but he managed to stop it. The sound he made upon finishing was unnatural and out of this world.

The two nodded after Lin Che instructed them to begin their circulations once again, and soon were completely focussed on their breathing and nothing else.

"Lin Che," said Chen Wei.

"Mhm."

"Small thing," he replied.

"My phone died sometime last night. I don't suppose you have a charger?"

"Yeah of course. USB-C?"

"Yeah, that'd be great. Thanks."