A Thousand Li: Villages and Illnesses: A Thousand Li short stories, #6

By Tao Wong

Expectation conceals the truth.

 

Noblewoman and cultivator Li Yao is called to a small village to investigate a mysterious illness that has drained residents of their chi. Accompanying her are her suitors Xiang An and Shen Wei, both more trouble than they're worth in Li Yao's eyes.

 

Perhaps not all is as it seems. In the village and her suitors.

 

This is a short story set in the A Thousand Li universe. Does not need to be read to follow the main series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Starlit Publishing
• Release date: Nov 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781990491122

Book preview

Villages and Illnesses

A Thousand Li Short Story

By

Tao Wong

License Notes

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite eBook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Villages and Illnesses: A Thousand Li short story

Copyright © 2021 Tao Wong. All rights reserved.

A Starlit Publishing Book

Published by Starlit Publishing

PO Box 30035

High Park PO

Toronto, ON

M6P 3K0

Canada

www.starlitpublishing.com

ISBN: 9781990491122

Villages and Illnesses

Rice stalks swayed in their flooded paddies, the peasants working deep within the water, tending to their harvest, tickled by the occasional carp that brushed against their feet. Their clothing was rough spun, their backs bent from long days of working the fields. Every few minutes, they would take a break, leaning backwards in unison and opening their arms, relieving the pressure of their hunched position.

Li Yao on the raised roadway that led between the fields watched the peasants with bemused amusement and interest. She had never truly considered their lives, not till – not till that man – but now, she could not help but ponder their lives. So different from the sheltered and constrained life of a noblewoman, her existence constrained at first by the walls of the family compound. Only when she had shown aptitude and ability as a cultivator had her world expanded.

And expanded again, when she arrived at the Verdant Green Waters Sect. So much so that she had rebelled against everything that her parents, her family, had wanted for her. Become a cultivator, gain a good standing in the sect, then come home to be married off. Become a force for the clan by bearing the children of another noble.

Like the ones riding beside her. Lips pressed together, Li Yao glanced at the pair of noblemen who had invited themselves along on her assignment.

There really is no reason for you all to come with me, she groused once again. "I never liked swords being thrust in my direction for no