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The pretty lady in the marketplace is an easy mark: overdressed and distracted by a baby and a nursemaid. A-Qing gives the nursemaid as wide a berth as she can, although probably someone serving such a fine household is a high enough station to miss ragged pickpockets lurking. A-Qing lifts the pretty lady's purse in a second and grins. She knows better than to count her prize until she's well out of sight, but that purse is heavy.
A hand closes around one of A-Qing's wrist, fine-boned but with a surprisingly firm grip.
"If you wouldn't mind giving me my bracelet back," the pretty lady says. Her voice is as pretty as her face, but she's not asking A-Qing, she's telling her.
She's also not shouting for anyone to arrest A-Qing and lock her away forever. A-Qing glances over at the nursemaid, shifting the baby to her other hip as she examines the wares at a nearby stall. This is either a fantastic double act, or the pretty lady is confronting her alone.
"You don't want everything back?" A-Qing asks, reaching into the purse she's tucked away.
"People don't steal if they don't need the money," the pretty lady says, matter-of-fact. "But my husband gave me the bracelet as a wedding present, and it's too recognizable for you to resell. You'd have to throw it away or risk being caught and punished."
A-Qing goes icy cold when she gets a good look at the bracelet. It's got the Jin sect peony on it, with Jiang lotus flowers beautifully wrought around it. There's exactly one person A-Qing has heard of who has the right to both symbols.
"Second Lady Jin!" she gasps and falls to her knees, bowing so low her head touches the dusty ground. Panicked tears prickle at the corners of her eyes. "I didn't-- I--"
"There's no need for that, please. Just return the bracelet." Second Lady Jin's tone is unlike anything that A-Qing has ever heard before: gentle but with an unmistakable note of command, like a river with deep currents.
A-Qing gulps and climbs back up to her feet, aware that their interaction is drawing attention. She'll have to bolt as soon as she returns the bracelet. The people here will be able to mark her as a thief now. The money won't do her much good if she has to wait until the next town to spend it. Maybe she'll get lucky and meet a farmer on the road.
Second Lady Jin tilts her head as A-Qing, her hands shaking, slips her the bracelet as unobtrusively as she can manage. "You're quite skilled at that, you know. Do you have any interest in learning how to fight?"
"T-to cultivate?" A-Qing stutters, forgetting to run away. None of this is how this kind of confrontation is supposed to go. Who is Second Lady Jin, anyway?
"If you like, but it's not necessary." A shadow passes over Second Lady Jin's smile. "My mother liked to have female guardians. I seem to have inherited her preference."
A-Qing weighs having to bow and scrape to a bunch of Jin cultivators against her empty belly, which will stay empty until she can escape this town. Most of the people in Carp Tower will treat her like the ragged thief she is, even after the bath she assumes will be required before she can put one foot in those fine halls. She wants to refuse, to declare that she enjoys a life free of serving others, but she is so very hungry. And at night, she is so very cold.
"Can I leave if I don't like it?" A-Qing asks.
Second Lady Jin beams with her whole face, unguarded and sweet. "You have my word that you will be free to go, with money and new clothes. Now, if you wouldn't mind handing me my purse as well, I'm feeling a bit hungry, aren't you?"
Talking to Second Lady Jin really is like stepping into a fast-running river, but A-Qing finds she doesn't mind being swept away.