I keep shifting my gaze between Xia and Lianhua, unable to decide which of the two to focus on for more than a few seconds, while Lianhua still holds the bag in her hands as if it were nothing more than an ordinary object.
"Is that a storage bag?" Xia asks suddenly, her tone filled with almost childlike enthusiasm.
Lianhua nods without hesitation.
"Yes, it is”, she says with a calmness that contrasts with Xia's immediate reaction.
"That's amazing!" she exclaims as she leans forward, her eyes shining. "A real storage bag! They're very rare! Even in my family, we only had one."
The excitement in her voice suddenly breaks, and a slight spasm crosses her face as silence falls.
The smile fades from her face and she lowers her gaze as her shoulders begin to shake.
And then, without a sound, tears begin to roll down her cheeks.
Without saying a word, I reach out and gently take her hand, and with my thumb, I begin to stroke the back of her hand silently, without the need for words.
I feel helpless, but at least I can be there for her at this moment.
It's the first time I've seen her cry like this, although I suppose she must have done so when I wasn't there. But I guess it's good that she's finally externalized it in front of people, it means she trusts us.
But as I wait for her to calm down, my mind wanders and I end up putting two and two together. A storage bag, a bag that is bigger on the inside than on the outside. Something I've read a thousand times, seen in novels, video games, stories where an adventurer or wizard would put an entire arsenal or a lifetime's worth of luggage inside. Hell, even Mary Poppins had one. And even here I've read something similar in a story or two, albeit only in passing.
But I dismiss my thoughts because now I have more important things to think about, and I ask Xia quietly “Xia, are you okay?"
She nods but doesn't speak. She just closes her eyes and clings a little tighter to my hand, as if she needs that anchor to keep from getting lost.
As I run my fingers over her knuckles, my eyes drift to Lianhua, who takes a sip of tea with her usual calm, as if she trusts that I have everything under control and can perfectly handle what I'm doing.
But I realize that something is not right.
Her behavior has been strange since she started telling us about the Celestial Fragment. She has been too open, too generous with the information she has been giving in front of Xia. Showing the storage bag, mentioning the formation, talking about the underground building.
It's not that these secrets are impossible to share, but Lianhua is not someone who talks easily. At least, not with just anyone.
Normally, she would tell me about these things in private. Or, at most, she would tell my mother. Not Xia. And definitely not without asking me first. And yet, she did. All of this smells like something more.
I watch her more closely and notice that her gaze remains on the cup, but she is clearly watching us intently.
I'm sure of it. I would bet my right hand, the same one that is now caressing Xia's, that she met Ling Tian in the Celestial Fragment. And what she has told us so far, everything she has shared in front of Xia, are secondary pieces.
Something really big happened in the Celestial Fragment and it's related to Ling Tian, I'm sure, because if it were about my stepbrother, she would have told my mother. Everything else is just a smokescreen.
But I can't ask her yet. Not with Xia in front of us, and especially not in her current state.
Xia suddenly takes a deep breath and her breathing becomes more regular, so I turn my gaze at her, and I see her slowly open her eyes and look at me with a more serene and grateful expression.
"That's it”, she says in a low, muffled but steady voice. "Thank you, Wen. I'm fine now."
"Are you sure?" I ask, still holding her hand. "We can leave the rest for tomorrow if you need more time."
She nods and lets out a small sigh.
"I don't want to interrupt”, she says. "And I also want to know how the story ends."
I nod silently as I watch her for a few more seconds to make sure she has really calmed down, and then I turn to Lianhua, who is waiting quietly for me to say something.
"So..." I speak. “The rest of the things you told me you found are in that storage bag?"
Lianhua nods as she says “Yes, Zhāohuán Wen. Everything is inside."
I can't help but light up at that answer and reach out my arms to her, as if I were five years old and had just seen a birthday present.
"Give it to me! I want to take the items out myself!" I exclaim with all the excitement I can muster at the prospect of holding a magical object in my hands.
But Lianhua gently shakes her head.
"I'm sorry, Zhāohuán Wen”, she says in a calm voice, without a trace of mockery or condescension. "But you can't use it yet. To access a storage bag, you need to have reached the level of cultivation necessary to open at least its first door. And you're still far from that."
I dramatically drop my arms, which hit my legs lightly as I put on a look of utter disappointment and exclaim with all the theatricality I can muster “Life is unfair! It always takes the good things away from me just when I have them right in front of me!"
This elicits a soft, albeit muted, chuckle from Xia, while a small, almost imperceptible smile forms on Lianhua's face. Even she has been unable to resist my dramatics.
After my comedic performance, I sigh with resignation at not being able to play with the storage bag and, raising my voice slightly, ask Lianhua “Are there many items you found? Because if there are, it might be better to leave it for another day. It might be more practical for you to finish telling us the story first."
Lianhua is silent for just a moment, as if weighing it carefully, before replying.
"I really don't know, Zhāohuán Wen”, she finally says honestly. "I only glanced through it when I picked it up. The only things I know well are the items I put inside myself, like the papers I took out earlier, since I put them away after finding the bag to protect them better."
I nod slowly, letting out another sigh, though this time it's shorter.
"Then we'll leave it for another day”, I say. "And we'll make a more detailed and thorough inventory when we have time. For now, it's better if you continue with your story."
Lianhua nods silently, as if in agreement, and briefly rests her hand on the edge of the chair before settling back in.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"After finding the storage bag, I still hadn't finished searching the room”, she continues with the story. "And since there was already something that had survived, I decided to finish checking the place, which took me a while longer."
She pauses briefly, then raises an eyebrow slightly before saying to me “And I found one more rather strange object. Would you like to see it, Zhāohuán Wen?"
"Sure”, I reply immediately. "Better take it out now and separate it from the original contents of the bag, so it doesn't get mixed up with the rest of the findings."
Lianhua nods gently, reaches into the containment bag, and I raise my eyebrow as I see her arm submerge further than a bag of that size should allow, something that hadn't happened when she took out the papers earlier. After a few seconds, she carefully removes something that glows with a faint blue light.
A gem, to be more precise, a lapis lazuli gem about twenty centimeters long, beautifully carved in the shape of the Udyat, better known as the Eye of Horus, which doesn't really surprise me too much anymore. At this point, she could pull out a miniature copy of the Sphinx of Giza and I would only blink wearily.
I hold out my hands and Lianhua gently places it in my palms. It feels heavier than it looks, and strangely enough, much colder.
Xia leans toward me, curiosity shining in her eyes again, although this time she remains silent.
At first glance, I notice that the gem must have been set in some kind of mount at some point, as there are small irregular marks on its lower edge, as if from pressure.
Most likely, the explosion that devastated the room tore it from its base. The miracle is that it didn't break completely, although I do see a small network of fine, almost invisible cracks crossing its lower part.
Leaving a more detailed examination for later, I place the gem on top of the scrolls on the table next to me and turn back to Lianhua.
"Go on”, I say in a neutral, almost professional tone, as if all this were bringing me back to old habits and this were an academic research meeting at some university rather than a conversation in a room surrounded by lacquered furniture and silk cushions.
"After finding the gem”, Lianhua continues, unperturbed by my tone. "I decided it wasn't worth wasting any more time in that room. I had already found enough, and what remained didn't promise much."
She settles herself slightly and interlaces her hands in her lap as she tells me “I went back to the second floor and spent the rest of the day copying the diagrams in the central chamber as best I could."
Hearing this, I hold out my hands without saying anything, as words are unnecessary.
Lianhua, without even bothering to ask, reaches into the storage bag once more and this time pulls out a bundle of papers that I recognize immediately. They are the ones I put in her backpack before she left, and the pages are now covered with marks, lines, and symbols.
But I don't look at them and leave them directly on the table, right next to the gem and the ancient scrolls, as I don't feel like feeling my Blessing activate again tonight, if it does.
"The rest of the story is much simpler”, Lianhua tells us, her tone lightening, as if she feels that the difficult part is over. "That night I slept inside the building, as it was a safer place than camping outside."
"And the next day, with the closure of the Celestial Fragment approaching, I left the building”, she continues. "First, I went to the riverbank to replenish my water and food supplies, which was now much easier with the storage bag, although I preferred to hide it among my clothes. I didn't want to tempt the greed of some greedy cultivator who might recognize it."
"Not a bad idea”, I say. "A bag like that can tempt a lot of people."
"After that”, she continues “I set off on my way back to the entrance of the Celestial Fragment through the desert."
"The return trip through the desert was much quieter than the outward journey”, Lianhua continues. "The spirit beasts were much scarcer than on the way there, I hardly saw any recent tracks or footprints, and the only things I had to dodge were the large worms."
She pauses briefly and looks at me as if to confirm whether she should continue. I nod, and she continues “It was more common to encounter cultivators who were also making the return journey. Some were alone, others in small groups. I avoided all encounters whenever I could. I didn't want to risk anyone noticing the bag hidden among my clothes."
I understand her perfectly. With an object like that, any extra attention could become a threat.
But before I can ask her a question, my mother's voice echoes unexpectedly from the other side of the door. "Wen? Are you in your room?"
I startle and respond reflexively “Yes, Mother. We're inside."
The door opens without further ado, and she appears, crossing the threshold with a determined stride, followed, as always, by Lingxi. But as soon as I see my mother's face, I sit up a little straighter, for she is frowning, her lips are pressed together, and her eyes, though still steady, show a concern I have rarely seen in her.
"What's wrong?" I ask quickly. "Has something happened?"
"I'm trying to find out what's going on”, she replies bluntly, closing the door behind her. "Riots are starting to break out in the city, and I don't know why. Not only that, but Sun Chao and his entourage still haven't shown up, so many people are starting to get nervous. I've ordered the Nei Baihu to put the Nei Wei on alert."
That makes me blink, because if my mother has put the Nei Wei on alert, it means that the situation may be more serious than it appears.
My mother scans the room with her gaze, her eyes resting on us. Then she asks calmly, though her tone is still inquisitive “Do you have something to tell me?"
I glance at Lianhua out of the corner of my eye, but her face hasn't changed in the slightest at my mother's words. Not a hint of tension, not a blink, she seems the very embodiment of indifference.
I can't help thinking that it's a good thing I gave up on introducing poker in the end; I would never have been able to beat her.
"Not really”, I reply, putting aside my random thoughts, forcing my voice to sound natural despite my suspicions that Lianhua is hiding things from me about what happened in Celestial Fragment, at least for now. "We were listening to what Lianhua found in Celestial Fragment."
I point exaggeratedly to the table next to us where the scrolls, the papers full of diagrams, and the lapis lazuli gem are, while at the same time I begin to make discreet gestures to Lianhua to hide the storage bag that still rests on her legs.
Lianhua catches the signal and, without changing her expression at all, drops one of her sleeves and the top of her jacket over the bag with a fluid movement so natural that no outsider would notice.
My mother approaches the table, and her eyes fix on the gem. She gazes at it intently for a few seconds before speaking "It's very pretty."
"Isn't it?" I say with almost cheeky enthusiasm. "Lianhua has always been the best. You have to hear where she found it."
I try to sound as natural as possible, and from the look on my mother's face, I'm not sure if she believes me or is simply deciding not to press me.
She sighs, shaking her head slightly.
"I don't have time”, she says finally. "I just came to tell you not to leave your room today. They'll bring your dinner here."
I nod, knowing that arguing would be pointless.
Then she turns to Lianhua.
"Tomorrow I want a detailed report on what happened in the Celestial Fragment. Today I don't have time for anything else."
Lianhua bows slightly from her chair, saying nothing.
And without adding anything else, my mother turns and leaves the room as quickly as she entered, while Lingxi follows her without saying a word.
The silence that follows her departure is thick. It is only broken when I let out a sigh and tilt my head back slightly.
"I guess the rest of your story is that you crossed the desert and left the Fragment”, I say to Lianhua without looking at her yet.
"Yes, Zhāohuán Wen “, she replies simply.
I nod once more as I say “Then let's leave it there for today. Talking about my mother has put me off, and besides, it will soon be time for dinner."
They both nod silently at my words.
But I still have something to say.
"Before we finish”, I add, sitting up straight again. "I want to ask you both something. The storage bag issue. I want it to be a secret from everyone, even my mother."
Lianhua looks at me for a few seconds and then asks, without reproach but with curiosity “Is there a special reason for that, Zhāohuán Wen?"
I shake my head slowly.
"No particular reason”, I reply. "I just want to have something that's mine alone. We'll probably make a mistake at some point and my mother will find out, but in the meantime, I'd like it to be our little secret."
I turn to Xia, who hasn't said anything so far. Her legs are crossed and her fingers are intertwined, but her eyes are alert.
"Do you agree with me?" I ask her.
Xia nods with a small smile and reaches out her hand to me, stretching out her little finger "Then, a pinky promise."
I smile back and hook my pinky finger with hers, sealing the pact without words.
Then I turn to Lianhua and say “Keep the storage bag in a safe place. We'll look at its contents when the time is right. For today, it's best not to draw attention to ourselves and just relax until it's time to sleep."
Lianhua nods silently and with a fluid gesture slips the bag under her sleeve, hiding it in some inner fold of her clothing that I couldn't tell where it began or ended.
Meanwhile, I settle back into my chair as I reflect on what Lianhua has told me, what my mother has told me, and what Ling Tian is up to and his reasons for going to the Celestial Fragment.
I'm sure the commotion in the city is due to him and his actions in the Celestial Fragment, and as I said before, I'm sure Lianhua ran into him and didn't want to tell me because Xia was there, but she'll tell me later. I'm in no hurry, even with what my mother has told me. It's not as if I'm going to get involved in city politics.
The issue of my stepbrother is another matter entirely, and I'm not sure if Lianhua knows anything or not, or even worse, if she's involved in his disappearance.
All I can do is pray that the joke my mother played on me that day in the courtyard about having to deal with her death doesn't come back to bite me in the end.
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