Chapter Text
There was another group of slavers in town.
Xiao Jiu had heard the slavers talk about it, their voices hushed and worried. He had found spiteful joy in that, at the time; Whatever worried the slavers had to be good for the slaves.
Well, he was kind of right. Getting a chunk bitten out of him probably wasn’t particularly good for Shi-San, but it might do wonders for his personality. Xiao Jiu has had the urge to do that quite often, stopped only by expecting him to taste nasty.
The toddler Shi-San decided to insult has had no such compunctions.
It was beautiful to watch. The kid went at it like a rabid dog, biting and scratching at whichever parts of Shi-San he could reach, until he managed to bring the bigger boy to the ground.
Theoretically, Xiao Jiu was supposed to help Shi-San either win or disentangle from the scuffle, retreating back to the base. But Shi-San had made the mistake of pettily preventing Xiao Jiu from stealing the baozi he had been eyeing earlier, so now he was on his own.
He leaned back against the wall comfortably, settling in to watch the fight. It was absolutely hilarious to see Shi-San get utterely pummeled, considering how he always strutted around proud like a peacock. Look at him now! Crawling towards Xiao Jiu, hand extended as he blubbered pleas for assistance-
Xiao Jiu reached back and grabbed that hand, sliding into his sleeve and retrieving the baozi Shi-San had the time to steal while the merchant was busy focusing on Xiao Jiu. He scooted back a little further out of the fight’s reach, happily biting into the treat. Mmm, duck; Delicious!
The toddler gasped, looking between Xiao Jiu and Shi-San. “He’s got food up his sleeve?” He questioned with excitement, and began to further embarrass Shi-San by rummaging through all the potential storage spaces.
“Oi!” Someone else yelled from the corner of the street. “Cho Sam! We’re going back!”
“But I’m having fun!” The child groaned, though he disengaged without further prompting. He kicked Shi-San in the side one last time before stepping back. “He didn’t have any good loot on him, anyway.”
He offered Xiao Jiu a nod — which he reciprocated, if only to thank for the assistance in getting the baozi — and trotted away.
Xiao Jiu calmly finished his baozi, cleaning his fingers properly before getting to his feet. As much as he would have liked to leave Shi-San behind, the slavers would take it out of his hide. He grabbed the closest leg and began to drag Shi-San’s unconscious body behind himself, leaving a small trail of blood.
The slavers weren’t particularly happy to receive their possession back in that state.
“The hell, Xiao Jiu?” Old Zhao barked out. “I know you don’t get along with Shi-San, but that’s ridiculous!”
“Wasn’t me,” Xiao Jiu shrugged, dropping the foot. Shi-San was only halfway through the threshold, but that wasn’t his problem any longer. “Some toddler did all that. From the other slave group, I think.”
“Is that so…”
***
Apparently the slavers decided to go demand reimbursement for damaging the merchandise. Xiao Jiu was taken along — ostensibly to point out the perpetrator — as well as Shi-San, carried on a cart to show his state.
The other slavers did not question whether the accusation was true. They didn’t even need Xiao Jiu to say anything about who they were accusing.
“CHO SAM!” One bellowed, stomping towards an open door. He reached into the room, producing a child who was, in fact, the one from earlier. “WHAT DID YOU DO NOW?”
Cho Sam looked entirely unapologetic, even as he slowly spinned there and back in the slaver’s grasp. “He called me a runt.”
“You are a run-”
Cho Sam’s heel connected with the slaver’s nose in an impressive display of flexibility, producing a loud crunch and a stream of blood. The slaver dropped him in favour of grabbing at his injured nose, and Cho Sam gracefully landed on his feet, kicking at the dirt underneath him as if to clean off his soles.
Another slaver from their group chuckled, shaking his head. “You know how he is about that, Li-ge, why would you provoke him?”
The injured slaver grumbled something illegible.
“In any case,” that other slaver continued. “Scuffles are only natural-”
“That was not a scuffle.” Old Zhao crossed his arms. “That was a decimation. Have you no control over your kids? Ours would never do something like that.”
He very pointedly avoided looking at Xiao Jiu, who frequently caused various messes. Never to the point of such a disabling injury, though. And only (mostly) amongst the other slaves from the cohort. Usually, they stuck together against outsiders.
With occasional exceptions.
“Ha! You think you’d do better with that demon spawn?”
Cho Sam seemed to take fault with that descriptor as well, kicking the slaver straight in the kneecap. The man grunted, but didn’t fall, gesturing to the boy as if to say “see?”.
Old Zhao narrowed his eyes. “Yes.”
Baffled, Xiao Jiu whipped his head to look towards Old Zhao. They could barely handle him! What made them think this toddler was anywhere within the realm of possibility?
But it was too late. The other slavers eagerly jumped on that opportunity, to the point where it was Old Zhao who had to suggest they trade kids. Xiao Jiu found a crumb of humour in the fact that neither group seemed to particularly want to keep Shi-San.
The rabid toddler went back to the base with them.
***
The general cohort was only informed that the kid was “a replacement for Shi-San”, sparking a large amount of discussion over what, exactly, happened to Shi-San, and whether anyone could be replaced like that.
Xiao Jiu didn’t care about that enough to weigh in, not even when Qi-ge asked, right after Xiao Jiu had pushed and pulled him into serving as a pillow.
“He had it coming,” was all he had said with a shrug. He was much more interested in watching the rest of the cohort try to intimidate the toddler.
It was not going well for them.
“Oi, Shi-San!” They tried to catch the toddler’s attention. The kid seemed too busy digging in his ear to pay attention to that.
Finally, Shi-Yi decided to take a more hands-on approach, kicking at the kid’s shin. “We’re talking to you, brat!”
“Oh, are you?” The kid swivelled his head around lazily. “It sure sounded like you wanted some Shi-San guy.”
“Well, you’re his replacement.” Shi-Si shrugged. “What else are we supposed to call you?”
“My name is Cho Sam.”
A moment of silence followed, as the dumbasses Xiao Jiu had to live with tried to mull that over.
“You can’t be Cho Sam,” Shi-Wu said eventually. “We already had number three.”
“Yeah?” The toddler cracked his knuckles. “Which one is that, then?”
“San-jie got sold a couple towns over!” Xiao Jiu contributed.
“Then I see no issue. Call me Cho Sam, or I’ll knock out your teeth.”
Predictably, the cohort had not taken kindly to such a direct threat. After exchanging a couple of glances and doing the maths of “there’s more of us and only one of him”, the idiots had elected to teach him a lesson.
Cho Sam ducked underneath the first swing, immediately returning his own, more successful one. It had only gone downhill for the cohort after that. One after another, they dropped like flies, gaining an absurd amount of injuries.
Qi-ge clearly wanted to intervene — it’s always been his self-imposed duty to keep peace — but with Xiao Jiu on his lap, he couldn’t exactly move.
It didn’t take long for the situation to resolve itself, leaving the cohort scattered on the ground in various states of consciousness and Cho Sam standing at the center of the chaos, returning back to his ear-digging.
That was when Li Chen entered the courtyard, lugging in a pot of congee. He hadn’t noticed the situation at first, grousing about being the one tasked with feeding the kids as if he wasn’t doing that every time.
Xiao Jiu jumped to his feet, luxuriating in the feeling of being first in line. Qi-ge followed after him with some more reluctance, bringing both of their bowls, as well as the extra he must have been given for Cho Sam, who joined them at the pot.
Li Chen served the three of them, and only then noticed the lack of other bodies swarming him for food.
“What the hell happened to them?” He asked.
Cho Sam shrugged. “Bad case of stupidity,” he said, working his spoon through the watery congee. “Isn’t there any meat?”
“Ha!” The slaver instantly forgot about the other kids in the face of such an audacious request. “You think you deserve that expense? Earn enough and maybe you’ll get some! Xiao Qi, sort out the food when they wake up, will you? I’ve got better things to do.”
And with that, he left the courtyard.
Xiao Jiu immediately ladled himself some more congee, eating with vigour. They only got fed once a day at best, occasionally going a few days between meals. It all depended on how well they begged, which had too many variables to expect a stable income. That’s partially why he had been so pissed at Shi-San for ruining the baozi heist.
Qi-ge had eaten a little, but his conscience — a pesky little thing, from what Xiao Jiu had seen — clearly didn’t let him rest easy. After a few bites, he put his bowl aside, moving from kid to kid and checking whether they could be roused.
Cho Sam was still despondently playing with his food.
“If you don’t want it, I’ll take it,” Xiao Jiu warned.
Glaring up at him, Cho Sam brought the bowl to his lips and devoured the contents in an impressively long gulp. “I’ll eat it,” he said. “But I don’t like it.”
Xiao Jiu shrugged. “It’s what we get. You want something better, get it yourself.” And with that wise advice dispended, he turned back to the pot, getting another big portion. So what if there might not be enough for everyone later? You snooze, you lose!
After a moment of consideration, he filled Qi-ge’s bowl to the brim, just in case. Chances were he’d just share it with another kid anyway, but that would be his problem. Xiao Jiu did all he could.
“Gimme more, too.”
“Hm?” Xiao Jiu hummed through the full mouth and swallowed. “What, changed your mind about the taste?”
“No, it’s still yucky. But I wanna make sure the idiots don’t get to have any.”
Xiao Jiu cackled, motioning at Cho Sam to bring the bowl closer. He could absolutely get behind this kind of pettiness. Between the two of them — and Qi-ge, once Xiao Jiu bullied him into eating — the entire contents of the pot disappeared before any of the kids had woken up.
***
They moved towns not long after that, moving further south in order to escape the growing cold of late autumn. There wasn’t much that could go wrong while on the road; The slavers kept them fed and crammed into a wagon, so they didn’t even have to walk too much.
Most of the cohort wasn’t very comfortable, sitting almost on top of each other, but that was due to their own stupidity. Ever since Cho Sam’s welcoming ass-kicking, most of the kids refused to get anywhere near him, which resulted in a nicely cleared-out space around the spot he had claimed in the wagon.
Xiao Jiu, of course, pulled Qi-ge to sit in that empty space. Why waste an opportunity? He might not get along with Cho Sam all that well — leave them alone for a shichen and it’ll end up with an argument, if not a full-blown fight — but he could absolutely join forces for the sake of pettiness and mischievousness.
“Oi, Xiao Sam,” Old Zhao stuck his head in through the fabric partition separating them from the driver’s seat. He rolled his eyes at the uneven distribution of space, but didn’t comment on it. “You wanna stretch out your limbs a little?”
“Sure.” Cho Sam was already on his feet, stretching out his arms.
“Eh? Why’s he getting that offer?” Xiao Jiu immediately questioned. “Why can’t the rest of us go, too?”
Old Zhao pulled the fabric aside, gesturing with his thumb towards the road before them, where a group of bandits was badly hiding as they laid in wait to ambush them. “There’s some pests that need their asses kicked. Figured the kid might need his bloodlust curbed, so why not kill two birds with one stone?”
“I can kill them?”
“Do whatever you want, Xiao Sam, who’s gonna care?”
Cho Sam walked across the wagon to clamber his way onto the driver’s seat, nearly jostling Li Chen off in the process. He walked across the backs of the horses and ran ahead towards the bandits.
“I want to go, too.” Xiao Jiu demanded.
Qi-ge and Old Zhao spoke at the same time. “No.”
The fabric dropped, and Qi-ge wrapped his arms around Xiao Jiu, not letting him move. And that was that.
But with winter approaching quickly, finding bandits on the roads wasn’t rare. But it was happening suspiciously often, almost as if the slavers deliberately took more dangerous roads. And why shouldn’t they, when Cho Sam always rendered them not only safe, but also profitable?
Whenever the slavers spotted an ambush in the distance — and they somehow always spotted it, even if they actually put some effort into hiding — they just let Cho Sam run on ahead and, by the time the wagon arrived, all the bandits were on the ground in various states of aliveness, ripe for looting.
Most of the time, Qi-ge was right by Xiao Jiu’s side that entire time, not letting him join. But Xiao Jiu was biding his time, waiting for an opportunity. And when it came, he grasped it with both hands, running after Cho Sam before anyone could stop him.
Cho Sam slowed down to a trot, looking back at Xiao Jiu. “What?”
“I’m joining you.”
“Okay.”
“I can fight-! Oh. Okay?”
“Yeah, I don’t care. Just don’t blame me later if you get hurt.” And with those encouraging words, Cho Sam sped up again.
Xiao Jiu followed after him at his own pace, not wanting to arrive all winded. He still made good time, with plenty of bandits left to bite, claw, and scratch with the small blade he had made from a scrap of good metal.
Unfortunately for his sense of pride and thin face, by the time he downed one bandit, Cho Sam was already done with all the rest, and was already rummaging through their pockets.
Having other priorities, Xiao Jiu went in search of something he hoped the bandits had brought along in expectation of the lengthy wait: namely, the provisions. He had located the container after a short search, where he hit the absolute jackpot.
“Oi, Cho Sam,” Xiao Jiu called with a grin, showing off the box. “Look what I got!”
The kid took his sweet time looking up, but when his eyes landed on the contents of the box, he stiffened, nose flaring like a hunting dog who just caught a trail. It was an appropriate reaction, in Xiao Jiu’s opinion, to finding an entire dozen of mooncakes.
He snapped the lid closed before Cho Sam could reach inside, staring at him with narrowed eyes.
“We’re leaving one for Qi-ge,” he said. “And we split the rest evenly. Or I won’t share with you at all.”
Normally, Xiao Jiu wouldn’t have even dreamed about giving away whatever sweets he had managed to nab. But, since Cho Sam was so instrumental in making Xiao Jiu’s life significantly better, he figured he could make an exception, just this once. These mooncakes were within his grasp almost directly because of the other boy, so…
“Deal,” Cho Sam agreed.
They sat off to the side, guarding their treasure even as the rest of the cohort descended upon the bandits to finish looting them. Nobody quite dared to step anywhere close to them, except for Qi-ge, whom Xiao Jiu motioned to come over in order to give him the single mooncake set aside for him.
And so they ate in peace, matching mooncake for mooncake, until only the last one was left.
Cho Sam grabbed it before Xiao Jiu could. Oh, of course he would, Xiao Jiu thought while his hands clenched into fists. But if he thought Xiao Jiu would give up this easily-
There was half a mooncake right in front of his nose.
“Here,” Cho Sam said while chewing his half, pushing it closer until Xiao Jiu managed to grab it. “Now it’s even. Thanks.”
And with that, he went back towards the wagon, uncaring of whether he was stepping on the ground or on the laying bandits.
Xiao Jiu stared at the half a mooncake for a while longer. When the slavers called them all back, he quickly stuffed it into his mouth and rushed to return, his thoughts no less tangled.
***
Xiao Jiu was smart enough to know when he should vacate a particular spot, even if it was a lucrative one. As long as no other beggar was there to move into the free real estate, he always left before the guards could decide to kick him out.
This time was no different. He had settled on a corner near a rich estate and managed to earn quite a pretty penny before the servants started to shoot him unpleasant looks. Once the traffic died down, Xiao Jiu decided to call it quits for the day.
He was on his way to the abandoned yizhuang the slavers had taken over for their use when he spotted Cho Sam. Who was not begging, like he was supposed to, unless in his mind “begging” consisted of paying a stall merchant.
“What are you doing?” Xiao Jiu asked, unsurprised when Cho Sam didn’t startle at his sudden presence. It was terribly difficult to genuinely catch him unaware.
“Getting some meat.” Cho Sam bounced on the heels of his feet, accepting a small plate full of steaming dumplings. “Like you said.”
When had Xiao Jiu told him that?? They haven’t even seen each other since yesterday! After a moment, though, he had managed to place it.
“That was half a year ago,” he said, following after Cho Sam for the lack of anything better to do. “You waited six months to get some meat?”
“Of course not!” Cho Sam shook his head, trying to pick up a dumpling only to hesitate at the temperature. “I’ve been getting meat anytime I got my hands on some money.”
Ah. That would explain why he’s never brought anything back to the slavers. Xiao Jiu — and probably everyone else — had simply assumed he was bad enough not to gain anything in the first place. Luckily for Cho Sam, his main value for the slavers lay in keeping them protected while on the road, so they didn’t punish him for the shortcoming the way they would the other kids.
If anything, they would probably approve. Maybe even tell Cho Sam to keep his strength up and everything. As much as Xiao Jiu had doubted Old Zhao’s ability to control Cho Sam’s aggressive tendencies at first, frequently feeding him bandits to beat up seemed to have done the trick. Which meant that, since he wasn’t making too much trouble for the slavers, they tended to like him quite a lot.
Xiao Jiu expected they would want to keep Cho Sam as part of the group instead of selling him off to the highest bidder; There was no price point one could reach to replace his usefulness. He sometimes thought Qi-ge would be kept, too. He was too good at keeping the cohort docile and obedient.
The rest of them would be sold as soon as a good price was offered, Xiao Jiu had no illusions about that.
He got jolted out of his thoughts by a fist hitting his arm.
“Why do you have such a stinky expression on your face, ah?” Cho Sam asked. “You’re gonna spoil my dumplings if you keep doing that.”
Xiao Jiu scowled at him, intentionally making the ugliest expression he possibly could.
Cho Sam let out a heavy sigh, as if someone had just asked him to carry the world on his back. “Here.” He pushed the plate towards Xiao Jiu. “You can have one, if it makes you stop doing that with your face.”
Not one to refuse a good deal, Xiao Jiu immediately snatched a dumpling. He’s never eaten one fresh enough to still be hot. It was even more delicious than a cold dumpling!
They sat down under a tree out of the way; Cho Sam ended up sharing nearly half of his dumplings with Xiao Jiu, and he didn’t even need to be cajoled to do that!
Once finished — far too soon than either of them would have wanted — they remained there for a while longer, just watching the time pass. Xiao Jiu leaned his head back against the bark, gaze drifting up towards the crown of the tree.
It was a plum tree, he realized. But all the fruits in reachable distance were already picked, leaving only some on the very top of the tree. Narrowing his eyes, Xiao Jiu considered his options. He could try climbing the branches, but there had to be a reason why someone hadn’t tried that, yet.
Would it be possible to gather some of those fruits without getting up there? For most people, probably not.
But Xiao Jiu had some tricks up his sleeve. He focused on the ball of heat resting within his stomach, drawing on it the same way he did when turning scrap metal into blades. Only this time, he directed it differently.
The leaves susurred, at first gently, then growing more intensive. Cho Sam didn’t seem to care, not until Xiao Jiu grabbed the discarded dumpling plate in preparation. The falling plums were guided by his will to land directly on the plate, piling up into a neat bunch.
Cho Sam watched it happen, his expression baffled for the first time as long as Xiao Jiu knew him.
He sat there, smugly showing off the plate as he grabbed a plum to try. It was deliciously sweet, just as expected from a tree picked so clean. Cho Sam still only stared, so Xiao Jiu motioned with the plate to encourage him.
This would make them even for the dumplings.
***
Xiao Jiu didn't suddenly start spending his coins — he was much too fond of being the top earner — but he carefully estimated how much he could embezzle before anyone would notice, squirreling away a coin at a time.
So that when he needed it, he was able to buy two fresh sticks of tanghulu.
It didn't take long to find Cho Sam, who was loitering near a pasture and longingly staring at the grazing cows as if he was already imagining which sauce they'd be best paired with.
“Oi," Xiao Jiu called as he approached. “I have an offer for you."
Cho Sam tilted his head towards Xiao Jiu, appearing curious as he noted the sweet. “What kind?"
“There's a guy I want you to beat up for me. I'll give you the tanghulu if you do."
That earned him a suspicious look. “Why wouldn't you beat him up yourself?"
Xiao Jiu scowled, refusing to admit out-loud that he wasn't quite strong enough for the kind of revenge he wanted. Judging by Cho Sam's smirk, he figured it out anyway.
“Of course I'll beat up my didi's bully-"
“What didi?! Who are you calling your didi-!"
“Are you not our Xiao Jiu, eh? Did you not come to me for help?"
This was a bad idea, and Xiao Jiu regretted ever thinking it could work. He should just give up and leave. At least he'd get two tanghulu for his trouble-
“Fine, fine, I won’t tease you," Cho Sam walked up to his side, clearly eyeing the sweet treat. “Whose ass do you want me to beat up?"
“Young master Jin."
Cho Sam paused. “Now, long-term strategy isn't exactly my strong point, but wouldn't that be a tremendously bad idea?"
Normally, it would be. But Xiao Jiu was being smart about it, having been waiting patiently for an opportunity.
“We're leaving in the evening. I heard Old Zhao say so. If you leave him unconscious enough to only wake up in the morning...”
“Ha!" The other boy barked out a laugh. “Like that's gonna stop people from realizing who the culprit is. Even if they don't connect it to me, they're gonna realize it's related to the beggar he had just gotten into an argument with!"
That was precisely why Xiao Jiu did it this way. “I'm very sure he's pissed off plenty of other people in the last two weeks since he pissed me off."
Cho Sam blinked, taking a second to connect the dots. When he did, he looked at Xiao Jiu with a newfound respect.
“Damn, what had he done that was so bad, you waited this long to get back at him?"
Xiao Jiu scowled at the very reminder. “He threw out a box of mooncakes he didn't like and, when he noticed I was nearby, he pointedly stomped it to crumbs."
“Ah." Cho Sam's expression darkened. “Right. I have a condition."
Of course he had. Xiao Jiu braced himself. “Other than the tanghulu?"
“Mhm. Call me Sam-ge when you ask, and I'll do it."
He reflexively kicked out at Cho Sam's shin. “Absolutely not!" To call this runt his ge-! Xiao Jiu was older than him, no matter how much Cho Sam argues about the numeric order counting for more!
Cho Sam shrugged, playing at nonchalanae. “Then I won't do it."
Grinding his teeth together, Xiao Jiu considered his options. He really wanted Young Master Jin to be knocked down a peg… But did he want it enough to abandon his pride?
“I'll give you this tanghulu if you beat up young master Jin for me," Xiao Jiu enunciated slowly. “Sam-ge."
“See, that wasn't so hard!" Cho Sam grinned, grabbing one of the tanghulu sticks. He tucked his free hand behind his belt, sticking his tummy out proudly. “Now, tell me the details. What do you want me to do, exactly?"
***
And then the mess with Shi-Wu and young master Qiu happened. Qi-ge might've promised to return for him, but Xiao Jiu expected never to see anyone from the cohort again. It's not like he would miss them, anyway. Not even Cho Sam. Especially not him, the annoying ragebaiter as he was. Xiao Jiu wouldn’t miss the moments they shared. He wouldn't cry after him. He wouldn't.
***