Chapter Text
Winter seemed to be approaching too fast that year, the days were warm, but the temperature drops at night were dangerous for the unprepared, and the sick began to grow in the abandoned temple. It often started as a cough, a simple cold that would never leave, sometimes would get worse and worse.... until the cough would stop, and at least they had peace again. For three years he had been living in the streets and Shi Qingxuan had already lost a couple of good companions and suffered himself a nasty cold once that left him with a hoarser voice.
That morning, Sun Hao was coughing incessantly, some other beggars around him were wondering what to do next. The medicine for the cough was empty and they were considering if it were worth buying more.
“Of course, we buy more,” exclaimed Shi Qingxuan “we just need some coins”.
“I'm not giving you any more money,” said Old Yong, angrily. “The medicine does nothing and he is beyond saving now, it’ll be a waste”.
Shi Qingxuan was speechless for a moment, Old Yong and Sun Hao were very good friends. He didn’t understand why he didn't want to help. Even if the only thing the medicine did was to calm the cough and alleviate some of his sufferings, it would not be a waste.
“I have a couple of coins,” said one beggar.
“Me too,” responded another.
Shi Qingxuan counted how much money they had in total and got to the conclusion that it wasn't enough.
“It's a waste!” Old Yong repeated, “you could just throw it away” and with those words, he took his cane to help himself get up, and left them with their ill friend. The old man was in much worse condition than Shi Qingxuan, he missed a leg, one arm was completely useless and the other could barely sustain his weight over the cane, and he had lived that way since he was a teenager.
“Don't take it the wrong way,” said another one “Old Yong has been here longer than any of us, he is just getting ready for the next dead friend.”
Shi Qingxuan sighed and nodded. He understood, kind of. Being homeless was rough and everybody tried their best to protect themselves from the hopelessness, frustration, and pain. Everybody was grumpy, some grew apathetic, some tried to numb their numerous aches with alcohol, and then people like Old Yong turned the pain into anger. At least, he thought, anger is better than feeling nothing, it means he still cares.
As they didn't have enough money for the medicine, Shi Qingxuan offered himself to go beg on the streets for some coins. It wasn't his favourite pastime, a good thing about a big city was that he could get most of his basic needs covered just by looking around and asking. That was why, at that time of the year, the temple started to get full, people who worked in the fields or did odd jobs in the summer, came to the capital to get the shelter and food they would not be able to find outside. There were restaurants with discarded food, shops with produce they couldn't sell before it got rotten, and lots of temples, some of them would give out food, also the generous lord here and there.
The thing was, you could go hungry in the city, and the shitty food could make you sick, and the cold could kill you silently in the night. But, even in the middle of winter, you wouldn't starve.
However, that morning Shi Qingxuan wasn't searching for some leftover food or half spoiled vegetables, they needed hard money for medicine and the opportunities to obtain it for someone as disabled as him were limited and often distasteful, so begging it was.
He walked to a nice stream near the temple, in the daylight, during the warmer seasons, that place was a very charming garden for the more affluent to play and walk, but in the early hours, it was the territory of the homeless and the poor.
Shi Qingxuan cleaned himself a bit, even though the water was extremely cold, then proceed to get himself uglier. He took some mud from the riverbank and covered some of his face and part of his hair. The uglier and more pathetic he looked, the bigger the chances to get more money, also, he could get some of those creeps that hunted for young men away from him.
When he fancied himself ugly enough, he got his cane and began to walk up the city streets. He saw that Old Yong had already got the best spot near the Rain Master temple. Shi Qingxuan waved at him, and the man just grunted back, he found the second-best spot on that street, close to the Pei Ming temple. He thought it was funny that the temples of those gods were so close together.
He cleaned the floor where he was going to sit down, awkwardly folded himself in the spot and took his pant leg up, so people could see his twisted knee. Even then, it wouldn't be the first time that someone would try to say that it was fake and that a young man like him should try to get a good job. It was a “good job” where he got that leg to start with, who knew that ladders could be so breakable?
The early morning was a bit slow, but it got busier as the sun started to warm the streets. Shi Qingxuan took notes of the money he had and when it would be enough. At one moment an old lady approached him and Shi Qingxuan gave her the most charming smile of his.
“Good morning, good lady”, exclaimed, moving the coins in his extended hand, waiting for some more.
“Poor man,” said the lady “aren't you cold?”
Shi Qingxuan blinked, he was, indeed, cold, especially his exposed leg which was almost numb.
“The cold doesn't bother me when I'm in good company,” he said, cheerfully.
“Are you going to be here the whole morning?”
That was an odd question.
“Yes, probably...”
“Oh, good then, I think I have something for you”.
And then, the lady left.
Shi Qingxuan looked at his hand, he just wanted a few more coins, what was the lady going to bring to him?
She reappeared sometime later with a big bundle of clothes and left it next to him.
“Wha...”
"They were from my late husband,” she said, tearing away a small tear “you seem to be as tall as him, so I hope they could be useful to you”.
“Of course, good lady, I'm grateful for your generosity...” but I need money right now. Shi Qingxuan knew that he couldn't say that, or risk offending her. The lady looked happy with herself and left him with the bundle and no extra money.
He checked the clothes to see if there were at least some good shoes, but no, it was just a pile of old, ugly clothes. Shi Qingxuan sighed.
It was well past the middle of the day that he got enough money. He was also pretty hungry, one day he was going to pray to Pei Ming and tell him that his followers were very stingy and that they should share more food with those in need. That was why the spot near the Rain Master temple was better.
He went to the herbalist’s, he had to wait outside the house till the clients inside left the shop, and some assistant would bother to come out to attend to him. That behaviour bothered Shi Qingxuan very much but there was nothing he could do. He even had to be grateful that that herbalist attended to people like him. A lot of business owners didn't want to see beggars close to their places, it made their business look bad, so they avoided selling things to them even if they had the money.
Finally, one of the assistants of the shop came out with a small paper bag with the medicine, it was the only thing they would buy at that time of the year, so they didn't bother to ask him. Shi Qingxuan give the boy the money and his thanks, although he could feel in his voice the lack of actual gratefulness. It really bothered him to wait outside, but it couldn't be helped.
He put the paper bag inside his robe and with the bundle of clothes hanging from his good shoulder, he tried to cheer himself up thinking about the warm bowl of soup and a couple of buns he was going to buy with the left-over money from that day. He bought what was his only food of the day from a street vendor and sit down on some stairs to eat it.
He left one bun for later and went back to the temple, the sun was already going down in the skies which meant that soon the air temperatures would plummet again, it was better to be inside the temple by then.
“Hey, pal,” he said to Sun Hao when he arrived, the poor man still coughing until he almost choked “I bring some medicine for you, you will sleep like a child tonight!”
Of course, the man didn't respond, too busy with the coughing and all that. Shi Qingxuan searched for a small pot and something to burn in the warehouse, also known as "the pile of trash at the back”. Then he warmed some water to prepare the medicine.
When he finished, Shi Qingxuan decided that it was time to clean himself a little bit again. In that weather, no one wanted to properly wash and risk a cold, but he just wanted to get the worse part of the dirt and mud off his hands and hair. Shi Qingxuan promised himself that the next spring he would go visit Xie Lian at his temple and swim in all the warm lakes he could find on the road. Never did he miss being a god more than being unable to get a warm bath in some forgotten mountains hot springs like in moments like this.
After the washing, he shook his arms to get out the droplets of cold water and he noticed a small ruckus up the stream.
“What is going on?” he asked another beggar that came from there.
“They found a body,” he responded, calmly.
“One of us?”
“No, nobody knows him...”
“Oh, weird...”
Shi Qingxuan felt his curiosity piqued. He had learned a lot in his few years as a beggar and one funny thing was the shockingly high number of times they could find dead bodies. Most of them were other beggars, dead from illness or some bad injury. But now and then murder victims would appear, thrown there by sloppy killers, thinking that if their victims were mistaken for beggars, nobody would care, and they could get away with it. Sadly, for the murderers, the guards on the streets and the beggars were very familiar with each other so if they didn't recognise the victim, they knew it was foul play.
However, it was weird to drop a body at that time of the day. Even dumb murderers should know that it was better to do it at night, hidden in the darkness.
He went to see what was going on. Even though he was taller than most of his colleagues, he was crouching over his cane, and could barely see some dark clothes on the ground, above the heads of the group reunited there.
“Excuse me,” he said, “let a poor nosy invalid get to the front to see the body, please!”
“You aren’t the only crippled here” grunted Old Yong, that of course, was the first one in the front.
Shi Qingxuan just laughed but his laughs were cut short when he finally saw the face of the man on the ground.
Dressed in simple black clothes, with his dark hair loose, partially covering his face, Black Water Sinking Ships body laid on the muddy bank, completely still.