Chapter 457: An intermission before the final trip

[Master Zhen Liu, may I have a word?]

’Huh? What’s up, Arachnidame?’

[By my estimations, you and the others should be in Roaring Tide right now, Pearl Scale Harbor, correct?]

’Yup. We’re actually almost done unloading the stuff. All we gotta do now is wait for the caravan.’

[Excellent, in that case, would it be possible for you to open a gate so that I may come over to peruse the Roaring Tide markets? The children back home are behaving quite well and are a little bit bummed out that they couldn’t go and see Roaring Tide themselves. So I wanted to surprise them with something from there as a reward of sorts..]

’...surprise them with what?’

[Some form of desserts or unusual knick-knack that could only be found on Roaring Tide, that kind of thing.]

’Ah...not gonna lie, the last few conversations we had, I had assumed you wanted to come over and acquire some form of rare poison or assassination tool to use as a teaching aide.’

[Oh, I have no need for those. Especially when I can make better ones at home.]

’...why am I not surprised? Hold up, don’t you usually travel alongside Lacer-’

[Hey, wait! If she’s going to another continent, I want come too!]

’There she is.’

[It ain’t just the kids feeling bummed, some of the adults too. I wanna get them some caskets of that good rice wine stuff for them!]

[Lacerage! This was going to-]

’Hold up! Before you argue, I didn’t make any guarantees that I could let you come over now because of the caravan situation. If this has changed later today, I will let you both come over. Okay?’

[...]

[...]

’Okay???’

[Yes master Zhen Liu....]

[Whatever you say...]

’Good.’

________________________________________________

After the Zhen Clan finished unloading their luggage, including several large animal cages, the leaders of this particular group, Zhen Wang and Zhen Shi, proceeded to gather everyone up and make an announcement about the last leg of their journey.

"Alright, so good news and bad news, the bad news is that the wagon train I had originally requisitioned for us to join was unfortunately destroyed by bandits about a week ago," Zhen Wang, "apparently they had been hired to transport a dragon egg, but they hadn’t been informed that the parents were still very much alive."

A collective "oh" could be heard as they could imagine what kind of problems transporting such an object could bring.

Albeit, depending on whether the person was from the side branch or the main branch, the visual imagery of the dragon differed greatly.

"The good news though," Zhen Shi picked up, "is that there’s another wagon train that’s about to leave in the next five hours or so. That means we have a little downtime. So we’re going to drop off the luggage and wagons at the stables area where the other caravan train is already prepping and then y’all have about three to four hours to enjoy yourselves. So...have fun."

The reactions to this announcement was rather positive in nature, but the versions of positivity differed greatly.

When it came to members of the main clan, those who were born and raised on Roaring Tide, their joy was more akin to relief and familiarity. The type of joy one feels when they’re finally home after a long, long trip.

"Aish, it’s been a while since I’ve had some good food. I know they said Sand Shrimp tastes the same as normal ones, but I swear the former is drier."

"Finally, I can get to a tattoo shop and get this shit replaced."

"Y’all think the alchemists here would be willing to buy all this dried tobacco I got?"

"Wait... isn’t that chewing tobacco?"

"It is?"

In contrast, the Zhen Clan that originated from Stampeding Bison showcased the type of excitement that came with exploring the unknown.

Most, if not all of the members of the branch clan had never set foot on Roaring Tide until this moment, so there was a touch of culture shock.

"Huh...I have never heard so many people use Tide Tongue before outside of the family compound and businesses...this is kinda jarring but in a good way?"

"Silk pants, silk shirts, silk dresses, okay, I think we’re going to have to swap out our leather and wool stuff for silk at some point. Luckily, I brought an empty trunk for this occassion."

"You...you do realize we’re here to bury and old family grudge, right?"

"Yeah, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun with it on the way there and probably back."

"Hey, anybody seen Zhen Liu? He disappeared again."

"He’ll show up eventually."

With these emotions in hand, the two groups of Zhen Clansmen went off in separate directions, planning to reunite only a few hours later.

Granted, one specific member was busy looking for something.

________________________________________________

’Okay, I can see a door from here. Y’all have about three hours to do whatever, but meet me back here once time is up. Okay?’

[Yes, milord.]

’Good.’

________________________________________________

"Well shit, this place is significantly bigger since the last time I was last here," Zhen Shi told his sons and daughters-in-law as he took in the sight of Pearl Scale Harbor.

After having made the announcement about downtime, Zhen Shi and his sons decided now was a good time as ever for the former to regale the latter with some stories of his past here.

Correction, stories of him and Bai Hua’s past adventures here.

"Then again, the last time I was here it was with your mother and it was the day before we left the continent. Other times we were here it was much more leisurely."

"Really?," Zhen Long asked. "You never told us about this place before, well, not on the level of intimacy you seem to be implying?"

"Really? I never did?," Zhen Shi asked his son’s plainly. After having a strangely enlightening conversation with a stuttering cabin boy and that encounter with "Grand Fisher", Zhen Shi vowed to try and get closer with his children and grandchildren.

All seven of his sons proceeded to shake their heads in agreement with each other, but in disagreement with their father.

The respective spouses of each of Zhen Shi’s sons would have also shook their heads in a agreement, but this moment was probably intimate between them and their father...plus, they wanted to hear about this story as well.

"Huh...well then! I guess I have to regale to you all how your mother and I escaped from here now that I’ve uncovered that old memory. Or perhaps the times we spent here?"

"You could tell us both of those moments," Zhen Hou answered.

"That’s true...let’s see here...well, for starters, this whole idea was your mother’s doing..."

"Escaping the continent or coming to Pearl Scale Harbor on dates?"

"Both, actually."

"Oh?"

________________________________________________

During the time your mother and I were dating, secretly of course given our statuses at the time, we would regularly sneak off to the busy port towns and large cities, the type of places where we could get lost in without people noticing or knowing who we were.

{"Hide a leaf in a forest. Makes sense to me," Zhen Lao commented.}

Whenever we came to port towns though, harbors and like, Bai Hua would have moments where she would gaze across the horizon and across the sea.

She would say...what were the words...

"Have you ever thought if we sailed far enough from home, we could forget about where we came from?"

{"Really? That doesn’t sound like her...," Zhen Ye noted.}

To be fair, my sons, this was back when we were much younger and she was a touch more rebellious than how she was after she had all of you, time changes everyone after all.

{"That’s fair."}

The two of us honestly thought that we could do these sort of dalliances forever, but then...well, good ole fashion politics got involved...granted I can’t really judge given our practices now.

{"To be fair, at least you made sure we and our kids at least like the other person enough before pressing for engagements," Zhen Long added. His wife nodded in agreement and cuddled with him in response.}

Of course, given your mother’s strong sense of will, she encouraged me to elope with her and get the hell out of the empire, far enough that no one knew who we were and where came from.

Unfortunately, the people we insulted with our actions weren’t gonna let this slide easy.

Bai Hua and I had to run from jilted family members from both sides of our family, who believed my death would cleanse the family honor of my "sin of love", or Bai Hua’s "sin of unfaithfulness".

{"Really? That’s the terminology you’re going to use?," Zhen Xi asked, "shouldn’t it be...infidelity, I think?"}

{"Infidelity is a term only used when a couple is married, Zhen Xi," Zhen Long answered, "I think mother and father eloped before she tied the knot with whoever the other guy was."}

As well as imperial agents that flipped between being polite and merciless at the drop of a hat.

However, this all eventually came to an end when finally, after a lot of planning and a couple of bribes, we managed to get in a ship...mostly.