Chapter Nine: Melodic Hunt

The rest of the day was spent packing up the few things they had in the rented house and they left after paying the nice old landlady. Liu Han had decided that they would move during the night to avoid detection by any spies the Lady of Death might have sent out to find them. The first night saw them having to pass through a village that was celebrating some local holiday that involved a lot of fireworks and boisterous crowds enjoying the night's festivities.

Han's initial plan was to go around the village and avoid the celebrations as it would cause them to risk discovery barely two days after setting out. Liling wished otherwise. She wanted to attend the festival, and while normally he would have straight up ignored her request, somehow she had managed to convince the other three as well to plead her cause. That was how Liu Han found himself being led from one colorful stall to another by an over-excited teenager whom he had the misfortune in his opinion, of sharing the same family name with. No matter how much Jiang teased them, they both denied any relation with each other.

"Hey! Slow down!" Han called out to the hurrying girl in front of him as he struggled to keep pace with her. The streets were packed with local folk singing traditional Chinese songs that added to the joyful mood of the evening. A sharp contrast to how Han was feeling at the moment.

"I can't! If you're going to drag me off on some weird mission that we have no idea how long it'll last, at least let me have a little fun while I still can!" Her reply came over the noise as she surged through the crowded streets, her eyes taking in as much as her limited scope of vision would allow.

"Seriously? Come on, just wait a–ah, sorry about that!" Han hastily apologized to an elderly man whose foot he had just stepped on. The man shot him an annoyed look and muttered something about young and foolish couples before continuing on his way. When Han turned back to find Liling, all he saw was the edge of her brown cloak disappearing behind a surging wave of cheerful men and women. A hand tapped his shoulder and he saw the rest of his team giving him looks of amused pity.

"Go after her before she gets lost. We'll meet up with you guys at the bridge on the other side of the village," the big man, Gui Zhan encouraged him with a broad grin. "We're going to do some sightseeing so don't be in a hurry."

Before Liu Han could utter a word, they were already gone, leaving him alone in the midst of celebrating strangers. His left brow twitched in mild annoyance at their instant abandonment. Leaving a brother to face this kind of challenge was not exactly very friendly. He turned around and headed into the teeming crowd regardless. He would deal with his brothers later. Right now, he needed to find his female namesake before she got herself into trouble.

~~~~~~~~~

Thin threads hung in between the houses across the streets and suspended bright red paper lamps cast a light reddish glow on the ground below. People moved about in groups of twos and threes, laughing and making merry of the celebration. Liling stood among a particularly large group that had encircled a female street musician. She was a middle aged woman dressed in dark blue clothes embroidered with silver lace that glittered in the moonlight. The instrument she wielded with immense skill was a guqin, an averagely sized wooden instrument that was played by plucking at the seven taut strings that stretched from one end of the object to the other. Liling was extremely familiar with this instrument. Most of her childhood memories of her mother involved the both of them playing it in front of their house. Strangely she never seemed to remember much after that.

The woman strummed the instrument skillfully, her slender fingers dancing lightly over the vibrating strings. A steady hum from her mouth combined with the sounds of the guqin to produce a beautiful melody that showed her expertise with the instrument. Her audience surrounded her in near-reverent silent, absorbing every note and Liling could not help but lose track of time as she was among the many mesmerized by the lady's song.

Some minutes later, the woman ended her beautiful serenade with a final note and there was a resounding applause from the crowd as some of them streamed forward to donate generously to the musician. Liu Liling extricated herself from the crowd as she regained control of her emotions. The song had stirred up sad memories of her childhood, memories which she would rather prefer be kept buried in her heart. After all, her mother was already long gone; crying over it now would not change anything. Besides, she had already had her fun. It was probably best if she returned to Liu Han and his group...

The remains of that thought vanished from her mind as soon as Liling set her eyes on something she had always desired: a six-string guqin made out of wutong wood, a variety of the Chinese parasol tree. This was not a common occurrence as most guqins had seven strings. Liling remembered that as a child, she had always enjoyed hearing her mother play the guqin every night. Her mother being an avid music lover, had decided to surprise her with a special six-string guqin that had been customized to her in particular. She had loved that instrument as much as anything and would spend countless hours practicing and perfecting her skills on it.

She remembered losing the instrument when she had been taken to the orphanage following the demise of her parents in an attack on their village. After she had escaped the dreadful place, she had searched for one just like it everywhere she had gone. And now she had finally found it. Every other thought was banished from her mind as she dashed towards the stall selling the guqin. It was a moveable stall built into the carriage part of a wagon most of the items on sale were random household objects. The stall manager was a grumpy looking old man whose facial disposition clearly reflected his feelings on the lack of customers at his stall.

"Good evening sir," she greeted courteously, hoping to soften the man's temperament.

"What do you want, girl?"

"How much for the guqin?"

The man's face brightened a little at the prospect of a sale and his voice became a little less gruff. "Ah this qin! A beautiful piece of work designed for only the masters of the instrument. You must have a passion for music if you wish to buy something this difficult to learn. So how about this? To encourage you on your path, I will only ask you to pay three hundred coins."

Liling tried very hard to conceal her surprise. Was this guy trying to dupe her or something? How could it cost so much? Her mother had only taken a few weeks to make the one she had first owned and here she was being asked to buy another at such a ludicrous price.

The man must have sensed her hesitation because his scowl seemed to be slowly returning to his face as she wasted time thinking. Liling quickly made up an excuse of going back to her father to get the required money for the guqin and left the stall in a hurry. Her mind went through all the possible options she had, from stealing money to pay for the guqin to stealing the item itself. The latter would probably land her in a lot of trouble if she was caught so she settled for the former. After all, it was something that was practically second nature to her at this point.

Adjusting her clothes and assuming an air of self importance, Liling walked into the surging crowd with as much familiarity as someone who had lived there their whole life. A few meters away, a costumed man set up several rows of arrow-headed fireworks. With a burning flame, he lit the threads that extended below them and one-by-one, the rockets blasted off into the sky. They exploded in a myriad of bright colorful lights, illuminating the night and raining down glittering sparkles on the streets below. The people broke out in a loud cheer, none of them noticing the dark-haired figure darting in and out of the crowd.

Liu Liling stopped at the side of a stationary carriage and emptied the pocketful of gold coins she had 'liberated' into a sack that was already half full of the stuff. Her last customer had been quite 'generous'; that was the highest amount she had gotten all night. A smile tugged her lips upwards as she counted the money in her possession. The fireworks display had come at a a perfect time to distract the locals long enough for her to ppickpocket to her heart's content without anyone noticing. That last thought made her remember what Liu Han had told her about her connection with nature and how it helped her blend in easily with–

Wait a minute...Liu Han! She had completely forgotten about him and their mission in her quest for enjoyment. Looking around her and not finding anyone even closely resembling the white haired man, she decided to go for one last heist before going to purchase her prized guqin, after which she would then go to find Han and the rest of the group.

Her eyes landed on her next target, a tall lean man who was standing and talking with a couple of muscular men. Dangerous yes, but in this business, it was usually high risk for high reward. Liling strode forward like a girl hurrying to return home and brushed past him, her hand deftly slipping the pouch of money from its place on his belt. Taking swift strides, she put as much distance between herself and the fellow as possible. Unfortunately her luck must have run out sometime earlier as the man quickly noticed that something had happened. Barely seconds after she had passed him, his hand moved instinctively to where the pouch used to be. Upon realizing it was not there anymore, he spun around in consternation and his eyes met her wide ones instantly.