An Ordinary Life: :1

She stumbled across another weak creek as the first rays of light broke across the sky. She stopped long enough to try and scrub her mouth clean and feed Xiasha a few handfuls of water before running on.

She'd exhausted her tears it seemed, and her stomach refused to settle, bubbling and short stabbing pains where she imagined pieces of bone were stabbing her from the inside, but it seemed to have given her some strength.

Enough, at least, to flee the man in the words.

To flee Death.

For how long remained to be seen, because her short burst of strength was fading fast and Xiasha had barely made a sound since the run had begun and only weakly lapped at the water in her hand.

The trees had grown sparser the farther she made it, until finally, not long after sunrise, she found herself entering a small rice field and just beyond it, a small building.

A shed.

No, wait, it wasn't that nice. A barely standing, slightly tilted shack. Not far behind it was a barn with a few holes in the roof and a few slats missing on the sides.

It all looked amazing.

Even better than the palace she'd grown up in.

But buildings didn't just pop into existence, someone had to have built it and looking around, Meihua realized the fields were tended. Neat paddies of rice stalks cut down to the dirt after the last harvest. They were dried than she'd read they should be this time of year.

The day was already warmer than any she'd spent in the forest, but farming fields meant water and food.

Shelter.

And people.

Even if the day was warm, the night could be cold, and Xiasha was terribly weak.

She needed to find food she was capable of gathering, because there was no way she was fast enough to catch any of the small, fleet footed creatures that filled the world.

But that shack would make a good place for Xiasha to rest while she searched, so she settled in to watch it for a while and when, after what she figured was an hour or so, no farmer showed up, she stole across the field and snuck inside.

***

There was a figure slipping across his rice field.

Correction, there was a woman attempting to sneak across his field and not doing a very good job of it. She watched from the little window in the kitchen, she slipped and stumbled a few times before she finally reached the shed.

She fought with the door, trying to wrench it open one handed, until she managed to yank hark enough that it nearly came off the hinges completely.

Was she wearing wedding robes?

Lan Pei turned to his wife once the figure had finally made it into the shed. He'd only been free of the army for a few years now and he was still settling into the life of a farmer.

It was entirely possible that someone stealing across the fields and into the shed was normal. Lan Guang would know.

His wife knew everything.

Also, why would they be wearing wedding robes in the height of the Great Heat? Were they trying to sweat to death? Didn't seem like a pleasant method.

"Lao Po, come here."

She was bent over the fire, stirring the simple soup that was always going. "I'm finishing the soup."

"I thought you said its never finished?"

She flashed him an exasperated smile and he grinned. He loved riling her up. "Someone just broke into the shed. In wedding robes."

"What?" Lan Guang loved her husband, but he was still adjusting to farm life and was surprised by the simplest things.

It was rare to see a set of real wedding robes this far outside a major city. Who in the country could afford ten layers of silk and jewels.

She left the soup and joined him at the window, leaning on his sturdy shoulder to look out. The door to the shed had definitely been pried open. It would be expensive to buy new hinges, and they hadn't had a great crop this year.

Generally, the rule of hospitality is that you didn't damage any empty property you used, so that the person who came after you could also use it.

And it was acceptable to approach the house during daylight hours.

"I don't see-" A head stuck out of the shed doorway, quickly followed by a body. A young woman, though distance made it hard to be sure.

She was indeed wearing wedding robes. Expensive ones, though they were nearly in tatters.

Whoever that girl's family was, they were insanely rich and would be insanely furious when they saw the state of the robes.

When Lan Guang had been sneaking out to meet Lan Pei, she'd never worn anything that obvious. Seemed like it defeated the purpose.

The girl in the wedding robes tried to shut the shed door but it didn't sit right now and after a few minutes she abandoned it and darted back into the trees.

Lan Pei snarled, "Damn it."

She turned to her husband; he didn't usually get that angry. "What?"

He stormed out and she hurried to follow. "Pei?"

"She had something in her arms when she went in."

"What? Oh no!" Years of farming in the countryside let Lan Guang outpace her husband and raced across the field.

It wasn't unheard of for young women in troubled circumstances to abandon their troubles, though it usually happened at monasteries or the homes of doctors or the wealthy they believed could afford to take them in.

Not that it guaranteed they did, but desperate times and all that.

Gods, Lan Guang did not want children, and she sent up a brief prayer. If she ended up with one because some spoiled rich girl didn't want to take responsibility for her dalliance, Lan Guang was going to smack her up and down the valley.

~tbc