“Yes, please!”Shanlin said.
Daiyu patted him on the head.“Good boy.”Shanlin’s expression soured, but she ignored his questionable manners.
“Do you know of anyone who might require my skills?”Leander asked.He would owe Auntie Daiyu a significant gift or a portion of his salary if she found him something, but these people would not employ a stranger and outsider if he lacked introductions.
“Heng said that outsiders do not cultivate magic, but that you have remarkable skills.He could not explain more than that.What can you do?”
“I am good with plants.I can make flowers bloom sooner or keep the blooms fresh longer or even make them larger if I touch the plants before they bud.”Given the colorful hillsides, Leander assumed these people would value that.“I can also make harvests better and heal sick plants, assuming they aren’t at the end of their life cycle.I can also kill plants that are unwanted.”Leander knew he was phrasing all this awkwardly, but he had not spoken Chinese in far too long.
“How can magic make plants grow larger?”she asked.
“Because I only do one thing—magic with plants—I can do many things with nuance.”He grimaced.That was probably the wrong word.“I can push magic into the plant to direct it.I weave magic with the plant.”
Daiyu straightened so fast she startled Shanlin.“Your chi?You can add chi to plants?”
“Yes,” Leander agreed.
“You could add chi to the ingredients of a pill master?”
“I believe so,” Leander said carefully, unwilling to make any promises when it came to an important career like pill making.
“What is it?”Shanlin asked, clearly understanding something important was going on here.Normally, Leander would scold him for getting involved in adult conversations.These people would have very little patience with a child who forced himself into adult conversations, but even Leander could see the alarm and excitement on Daiyu’s face, and it likely worried Shanlin.
“One of the most valued magical professions is that of pill master.They have an innate magical fire that allows them to fire alchemic stoves to intense temperatures that distill magic into a potent form.A skilled pill master can make a pill that will allow you to live longer or will heal sickness or improve a person’s magic.She asked if I could add magic–chi–to a pill master’s ingredients so his pills would be more potent.”
“Yes,” Daiyu said in heavily accented English.“Pill makers strengthen body, shorten training.They change fate.”
“Wow,” Shanlin whispered.
It was an opportunity to make himself useful, but it was also a chance to offend a powerful person.Leander hadn’t expected to find a pill maker here.“I can only affect the plant while it grows,” he lied.He would rather be in the field than next to one of those enormous alchemic stoves that twisted magic together until it felt like Leander’s soul was being yanked.He’d only had one experience of being in a pill room, and he had fled.
“Good, good, you come.”She stood and moved to the door before looking back at him with anticipation.
“I’m not dressed well.”He wore dirty, western clothing that would humiliate him if he left the house.He had bought one set of Chinese clothes for himself and Shanlin, but even those weren’t formal or old-fashioned enough.However, they would be infinitely better than dirty jeans.
“Don’t care.Many say Americans are too arrogant to be good workers, so you come like that so he will see that you can offer good value.”
Leander was stuck.He didn’t want to offend Auntie Daiyu, but he didn’t want to offend a pill master.
“Ba?”Shanlin asked.
Leander nodded.“I will go meet the pill master.Shanlin, you must remain in the house.”
“Okay.”
Leander hated how he had given that answer with no thought.“I’m serious.You can’t leave for any reason.”
Shanlin rolled his eyes.“Got it.”
Leander frowned.He didn’t want to leave Shanlin alone, but he had nowhere to send him.And the chance to work for a pill master was too great.“I’m trusting you.”
“Yeah.I got it.I won’t leave the house.Geez.”
This is why he didn’t like children; however, he didn’t want to start a fight in front of Auntie Daiyu.“I only hope I can avoid embarrassing myself,” he told her.
She smiled, her creases deepening into folds that made her appear ancient.“Yang Xiangren is offended always.If you do not offend him, you will be the only one in the village.He takes offense at a rooster who crows too softly or a flower that blooms too loudly.”
Leander grimaced.The last thing he wanted was another difficult boss, but he had little choice.His savings wouldn’t last forever.
