The glow from the qi vanished, and the clearing fell back into darkness, save for the flickering of the lantern on the ground. I shuddered against the sudden chill—but this chill was natural, autumnal. Nothing I couldn’t easily bear.
Then Ren crumpled to the ground with a pained moan. His body was still broken.
I’d once watched Mistress Ming fix a farmer’s dislocated shoulder and remembered the clunk as the bone slid back into place. I doubted I could replicate the method perfectly, but the least I could do was try. I didn’t have the strength to drag Ren out of the forest and find a physician.
I laid Ren flat on his back and straightened his limbs as best I could, grimacing when he let out a half groan, half whimper.
“Bite on this,” I said, easing a stick between his teeth so that he wouldn’t hurt his tongue. He was in too much pain to protest. Taking advantage of his distraction, I grasped his left wrist and gently moved it perpendicular to his body. Then I slowly but firmly yanked.
Ren’s eyes flung open and he released a startled cry, thesound muffled by the stick in his mouth. But I heard the bone thud into its socket.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” I whispered, already moving to his other side. His agonized sounds clawed my stomach. “I’ll make this as quick as possible. Just hang on a little longer.”
He could do little but moan as I worked through each dislocated limb. It took two attempts on his right shoulder and three on his knee to relocate the joints. After what felt like an entire night, I finally worked my way through each injury. I didn’t doubt that Chunhua’s qi helped with the recovery.
I stretched my back while he rested. Sweat dotted his brow, his breathing heavy from the pain.
“What… happened?” he finally managed to say, his voice more lucid than before.
“I saved your life.” I retrieved the lantern and placed it on the ground between us, then sat down beside him. The change in Ren’s appearance was startling. The old cut on his jaw, once scabbed and bruised by death, was now a mere pink scar. In fact, most of his injuries had faded, including the gray tinge of his skin. When he pushed up the torn Fu talisman, his eyes shone bright with life, despite the drying tears.
“Why… why did you come back?” he asked, gaze narrowing in on my face. “You could’ve forfeited our agreement.”
I shrugged, looking slightly to his right so that our eyes were no longer locked. “You offered me more than Official Yi.”
“So you came back for money.”
“Of course. Why else would I risk my life?”
I expected him to be affronted. Instead, the shadow of a smile crossed his lips. “Why else, indeed.”
His implication that there was more to my reasoning had the strange effect of sparking warmth in my cheeks. It bothstartled and irritated me. I made an impatient noise, then said, “Well? After all the trouble I went through, how do you feel?”
“I feel…” He breathed in through his nose, then rolled back his shoulders with a slight wince. His fingers found the mala beads inside his coat, and he pulled them out, his movements slow and stiff. “I feel as alive as I used to. Is it the qi?”
“Yes.” I reached out to count the beads, and my fingers brushed his as he moved to do the same. I flinched at the heat of his skin, weak but very much present.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, pulling back.
I cleared my throat, then touched the beads again and counted sixteen newly warmed ones. Twenty-one total out of the fifty-four needed. “If we keep building—”
I broke off as Ren tore the tattered talisman from his forehead. He remained awake and alert. Still, I burst out, “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I don’t need it anymore,” he replied.
“Of course you need it,” I said, my voice coming out more strained than I intended. “Did you forget what Mistress Ming said when she gave you the necklace? You’ll continue to need a talisman until you’ve gathered enough qi to maintain a human soul.”
“But I feel fine.”
“For now.” I pulled a new reanimation talisman from the folds of my clothing. “If you continue without, the qi inside you will eventually be lost. Including the qi that Mistress Ming gifted you.”
Guilt flickered across his expression, and he finally nodded in agreement. Still, he turned his face away when I stretched the talisman toward him. “But must it be directly on my face? I quite enjoy my eyesight.”
“The head is a central part of the body’s functions, so yes, it must be on your forehead for its power to be fully effective.” I gripped his chin to keep him still and planted the fresh talisman on his head. But I placed it slightly to the right, allowing one eye to peek out. The look it gave me was unamused.
“Is that not better?” I said, smug.
“Oh, yes, a tremendous improvement.”
