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Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 2:11 am
Qiang Di went about his work, checking over each piece and each thing was placed in one of three piles for sorting. One pile was metal jewelry, one was stone jewelry, and the last pile was for coins of various values. Once they were all sorted he then sorted the coins by their worth, took out a portion and handed them over to Xiulong, "Your portion of the earnings." He told him, knowing that he would want coin over anything else since he was saving for something important.
From there the halfbreed turned to look over at Jin Feng and he gave him a smile, "Alright, little cat, I will allow you to chose one item from any of the two piles that you want or you can have a handful of coin as well." He told the orange haired boy, giving him a nickname. To him the boy looked cat like due to the eyes of his, it was an interesting though to have a Dragon and a Tiger in one place and to find them working together instead of fighting. This was a good sign for the future thought to himself before motioning to Jing Feng to take what he wanted from the table.
Xiulong counted through the coins that he'd been given before they were put into the hidden pocket inside of his robes before he turned to look up at his Master, "After this can Jin Feng come to my room while I drop my coins off?" He asked of Qiang Di, knowing that he had to have permission from the man before bringing any friends inside that were his age due to the fact that there were rules forbidding them from stepping inside.
The man gave a nod, "He can stay for a short time. Keep in mind if he sees anything within in the walls of this place that shocks his young mind it will be his own fault for choosing to stay instead of leaving." He warned Jin Feng, not sure what sort of upbringing the boy had or what he might have seen before today.
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Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 2:31 am
Jin Feng's lips parted in a little 'o' as he watched the massive man judge and calculate the values with obvious admiration.
Once he was given permission to pick his share, his hand started to drift a fraction of an inch towards a little piece of jewelry he'd had his eye on, but was suddenly retracted.
The twitchy tiger's long nails hit the edge of the table with a soft click and his lips pursed as he looked back and forth between the jewelry and the coins with his eyes almost level to them. On the one hand, he liked jewelry and the thought of having a little trophy of his first successful heist. On the other, experience told him Lillian would notice it and take it, or Richard would notice it and blackmail him.
After a brief little struggle with himself, he accepted the coins, reasoning he could at least buy a snack or something less obviously incriminating.
When Xiulong asked for permission, Jin Feng's eyes went pleadingly up to Qiang Di until he nodded, excited for the go ahead to tag along with his new friend and ignoring the shocking his young mind part.
If anything, he should've been in a state of panic at realizing what he was supposed to be doing instead of this, since Lily had definitely noticed his absence by now, but it hadn't crossed his mind yet.
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Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 2:58 am
Once Jin Feng had decided upon what it was that he wanted and his portion of the coins were handed over to the orange haired boy Qiang Di gathered the rest of the treasure and handed it over to Tian Mi, "Put this with the rest of the treasure... except this." He took a ring from the pile, looking it over, the craftsmanship of it, and tucked it away in his robes for who knew what.
The tall man rose to his full height, hands smoothing over his clothing then turned his attention to the two boys two were still sitting at the table, "Do enjoy yourselves and Xiulong, be sure that your friend leaves before dark so he can get home before the sun sets. I would hate someone so useful to be caught up in any bad situations." He told Xiulong before turning to look over at Tian me next, "I have business in town so you won't see me until late, if then. It all depends on how easy the one I am meeting with makes this. That means I will require that you and Po Zei don't bicker the night away."
With that and a wave the man was on his way out to whatever business meeting he had awaiting him. Xiulong gave a smile before he looked to Jin Feng, "Come on, lets go." He said as he pushed up to his feet and led the way away from Tian Mi and toward his room.
The halls of the bathhouse were lit but some flickering candles instead of windows giving an intimate sort of feel, one that Xiulong was rather used to since he was born in this place, "Its always pretty quiet here during the day, things always get more interesting at night." He told Jin Feng as they walked along, giving his friend a smile. It was a shame that nothing much was going on so the place didn't seem to terribly interesting, there were voices of a few people who were making use of the baths here but nothing more then that. The people who served Qiang Di all appeared at night when the customers had gone. He wondered if they would even show up tonight since the Master was out, a curious question. He supposed he would see come this evening.
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Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 3:50 pm
Jin Feng bounded after Xiulong with his usual hyperactive gait, occasionally ending up half crouched on all fours and jumping back up to his feet like the near feral wild child he was.
It took his eyes a moment to adjust to the candlelight, but not much, and the yellow irises were darting around as usual while he took in the various details of the new environment of the bathhouse.
Part of him was entertained at the novelty of someone living in a place like this, just because it was so different than the property where his family rented space. Jin was starting to foster a tinge of jealousy of Xiulong. His whole life seemed much more exciting, and he seemed to have a lot more freedom too.
While he quickly started to wonder about what went on after dark and lament about how he probably wouldn't see it, he managed to pull himself away from his observations and imagination long enough to at least ask a question while he followed his friend and tried not to bounce off the walls so much.
"Who's Po Zei?"
He figured it would at least have a half interesting answer if Qiang Di mentioned the name, and he was continuously curious about how different Xiulong's family seemed to be. At least they seemed like a family close as Jin could compare.
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Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2010 3:04 am
Xiulong paused in front of the door to his room when his friend asked the question of him, one that caused him to think for a moment before answering, "Po Zei is pretty important, hes my teacher as well as a doctor who treats the wounds of those that serve Master Di." He said, opening the door to his room and stepped inside, "He is various other things as well and more often then not hes at Master Di's side just like Tian Mi is."
He motioned for Jin Feng to step into his room before he closed the door after the two of them and he walked over to his hiding spot, taking out a silk bag from hiding and dropped his new handful of coins into it, "There we go. One more step toward my goal." He murmured, mostly to himself. The bag was replaced in his spot which was out of sight and not somewhere a person would look unless they were searching for it before his attention was back on Jin Feng once more.
"I wish you could meet Po Zei but he isn't awake at the moment, he can't go out in the sun because it makes him sick. As such he sleeps all day and wakes up about the same time that the sun sets." He told his friend, deciding that it was a huge shame that Jin Feng had to go home as early as Master Di had said, if he were allowed to stay later he would be able to see so many interesting people and things... but then again it was likely best that he wasn't around when the gang showed up. After all Jin Feng was kind of cute which meant that he would likely be hassled by them. Last thing he wanted his new friend to deal with was overly friendly men who would drinking. Drinking meant wandering hands and that was not something he'd subject his friend to just so Jin Feng could meet Po Zei.
"We can hang out here for a bit or head back toward the front entrance, really depends on if your wanting to leave sooner then later." He told him, giving him a smile.
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Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2010 3:39 am
"Uggh," Jin Feng said, letting out a growling whine. "Why does everything exciting happen after sundown?" Though, given his naivete, if he got the dose of adventure he was gunning for, he probably wouldn't be able to take care of himself as much as he thought.
He desperately wanted to stay and hang around, though, not satisfied with the small taste he'd gotten today. Unfortunately he wasn't brave enough to try and be sneaky about it. Mostly because he'd heard it from Qiang Di, but then the thought that Lily would never allow it surfaced and his eyes quickly contracted into frightened little slits and he grabbed the strands of hair on the side of his face. "CRAP! I forgot, momma's probably figured out I didn't go home by now," He said, turning from a high strung kid to a jittery mess, first looking for the door, then remembering he shouldn't run out with out an excuse, then realizing Richard was probably stomping around the market place looking for him and eventually the tiger child had ended up spazzing in a full circle before smacking his own forehead.
"I need an alibi, something that'll make her feel sorry for me," He said frantically, hoping for at least an idea from his friend since his own mind was swirling with other thoughts, mostly about how no matter how good of a story he had, Richard would probably smack him around for a bit if he got to him first.
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Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2010 11:52 pm
"That is a good question, I don't know... I guess Master Di's group does their best work at night, easier to move around that way." Night time meant darkness and the darkness could cover a whole lot of things, even the movements of a large group of dangerous men. Xiulong couldn't suppress a little jump when suddenly Jin Feng was crying out in surprise over something, causing him to turn and look at him with wide eyes, "Jin Feng?"
He was confused for only a moment before he was told the problem, that he was supposed to have gone home instead of helping someone he'd just met to rob a woman. He gave a little smile before he reached a hand out to pat him on the head, "I can give you one if you like." He murmured, not wanting to see his useful accomplice get into trouble since that meant that they might not be able to meet up again, "Come on, lets go! I have an idea." He chirped, a devious sort of look on his face as he headed for the door to his room.
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Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2010 5:07 pm
Jin Feng managed to get enough of a grip to follow Xiulong, wondering what he had in mind, but now holding onto the relief that he had a way out of the hole he'd dug himself. And the devious smile from the blunette left him incredibly curious.
He didn't want Lily to suddenly restrict him now that he had an accomplice, but he couldn't think of an excuse that wouldn't result in either being grounded or restrained for his own protection.
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Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2010 5:27 pm
"From what I have seen so far women are pretty weak when it comes to a sob story." He said, leading the way down the hallway and as they moved along there were less and less candles until the point where there were none at all. He reached a hand out to lay it on the wall, sliding it along and then pushed it open slowly. He looked inside through slightly narrowed eyes, there was only a single, flickering candy in this room along with the soft, even sounds of someone's breathing.
He turned to look over his shoulder to where Jin Feng was and smiled, "In here." He whispered before moving forward slowly across the room, lowering himself down to the pallet that the sleeping forward was resting on. He hesitated for only a moment before reaching a hand out, resting it on the man's arm before giving him a little shake, "Hey... hey... Po Zei, I need your help with something." He said as he worked on waking the Doctor up.
There was a long silence before the man slowly rolled over to facing Xiulong, "Its still early yet... what is it you need?" He could tell it was to early for someone to be waking him up, he could guess just by the warmth in the air that the sun was still up at the moment. That Xiulong was asking for his help had him sitting up, "Did you get yourself hurt while training with Tian Mi?" He asked, not about to put it passed that woman to try to get Xiulong killed out of jealousy. She couldn't best Po Zei but she still had a chance at taking out a child.
He looked over to where Jin Feng stood, "I have a plan to help a friend stay out of trouble I got him in but I need someone to play the part of my parent." He told him.
Po Zei seemed to consider that request before giving a groan, lifting a hand up to rub the heel of his hands against his eyes, "You want me to go out during the day to help your playmate keep from getting in trouble?" He murmured, then sighed as he forced himself up to his feet, stretching out all over, "You will owe me, Xiulong. Find me my cloak." He ordered his student, waving him off with one hand. He had to be covered completely if he was going to go outside during the day, to keep himself safe from the sun's light.
"Thank you!" He chirped, turning to looking over at Jin Feng, "This is going to work!" He sounded quite pleased that the first step of his plan was already going so well before he moved to find the thick, heavy, black and red silk cloak that Po Zei wore during the rare times he left his room during the day.
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Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2010 6:24 pm
Jin Feng just followed along and kept quiet, though he nodded quickly in agreement when Xiulong said women are susceptible to sob stories. Lily definitely was; that was how he got away with half the stuff he'd done so far.
Staring at Po Zei with wide, curious eyes, his tense shoulders relaxed immensely once he at least got a bit of a grasp on part of Xiulong's plan. Someone playing his parent? He was definitely positive this would work now. Complaint adults would make any plan work, he was positive. Because adults were smarter, right?
He was mildly worried about Xiulong owing Po Zei for the favor, though, and made a mental promise to himself he would try and help with that. But later, when his freedom was more secured. At this point, he was just hoping he would get to see Xiulong again at all.
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Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2010 7:38 pm
It took a few moments for Po Zei to dress into clothing appropriate for more then just sleeping in before he walked over to Xiulong, taking his cloak from the bluenette's hands, "We will be on our way then." He said, turning to look at Jin Feng as he got near to the interesting child. He starred at him for a long moment from eyes hidden in the shadows of his hood, "A little tiger. Has Master Di seen you?" He asked of the boy, finding it quite interesting to see a tiger standing on friendly terms with a dragon. To find peace between them, it was quite interesting to behold. It also made him a little more comfortable with this strange plan that he was being drawn into if for no other reason then to watch these two more closely.
"What is your plan for today, Xiulong?" He asked as he turned his attention to Master Di's little pet dragon and successor in training to see if his plan was one worth trying and to see if he was thinking in a manner that said he was following in Qiang Di's footsteps of not... though Master Di's plans involved less in the way of devious plans and more in the way of intimidation and inflicting pain on his enemies.
"He doesn't want to get in trouble for wandering off with me when was supposed to go home, I figured that the best way for him to stay out of trouble would be for him to have been distracted with helping me get back to you. Saving a poor, lost, and cute little thing like me should be a good enough reason why he was late in returning to where he belongs." He said, giving a grin.
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Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2010 9:13 pm
Jin Feng seemed like a gleeful little fan at the entire tone of Po Zei's presence. Right down to the eyes watching him from the shadow of the cloak, he seemed like an unreal story character and Jin was eating this up.
"Yup," He answered with a proud nod at the question of having met Qiang Di. If nothing else, he had made that accomplishment for today. He listened to Xiulong's entire plan and let out a repressed, short laugh when he called himself a 'cute little thing'. Xiulong was cute, he just found it funny when he so blatantly showed he knew it.
But right after he nodded with a grin, showing off his pointed teeth. "Lily's a sucker for crap like that, it'll be a piece of cake," He added, admiring the fact the Xiulong had thought of it, as well as grateful for his help. Even if he had a better plan there way no way he could pull off a decent one all on his lonesome without some back up.
Now with proper confidence, he was all prepared to lead the way home, and hopefully run into one caretaker and not the other.
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Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2010 2:05 am
Po Zei shifted his cloak as they headed outside so as to to make sure not even a bit of his skin was exposed to the light, "We will need to make this quite, even with my cloak I don't feel comfortable outside during the day." He told the two boys, an encouragement to Jin Feng to be quick about leading the way to where it was that he lived. He wanted nothing more then to get this over with so he could go back to sleep for a few hours more... to have Xiulong owing him was something would be an interesting turn of events. He didn't really require anything of him but at the same time he shouldn't think he could get whatever wanted in life for free. Though given the situation between Xiulong and Qiu Shui he supposed that the boy was already learning that lesson.
Xiulong was smiling up a storm as he walked alongside his friend, "If this plan works and your not completely forbidden from seeing me again, or even if you are, I hope that we can hang out again." Jin Feng had after all be quite useful to him as an accomplice, not to mention that he rather liked him as well. Perhaps he could be to Xiulong like Po Zei was to Master Di... only with less cuddling involved.
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Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2010 9:29 am
whether he consciously knew it or not, Jin Feng didn't really like disrupting Po Zei's comfort and ended up keeping his spazzy beeline along the more shaded routes to the little hill the house he lived in rested on. Unfortunately the property was pretty sizable and slightly out of the town's main area, but heg at least made an effort to be speedy.
He looked to Xiulong and nodded with his usual brand of Jin Feng enthusiasm, incredibly pleased his fun from his adventure with his new friend wasn't one sided.
"I hope so too! I'll try to plan to escape Lily again. She's kind of a control freak and when she does leave me alone the meathead's usually 'watching me'," He grumbled as they finally came up to the large property and he started trying to stick to the designated path to the door, having already been punished for damaging the garden. Even though they only rented a fraction of it, the home was one that definitely belonged to a member of at least the upper-middle class.
"I should probably deal with Mrs. Liang. My mom's the one that needs convincing," Jin Feng said in a matter-of-factly tone before just missing a knock on the door as it was swung open.
His large yellow eyes were met with his caretaker's assistant, the one resident he didn't want to bump into first. He felt his heart sink and there was a brief moment that felt like an infinity where the two just stared at each other for a moment. Richard did not like Jin, and unfortunately for the tiger child, believed heavily in corporal punishment. Especially when Lily wasn't around to intimidate him away from it.
Fairly afraid of the fate that would await him over the threshold of the door, Jin turned to dart away, almost immediately crashing into Lily who was fixing to grab him from behind, but just embraced the lotus child whose face had crashed into her midsection. "There you are! I've been looking for you for hours!" She cried out, squeezing him until he started to struggle to get away for fear of suffocating. Lily, at least, looked like she had been genuinely worried, whereas the large man in the doorway looked ready to wring his neck the moment people weren't watching.
"Oh, hello," Lily said, noticing Po Zei and Xiulong for the first time, Jin Feng still in her death grip hug.
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Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 5:31 am
Po Zei watched as Jin Feng got captured in a rather tight hug upon being spotted by the woman that he could only assume was his mother from the way that she reacted, seeming to be quite worried for the tiger child. He turned to look toward the the large man who reminded him in a way of Qiang Di, the manner that he seemed to have an intimidating aura about him.
He gave a smile under his hood as he bowed down before Lily as his attention was given to her, "You have my apologies for causing you such worry, you see his absence is my fault." He murmured, before he lifted his head up and gazed toward her, "You see he helped my dear Xiulong here out of a spot of trouble in the market place and got him home to me. I wish I could have my there myself but you see I am unable to go out in the sun without being covered like this. I had thought it would be alright to let Xiulong play on his own but it didn't seem to be the case."
Po Zei reached one hand out, still engulfed and protected by his long sleeve, to rest it on Xiulong's head to urge the boy to bow, "Apologize for the trouble you caused, Xiulong." He murmured, knowing that the boy would hate being made to do such a thing since he would believe that it would be a blow to his pride to bow before the woman and beg forgiveness for something he hadn't actually done but it would be a good lesson for him if you asked Po Zei.
The bluenette's eyes got wide before he did as he was told, bowing low before her, "I am sorry, Miss, I shouldn't have kept him so long." He said, slowly lifting up from his bow to give her a worried look, "I got caught up following something interesting only to end up lost." He said, looking quite embarrassed over the whole situation.
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