It has come to the writer’s attention that the timeline of events is a bit...fucky.
As such, we will now be a break down of the chain of events into segments and explaining who did what in each segment.
First: Prior to arriving to Willowscale, Zhen Liu had given Zhen Li some zako marbles to serve as a means of communication between them.
Second: During the time in which the Zhen branch clan was in search of lodging, Zhen Li and his grandfather reported back to the Zhen main clan everything that had happened. Around the time the branch clan found the Cozy Maple Hotel, Zhen Li had finished the meeting and sent out the spectral zako to report back to Zhen Liu.
Third: While the spectral zako in question was out flying towards Zhen Liu’s location, Zhen Liu’s cousins had decided they wanted to go and check out the festival of their "ancestral home". Zhen Liu decided against joining his cousins, partially because he was tired from all the searching and wanting to make sure the kaijin had someplace private to head back to the library if they so desired.
Fourth: The spectral zako appeared before Zhen Liu at this point in order to relay the information it had received from Zhen Li, while at the same, Zhen Liu’s cousins were busy learning that apparently slavery is a practice done within the borders of the Pearl Scale Empire, much to their shock. Coincidentally, this is also when Razorstella happened upon the cousins.
Fifth: Zhen Liu was in the middle of digesting the information being provided to him by the spectral zako, meanwhile, his cousins came across a nobleman by the name of Lei Zhong, beating a slave girl for no good reason, much to the amusement or disdain to his companions, a lazy looking slob named Ao Tang, a musclebound fellow dressed in yellow, a bored girl dressed in blue and a girl with a sour look on her face who appeared to be the leader of the group. It was a little after seeing this incident happen that Zhen Xing decided to play hero and stop Lei Zhong from enacting further abuse.
Sixth: The Zhen Clan scions and Lei Zhong exchanged blows here, under the watchful eye of Razorstella who is unseen for the initial conflict. Zhen Liu is just about wrapping up his playback of Zhen Li’s information.
Seventh: Sour face girl reveals herself to be Zhen Ren Fa, a daughter of the Zhen Clan, technically being related to the Zhen branch scions. Razorstella hears this bit, immediately tells Zhen Liu, who sends out the kaijin in response to try and quell the issue.
Eight: Present stuff.
Any events written at this point are now happening in current tense, thank you.
You know, if you focused on one character specifically not jump around , you wouldn’t have to do this timeline thing.
|Eh. It beats having to write back-to-back flashback moments.|
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"So...any particular reason they keep arranging it so we share a room?’
"I’m not entirely sure to be honest, but I think it’s because of Lady Daria."
"As I said, not sure."
Due to how big of a group the Zhen branch clan caravan was, especially with the Skyscales Company, multiple members of each had to share rooms with one another, despite how vacant the Cozy Maple Hotel was.
As such, like their stay on the S.S. Nemona, Jin Fang and Rianna were sharing a room once again.
The two of them had prepped themselves for staying in at the hotel that evening, planning to eat the dinner that their host was preparing instead of going out to the festival like the Zhen clan scions, so they were just killing time by hanging out in the room and having small talk.
It was during this small talk though that Rianna asked Jin Fang a rather...peculiar...question, one that had been bugging her for quite some time.
"So...you and Zhen Liu are...childhood friends, right?"
"Yes, we’ve known each other since we were quite little."
"And now you’re dating one another..."
"But you’re also his personal attendant, and also Lady Daria’s, his mother’s, disciple?"
"What is your status in the Zhen clan exactly?"
"Ah. That question. Well, wait...hold up."
Before Jin Fang answered Rianna’s question, Jin Fang suddenly stood up and walked over to the room’s vanity desk and pulled out her make-up kit, the same one she used when Zhen Liu asked for help in disguising some people he had accidentally rendered unconscious, and placed it upon the aforementioned desk’s surface.
Rianna was incredibly confused about this action, until she heard a knock at the door.
"And that should be Zhen Liu," Jin Fang said as she walked over to the aforementioned door, opening it to reveal that it was indeed Zhen Liu, looking stressed about something.
Rianna sat there with a flabbergasted expression at this turn of events, not because Zhen Liu had shown up, but because Jin Fang seemed to know that this was going to happen.
Was this the power of love?
"Xiao Liu, you look stressed. What’s wrong?"
"My cousins got themselves into some deep shit and I need help bailing them out."
"The way that involves me looking and acting like a much more powerful aether expert than I actually am."
"The type of strong where the kaijin are going to have to fake being my disciples, alongside Rianna."
"Ah...," Jin Fang nodded in understanding, "come in quickly, I’m fairly certain I have something for moments ."
"I...not gonna ask about that."
As Zhen Liu entered the room ready for whatever Jin Fang had up her sleeve, Rianna couldn’t help but think one simple question.
Technically there was more to it, but that single line was enough to encapsulate a lot of questions at once.
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Meanwhile, back at the festival grounds
"So, what did you say his name was?," Zhen Ren Fa repeated, her finger pointed directly at Zhen Xing.
"Uhh...," Zhen Hai and Zhen Yue stalled.
"Actually...you lot appear to be related," Zhen Ren Fa soon noticed, "what is your family name?"
Having been brief about the Zhen Clan of Roaring Tide’s existence beforehand, Zhen Hai and Zhen Yue were both well aware that calling themselves "Zhen" was the equivalent of asking to getting the shit beaten out of them by the Zhen Clan of Roaring Tide.
That was due to two very obvious facts.
The first being that as a weird quirk about the status of the Zhen Clan in Willow Scale City, specifically, nobody else in the area had the family name of Zhen other than the Zhen Clan.
Whether this was due to respect or some other quirk was unknown, but it was just fact that anyone who had the name "Zhen" were directly related to the clan in some way.
Second, in relation to that first fact, Zhen Yue and Zhen Hai were well aware of the "crimes" committed by their grandfather, and how it left a permanent mark on the Zhen Clan’s honor back in Roaring Tide, to the point that they sent assassins after him for years.
It wasn’t a stretch to assume that the main clan taught their descendants about this incident and that certain members were in the know about how there was a "Zhen Clan" of Stampeding Bison.
Needless to say, if Zhen Hai and Zhen Yue just told this girl that they were named "Zhen", she’d probably sick all three of her associates at them like rabid dogs, and then join in to kill them all.
"Well? I’m waiting," Zhen Ren Fa asked as a follow up.
Zhen Hai and Zhen Yue looked at each other for a moment, before deciding together that there was only one course of action that could probably help them at this stage.
And that was to lie their asses off.
"His name is...Shen Xing," Zhen Hai lied.
"Shen Xing?," Zhen Ren Fa repeated.
"That’s funny, because I swore I heard you call him Zhen Xing."
"Yes...in fact, our names our Shen Yue and Shen Hai, respectively," Zhen Yue added, "since we have accents, Shen and Zhen sound very similar to each other when we say it. I don’t blame you for thinking that."
<> the girl in blue said to herself, <>
Zhen Ren Fa was silent for a moment as she thought over this answer, much to the chagrin of Zhen Yue and Zhen Hai.
"Very well," Zhen Ren Fa eventually said, "so you lot are the...Shen family of Stampeding Bison?"
"Yes...," Zhen Yue and Zhen Hai both nodded.
Zhen Ren Fa turned towards Lei Zhong at this point.