Chapter 15

"Wang Wei, you should be more careful. You had no need to jump in front of me to protect me like that. I could have handled it myself, but thank you nonetheless," said Charlotte.

"No trouble at all. I'm glad I could have saved a beautiful Lady in this life," said Wang Wei honestly, making Charlotte blush and look away.

"Thank you, again."

Wang Wei smiled at her, waving her off. He turned back the little dock where he was securing the canoe to; they had recently reached the Qang'an Mountains, but just before they reached the area where they were supposed to be, they were attacked by some water ghouls.

Water ghouls were commonly found in areas where there were high levels of people drowning, originally in the area not many people knew how to swim, and just enough people drowned for some of the particularly nasty souls to gather enough resentment and become re-animated, which leads them to want to drag other people down so they can gather their resentful energy.

The group had just finished most of them off, and they all breathed a sigh of relief; they were lucky that the accumulation of resentment was only small and did not grow to become a Waterborne Abyss. A Waterborne Abyss is a cloud of resentful energy which is located in a huge body of water that requires often human sacrifices to keep it tame and if it doesn't get its regular sacrifice, then it will start stirring up trouble and drown any humans within the body of water. Therefore creating more water ghouls.

Laquetta looked down the small path to the village they would be staying at, Laquetta thinks that the village was called Xian'an. It was beautiful, the infrastructure is simple and designed to be able to be taken apart quickly for relocation. The patterns and societal structure reflect that of the Mongol people. But it was still heavily influenced by the Han Dynasty, the village had rich colours and silks.

The group walked into the village slowly, taking in their surroundings and the serenity of the locals; the locals kept doing what they were doing, getting looks here and there.

Wang Wei walked to the front of the group and led them to the inn where they were supposed to stay. The innkeeper was a genial man, possibly in his 50s or 60s, but he was very lively. He had warm eyes that crinkled jovially when he conversed with Wang Wei and a deep baritone voice.

Lin XinYin looked at Laquetta as she kept an eye on the people milling around the inn, either eating, chatting, observing or just resting; the locals were coming and going, almost as if they were bees at work. Lin XinYin turned back to the innkeeper to observe the interaction further, the group was guided away and they were herded upstairs where the rooms were allocated.

They had a whole level to themselves, and although they were not at the top, they were high up, and the group hated it. They were used to walking up a few flights of stairs not six or more. Thankfully, they were only on the seventh floor.

The way the inn worked was the more luxurious the rooms were the higher up you were and the poorer you are the smaller the rooms were, and in total there were ten levels. This did not mean that the rooms were of below standard at the bottom, they were comfy and homey, just not as extravagant. Levels five and below were for the locals, merchants and gentry etc, the levels five and above were for the nobles.

"We will meet in the lobby after we finished unpacking and we will be going to my favourite restaurant! My treat." Wang Wei announced.

Nodding they all went into their separate rooms and started unpacking. Laquetta changed her clothes into something more comfortable and easier to manoeuvre in, she patted down her white t-shirt and adjusting her jeans before adjusting a cloak around and headed out of her room.

As she walked out of her room she saw Samuel outside in the hallway, looking around, as if waiting for someone. She walked over to him, before poking his shoulder and startling him.

Laquetta moved a few steps back, "Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you. Wanna head down to the lobby, oh Great General?" Laquetta said a teasing lilt danced in her voice.

'She-she is teasing me?!', thought Samuel.

"U-Uhm, yeah. Let's go wait for the others downstairs." Samuel said, trying his best to keep the tremor out of his voice.

The two walked downstairs whilst someone watched. Envy growing like vines in their heart.