Xiang collapsed down on the bed in her room back at the inn. She'd made it back safely. As she lay there, she looked up at the ceiling and asked, "How could this happen?" Was this really how things worked in the world?
She wrote down the experience in her journal. She struggled to write the words because it was too embarrassing. Afterwards, she got up and restock her food supply.
She walked around, going from merchant to merchant picking the freshest fruits and vegetables she could find. She briefly though about getting some meat, but chose not to. Meat or not, she wouldn't starve. She wound up getting carried away, ending up with two heaping bags of food. Satisfied, she headed back to the inn with a smile on her face.
Then, not far from the inn, she saw a young girl run out of an alley, then get snatched back in by a big, hairy arm. "Huh?" That didn't look right. Also, she couldn't have been the only one who saw that. How come no one else reacted?
She shook her head. It didn't matter who else saw it, she definitely did. And if no one else would do anything, she would. Determined, she rushed to the entrance to the alley and heard a man talking harshly, possibly to the girl. She listened in.
"You can't run," he said. "Your parents couldn't pay up, so the boss decided to accept you as payment. If it was me, I would have taken you from the beginning and let them keep the money. Matter of fact, the boss won't mind if I take my cut right now, heh heh."
Xiang could not let this continue. She entered the alley, set down her bags, and said, "Let her go!"
The man and the girl looked her way, both of them startled. "Who the heck are you?" the man growled.
Xiang looked at them both. The girl, who looked no older than twelve, was small, her clothes torn. The bruises on her face indicated she'd clearly been hit. The man was just an ordinary goon. She could tell his muscles were just for show. He was unskilled and, had his victim not been a little girl, he'd be lying in the alley knocked out. "Why not let go of the girl and try out a grown woman?"
"Why not stay outta affairs that ain't none of your business?" he shot back.
"Because I can't turn my back on a child in need," she said, getting into her fighting stance. "Step away from the child or endure a beating."
He shove the girl down and turned to Xiang, cracking his knuckles. "Think yer tough, huh? How about I put you in your place and have both of ya right here in this alley?" He started walking toward her with a sick laugh.
Xiang ran in and sent him flying twenty feet with a single punch, where he crashed to the ground and skidded to a stop. "Get up, maggot."
The man tried to sit up but failed, coughing up blood.
"Fighting someone who's skilled is different, isn't it?" she asked as she walked and stood over him, then looked down. "It's not so much fun when your opponents can actually hurt you, is it?" She knelt down and grabbed him by his shirt collar. "Idiots like you just don't get it, though."
"P-please..." he begged.
Xiang raised her fist in preparation to strike him. "Don't cry now. It doesn't hurt yet. This beating has just begun and I'll introduce you to a world of pain you never knew existed." Then, she looked back at the little girl, who was sitting there looking terrified.
The man was no threat, so she let him go and headed for her slowly. "Don't worry. He can't hurt you anymore. Now then, let's get you back to your parents."
"No!" the girl shouted.
"Huh?" Maybe the girl misheard her. "I'm going to take you home. Lead the way. I'll protect you."
"No!" the girl shouted again. "I won't go back! They can die for all I care!"
Xiang was thoroughly confused. She'd never seen or heard of something like this before. Things like this didn't happen back in Shao Village. "Why don't you want to go back home?"
"They gave me away to be...used...to pay off their debt," the girl said. "They don't love me. They're probably glad to be rid of me."
"That can't be true," Xiang said. "They're your parents. They wouldn't do that."
"Heh," the girl laughed. "What a load of crap."
Xiang slapped the girl. "Stop talking like that."
The girl felt her cheek. "Oh...I see. You're one of those types. Fine. I'll prove it to you. Let's go."
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