Hu Shui blitzed over the courtyard wall like it owed her money. She continued to bound over rooftops, walls, stalls, entire huts, and anything else that stood in her path. Long Ti did not clear the courtyard wall. Long Ti was draped over her shoulders like a sack of rice that had given up on life somewhere around the third rooftop. His arms and legs dangling without an ounce of dignity or honor. Said dignity had stopped dangling about two blocks ago and simply fallen off entirely. Not that he had noticed considering his state of unconsciousness. She landed in a crooked alleyway three streets over from Cultivator Row, boots cracking the stone beneath her. The impact sent a rat the size of a small dog scrambling into a drain hole it had no business fitting through. Shui watched it vanish and made a mental note to investigate later.Rats that fat had to be eating well and eating well meant food. Food meant ingredients.Focus. I got all the Qi Stones! I’m going to be so rich and buy all the ingredients I need and make the best cake and ancestor is going to be so happy and proud and Jun is…She set Long Ti down against the wall giggling to her self. Then she kneeled before him and smacked his cheek. Lightly.His head snapped sideways.She smacked the other cheek, also lightly.His head snapped back the other way."Wake up, old man. We're here."The old man's eyes rolled in their sockets for a few rotations before they found purchase on reality. He blinked, looked left, then looked right, looked up at the narrow strip of sky between the leaning buildings above them, and then his eyes finally settled upon the figure Shui kneeling before him.His mouth mimed words, but no sound came out."We got them!" Shui jumped up and down, fists pumping the air. The silk pouch in her left hand caught the afternoon light and shimmered with concentrated Qi that made the air around (...)