The Nine-tailed Fox is offered a job

Wu Yun blinks at the old woman in confusion. "How...how can she be crying from her neck?"

"Oh, the Mourning Lady," Xue Zhuan says, showing up at Wu Yun's side. "She's been haunting the Garden of Tears for the past years."

"Isn't everyone here a ghost? How can she haunt anything," Lan Tian asks.

"Some souls can't reincarnate, for a reason or another. Either they haven't been properly buried, or they have unfinished matters in the mortal world that don't allow them to move on. They end up wondering around aimlessly, looking for what they can't find." Yu Songdi looks ahead at the desolate beauty of the Garden of Tears, a look of sedate melancholy softening his severe features.

He turns to Xue Zhuan. "She's the one who's looking for her son, right?" 

Xue Zhuan nods. "Yes, it seems he died too, but she never managed to find him."

"It shouldn't be too hard to know where they went, if she's such a well-known figure." Despite his words, Lan Tian isn't looking forward to asking random ghosts and demons for help. Most of them are more interested in asking him and Wu Yun about news of the mortal world, since they recognize them as recently dead.

Wu Yun still hasn't got a satisfactory answer to his question. 

Mu Ping has since wondered off, likely bored with their aimless conversation. 

So Wu Yun turns to Xue Zhuan. "Why is she crying from the neck?"

"Oh that, she has a slash around her neck," he draws his finger across his neck, indicating the placement of the Mourning Lady's wound. "She gets agitated from time to time and starts crying, it makes blood rush out of her neck."

"There's nothing you can do to help her?" Wu Yun doesn't expect extra paper money to help the poor woman in any way, but Xue Zhuan strikes him as the kind of person who would at least try to do something.

To Wu Yun's disappointment, Xue Zhuan just shakes his head. "No, souls with unfinished businesses are extremely volatile, you can try reasoning with them, tell them they should move on, but usually, only finding who they're looking for, or getting revenge for their deaths will bring them peace."

Lan Tian notices the troubled look that crosses Wu Yun's face and bumps his shoulder against his. "We'll find Lu Meng, and Jiang Tanmei's souls, and if we still have time, we'll help the Mourning Lady."

Lan Tian's steady, reassuring words bring Wu Yun some measure of comfort. Regardless of whether or not they can do anything to help her, they can always try. Sometimes that's good enough.

He doesn't know when it happened, but some time between Jiang Tanmei's death and Madam Ou's, Wu Yun must have become just as soft as he always accused Lan Tian of being. 

---

Xue Zhuan leads them in another search through Youdu's streets. 

Unlike their previous attempt, trying to get answers using the description of Jiang Tanmei, everyone knows at once who they're talking about when they ask them if they saw the Mourning Lady.

A bullfrog takes a long drag of his slender pipe, and scoffs. "That crying bitch spilled blood all over me just yesterday. She just stood there while we were playing chess, crying about her son needing help, isn't that right, Boss Fu?"

Boss Fu is a ancient looking ghost, with a bald head and a long beard. The soles of his feet are dirty with more than the grim of Youdu's chaotic streets. He scratches his feet while nodding in confirmation. "I asked her if she wanted to play chess with us, but she just started spilling blood from her neck over the board. So we told her to get lost."

The more people they ask, the more accounts they get of the Mourning Lady behaving oddly over the last few weeks.

One of the girls who works at the Pavilion of Crushed Blossoms, tells them;

"Just last week, that crazy chick ran in here, screaming about her son having been taken. That damn cut on her neck spilled blood all over the floor and scared all the customers," she says, looking pleadingly up at Xue Zhuan. "Say...wouldn't your Majesty consider giving our humble establishment some compensation over the loss she caused us?"

Yu Songdi frowns at the way the girl drapes herself over Xue Zhuan's front, and walks out of the brothel without another world.

"Business seems fine to me," Lan Tian says. The brothel is just as bustling and filled with patrons as it had been when they walked in earlier.

The girl, who Xue Zhuan called Sisi shoots him a dirty look. "How would you know? Some of the people who saw her screaming and bleeding everywhere haven't come back since."

Xue Zhuan carefully extricates her fingers from his robes, and smiles placatingly at her pinched face. "I'll see what I can do, but you haven't see her at all today? In the company of another ghost, a young man?"

"He's tall, almost as tall as him," Wu Yun says, pointing at Lan Tian, "and he always looks like he's frowning."

"I'm sure I'd remember him, if he looked anything like you," Sisi says, switching her attention from Xue Zhuan to Wu Yun. "Say, are you looking for a job?"

Lan Tian, takes hold of Wu Yun's hand and shoots Sisi a glare. "We're leaving."

Yu Songdi is waiting for them outside, with his back against a pillar and his arms crossed in front of his chest. He looks up at Xue Zhuan from beneath his heavy eyelashes. "Any luck?"

"Just the same story about her barging into places and things, saying her son needs help." Xue Zhuan sighs.

"Why would she suddenly say her son was in danger?" Lan Tian asks. "Wasn't she looking for him before?"

"Maybe she's found him, after all this time." Wu Yun says, musing over Lan Tian's words.

That's when he remembers something. The Mourning Lady started acting oddly a few weeks ago. No one can say exactly when because, according to Xue Zhuan, it's hard to keep track of time in the Underworld.

Jiang Tanmei died almost two months ago, it could coincide with the Mourning Lady's odd behavior. 

Min Fengyi killed herself by slashing her own throat with a sword, and she died believing Min Guifen had poisoned her son. She would naturally try to look for him in the Underworld so the two of them could be together.

But Jiang Tanmei survived. He only died recently, on the same day as Min Guifen.

Wu Yun grips Lan Tian's fingers tightly, to draw his attention. "I think I know who the Mourning Lady is."

---

Once Wu Yun explains that he believes the Mourning Lady to be Jiang Tanmei's mother, and the Prince of Qi's role in both her, and Jiang Tanmei's death, Yu Songdi takes them to the courts, so they can look through the records of the deceased that Oxhead and Horseface are tasked with keeping.

"Of course Youdu's local nuisance would somehow end up being connected to you," Yu Songdi says, as he skims over the records, trying to spot Jiang Tanmei's and Min Guifen's name.

"But why would she think Jiang Tanmei is in danger? Min Guifen is probably having his fingernails peeled off, or something" Wu Yun says, looking over Yu Songdi's shoulder.

"It doesn't hurt checking where he ended up. If what you say about him is true, he died holding a grudge. People like that can be dangerous," Yu Songdi says, running his finger over the list of names.

"Found them!" They all lean over the table to look at the records at Yu Songdi's shout. "Jiang Tanmei, here's the indication that his souls were splintered, court of innocent souls, as expected. Min Guifen...uhm, that's odd."

"What?" asks Xue Zhuan elbowing them out of the way to get a better look at the records. "How did this Min Guifen end up in the court of innocent souls, too?"

"That's impossible, he killed, tortured and imprisoned several people," Lan Tian says, looking at down at the record in disgust.

Wu Yun elbows Xue Zhuan sharply on the side. "Why does it seem that we are the only people around here who were sentenced to harsh punishment?"

Yu Songdi smirks at Wu Yun's baffled look. "It's probably your terrible karma."

"Why did those two register him as an innocent soul?" Xue Zhuan says. "It makes no sense."

"You know who they answer to," Yu Songdi says, looking pointedly at Xue Zhuan.

"What interest would Yanluo have in a mortal Prince?"

"I don't know, but I intend to find out," Yu Songdi says, his tone cryptic. "Horseface and Oxhead would only let something like this happen if Yanluo told them to. I'm going to have a little word with him, you continue to help them search."

Yu Songdi turns to Wu Yun with a serious expression. "If I don't see you before you leave, know that there are no harsh feelings between us. If you ever remember that conversation we had, when Xue Zhuan got hurt, know that it's all in the past, and that I don't blame you."

Wu Yun has no idea what he's talking about, and judging by the wrinkle between his eyebrows, neither does Xue Zhuan. 

"Uh...thanks."

Yu Songdi ignores Wu Yun's baffled look, and turns to Lan Tian. "You, look after him. He has a talent for finding trouble, and I doubt he has improved much since he reincarnated."

The corner of Lan Tian's lip ticks up, and he spares Wu Yun a look brimming with warmth. "I suspect he got worse."

"Hey!"

Xue Zhuan starts pushing Yu Songdi out of the record room's door. "Go do what you have to do, and stop trying to impart wisdom. Listen to yourself, talking like some general going off to battle. What's Bao Zhang going to do to you? Bore you to death with his poems?"

Yu Songdi takes Xue Zhuan's hand from his shoulder and holds it, squeezing it gently. "You, be careful."

Xue Zhuan shakes him off and scoffs. "What can happen to the Gods of the dead? Does, Yu-ge think I'll hit my head and wake up alive?"

Yu Songdi pinches his side, making Xue Zhuan yelp, and leaves the record room, saying, "Anything that feels pain can get hurt."

---

They return to Youdu's streets, which Wu Yun is starting to feel familiar with. Over there is the ghost who tries to sell everyone cures for death, over there is the dog demon who runs the suspicious looking food stall. In that narrow building, squeezed between two towering pagodas, there's a blind woman who sells tea that will make whoever drinks it taste their best memories.

Wu Yun is distracted wondering what his best memories would taste like, when he collides with something at knee level.

He looks down and sees scattered chess pieces, and an overturned chessboard.

The Bullfrog they asked for information earlier, shoots him a glare. "That's the second time that happens."

"I didn't kick it over when were were here before!" Wu Yun says, staring down at the frog's horizontal pupils.

"Did I say it was you?"

Boss Fu shakes his head. "You didn't."

The Bullfrog jabs his long pipe accusingly towards Wu Yun. "That's right, I didn't. These newcomers have no respect."

Boss Fu nods. "They don't. It was that newcomer who lives in the palace next to Old Mao's restaurant who kicked it over."

Xue Zhuan wasn't paying much attention to the conversation, but his interest is perked by Boss Fu's words.

"What palace? There's no palace next to Old Mao's restaurant."

"There is now," Boss Fu says. "That rude newcomer lives there."

Xue Zhuan thanks both men for their help, and marches forward with renewed vigor, and killing intent coming off of him in waves.

"You think they were talking about Min Guifen?" Wu Yun asks, trying to keep pace with Xue Zhuan, who's almost barreling over everyone in his way.

"I'm sure of it, only someone who thinks the rules don't apply to them would do something like this."

Lan Tian exchanges a worried look with Wu Yun.

"Like what?"

Xue Zhuan's scowl turns even darker. "Build a palace without getting a fucking permit!"

---

A.N.: According to myth, Horseface and Oxhead answer directly to King Yanluo.