Fuck. These guys are more violent than I thought.

[Welcome to the wonderful world of cultivators, it tends to be survival of the fittest and might makes right. Hopefully you adapt to it, before you make a mistake that kills you.]

Shouldn’t that have been one of the first things you tell me when I woke up in my new body?

[You are still in a “safe” area. Once you get to SkyMetal City all bets are off though, so be careful.]

Thanks for the advice.

[Anytime.]

Zhi took Zhao into the Blue Jewel and watched him work as he started thinking over what to do. He had no plan at all when Zhao finished up with his share of vegetables to prepare. Zhi himself sensed Sun Meifeng and Xiulan walk into the back door of the restaurant. As they did, he walked over to them and stopped them before they could enter the dining room. Smiling at them both Zhi says, “I need to apologize to both of you, if you would allow me too. I have some extra food I would like to offer as an apology.”

Meifeng looks at him with narrowed eyes and says, “So you looked at both Xiulans and my underwear yesterday?” Her voice becomes sharp as she asks with a threatening tone, “Or did you see more than just our undergarments?” Xiulan goes crimson after she hears what Meifeng says, and then glares at Zhi.

Zhi makes a slow and exaggerated gesture of looking at Meifeng's body as a smile plays across his face, before saying.“I will gladly discuss this with you somewhere private.”

Meifeng stares at Zhi for a minute with a look that would make lesser men want to run, before turning around and walking out the back kitchen door. Xiulan stops glaring at Zhi and follows shortly afterwards. Zhi goes to Yongzheng’s office first and gives him a plate of food as he says, “Eat then we need to talk, probably next door at your home would be best. I will also ask Meifeng and Xiulan to join us.”

“Alright, we can go there now if you like?”

“No, I am giving Xiulan and Meifeng food in a moment. After they eat we can talk.”

Yongzheng nods in understanding before Zhi walks out of the room and leaves the kitchen and goes to Youngzheng’s house. The back door is left ajar, walking inside he sees Meifeng and Xiulan sitting at the table. They are both wearing a mask of indifference as they look at Zhi.

Walking to the table the first thing Zhi does is bow in front of Meifeng and says, “I would like to apologize for yesterday, I am still practicing my skill and learning it. So I did get a glance at your underwear, Meifeng. As soon as I did I stopped my skill. I have not used it to look at you or Xiulan since, even just now in the restaurant my skill was not used on you.”

Turning and bowing to Xiulan, Zhi says. “I must apologize to you because I used your likeness to play a trick on Zhao this morning and no I did not see you in your underwear yesterday.”

As Zhi stands back up Xiulan is the first to speak as she says, “You used my likeness to play a trick on Zhao? What do you mean by that?”

“Perhaps it would be best to show you.” Zhi stores his blindfold away and undoes the top buttons on his shirt. After a few moments he slowly shifts and he looks exactly like Xiulan. His unbuttoned shirt fills out and a decent bit of cleavage is now showing. Both Meifeng and Xiulan stare at Zhi, their mouths hanging open. Zhi walks over to Xiulan and leans down and breathes gently on her ear and says in her own voice, “I looked like this when I snuck into his room this morning and woke him up. I held his hand because he told me he was having a dream about going on a picnic together with you and after you both walked around the city talking for a while holding hands. I also gave him an eskimo kiss.”

Zhi steps back from Xiulan, while standing back up he looks down at Xiulan. She just looks at him, her mouth opening and closing as her face becomes red. Meifeng actually breaks the silence of the room and asks in a frosty voice. “What is an eskimo kiss?”

Zhi still as Xiulan says, “It’s just a special kiss is all. Here let me show you!” Leaning back down to Xiulan who still looks broken he reaches out and turns her head to face him. He gets closer but Meifeng shouts at him, “DON’T YOU DARE!” Before she can get up or move he touches his nose to Xiulan and rubs them together before standing back up.

Looking at Meifeng he says, “That was an eskimo kiss, young lady.”

Meifeng looks relieved but says, “That wasn’t a kiss at all!.”

“Yes it was, it was an eskimo kiss.” She looks at him as if looking at an idiot and says, “A kiss is with the lips, you just rubbed noses. That was not a kiss.”

Zhi just shrugs his shoulders and changes back into his normal look. Pulling out two plates of food he sets them down for the girls and says, “Again I apologize for my actions. I hope that this makes up for any inconvenience I might have caused.”

Xiulan says after a second, “So you didn’t actually kiss Zhao, when you looked like me? Just that eskimo kiss thing?”

“That is correct. I will let you have his first kiss, after he holds your hand of course. You need to go in the proper order of things.” Meifeng smiles at that comment as Xiulan turns bright red. Meifeng then looks at Zhi and says, “I want food for a week.” She looks over to Xiulan who is still blushing but nods her head in agreement.

“Food for a week then, not including today. Also once you are done, come find me and Yongzheng. We should be in his office.”

“Good now get out of here so we can eat.”

Zhi left the house and closed the door behind him. He walked over to the restaurant and joined Zhao and the rest of the staff for lunch in the lower dining room. After eating Zhao went to Youngzhengs office, he didn’t have to wait long for Yongzheng to join him and a few minutes later Meifeng and Xiulan walked into the room and handed Zhi their empty plates.

Yongzheng nods to his niece and daughter and says, “Good, let's go next door to talk.”

Yongzheng walked out first and led everyone to his home. After getting settled at the kitchen table. Yongzheng looks at Zhi and says, “Well you wished to talk in private, please say whatever you wish.”

Zhi looks down for a moment and collects his thoughts, then looks at the other people around the table before he says. “I fucked up earlier this week, on the day we first met. In front of the Hai’s home there were some thugs, they worked for some guy named Mo Pengfei. I might have shown off a little to scare them and then took all of their money. I figured they would be back and I would just get money twice. Turns out they will be coming back, but they will most likely kidnap Zhao and his aunt and uncle.”

The table is quiet for over a minute as everyone digest's what Zhi said. Meifeng is the first to say, “You are a cultivator, just act like a normal cultivator and they will back off right?” But right after she covers her mouth with her hands and looks at Xiulan, who goes wide eyed at the statement.

Zhi doesn’t notice and shakes his head at that and says, “Maybe, but how does a normal cultivator act? I have no real idea and even if I did, it’s probably nothing I would ever want to do.”

Yongzheng's face becomes flushed as he says with a furious voice, “They do whatever they please, take any woman or man that catches their eye and kills anyone who gets in their way or tries to stop them.” All the anger leaves him after that and he looks down at the table, his lower lip almost quivering. A tear begins to form in his eye as he takes in a deep shuddering breath.

He looks back up at Zhi, both of his eyes are wet as he says, “If you acted anything like that, you would not be welcome around me or my family and I would do everything in my power to keep you away, including my life.”

Zhi looks around the rest of the table, Meifeng’s eyes are also wet, but she is looking in concern at Xiulan. Xiulan’s head is down and tears are slowly running down her face as her body is shaking. Zhi waits for a few minutes for everyone to calm down, Youngzheng and Meifeng look more composed. But Xiulan still hasn’t looked up, but she has stopped shaking.

“If you don’t mind, would you please share with me what happened?”

Yongzheng looks over at Xiulan with her head down and tear streaked face. He lets out a sigh and begins to say, “It was around five years ago now. Some cultivator’s came into town, they were from the Cao Clan and their young master Cao Junjie ran into Xiulan’s mother Huang Meixiu and her father Huang Delun when they were out shopping. Xiulan was here with us when it happened. Cao Junjie took a fancy to her mother, and decided that they should get better acquainted. When Xiulan’s father tried to step in, Delun was beaten almost to death.”

Yongzheng takes another shuddering breath, and says. “People who witnessed it said if Xiulan's mother didn’t beg for Delun’s life, they would have killed him then and there. The young master agreed to spare his life on the condition that Meixiu join them willingly. Meixiu accepted and was led away with them. Delun was brought back to us barely alive, we had the best doctor come and work on him. He stabilized, but was in really bad shape. But his only concern was Meixiu, any time he was awake he would ask about her.”

Yongzheng takes another shuddering breath and starts to cry. He takes another deep breath to calm himself, but his voice still breaks as he starts. “It… It wasn’t…” He takes another breath and finally says, “We found Meixiu’s body three days later. She was… She was…” He shakes his head and says, “I’m sorry I can’t continue, it is still too much for me.”

Meifeng actually speaks up, tears running down her face as she says, “She was used and abused till she died. When Delun found out that she was dead, It broke his will to live and he got worse over the next few days till he passed away.” She looks back over to Xiulan who still hasn’t looked up.

Zhi is frowning, but doesn’t say anything aloud and waits for everyone to calm down.

Fuck, this place sucks. What kinda place did you send me Buddha?