"There have been two incidents here in Xinyu recently," Lin Hongzhen said in a low voice, her expression grim. "Rao Mountain has had even more—five of them. And they all happened during the day."
"Are your parents planning to move into the Inner City?" Lin Hui suddenly asked.
He remembered that Lin Hongzhen's parents were business owners in town, and their family was even better off than his. Coupled with the fact that Lin Hongzhen herself was an assistant at Shayue Pharmacy and earned a decent wage, moving into the Inner City was a real possibility for them.
"Yes, soon. Gate-Breaking Ghosts have been appearing in a lot of towns recently, so my parents are planning to move into the city to lie low for a while." Lin Hongzhen nodded slightly. Her relationship with Lin Hui was decent. They had played together a lot as children, and she was one of the few Lin Family relatives who still occasionally associated with his branch of the family.
"Things have been tense lately. Be careful, and stop trying to get involved in every little thing," Lin Hongzhen added.
She was about to say more, but a young girl with pigtails tapped her on the back to say hello.
"Xiaoqin, is that you?" Her face lit up when she turned around, and she immediately struck up a conversation with the girl.
Lin Hui, who had been about to ask something else, held his tongue when he saw this. He noticed the girl looked to be about fifteen or sixteen. She was dressed in revealing clothes: a white tube top and a leather miniskirt that barely covered her thighs, with a simple snakeskin belt around her waist. It was a typical Inner City style. A brown, wavy short-bladed knife was strapped to the outside of her thigh.
Finally, he cast one last glance at the bloodstains in the courtyard before turning and silently walking away.
He continued down the dirt road toward town. Before long, his figure disappeared around a bend.
Just then, the young girl glanced in his direction and then looked at Lin Hongzhen.
"Your brother?"
"Yes, my cousin, from the fourth branch of the family. He's a simple, honest kid." Lin Hongzhen nodded. "For this upcoming selection, do you think he has a chance? His family's circumstances aren't the best, and you know how things are lately. Staying in Xinyu indefinitely isn't a long-term solution."
"His looks won't cut it. You know how the Rain Palace chooses people—looks are the first filter. If you don't have the looks, you at least have to bribe your way in..." The young girl shook her head. "To be honest, in your Lin Family, only Lin Hongyu was good enough to be chosen on her own merits. As for the rest..."
"Lin Hongyu... Just don't mention her. Hearing her name is enough to piss me off. What about my cousin, then? How about you pull some strings and get him a job running errands where you are? He's started looking for work recently," Lin Hongzhen asked tentatively.
"Why don't you just tell him to try and snag a steward position with the Chen Family?" The girl looked exasperated. "Do you have any idea what it's like inside Shayue?"
Lin Hongzhen smiled awkwardly.
"It's mainly because he's at that age, and we get along well. I just want to help him find a path."
Lin Hui was something of a well-known figure in the Lin Family. His parents were famous for doting on him. They had provided him with the best food and drink since he was a child and couldn't bear to send him away to suffer through an apprenticeship. Only now that he was grown did they start to panic.
Most families sent their children out to learn a trade before the age of ten. The Lin Family was a large clan, and Lin Hui's father had a decent income. He was a Steward, after all. When he had a son, he coddled and spoiled him in every way imaginable.
In the eyes of others, not being sent away for an apprenticeship was already a sign of being thoroughly spoiled.
'And now...' Lin Hongzhen shook her head inwardly. Even she had been sent out to work as an apprentice and run errands at the age of ten. Seven years had passed, and it was only last year, after much difficulty, that she had finally qualified to join the organization and officially become a common Cultist of Shayue.
In Tuyue, there were only three ways for a commoner to get ahead in life.
The Government Office selections, the Shayue selections, and the Chen Family selections.
If none of those three paths worked out, their only options were to become a farmer or an apprentice to learn a trade.
If even those options were unavailable, you ended up in Lin Hui's current situation: the only way to make a living was to sell your labor and take on dangerous jobs.
In the eyes of the poor, Lin Hui was essentially the only son of a Steward—a young master who had completely escaped the hardships of poverty.
In Xinyu Town, you could even say he was a minor scion of a wealthy family.
That was why Lin Hui's father would never be willing to let his only son take a dangerous path in life.
Lin Hongzhen understood this very well.
*
*
*
「Xinyu Town, Xinyu Oil Workshop.」
In a dark corner thick with the smell of grease, large oil barrels were lined up as neatly as soldiers in formation.
Lin Hui's father, Lin Shunhe, his eyes bloodshot, was furtively stuffing a heavy gray coin purse into the hands of a pot-bellied old man dressed in the robes of a wealthy gentleman.
"Elder Chen," he began, "about that sponsorship spot for the Inner City...?"
"The goods are excellent, and the job was done beautifully. Don't you worry, Lin, I've already passed the word along," the old man said with a wide smile.
Lin Shunhe's heart skipped a beat. He gritted his teeth, pulled out another coin purse—this one silver-trimmed and kept close to his body—and handed it over.
This was his retirement fund—the savings he had planned to use to retire in the Inner City with his wife, Yao Shan. But he couldn't worry about that now.
'My son has been lazing around at home for over a year, completely aimless and idle. If this keeps up, he'll be ruined.'
'If he can just get a position as an employee in the Chen Family, all this effort will have been worth it. It takes at least seven or eight years to work your way up from a bottom-rung apprentice to a full employee. This private deal and all the savings I'm handing over will buy him those seven or eight years.'
'Everyone in Tuyue knows the Chen Family's benefits are second to none. As long as you can get in, you're guaranteed a place to live in the Inner City and basic security, at the very least.'
"Now, now, there's no need for such formalities. But greasing the palms of those above and below does have its costs." Elder Chen's smile grew even wider. He opened the coin purse, glanced inside, then weighed it in his hand. "Don't you worry, Younger Brother Lin. You can leave this matter to me."
"Just bring the boy over when the time comes. Lin Hui, wasn't it?"
"Yes, yes," Lin Shunhe nodded eagerly.
"Alright, I'll remember." Elder Chen nodded. "It's getting late, I'm off to dinner. You can bring him to Gate Three of the Chen Family Castle tomorrow afternoon. It's the gate with the view of the Heroic Tower. Don't get the wrong one."