The Water Outlaws by S. L. Huang

Author:S. L. Huang
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group

CHAPTER 17

“You want me to come with you to Dongxi?” Wu Yong asked. Not in surprise, exactly—but Chao Gai had always returned alone before.

“I want them to become familiar with your face. Now that I shall be spending more time on the mountain, it may be that I have to send people in my stead at times,” Chao Gai answered, twisting the straps down on a sack of rice to bind it tightly for the journey. “Besides, it’s not only my share of the treasure I’m bringing back. I could use the extra hands, if Sister An says you’re well enough.”

“Pah. Sister An couldn’t keep me in bed another day if she offered me the nightly ‘treatments’ she gives Sister Song.” Wu Yong let the jest go slick with innuendo. Not everyone in the camp knew Sister An and Sister Song were burnishing each other’s weapons, so to speak, but Wu Yong had special talent at picking these things up. A nose for it, as the saying went. Especially when people tried to be discreet.

Now Wu Yong levered up from sitting, ignoring the slight ringing that invited comparisons of one’s skull to a vibrating gong. “We’ll depart on the morrow? Good, that will leave me the afternoon for some exercise. I was ready to flay our Divine Physician in the night to escape her ministering clutches.”

Sister An had thrown up her hands today and declared in nearly violent gestures that she was done trying to keep Wu Yong at rest. But in truth, Wu Yong never would have dared cross her. The Divine Physician might not have some of the others’ martial skill, but she could be frightening in her own way.

Very frightening. Wu Yong thought again of those stories as to how Sister An had become wanted in Jianye, the tales of her family dead and the floors awash with blood. Nobody’s business what the truth was, not here on the mountain, but … Wu Yong had theories.

Not all of them involved innocence from all parties.

But again, it was nobody’s business unless Sister An wished to say. Such was the redemption of Liangshan. Wu Yong would keep such musings internal, and continue to be nothing but obedient to Sister An’s medical instructions.

Well. Most of the time.

As always, the Divine Physician had been wise in the timing of her recommendations, neither too early nor overcautiously late. Once Wu Yong made it all the way down to the practice yard—having refused all help—and began stepping through drills, the movement felt marvelous and at the same time proved nearly too taxing. Weakness dragged heavy, and sweat poured until Wu Yong’s soaked clothes flapped with wet, but damn the heavens if this was not more invigorating than the doctor’s prescriptions.

Wu Yong cycled through the whip-chain forms again and again, muscles both aching and luxuriating in the stretch of each strike and lash. As usual, the forms became a kind of meditation, mind matching each precise snap of body and limbs. Drifting through the future and the past.

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